Power of Holy Spirit Guided Prayer: An Inspiring Story Answered Prayer

You can listen on the go with the audio link below

I want to tell you about Lillie Corum. 

She lived in Springfield, Missouri. She was a mom with four kids, and she lived in a white clapboard house.

Back Story

But now, here’s the back story that’s really important to help you fill in the details of how she could make such a good decision when she did.

Her sister Rachel Sizelove was baptized with the Holy Spirit in the Azusa Street revival in July of 1906. In her heart, she really felt like she needed to go to the Midwest to talk to her siblings and her mom and share with them what God had done in her life. She wanted to tell them about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that she had experienced. She arrived at Lillie Corum’s house the last part of May of 1907. 

Little Fred, 

(Lillie’s son) was just a little bitty fella, but from behind his mother’s apron, he tells his story of seeing Aunt Rachel. He said that when she walked in the door, it was like her face was just all lit up. She seemed all aglow. She had her hands up in the air and she was praying in her heavenly language.

The family ushered Aunt Rachel into the parlor, where they gathered around and listened to her powerful stories. The whole time she was there, she couldn’t hardly talk about anything else. She had so many stories and so many testimonies of what the Holy Spirit was doing in that revival.

Rachel tried to explain to her family

that the presence of God was so real. She could hear God clearer than she had ever heard him before, and that the voices of the world just seem more distant than they had ever been before too.

June 1st, 1907

Lillie Corum grew hungry to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In one of their all-night prayer meetings, in the wee hours of the morning, Lillie was baptized with the Holy Spirit. She was so excited that she wanted to tell everybody. She was just like Rachel. Rachel didn’t stay long. She went on back to California.

Lillie began telling her neighbors,

 and they begin getting filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Azusa Street Revival was life changing.

If you know about the Azusa Street revival, then you’ve probably heard about the miracles that took place and about the radical healings. You’ve probably read about the amazing transformations in people’s lives when they got saved. It was absolutely phenomenal what God was doing.

God was working and moving in the Springfield group of believers too. The numbers grew, so they began looking for a building. After a long period of time and a lot of problems, they were able to rent a building.

Hungry people came.

The testimonies of what God was doing stirred a spiritual hunger in people’s hearts. These people came to be filled.

Curious people that showed up.

They wanted to see for themselves exactly what was happening and what was going on inside the church.

The Rowdies came too!

But, there was another group that showed up, and this group was what they called the Rowdies. These folks really didn’t typically come inside the service, but you knew they were outside. They came to harass and annoy the believers. Sometimes the crowd outside was bigger than the crowd inside where the people were seeking God.

The rowdies made their presence known by making all kinds of racket. They would stand in the window and holler while the service was going on. Or they would bang on the on the walls of the building. Sometimes, they even cut the reins off their horse’s bridles. Remember, this was 1907, many of the people’s only transportation was a horse.

One night, 

Sister Lula France from Joplin was preaching when one of these rowdies came in. This little fella came running down the center aisle holding an egg. He threw that egg and it hit the pulpit. When it hit the pulpit, it splattered. That egg went everywhere. It splattered on the preacher. The egg splashed all over that pulpit. It was on all the people down front. It went everywhere.

The boy stood there gloating,

 enjoying the moment. The mess. The confusion. He’s laughing.

He’s loving every minute of what he’s seeing.

Mrs. Lillie Corum goes over to the boy.

She points her finger in his face and said, “you threw that egg!”.

He stood his ground 

as he replies sarcastically, What of it?

She said, I’m going to pray for you. I’m going to pray that you won’t be able to sleep at night until you give your heart to Jesus. I’m going to pray that God will make you a preacher and that you’ll be a soul winner. And God will use you in mighty ways.

And she did pray.

She didn’t talk about praying…she prayed.

Many years passed.

She was in church when a nice-looking young man greeted her, “Hello, Mrs. Corum, do you remember me?”

She looked at him first one way and then the other, then answered, “I don’t think I know you.”

To that he replied, “Mrs. Corum, I’m the one that threw the egg.” Then he began to cry, “I couldn’t sleep nights after that happened. As I lay there awake, I would pray. Then I began to seek God. I got saved.”

And he says, “I’m up here going to Bible college now. I’m going to be a preacher.”

That young man’s name was Phineas Jennings Dake.

And when I heard his name I thought I recognized it.

I got my favorite study Bible.

 I went to the first page and there was the name I’d just heard. Phineas Jennings Dake!

He was the author and the organizer of the study features of my precious study Bible. All the lists, I loved the lists!!! It made me go back and reread the verse sure enough, he had listed things in the verse that I had missed. He had cross references, that make me go back and forth all over my Bible. 

I love technology and I do so much study online, but there was nothing like that back then. And there are things in my Dakes Annotated Reference Bible that aren’t found in the reference books I’ve found online!

I can’t begin to tell you what the Dake’s Reference Bible has meant to me. It was a big, expensive Bible. Using that Bible taught me how to dig, to digest, to think and rethink about what I was reading.

My Dakes Annotated Bible has shaped me and my life and my beliefs. It has been an inspiration to me again and again.

I made the connection 

to explain how Mrs. Lillie’s decision impacted my life.

But in the heat of that moment how did she make such a life changing decision?

It was through the power of the Holy Spirit that Lillie Corum responded like she did. Yes, she pointed out the wrong he was doing, but she also prayed for him.

She prayed for him.

But,I can’t help but wonder if things would be different if instead of only seeing the bad that people do, we would pray for them. If we PRAYED, really prayed for them, would things be different? 

When we hear bad news, when we see people behave in ways that break our heart, AND it should break our heart! It should break our heart BIG enough that we go to God!  Big enough that we pray for them to be born again and that they would encounter God in a powerful way. 

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