As I read some of the great prayers of the Bible I cannot help but ask, “Why can’t God’s people pray like that and with that kind of power today?” Maybe I should ask, “Why don’t we pray like that and with that kind of power today?” Look at the prayer in our text. Peter and John had been arrested for preaching Jesus. They were released and told never to preach in His name again. Peter and John reported to the Jerusalem church what had happened, and look at what vs. 24 says: “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is . . . ” They began to pray! But notice, “. . . they lifted up their voice . . . WITH ONE ACCORD . . . ” Can you imagine that! Here is a united church, all praying at the same time, and all praying for the same thing! Imagine the power! And if you can’t imagine it, look at vs. 31: "And when they had prayed, THE PLACE WAS SHAKEN where they were assembled together; and THEY WERE ALL FILLED with the Holy Ghost, and THEY SPAKE THE WORD of God WITH BOLDNESS.” Why can’t we have a prayer meeting like that today? We can, but too many of God’s people . . . 1) Are out of fellowship with the Father; 2) Or, are not serious in their praying (praying for the wrong things); Or, have a lack of real faith in the Lord; Or, are unwilling to obey God. The fact is that we can have an earth shaking prayer meeting, but it is going to require some real commitment on our part - commitment to God, to Christ, and to God’s Word. We cannot “play church” and have that kind of prayer meeting. We cannot be like many churches today - just going through the motions - and have that kind of prayer meeting. We cannot try to be like everyone else, fall in with the status quo, and expect God to bless us with that kind of power. There IS power in prayer! The Scripture tells us of Elijah in James 5:17-18. It says that Elijah prayed “that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. (18) And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” But notice how he prayed, “Elijah prayed EARNESTLY . . . ” EARNESTLY = (Webster) “characterized by or proceeding from an intense and serious state of mind.” The language says, “Elijah prayed with prayer.” Quite literally it is saying, “Elijah ‘got with it’ in his praying. He wasn’t playing around. When he prayed Elijah meant business with God.” And note what it says about the one who was doing the praying. Elijah “was a man subject to like passions as we are . . . ” He was not some “super saint.” (Remember his depression when Jezebel threatened him?) But vs. 16 says it is the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” that “availeth much.” EFFECTUAL FERVENT = (energeo) active, energetic, efficient; at work, active in operation. Think of the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus. Hebrews 5:5-6 lets us know that the writer is speaking of Jesus. Then in vs. 7 he says of the Lord: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications WITH STRONG CRYING AND TEARS unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared . . . ” (STRONG = forcible. There was some force or power behind it. It is translated in other places as “mighty, powerful, valiant.”) (CRYING = from krazo to scream, to call aloud (translated “to cry out”). Hear what Luke 22:44 says about the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (AGONY = anguish ; MORE EARNESTLY = more intently; fervently.) Have you ever prayed in agony? Where...
