Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and author of over 100 books, booklets & Bible studies. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 1,300 US outlets daily and in more than 130 countries.

A few years ago, I told you about a
situation that happened to me a number

of years ago in South Carolina.

I was
doing a crusade at Bright Stadium,

the football stadium of the University of
South Carolina, and the weather report

said there was rain coming. There were
25,000 people that had gathered in the stadium.

And so we wanted to pray before
the service that God would hold back

the rain. And we prayed, “God hold back the rain,
hold back the rain.” And you know, we were

doing safe prayers. “If it’s Your will” and
“Lord, You know, if You don’t want it to rain…”

And we were just try to cover our
backs in case it rained anyway.

And there was a little, teeny short lady
named Linda. Linda asks, after all of

the professionals prayed—after all the
preachers. After all the preachers prayed,

Linda stood up. She said, “Do you mind if
I pray?”

Linda opened up the prayer and said, “Lord, Your
name is at stake. We told these people

that if they would come, they would hear
a word from God. If they come and you let

it rain, and You control the weather, then
You look bad, cause we told them You wanted

to say something to them. So if we told them
You wanted to say something to them and

You don’t keep back what You control so
it could be said to them, then Your name is bad.”

And then she threw a line that caused
everybody to look at each other. She said,

“Therefore, right now, I command You in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop

the rain for the sake of Your name.”

The preachers just started looked at one
other with one eye, and we just said, “Woah!”

We went up on the platform. The sky is now
getting black behind us. A guy was in touch

with the weather bureau, and they said,
“The showers are coming, a heavy

thunderstorm, and they’re coming right at you.” We’re now hearing at 7 o’clock the music

begins to play to begin the
service, and there is thunder and

lightning right behind us. People start to
stir in their seats. Some start to get up.

Some start to open umbrellas.
Linda was on the stage. This man opened

up his umbrella over Linda. She said,
“That’s okay. I don’t need it.” I’ve only seen

this happen one time. The rain came to the
stadium and split.

Half of it with this way, half of it went
that way and then met again on the other

side of the stadium.

Now, this is not a story somebody told me.
I was there. I was there. A whole bunch of other

people were there, and we saw a miracle
right in front of my eyes cause a little

lady knew His name.

She knew His name. She understood that His
name represented His character, and she

appealed to that. Why don’t we appeal to
that name? Because we don’t know that name.

We do not understand how passionate God
is for His own reputation.