How I Know God Answers Prayer (Audiobook)

Key Points

• Rosalind Goforth wrote this book of personal testimonies under a strong God-given compulsion, despite initial reluctance due to the sacred and personal nature of the incidents.
• She emphasizes that prayer should be as simple and natural as a child’s communication with a parent, and that nothing is too small for God’s love or too great for His power.
• Early childhood experiences, such as a thunderstorm prayer and a lost children’s story, taught her to rely on Jesus in trouble and shaped her lifelong faith.
• Key answered prayers include: instant healing of a toothache at age six, provision of new clothes after trusting God, a timely financial bonus during a family crisis, and obtaining Sunday school scholars through prayer.
• A decisive call to China came when God directed her to John 15:16, and later, $50 needed for marriage was provided anonymously on the eve of her wedding.
• As a pioneer missionary in Honan, she learned that prayer was essential for overcoming language barriers and other challenges, as illustrated by her husband’s breakthrough in Chinese after distant prayer partners interceded.

Summary

The text is an excerpt from Rosalind Goforth’s book "How I Know God Answers Prayer," which presents her personal testimony of answered prayer over a lifetime of missionary service in China beginning in 1888. She explains that the book was written not out of personal desire but out of obedience to God, after years of internal resistance and a serious illness that led her to promise God she would record these testimonies if He spared her life. The central theme is that prayer is a simple, natural, and constant part of spiritual life, akin to a child’s interaction with a parent. Goforth counters the objection that focusing on “getting things from God” makes prayer too material, arguing that God cares about both great and small matters, as Jesus taught about the numbering of hairs and sparrows.

Goforth recounts formative childhood experiences that built her faith. As a very young child during a thunderstorm, her mother taught her to pray to Jesus, leaving an indelible impression of an invisible but helpful being. A story about her grandfather, lost in a forest as a child and led home by a bird after praying, reinforced this lesson. At age six or seven, she prayed for relief from a severe toothache, promising to be Jesus’s “little girl for three years,” and the pain vanished instantly, giving her a lasting sense of divine presence. At age twelve, after feeling ashamed to attend church in an old winter dress, she read Matthew 6 about not worrying about clothing, decided to go anyway, and the next day received a box of new clothes from an aunt—an answer to her step of faith. Later, when her family faced a financial crisis, a timely bonus arrived from England before they even finished praying, fulfilling Isaiah 65:24.

As a young woman seeking service, she was rebuffed by a Sunday school superintendent but prayed and canvassed a street, securing 19 children. In 1885, she helped open a mission in Toronto’s slums, learning that prayer unlocked every obstacle, from furniture to conversions. When torn between becoming an artist in England or a missionary in China, she prayed for guidance and was led to John 15:16, which she took as a divine call. Her mother agreed, removing the last hindrance. A few weeks before her marriage, she needed $50 but resolved to trust God alone, refusing to hint at her need. On the evening before the wedding, fellow workers gave her a purse containing a check for exactly $50, which she saw as God’s seal on her new life.

In China, Dr. Hudson Taylor advised the Goforths to “go forward on your knees” when entering the anti-foreign province of Honan. Her husband struggled with the Chinese language, making slow progress despite diligent study. One day, he prayed for special help and experienced a remarkable breakthrough, speaking with clarity and moving listeners. Two and a half months later, a letter from Knox College students revealed they had held a prayer meeting for him on that exact day. This incident powerfully demonstrated the connection between intercessory prayer and practical needs on the mission field. Throughout, Goforth affirms that prayer is not about impressive displays but about a living relationship with a Father who delights to give good gifts to His children.