A CHURCH ON ITS KNEES

What separates the church of Acts from the church of today? It is obviously its power. The church of Acts had it; today's church does not. From where did the church's power come? It came from prayer. The church of Acts is a church on its knees. Note how often prayer is recorded by Luke:

• 1:14 in the upper room
  
• 1:24 before selecting the replacement for Judas
  
• 2:42 after Pentecost
  
• 3:1 Peter and John go to the temple at the hour of prayer
  
• 4:24 response to the threat of the religious leaders
  
• 4:31 response of God to the church's prayer
  
• 6:4 the apostles priority is to pray
  
• 7:59 Stephen prays before death
  
• 8:15 Peter and John pray for the Samaritans
  
• 9:11 Saul of Tarsus prays after his heavenly vision
  
• 9:40 Peter prays before raising Tabitha from the dead
  
• 10:9 Peter is praying as God gives him a vision leading to the conversion of Cornelius and his household
  
• 12:5 the church pray for Peter's release
  
• 13:1-3 the church at Antioch prays and God sets apart missionaries
  
• 14:23 Paul and Barnabas pray as they appoint elders to the churches of Asia Minor
  
• 16:25 Paul and Silas pray and praise God in jail
  
• 20:36 Paul pray with the Ephesian elders
  
• 21:5 Paul prays with Christians at Tyre
  

 

At every turn, before every decision, at every fork in the road the church prays. They pray for wisdom, power, strength, help, and for God's will to be done in and through them.

These were no super churches as we see today. They were small. They were made up mostly of the undesirables of society: shepherds, tax collectors, harlots, and sinners of all types. They were misunderstood and persecuted. They were also powerful. Their power came from the time they spent on their knees in prayer.

Power is the primary by-product of prayer. But there are other benefits to the church as well. If a church is on its knees it will be focused. The church will know what is important and what is not. Also, and this is desperately needed, he church will be unified. Luke emphasizes that unity came from prayer in the first chapters of Acts (1:14; 2:42-7; 4:24).

If they were honest with themselves (and most won't be) most churches realize they are impotent but don't know why. The answer lies in their lack of prayer. The church can preach, sing, build buildings, create ministries, raise money, use Twitter and all the technowhizbang gadgets they think will reach today's generation, or think outside the box, but it doesn't pray very much. Until the church understands that and remedies it, all the other stuff will like filthy rags before the Lord of the Lord of the church. What the church needs today are fewer Bible studies (and I'm not against those) and more prayer meetings. Most Christians know enough about the Bible; in fact they need to apply what they already know. It is not more Bible knowledge that is needed; it is more power.

I've heard it said often that we need to go back to the church of Acts. Let's start at the altar!