When The Church Prays

Acts 12:1-4

The first thing that happens when the church prays is that God Hears. This is the heart of the Bible faith. Prayer is not first about us but about a God who hears. Prayer works because God has promised to hear. Cast away any idea of new age spirituality or old fashion paganism where by right methods or magic words will force God to pay attention to us. Quite the opposite! Our God is a willing participant in our prayer meetings. There is no reluctance on his part. If there is any reluctance to prayer, it is on our part, not God’s.
A second thing happens when the church prays. First, God hears. That’s the foundation. Next circumstances are altered. There is something significant about the crisis the early church faced. James had been killed and Peter was arrested. In all likelihood, Peter faced the same fate that James had. So the church prayed. No doubt they had prayed for James, too. And he had died. They knew all prayers are not answered in the manner desired. But that’s God’s decision. So they prayed for Peter. We don’t pray because we know for sure that we are going to get what we asked for. We pray because we want God to make the choice. He has asked us to pray. 

A third thing happened when the church prayed. The same thing will likely happen today. Believers were surprised. Maybe there is hope for all of us! Even when we fully believe in the power of prayer, we get surprised. Note how the church reacted. They gathered in a prayer meeting, petitioning the God of heaven for Peter. God heard. An angel was sent. Even Peter was surprised and had to be told by the angel what to do. When Peter went to the praying church after his release, no one wanted to believe the report. Surely, the servant girl was seeing things.
One last thing often happens when the church prays: Opponents Are Confused and Ultimately Defeated. Luke doesn’t really make much of a point of this in Acts. But I think it is no coincidence that he records what he did at the end of chapter 12. Herod the great opponent of the faith meets his maker right after the church had been praying. His was a nasty fate and direct result of his arrogance. I don’t know what the church prayed. They may have prayed for Herod’s removal. They might have asked God to reveal his power to mighty Herod. They surely would have asked God to bring to naught all of the mighty powers aligned against the church. Little did Herod know what he was dealing with when he took on a praying church.