Prayer with full confidence
... they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’
...
now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
These verses in Acts 4:23-31 are the longest recorded Christian prayer in the New Testament, and they show us how we can pray powerful prayers that receive an answer too.
Acts 4:23-31 tells us that, when we pray, we may feel as though we are bending God towards our own desires, but he is the one who gives us those desires in the first place. He isn’t playing games with us – he really wants to give us all we ask for – but he is committed to working out his rule on the earth through his Church. Luke gives us this longest recorded Christian prayer in the New Testament because he wants us to grasp what happens when we pray. We do not pray to change God’s will, but we must pray if we want to see God’s will come to pass. Let’s take a moment to look at what Luke teaches us here:
First, they pray…
Acts 4:24 “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.”
The Greek word that they use here is dêspotês, from which we get the English word despot. It means The One Who Can Do Whatever He Wants. It’s a word that they have taken from the Old Testament Scriptures. Their view of who God is isn’t shaped by the disaster which appears to have befallen them. It is based on what the Bible says about who God is.
Effective prayer always begins with a proper view from Scripture of who God is. The believers in Acts 4 address the Lord by one of his own names in Scripture and remind him to be who he has promised he will be.
Next, they pray…
Acts 4:25 “You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David.”
They consciously remind the Lord of his promises in the Scriptures. There is a promise from God for you in the Bible to meet any need you’re facing today.
Next, they remind the Lord of his promises towards them. They quote from Psalm 2, reminding him of his promises through David and calling on him to do the very thing that he has promised.
Acts 4:25-26 “Why do the nations (ethnos) rage and the peoples (laos) plot in vain? The kings (basileus) of the earth take their stand and the rulers (archôn) band together (sunagô) against the Lord (kurios) and against his Anointed One (christos).”
Now watch what they then do in their prayer. They believe that God Himself inspired these words because he wants to give them the very_thing they are asking for.
Acts 4:27 “Indeed Herod (who thought of himself as a basileus) and Pontius Pilate (who was our archôn) met together (sunagô) with the Gentiles (ethnos) and the people of Israel (laos) in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed (chriô).”
Can you see what they are doing here in prayer?
Now they pray with utter confidence that God will do the very thing they ask:
Acts 4:29-30 “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’”
… and the Lord answers their prayer.
Acts 4:31 “After 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.”
Don’t you want to pray prayers that shake the room? Don’t you want this to be who we are as a church together? Don’t you want this to be who you are before God in prayer? It’s actually very simple. I could have shown you this in Daniel 9 or in several other passages in the Bible. It’s consistently how God works. He knows what he wants to give us. He puts it throughout the Scriptures. Then he invites us to: Read, Study, Underline, Believe, Bring those verses back to me in prayer, I long to say yes to you.
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Do you know the Book of Acts talks about “prayer”, or uses the word “prayer”, or quotes the word “prayer” more than any other books in the Bible, except Psalms, which effectively is a book of prayer? We pray for specific needs, but Jesus prayed as a lifestyle.
