The Awesome "Power Of Prayer"

The Awesome "WMD" Power of Prayer

Acts 12:5 NASB

5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

Ill. There is a legend of a small town in which there were no liquor stores or nightclubs.

Eventually, however, a nightclub was built right on Main Street and one of the churches, in the area,

was so disturbed that they conducted several all-night prayer meetings, and asked the Lord to burn down the nightclub.

Lightning struck the nightclub a short time later, and it was completely destroyed by fire.

The owner, knowing how the Believers had prayed, sued the church for the damages.

His attorney claimed that their prayers had caused the lightning and fire.

The church people, on the other hand, hired a lawyer and contested the charges.

During the trial the judge declared, "It’s the opinion of this court that the owner of the nightclub is the one who really believes in prayer while the church members do not!"

Imagine that, Church people having a hard time believing that their prayers were answered so quickly and even at all,

And then willingly throwing God under the bus, disclaiming their responsibility that there prayers had been answered.

And here someone of the world, is amazed beyond belief, by the power and sheer magnitude that prayer could have at all and sued for damages done by it.

Prayer works, even when you don’t know what to pray, you can pray in the Spirit, The Holy Spirit knows exactly what to pray for you and it works!

In fact it even works better, because when you pray in the Spirit, you don’t limit God’s amazing abilities to your own understanding,

You give Him free reign to do whatever it takes, to bring about not just your desired outcome, but His will in the situation, which works everything for your good!

Romans 8:26-27 NKJ

26. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Sometimes its hard to believe that its just that easy, to pray in the Spirit, speak in tongues and the Holy Spirit does the rest.

I don’t mean to be simplistic , but it is, God made it that way.

If you study the gospel and exactly what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross,

when He introduced the Grace Message to the world, you will find out that He made it easy enough for a child to understand,

Believe in Jesus, receive what God sent His Son to deliver and trust in His ability to bring about what He has promised!

Its like the old hymn; Only believe, only believe; All things are possible, only believe;

The story of our text relates the same way, only believe that what your asking for will happen, but don’t be shocked when God delivers the results that your looking for and then some.

Acts 12:5 NASB

5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

Fervent defined; showing passionate enthusiasm: showing ardent or extremely passionate enthusiasm.

Ardent defined; glowing: shining or glowing brightly, with a fiery quality

What we had going on at church that night was a good ole fashion, Holy Ghost prayer meeting.

Its no wonder, it hadn’t been that long since the day of Pentecost had happened

And I’m sure they were using what God had just given them, the power of the Holy Spirit, He had made available to them, to live victoriously!

Am I alone here, am I the only one who thinks;

“Makes you wonder why, everyone doesn’t use and accept, what God has made available to them?”

See, like a lot of people, they had heard stories all their life how prayer changes things,

*Solomon prayed and God gave him wisdom, made him the wisest man on earth.

*Hezekiah prayed and God added 15 years to his life.

*Elijah prayed that it wouldn’t rain for 3 1/2 years, that’s 1,095 days and guess what?, it didn’t!

*Jabez prayed for more territory and God granted him what he asked for!

they had seen the power of prayer in action, probably numerous times.

How many know its one thing to see someone else pray and use their faith and watch a miracle happen for them,

But that it’s a totally different story, when you’re the one, or your part of the group doing the praying, expecting the results!