A. R. Torrey (1856 – 1928)

Who Was He?

Reuben Archer Torrey was born on 28 January 1856 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was brilliantly educated, graduating from Yale University and then Yale Divinity School before pursuing further theological study at Leipzig and Erlangen universities in Germany. He came to genuine faith in Christ after a period of wrestling with doubt, and was subsequently baptised in the Holy Spirit in an experience that transformed his ministry.

In 1889, D. L. Moody invited Torrey to become the first superintendent of what would become Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Torrey served alongside Moody faithfully, and when Moody died in 1899, Torrey stepped in to the role of the world’s foremost evangelical leader. He also became pastor of Moody Church.

From 1902 to 1907, Torrey conducted extraordinary evangelistic campaigns around the world, seeing tens of thousands of people come to Christ in Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Britain, and the United States. The Australian revival of 1902 – 1903 alone saw an estimated one hundred thousand converts across the major cities.

Torrey later became Dean of what is now Biola University in Los Angeles and pastor of the Church of the Open Door. He wrote more than forty books, with How to Pray and The Power of Prayer remaining his best-loved works. He died on 26 October 1928, having spent his life training the church in the theology and practice of Spirit-empowered prayer.

A Great Answer to Prayer The Australian revival of 1902 stands as the crowning answer to prayer in Torrey’s life. Before the campaign began, Torrey and his team spent months in sustained prayer, crying out to God for a genuine work of the Spirit. They refused to move until they had confidence that God had heard.

When the meetings opened in Melbourne, the results were staggering. Churches were overflowing. Hardened men broke down in tears. Whole families were converted in a single service. The local newspapers — not known for sympathy to the church — reported the extraordinary scenes. In Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, and other cities, the same wave of blessing swept through. Torrey estimated over one hundred thousand genuine conversions in the campaign. He attributed every single one to prayer: prayer before the campaign, prayer during the meetings, and prayer by faithful intercessors in the background.

Torrey always taught that the decisive difference in any ministry was not the preacher’s talent but the chu rch’s prayer: “When the devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, he trembles as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or community is at an end.”

Key Scriptures James 5:16 — “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

Romans 8:26 — “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

1 John 5:14 — “This is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us.”

His Words on Prayer “If we would pray aright, the first thi ng we should do is to see to it that we really get an audience with God, that we really get into His very presence. Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite consciousness that we are talking to God, and should believe that He is li stening and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him.”

“We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services, but few conversions; much machinery, but few results.”

“All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer. Prayer can do anything that God can do, and as God can do everything, prayer is omnipotent.”

“Oh, men and women, pray through; pray through! Do not just begin to pray and pray a little while and throw up your hands and quit; but pray and pray and pray until God bends the heavens and comes down.”

“Triumphant prayer is almost impossible where there is neglect of the study of the Word of God.”

Prayer and the Word of God “Prayer that is b orn of meditation upon the Word of God is the prayer that soars upward most easily to God's listening ears.”

“If I am to have faith when I pray, I must find some promise in the Word of God to rest my faith on. The Bible is packed from beginning to end with divine promises. Lay hold of them and pray them back to God.”

Prayer and the Holy Spirit “Getting into God's presence is only possible by the Holy Spirit's power, so we should look to the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the presence of God, and should not be hasty in words until He has actually brought us there.”

“The Spirit, when He prays through us, or helps us to meet the mighty “oughtness” of right praying, trims our praying down to the will of God.”

“We must know the power of the Blood if we a re to know the power of God. Our knowing experimentally the power of the Word, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of prayer is dependent upon our knowing the power of the Blood of Christ.”