Luke 10:39-42 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at [k]Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And [l]Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (NKJV)
If you are student of missions, or were involved in a church which emphasized missions, you may have heard of a missionary by the nick name of “Praying Hyde.” John Hyde was born in 1865, in Carthage, Illinois. His father was a Presbyterian minister who proclaimed the Gospel often exhorting his members to respond to Jesus’ prayer that the Father would thrust forth more laborers into the harvest. Rev. Smith Harris Hyde prayed this prayer not only from the pulpit but in his home, around their family altar. One of the biggest answers to those prayers came from one of his two sons.
The prayers of John’s father made a powerful impression upon his life leading him to attend college, and proceed to seminary, graduating in 1892. It was during this time that he began some major heart searching, turning himself to God in prayer. During this time of seeking it became clear that God wanted him on the mission field. In October 1892, he set sail for India. On his way to India he received a letter from a close friend saying, “I will not cease praying for you until you be filled with the Holy Ghost.” Frank JJ Di Pietro stated: “This made John extremely angry. After all, he was a seminary graduate and on his way to pursue his destiny. John threw the letter in the trash and angrily walked out of the room. As he was walking along the deck of the steamer, he could not get the thought that he must be filled with the Holy Ghost out of his mind. After much soul searching, John decided that his dear friend was right. Going to Scripture (Acts 1:8), he then knelt by his cabin bed in prayer and surrendered to God’s will and was wonderfully filled with the power and fire from on high.”
John’s ministry of prayer and evangelistic work would last over the next 20 years. He was so given to prayer that the natives did not refer to him as praying Hyde, but as the “Man who never sleeps,” and the “Apostle of Prayer.” His prayer life was radically changed as a result of the Baptism. Often he would spend 30 days and nights in contact prayer, and many times was on his knees in deep intercession for 36 hours at a time. His fellows missionaries thought he was fanatical and crazy, yet he could not understand why prayer was such an isolated experience in the Church. True prayer is Spirit-born. True prayer is praying in the “Holy Ghost.” In his mind those who are filled with the Spirit are filled with prayer. As Leonard Ravenhill said: “There is something very questionable and unbiblical about those who claim to have had a baptism of the Spirit and yet know nothing of extended periods of prayer.”
John Hyde was soon joined by a few fellow intercessors. They saw that there was one method to obtaining spiritual awakening in India, and that was intense prayer. “They set themselves deliberately, definitely, and desperately to use this means until they secured the result. They prayed non-stop for days and nights. Their prayers were answered through a series of outpourings of the Spirit in the northwest part of India, especially in 1904 at Sialkot….Upon seeing the results of a deeper prayer life, John gave himself even more to prayer.” During this deepening of his prayer life men would often walk by John’s room overhearing him weeping breaking out in tears over the sins of the world and especially God’s children. John would often pray for 40 hours non-stop and then go to a series of meetings without rest. Such a spirit of intercession was on John that when he walked past others, they too would begin to groan in agony for the lost. John’s cry began to be, “Give me souls, Oh God, or I die!” – Di Pietro
IN 1908, John prayed what was seen as an impossible task: that during the coming year he would save, one person a day in India. At the end of that year it happened. That year he had prayed over 400 people into the Kingdom of Heaven. The following year it doubled to 2 souls a day. The year following that he moved his goal to that of winning four souls a day. John said, “If on any day four people were not converted, that night there would be such a weight on my heart, I could not eat or sleep until I prayed through to victory.” What many do not know of Praying Hyde is that following his prayers of lying prostrate on the floor, he would often come off the floor clapping his hands, dancing, and shouting filled with holy laughter.
See only one thing is needful and that is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Are you a Martha or a Mary? Can you see that even though the disciples saw Jesus raised from the dead, had visited His empty tomb, and experienced a visitation of angels and Jesus Himself – that it was not enough? Their lifestyle remained the same. It wasn’t until the Baptism that their lives began to change. You may say, “Well I’ve been baptized in the Spirit.” Maybe that is so – but are you praying like John Hyde? Better yet, Are you praying like Jesus? We casually claim the name of Christ (Christian) failing to examine our deficiencies in His Light. If something is missing do not be like the Laodiceans who claimed to have no need. Return to your knees until what is missing is met with the reality of Heaven’s Answer. Its in the wrestling that we are changed.
