Prayer – Part 2

Often our prayer requests sound like the little boy who had revised the standard bedtime prayer.  He said, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my toys to break.  So none of the other kids can use them.  Amen.”

That’s not how the early church prayed. They asked from God very specifically: enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  The same word describes their desire as was used to describe Peter and John before the court.

And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness. – Acts 4:29

That’s not how the early church prayed. They asked from God very specifically: enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  The same word describes their desire as was used to describe Peter and John before the court.

They wanted God to work through them.  They were not interested in God delivering them from the danger, but rather to use them in the midst of it.  This is so unusual to see.  Our nature is to ask God to get us out of our problems and difficulties.  Their request was for God to work in them.  They wanted to see God in Me.

Powerful, strong prayer will occur when you begin to ask God to use you in the midst of your circumstances.  Ask God to give you courage.  Ask God to make you a minister.  Ask God to show you how you can make a difference.  Ask God to give you words to share the gospel.  Ask God to fill you with his Spirit so that you may be an effective teacher. Powerful prayer happens when you decide to no longer escape God’s will but to enjoy his will.

While you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. – Acts 4:30

Pray in the name of Jesus, as Jesus himself commands us to.  Place your prayer life under his authority.  Pray for His glory.  Seek His kingdom.  Commit your desires to be His desires.  It is not a magic formula, as some would have it.  It is powerful only when you agree by saying it that you will accept everything He does through you for his glory.

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly. Acts 4:31

After they prayed the building shook and they were filled with the Spirit and began to speak boldly.  Do you see the similarities between this experience and what happened at Pentecost?  However, this is not another Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit came once and for all on that day.  It is a fresh filling of the Spirit, a renewed awareness of the Spirit’s power and presence in their lives and witness.  They are renewed by God and refreshed because of their prayer.

He probably won’t shake the building everything you pray, but He will answer your request.  When you pray be ready to see the answer.  Be ready to respond to God.  Know that when you begin praying for God to work in you He will most times answer by giving you opportunity to be used for His glory.  That means that His answer will often come by trial.