I Know What Prayer Can Do

Argument:

God does not have to wait until we finish praying before sending our answer. A praying church will create open doors for the answer to their prayers.

In 1969, the zoologist Professor Sir Alister Hardy set up at Manchester College, Oxford, his “Religious Experience Unit” to collect firsthand experiences of “a benevolent non-physical power which appears to be partly or wholly beyond and far greater than, the individual self.”

In early 1980, he produced [an] interim report in The Spiritual Nature of Man (OUP). He gives a detailed account, under twelve headings (such as visual sensory experiences, auditory sensual experiences, extrasensory perception, etc.) and eighty-eight subdivisions, of some three thousand experiences.

“For the great majority there is a strong feeling of a transcendental reality … and institutional religion plays little part in most of these accounts.” Hardy concludes: “The main characteristics of man’s religious and spiritual experiences are shown in his feelings for a transcendental reality which frequently manifest themselves in early childhood; a feeling that ‘something other’ than the self can actually be sensed: desire to personalize this presence into a deity, and to have a private I-Thou relationship with it, communicating through prayer.” 1

1 John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

Context of Acts up to Chapter 12

In its infancy, the church experienced an explosive beginning with the descent of the Holy Spirit and the upper room speaking in tongues, and the birth of the church brought unparalleled growth. The first miracle occurs on the doorsteps, which leads to Peter’s sermon in Solomon’s Portico, claiming that God sent Jesus to the earth and that the Pharisees were guilty of killing the “Author of Life” (Acts 3:15). They are witnesses that Christ rose from the dead. Through faith, the man was given “perfect health” (Acts 3:16). He told them to repent so that the time of refreshing could come to them, as spoken by the prophets. God sent Jesus to them to bless them and allow them to turn from their wickedness. After this sermon, opposition arose, and conditions became adverse and antagonistic towards the apostles and the church.

When you obey God and speak what he instructs, it will create adverse and antagonistic conditions.The Sadducees were annoyed, took Peter and John into custody, and questioned the authority by which they spoke. Peter said that the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth gave them the authority to heal and speak in his name. Peter said, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). Peter and John’s boldness said to the council that these men had been with Jesus. These ordinary and uneducated men now stood in the council of intellects and confounded them with their words and works. To stop the “Jesus Movement,” they ordered them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, and they simply said no. This was the apostles' first adversity due to their faith in Christ. The church majored in prayer as they prayed for boldness against their adversaries. The church continued to help one another, and I ask, where is the church that allows…signs and wonders to be done while the apostles are continually arrested by their detractors yet miraculously freed by God, resulting in people joining the church?

Stephen is stoned for his stance, and Saul is introduced to the narrative as the persecutor of the church. His life is radically changed forever on the Damascus Road, and he becomes an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Saul proclaims the message of the Messiah to those in Jerusalem after being approved by the apostles. Peter heals Aeneas and raises Dorcas from the dead, converting the house of Cornelius after receiving the vision of the meat (Acts 10:9-33). This is the first mention of the Gentiles hearing the gospel and receiving the gospel, and the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles. Peter reports to the church and faces criticism for preaching the gospel of faith to the Gentiles without circumcision. Peter explains God's vision and how God commanded him not to call unclean what he called clean. The church at Antioch grew, and here is the first time that followers of Jesus were called Christians (Acts 11:26).

The violence against the church ramped up with King Herod. The Pharisees and Sadducees debated, imprisoned, and eventually let the apostles go, but Herod sought to silence the sound of Christ. James, the brother of John and the first leader of the church, was beheaded (Acts 12:2-3). He saw how the crowd loved, so he thought to kill Peter after the Passover. He arrests Peter and puts him in prison under the watch of four squads of soldiers (Acts 12:4). There were four men per squad, so it took sixteen men to watch the fisherman from Galilee. As Peter sat in prison, the church knelt earnestly (Acts 12:5). This wasn’t just any prayer meeting; the church was tarrying for Peter’s deliverance…..

Prayer is the only resort…

C. S. Lewis, on prayer, wrote: “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

When do you pray? How do you pray? Why do you pray? Is prayer your emergency?

The church should not only gather to sing and hear a sermon; the church should never forget to pray at the gathering. Peter’s imprisonment prompted the impromptu prayer meeting. Jesus told his disciples that men should always pray and not faint. Its still true that the prayer of faith saves the sick. Prayer is not one of many options; it is your only option. When we speak ofprayer, we think only of our prayerThe early church faced opposition, and Jesus did not leave swords and staves for them; He left prayer, faith, and the Holy Ghost. If you don’t value prayer privately, then you won’t value prayer. The church did not have natural weapons to free Peter, but they had a spiritual weapon that would free Peter. This early church under attack went on the attack through prayer. So many times, our prayers are so full of what we want God to do for us that we forget that we are to pray for others. “Until you can pray for others, you will delay your answer.”

Don’t Miss Your Answer…..

Wally Lamb says: “If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.”

While the church is as the old church called, knee bent and body bowed, a servant girl, Rhoda, hears a knock at the door. Luke tells us it’s Peter at the door, but Rhoda doesn’t know. Rhoda is a servant girl in the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother. While the church was at prayer, Rhoda was on her job as the doorkeeper. God can use our regular occupation to position us for an unusual answer to prayer. Even in prayer, we must listen and be on our post. Was Rhoda praying? She was praying with the church, yet she heard a knock at the gate. Don’t pray so hard that you ignore your “knock” at the gate. She hears Peter’s voice and runs to tell the church that God answered, but she leaves Peter on the other side of the gate. “Don’t shout before you open the gate to your answer. It's good to shout for an answer, but it's another thing to shout with your answer.” The word joy is chara, which is the cause of joy or gladness. By Rhoda, just doing her job brought her great joy. As believers, we must learn to have joy even when we hear a “knock” at the gate. She runs and tells the church that Peter is at the gate, but the church says she is crazy and goes back to praying. They could not believe that God would answer their prayer while praying. Rhoda stood on what she heard….you have to stand on what you hear as faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. When your answer is for you, your answer will keep knocking….

Prayer Produces a Powerful Testimony…

“Your testimony is the story of your encounter with God and what role He has played throughout your life.”

Once they came to the gate and opened it, realizing it was Peter, they were amazed…What were they surprised at? Was it that Peter was at the gate? Or was it the fact that God delivered Peter while they prayed? God does not have to wait until you say Amen to answer your prayer. He can answer your prayer while you pray. God’s power is not limited to an Amen, for his power is unlimited. The church praying prompted God to move on Peter’s behalf. The fervent, faithful intercession for Peter produces immediate results. Things happen when the church prays. God moved at the prayers of the people on Peter’s behalf.

Peter comes in and silences them as he tells his testimony of how the Lord delivered him from prison….. Peter was arrested with James because they preached the gospel….James was beheaded and Peter was kept in jail to suffer the same fate as James the brother of John… while the church prayed, Peter was put in prison, going through the shakedown process for his captors, four squads of soldiers, a total of sixteen soldiers to watch one man….while the church was prayer, I was kept in prison against my will, but for the sake of the gospel…while the church was praying, I fell asleep in my chains in the midst of captors….while the church was praying God was working on my behalf… while the church was praying the angel woke me up and the chains fell off without a key….while the church was praying I got dressed and followed the angel who ministers to the heirs of salvation…. while the church was praying, the angel led me past the first and second guards and out of the prison….while the church was praying, I was rescued from a secure facility and from people who sought my destruction and from what my enemies were expecting….while the church prayed I was on my way to the church…while the church prayed I was at the gate knocking…while the church prayed, Rhoda heard me calling at the gate…while the church was praying, God answered your prayer….the very ones that held Peter lost their lives because the church prayed….Do you know what prayer can do? Do you know what prayer can do? The prophets in the Old Testament prayed, and God moved…The apostles, disciples, and the church prayed, and God moved….The church prays today, but does God move…If Peter was here he would remind of these words:

I know what prayer can do

I found the answer in prayer; I’ll tell it everywhere

I know, I know, I know what prayer can do

Prayer will heal the sick

Prayer will raise the dead

I remember one day, five thousand souls were fed

I found the answer in prayer; I’ll tell it everywhere

I know, I know, I know what prayer can do

Prayer, prayer changes things.

I’ve been out, Out on the stormy seas,

I’ve been hungry, I’ve been sick

I’ve been filled with misery,

Long came Jesus,

Jesus rescued me

I found the answer in prayer.

I’ll tell it everywhere.

I know, I know

I know what prayer can do