A Ground Shaking Prayer Meeting

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"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?" - Corrie ten Boom


How do you feel about prayer meetings? Not all prayer meetings are created equal. I am sure many of us have been to prayer meetings that are dry and boring. Many of us have also been to meetings when there is a concrete sense of God’s holy, powerful, mighty, healing presence with us. Prayer meetings can be bad, so-so, or life changing. So, what makes the difference?

In Acts 4:23-31 Luke records a prayer meeting that is anything but boring. I believe the context and the content of the meeting can teach us a lot. Peter and John had been arrested and spent the night in prison the day before. They were threatened and warned to not speak in the name of Jesus again. It was crystal clear that they were in a war. The believers knew they did not have what it takes to fight this good fight. They needed help. They also knew the Helper (Jn. 14:26) - the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost to indwell them and equip them and empower them. They were not alone - “they went to their friends” (Acts 4:23). Prayer was a natural response - “when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God” (Acts 4:24). The prayer meeting wasn’t planned, but was as natural as breathing. They declared who God is - “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them” (Acts 4:24). They knew God’s Word - they quote from Psalm 2. They trusted in God’s plan and knew it can’t be thwarted - “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:28). They asked God for what they needed to continue HIS mission - “grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). They remembered who the real Hero is - “while YOU STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND TO HEAL and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:30).

So, why do some prayer meetings leave us bored and burdened? I believe the Deceiver deceives us into thinking we are not in a war, we aren’t threatened and we don’t need help. The Father of Lies lies to us and tells us we don’t know the Helper and the Helper doesn’t care about us and we are all alone. The god of this age blinds our eyes so we don’t see let alone declare who God is. We listen more to the words of the world instead of the Word of God. We begin to believe we are self-sufficient instead of God dependent and in our self-sufficiency we will raise up ourselves as the heroes instead of lifting up Jesus as the Hero. Believing these lies will make us not only pray less, but be prayer-less.

But God in His great grace shakes us out of our comfort and complacency, our intoxication with self and sin and speaks the Truth to the lies:

  • We are in a war - we have an Enemy

  • We need Him to stand firm

  • We need each other to stay encouraged

  • He is ready, willing and able to be the Helper and Hero we desperately need

And the Truth sets us free. The prayer meeting Peter and John were a part of ended with the ground shaking. O Great God...may you shake the things in us that need to be shaken so we pray like this. And may you fill us all with the Holy Spirit so we may continue to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)

Who wants to have a prayer meeting?

I love you guys,

Steven