A Continuing Influence

       Why did John Sung's ministry have such lasting results?  He was different from all others I have ever known in his prayer life.  In Nanking, we were in adjoining rooms, and I heard him pray.  He had hundreds of prayer requests, even thousands, on prayer blanks.  In each place where he held meetings, Dr. Sung would have seekers come to him for group or private interviews.  In order to have such a prayer interview with Dr. Sung, each of them must bring a prayer blank (costing one copper each) with name, address, sex, age, photograph, prayer requests, and a testimony.  These represented never-dying souls, hearts open to His gaze.

       By the nature of the prayer requests, usually three or four each, he could tell how far along the seeker had come spiritually.  Some asked for selfish benefits, such as a job, etc.  Others felt their need for heart purity or holiness, or were concerned for the salvation of others, or for revival in their home churches.  Dr. Sung kept all these prayer blanks, and carried them, with him, thousands, in two big suitcases, and he would. pray fervently for these people afterward, even while preaching three times a day and having many interviews, besides hours with the Word.

       In Nanking I heard him weeping, and groaning, in agony of soul, praying for these people in places where he had held meetings previously.  I don't know how he did it, except that he had a great spiritual passion, even an obsession, which very few have, and which is to be coveted.  “Seek earnestly the better gifts.” More exactly Paul says: "Covet earnestly the best gifts.  I Corinthians 12:31.  This gift of intercession is surely one of the greater gifts.  It takes dedicated will power to exercise it, and that will power comes from a God-given love for souls.  I Cor. 13.

       Some who have written about Dr. Sung thought he was proud, but he could not have lived so close to God as to intercede in this way if he had been proud, because "God resisteth the proud." (James 4:6 and I Peter 5:5.) John Sung's humility came from having seen and talked with Jesus, and from living in the light of Jesus' Cross and the daily searching of the Word of God.  Most of us are too busy and proud to pray in this way.