Acts 4:23-31
23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
" 'Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.' 27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Many people in church planting will point out Acts 4: 32-37 as an ideal church. After reading this passage this morning I am convinced we should hit 'Rewind' and check out the previous verses.
Peter and John just left what could have been a pretty scary situation. They got away with a tongue lashing only because so many people had fallen in love with their message that the priests, elders and teachers of the law felt it was best to let them go as opposed to making them martyr patties.
As Peter and John got back to the camp the story unfolds. They share what God had done in their time of need and immediately the people responded in prayer by giving Glory to God. They didn't bottle it up, have a pot-luck or create programs to re-create the moving of God... they simply honored him as God and expressed their desire to continue seeing His power active in their lives.
v29"Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
They asked for a very simple thing:1. God allow us to be bold and do what you've called us to do-- speak your word with boldness.
2. God, please show up and do what you do best.... be God.
You see, I'd like to think I always fall in line with my prayers this way. I'd like to think that as a Pastor I pray God's will all of the time. I'd like to think that if we were writing the bible today someone would be prompted by the Holy Spirit to write my prayer down as an example but in reality how often is this the case? How much of our day-to-day prayer life is worth being recorded as scriptural?
I find myself instead asking "God, today will you come down on my agenda for YOUR church?" or "God, please bless ________ action our staff has done for you." How crazy is that? We Pastors don't normally talk about our prayers (b/c it's embarrasing) this way but it's often true.
So for me today I've been reminded that no matter how good my "Good efforts" are, I still have a lot to work on. Today I want to live out the prayer of the early saints in Acts.
All of us would do well today to pray as they prayed-
"God, please reveal yourself as God today and allow me to speak boldly for your name."
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