(This is an endorsement of the book rather than a review. A paragraph from my endorsement appears in the opening pages of the book.)

The eighteenth - century Scottish philosopher and skeptic David Hume rushed to hear George Whitefield preach at five in the morning. A friend said, “You don’t believe what that preacher says, do you.” Hume answered, “No, but he believes it.”

I know Michael Catt well. He believes and lives the message that he preaches and the books that he writes. I believe what he believes about prayer and spiritual awakening; and I love to hear him talk about it. That’s why he has preached for five consecutive years in our HEARTLAND BIBLE CONFERENCE.

Why do we need another book on prayer? After all, Bounds and Tozer and Murray and Ravenhill and Havner and a host of others have given us ample food for thought on this subject.

Each generation needs contemporary models of faith and faithful praying. Our tendency is to glamorize the past and treat the exploits of previous generations as if they were understandable given their contexts but unrepeatable today given ours. When someone both fearlessly teaches and faithfully models what it means to pray in faith for the blessings of heaven, then our excuses for prayerlessness and barrenness are drowned out by heaven’s hearty “Amen” to their persistent prayer of faith, and our courage to keep on praying is fortified by their example.

We need this book today, not just because of the temptation for modern churches to become masters of computer technology and captives to IMAG projection while neglecting weightier matters.

We need this book today more than ever, but not because people will not fill our churches even when we are spiritually empty. We need this book today because a Sovereign God has inextricably linked the persistent praying of His people to the manifestation of His life-changing power and sin-killing presence.

Michael and the people of Sherwood have been teaching us what Vance Havner tried to tell us a generation ago: it’s time for the church to get out of the novelty business and back into the antique shop. The old, old story told by prayed-up preachers who are leading prayed-up churches still works. It’s the only thing that really works.

Pastor Alan Day