Faith Still Moves Mountains

Harris Faulkner, a Fox News anchor with more than 25 years of journalism experience, presents a collection of true stories arguing that prayer remains powerful and that God actively intervenes in people's lives. She cites declining Gallup data showing that American belief in God fell from nearly 100 percent in 1944 to 81 percent in 2022, with only four in ten Americans believing God intervenes on their behalf. She frames the book as a corrective, offering stories of rescue, purpose, restoration, perseverance, and healing. She acknowledges that God does not always act on human timelines but maintains that His presence is constant, identifying her own calling as bearing witness to stories that reveal order amid chaos.

The first section, "Rescue," opens with Heather Brown and Tyler Smith, two Florida high school seniors who in April 2019 attempted to swim across the St. Augustine Inlet, unaware of a small-craft advisory. A strong current swept them far from shore, and after nearly two hours they linked arms and prayed. A series of delays had placed Eric Wagner, a software professional sailing his motor yacht from Florida to New Jersey, in their vicinity at precisely the right moment. When the hypothermic teens were pulled aboard, Heather told Eric, "God is real," and Eric revealed the yacht's name: the Amen. The section continues with Tina Zahn, a Wisconsin mother whose severe postpartum depression led her to jump from a bridge in Green Bay in 2004. State trooper Les Boldt, just off his shift, grabbed Tina's wrist at the last instant and held on until help arrived. Tina later became a published author and mental health advocate. Faulkner also profiles Earnestine Reese, a 72-year-old Alabama grandmother whose home was destroyed by a tornado in March 2019, killing 23 people, seven of them her relatives. The only structure left standing was Earnestine's prayer closet, and a viral video showed her praising God amid the rubble. The section closes with General George S. Patton's December 1944 order to distribute 250,000 prayer cards to Third Army soldiers requesting fair weather. On Christmas morning the weather broke unexpectedly, enabling Allied forces to relieve surrounded troops at the Battle of the Bulge.

The second section, "Purpose," begins with Sarah Olson, a single Minnesota mother whose son Levi was born in 2016 with spina bifida, a birth defect affecting the spinal cord. When a standard catheter caused months of infections, Sarah, who had no engineering background, prayed and described receiving a vision of a medical device. She sketched the design, 3D-printed a prototype, and built a company, Levity Products, that passed clinical trials within five years. Faulkner tells the story of Britney Gengel, a 19-year-old Lynn University student who traveled to Haiti on a volunteer trip in January 2010, texted her parents about starting an orphanage, and died hours later in a magnitude 7 earthquake. Her parents, Len and Cherylann Gengel, founded the Be Like Brit Foundation and built an earthquake-secure orphanage in Grand Goâve that grew to include 154 homes and over 2,400 volunteers. Faulkner profiles DeEtte, a woman born in 1954 whose childhood sexual abuse and 17-year heroin addiction gave way to transformation at Victory Outreach, a faith-based rehab program. There she heard God tell her to forgive her abusers and received three promises later fulfilled: missionary work, restored family relationships, and marriage. The section concludes with George Washington Carver, born into slavery in Missouri, whose prayer-driven research at the Tuskegee Institute yielded 265 uses for the peanut and helped reshape southern agriculture.

The third section, "Restoration," centers on faith tested and rebuilt. Pastor Andrew Brunson, an American missionary in Izmir, Turkey, was arrested in October 2016 amid a government purge following a failed coup attempt against President Erdoğan. Held for two years on fabricated charges, Andrew experienced a spiritual crisis, describing the first year as "breaking" and the second as "rebuilding." Released in October 2018 after diplomatic pressure from the United States, he returned home with what he calls a deeper intimacy with God. Faulkner tells the story of Nancy Owen (a pseudonym), who grew up in California with an alcoholic mother and prayed for decades for her mother's transformation. That prayer was answered when her mother joined a Bible study, stopped drinking, and became an engaged grandmother. The section includes Marie Isom, who shielded her daughter during a mass shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012. Despite believing she was about to die, Marie felt an unexpected supernatural peace, and her subsequent blog post affirming God's goodness garnered over a million views.

The fourth section, "Perseverance," opens with Rees Howells, a Welsh coal miner who founded the Bible College of Wales and led students in sustained prayer through World War II. Faulkner frames their intercessions as coinciding with pivotal wartime events, including the calm seas that enabled the evacuation of 338,000 soldiers from Dunkirk in May 1940. The section profiles Gary Miracle, a 38-year-old Florida father who developed sepsis, a life-threatening blood infection, just after Christmas 2019. Gary flatlined for more than 11 minutes and awoke from a coma to learn all four limbs required amputation due to necrosis, or tissue death. After receiving prosthetic limbs, he launched a speaking ministry. Faulkner tells the story of Ann Van Hine, whose husband Bruce, a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) firefighter, died on September 11, 2001. Ann found comfort in the biblical burning bush story, where God tells Moses, "I will be with you," and began leading walking tours around the World Trade Center site. The section closes with Austin Canon, a New Mexico-based outdoorsman and adventurer, who after surviving a 2018 brain hemorrhage undertook a pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico and emerged with renewed gratitude.

The final section, "Healing," features Dani Laurion, who at 32 was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), an autoimmune condition that forced her into a wheelchair and eventually onto a ventilator. After 13 years in nursing homes, she married Doug Laurion, a geriatric nurse who helped transform her self-understanding. At a healing service on March 15, 2022, Dani disconnected from her ventilator, breathed independently, and walked unaided down a cathedral aisle. The healing proved lasting. Faulkner also recounts the ordeal of Lisa Martin, a 49-year-old Georgia woman who had secretly prayed for death before contracting COVID-19 in September 2020. Though she had filed a living will requesting no resuscitation, Lisa demanded a ventilator as her condition worsened, a decision she later described as divinely prompted. Over 59 days on the ventilator, her husband Jeff solicited prayers through Facebook updates and negotiated hospital transfers. Lisa regained consciousness just 24 hours before a family-agreed deadline to remove life support, emerging grateful and understanding that God had answered others' prayers rather than her own.

The book closes with Faulkner's tribute to her father, retired Lieutenant Colonel Bobby R. Harris, a combat pilot who flew two tours over Vietnam and later served under General Colin Powell at the Pentagon. Unable to speak until age 13 due to underdeveloped vocal cords, he taught Faulkner to pray by listening rather than talking. After his death on Christmas Day 2020, she found his Bible filled with handwritten notes. She connects his example to each of the book's five themes and concludes with a meditation on Jesus as the ultimate prayer warrior, identifying her calling as sharing others' stories in hope that readers' prayers will bring them closer to God.