The early church was committed to steadfastly continue in prayer.
So, if we as a church today believe that we should pray, then what keeps us from praying?
– WE DON’T KNOW HOW.
Prayer can be taught & learned. Jesus taught His disciples to pray.
– WE CAN BE LAZY.
Not wanting to put in the time & effort.
– WE WANT TO BE INDEPENDENT.
Pride won’t pray, it doesn’t need God. Humility prays, it’s dependent on God.
– WE THINK IT DOESN’T MATTER OR MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Active, working & functioning prayer – it gets the job done!
Keep praying! It matters! It makes a difference! Our prayers are filling the golden bowls in heaven. The goal in prayer is to align our hearts with God and to know what to pray.
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” JAMES 5:16-18
Acts 2:40-47, Luke 18:24, Luke 22:45-46, James 5:16-18, Revelation 8:1-5
Prayer came first. Then 3,000 souls were added.
Prayer makes a way! It is the plow in the ground that comes before everything that God wants to do in the earth.
Jesus instructs us –
ASK and KEEP ASKING,
SEEK and KEEP SEEKING,
KNOCK and KEEP KNOCKING.
God is GOOD, and gives good things to those who ask Him. We must not quit. We must keep praying.
“These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” Acts 1 : 14 NKJV
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matt 7 : 7 – 11 NKJV
Luke 1:5-20, Acts 2:40-47, Acts 1:14, Matthew 7:7-11, Luke 1:5-10
What did the first church in Acts 2 think was important? SOULS
God doesn’t just want people who attend and sit in a church, looking for an outward touch, with no inward change. HE WANTS SOULS! Those that receive and believe. Those are the ones added to the Church. The ones being saved.
And the purpose of the Church is to link people together with Jesus, and continue to grow in Him based on the 4 Pillars of the Church:
1) Apostle’s Doctrine – didachē – Instruction, teaching
2) Fellowship – kŏinōnia – Close mutual relationships and involvement
3) Breaking of Bread
4) Prayers – prŏsĕuchē – To speak to God
“Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” Acts 2:41
Acts 2:40-47, John 3:3-6, Ephesians 4:11-16, 2 Corinthians 5:17
There is a reason God told us to fast. When we consecrate or set apart our normal activity, schedules and eating for God to fast, conquering our flesh from ruling us, to consume more of Him in our life, it opens up freedom in the spirit.
We can pray without fasting, but we shouldn’t fast without praying.
“Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
Ezra 8:21-23, Acts 2:43-47, Joel 1:13-14, Joel 2:12-17
We need to step up, and step into the Promiseland of what God is calling us to do.
We were made for hard things. Things bigger than ourselves.
Like the children of Israel who thought it’d be better to go back to Egypt than going after what God had promised them, we can sometimes get overwhelmed and take a step back, but be encouraged – you have a God that created the heavens and the earth that is on your side. He will not leave nor forsake you. When we don’t go after everything the Lord has for us – we’re actually rebelling against Him.
Numbers 13:25-33, 14:1-4, Hebrews 10:39, John 3:1-6, Romans 12:1-2