Acts 2:42-47 ANCHOR - God Can Use Your Prayers
Acts 2 records the birth of the church. It was something new... something they have never experience before. It was the start of a new ministry. And the Bible tells us - they devoted them to SOME things... and the result was - verse 47 "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
We are starting a new ministry. Something we’ve not experienced before. And we are going to follow this tested formula in Acts 2 - devoting ourselves to the teaching of the Word, to fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer.
These are anchors to the ministry... but not just important elements to a ministry, but to our very soul. So we’re going into a series of 3 sessions - ANCHORS FOR OUR SOULS... (I’ve lump fellowship & breaking of bread together... coming together as a Body of Christ.)
I’ll start from the bottom of the list - GOD CAN USE MY PRAYERS.
INTRO
Since God is sovereign, do my prayers really matter all that much?
Isn’t God going to do what He wants anyway? Most people believe just that, even without admitting it. They prove they believe this in their prayer life, or lack of prayer life.
Can my prayers actually change things? Can God’s will on earth be frustrated or not accomplished if I don’t pray? Does God need me to pray or does He just want me to pray?
Some would argue an omnipotent God doesn’t "need" anything, including our prayers. But these and other questions deserve answers.
I Need To Know
When God says, "Pray," I want to know it will matter. I’m not into religious exercises and my time is valuable. So is yours.
If God is going to do something regardless of whether or not I pray, then He doesn’t need me to ask Him and I don’t need to waste my time.
We could say: If everything is just going to happen anyway, then let’s take a nap and let it all just happen.
· I need to know if that cancerous cyst in my body dissolved because I prayed.
· I need to know if I was spared in the earthquake because someone prayed.
· I need to know if our friend came out of his coma with a restored brain because we prayed.
· I need to know if my prayers can make a difference between heaven and hell for someone.
SCRIPTURES REVEALED TO US 2 FACTS
Book of Acts tells us - (1) God Set Things In Motion When I Pray... prison doors opened, chains fell off, people bringing in their possessions to share with the poor.... Lives are changed, miracles happen, the sick are healed...
John Wesley even puts it this way, "God does nothing on the earth save in answer to believing prayer."
If that is true, I’ll lose a little sleep for that. I’ll change my lifestyle for that. I’ll stop whatever I’m doing in order to pray. I’ll even miss a meal or two.
Prayer Sets in Motion the things that our strength cannot..., our hands cannot...
Nothing moves, until prayer is started. But when prayer is started, even Satan’s strongholds can be knock down by the force of it.
I agree with E. M. Bounds when he said: "God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil. The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock of heaven... by which God carries on His great work upon earth."
If you believe that, you’ll pray more. In fact, you will most likely pray with greater faith too.
(2) God Set Up His Purposes When I Pray...
God uses your prayer to accomplish His will. In 1 Kings 18 - we find the story of God using a person’s prayer to accomplish His will. It is the account of Elijah praying for rain after three years of drought.
1 Kings 18:1 "After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land."
James 5:17-18 also mentions this occasion:
17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
We know from James’ account that not only did Elijah’s prayers bring rain, but his prayers also stopped the rain three years earlier.
In 1 Kings 18:1 - God asked Elijah to see King Ahab, because "I will send rain on the face of the earth. And in 18:42 we see Elijah climbing to the top of Mt Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees, and PRAYED.
He asked the servant to "Go and look toward the sea..." Elijah prays 7 times and finally the rain comes.
Whose idea was it to send rain?... Whose will?... Whose initiation? Answer: God’s, not Elijah’s. Then why, if it was God’s will, idea and timing, did it take a human’s prayers to "birth" the rain?
(When praying for rain, Elijah was in the posture of a woman in that culture giving birth. This symbolizes travailing prayer. See 1 Kings 18:41-45.)
Why must Elijah persevere in prayer? Why did Elijah have to ask 7 times?
Seven is the biblical number of completion. I’m sure God was teaching us that we must pray until the task is accomplished.
But why would this or any other prayer efforts require perseverance, when it was God’s will, idea and timing?
And finally, did Elijah’s prayers really produce the rain or was it simply coincidental that he happened to be praying when God sent it? James clarifies the answer to this last question.
Yes, the prayers of this man did stop and start the rain: "16The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." (James 5:16-18)
The only logical answer to the question of why Elijah needed to pray is simply this:
God has chosen to work through people.
God has chosen you to spread the good news about Him. What if Jesus’ disciples refuse to go? What if they stopped after some persecution? Does God have a contingency plan... plan B? No!
We are the instruments in His hands today - He is going to accomplish His will through you.
Your prayer will "birth" the purpose of God. Prayers bring to fruition His will and plan.
Even when it is the Lord Himself initiating something, He still needs us to ask. Even when He desires to do something, He needs us to pray.
Andrew Murray writes of our need to ask: "God’s giving is inseparably connected with our asking.... Only by intercession can that power be brought down from heaven which will enable the Church to conquer the world."
God Wants Us to Pray
God’s existence and character are completely independent of any created thing (Acts 17:24,25). God already has all resources in His hands (Job 41:11; Ps 50:10-12). Nevertheless, God needs our prayers:
Ezek 22:30-31
30 "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. 31 So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD."
The deep meaning of these verses is strong enough to make us stagger:
God’s holiness prevents Him from simply excusing sin. It must be judged.
On the other hand, not only is He holy, but He is also love. His love always desires to redeem and restore. Scripture tells us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek 33:11).
In this passage, God is saying: "While My justice demanded judgment, My love wanted forgiveness. I wanted to find a human to ask Me to spare this people. If I could have found someone to pray, it would have allowed Me to show mercy. Because I found no one, however, I had to destroy the people I love."
I don’t like what this passage shows any more than you do. I don’t want the responsibility it brings. I don’t like to consider the thought of a God Who has somehow limited Himself to us earthlings. But in light of these and other passages, I can come to no other conclusion -
God will act in response to my prayers.
Either God wants the world to be in this condition or He doesn’t. If He doesn’t, then we must assume one of two things. Either He is powerless to do anything about it, or He needs and is waiting on something from us to bring about change.
This truth can cause us to feel intimidated, because of responsibility it carries. Yet a responsibility can also be a privilege. We have this wonderful privilege of praying... and seeing God’s purposes fulfilled... in our own lives, our families, our friends, in this church.
Jack Hayford said, "Prayer is essentially a partnership. In prayer, the redeemed child of God is working hand in hand with God. Because of prayer, they move together toward the fulfillment of God’s redemptive purposes on earth."
Let’s rise to the occasion and embrace the invitation to be co-labourers with God. Let us set things in motion... and set up God’s purposes and will in our world today.
God has chosen to work His will in the world through you. Let us offer our life for Him. PRAY His purposes to fruition, Pray His promises into reality...
