Pandemic Perspective – Part 104 The cost of courage

Acts 4:29-31

29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

One of the boldest prayers in the Bible occurs in the fourth chapter of the book of Acts. Peter and John had been arrested after the dramatic healing of a lame beggar at the Gate Beautiful. This man had been lame from birth, for more than forty years he had begged and was known by those who frequented the Temple. His complete healing had caused a big stir and a large crowd gathered so Peter and John began to preach about Jesus. If the healing caused a ripple then the preaching caused waves, they were arrested and given a complimentary overnight stay in jail. The next morning they were questioned by the Jewish elders and high priests, the very men who had arranged for the crucifixion of Jesus, Peters response: 

“Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.” …. There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10, 12)

Again he boldly preaches the truth and even though they were amazed at the boldness of Peter and John they were not really moved. They said among themselves; “What shall we do with these men? When they should have been saying “what shall we do with the truth of Jesus?” They couldn’t deny that a true miracle had taken place yet they had no problem denying the one who made the miracle possible, Jesus. So they commanded Peter and John not to speak or teach anymore in the name of Jesus and, threatening them, they released them because they were afraid of the people. They were more concerned with what people thought than what God did, it is a sad day when we are more afraid of people than God. So, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them everything that had happened and the response was prayer. “When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God” Acts 4:24. They ended their prayer with this: 

29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

How different these disciples are from the ones that walked with Jesus, gone was their fear and trepidation. The fear had been replaced with fiery power and fierce boldness, what had happened? Everything changed on the morning of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell filling them to overflowing. Peter had preached with power then and he was still preaching, they were no longer cowering in the dark denying Christ. Now they were in the thick of things, healing the sick, preaching the gospel, adding to their numbers daily, turning their world upside down. As I look at their prayer life I marvel at what they asked for and what they didn’t. They didn’t ask for protection or for God to remove the opposition, instead they requested greater courage and more boldness to speak God’s Word. Their antidote to threats was courage and boldness. Then they asked for two more things that would get them into even more trouble. They asked for more healings to occur and signs and wonders to take place. It was the healing of the lame beggar that got them arrested and yet they pray for more healings, why, because their prayer life wasn’t about them. It wasn’t about their comfort or convenience, it was about their concern for others. They were willing to be hurt so others could be healed. God heard their prayers and His response was one that could be felt by all present. “After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.” Acts 4:31 God’s response to their prayer was an immediate and powerful endorsement, I wonder if the shaking was His applause? After their prayer meeting they rushed out into the world and threw themselves into God’s work with phenomenal results. Huge numbers of people were saved and many people were healed. They continued to get arrested, jailed, flogged, and even killed. They were persecuted terribly but they wanted the advancement of God’s kingdom more than they wanted their own safety. What is our prayer response, does prayer move us to go?  You don’t pray for courage so you can cower! This is exciting stuff and the book of Acts goes on for 29 chapters filled with pure excitement, yet the other side of the prayer is counting the cost of courage. Satan is not going to sit idly by, there will be a fight but the early followers of Jesus thought it was worth it. Today there are still followers of Jesus throughout the world who think it is worth it, who are praying for power and paying whatever price they have to pay. Will you join the battle this year? If you have some fire in your belly and you don’t mind a good fight then pray the prayer. Pray because we need to be shaken out of our slumber and hear God’s applause, this world needs the results of prayer now more than ever.

Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

• THE POWER OF PRAYER

We see where the POWER of prayer lies in that phrase: “IN THE SPIRIT”. For many of us our prayer life has become dry, lifeless, and boring it is time to invite the Holy Spirit into our prayer life. We live in a time when we question “What does it mean to “pray in the Spirit”? We have already established that prayer is a lifestyle, something that is part of the everyday fabric of living, so the Holy Spirit’s fellowship is the environment of the Christian’s life. We are called to “walk in the Spirit” Galatians 5:16-18, that is to let the Holy Spirit guide and direct our lives as we walk in fellowship with Him. Who is directing your life, who are you following? The Holy Spirit wants to lead us into the place of pray, to enable us to watch and pray, to create a growing desire for prayer. As we let Him direct our lives we develop sensitivity to His leading and He places a desire for us to pray for someone or some situation. As we respond to His prompting and pray we are praying “in the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit leads us to pray the very will and purpose of God and we become partners with Him in God’s plan and purpose. Romans 8:26 tells us that there is a time when language is exhausted when we do not know what to say and that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with “groaning’s which cannot be uttered”. The Holy Spirit is not just the power of prayer but our partner in prayer. To pray in the Spirit’ is to pray “under the influence of the Spirit.” Back in 5:18 Paul exhorted his readers “not to get drunk on much wine, which will ruin lives, instead, be filled with the Spirit.” Christians are to live their lives under the influence of the Spirit. 

3. THE PERSEVERANCE OF PRAYER

Come back to our text again, and note what it says: “…and always keep on praying for all the saints” because in this Christian warfare, “praying through” requires PERSEVERANCE.

The Bible is filled with accounts of people who persevered, holding onto God and he answered them in supernatural ways. It’s JACOB at Peniel (Genesis 32), holding on and wrestling with the Angel of the Lord — “I will not let you go until you bless me”, Perseverance. It’s the story that Jesus told of the importunate widow in Luke 18 who comes before the judge, begging for him to uphold her cause against an enemy. At first He does not help but she is not deterred, she keeps on pleading her case, she won’t leave the judge alone, until finally he relents and takes up her case, Perseverance. Jesus said, when telling that particular story, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint”. Not to give up. Not to be dissuaded. PERSEVERE!

The word always means “in every situation, at all times.” It would be good to remember Jesus’ statement, “without me you can do nothing.” In every situation we need God, and it is through the vehicle of prayer that we access the person and power of God. Perseverance means to stay alert, to be vigilant. Remember the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane on the night before Jesus was crucified. Matthew 26:38 records that Jesus told Peter, James and John to watch with him. He walked away from them and prayed a while and when He got back He found them asleep and said to them, “What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray…” Like Jesus and the disciples, Paul tells us to wake up! “Be watchful, do without some sleep, be vigilant in prayer, and persevere.” Why, because you’re going to want to give up and go home, and because prayer is often the first thing we let go of in our spiritual walk. When we lay prayer aside we begin to depend on the flesh, on what we can do and what we think and what we want. We depend on our abilities and our talents and our wisdom when all the while it is prayer that is needed the most. Paul doesn’t just cause us to ask the question who is directing our life, but who are you depending on in this life?