Prayer is mentioned 28 times in the book of Acts. To provide you with a bird’s eye view of how pervasive prayer was in the early church and how spiritually powerful they were because of it, I’ve shown those verses below. I suggest that you read them slowly. Look for the blessings that came from making prayer a priority, and how the early church was often praying together.
“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”
Acts 1:14
“And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen.”
Acts 1:24
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
Acts 2:42
“Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.” (3pm)
Acts 3:1
“And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
Acts 4:31
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Acts 6:4
“These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.”
Acts 6:6
“Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 8:14-15
“Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
Acts 8:22-24
“But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.”
Acts 9:40
“At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.”
Acts 10:2
“About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.”
Acts 10:4
“The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.”
Acts 10:9
“And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.”
Acts 10:30-31
“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me.”
Acts 11:5
“So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”
Acts 12:5
“When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.”
Acts 12:12
(Read Acts 12 to see that an angel walked Peter out of prison as he was being prayed for).
“Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”
Acts 13:3
“And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
Acts 14:23
“And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.”
Acts 16:13
“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.”
Acts 16:16
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them”
Acts 16:15
“And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.”
Acts 20:36
“When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one another.”
Acts 21:5-6
“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance”
Acts 22:17
“It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him.”
Acts 28:8
Wouldn’t you love to be a part of a church like this, with God showing up in power often, being a part of a tribe of prayer-fired believers intent on pouring out their lives for the eternal, with constant prayer meetings, which bonds those who participate together? They were a committed, tight-knit group with very little resources. How different this is from our modern church services with our video screens and expensive, ear-splitting speaker systems where every minute is pre-planned and micro-managed, leaving no room for God to break through and no time spent in prayer together.
The early church began with 7 days straight of prayer meetings. In prayer, they were anointed with spiritual power, heard from God, received guidance and wisdom from Him, experienced His presence (including when He shook the walls after they prayed for boldness), a woman was raised from the dead, Peter was freed from prison, they encountered God through visions, a man who was sick was healed, and more.
Does any of this line up with your experience in church? Or the Christian life in general?
Let’s make it personal and go back to Cornelius in Acts 10.
“About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.”
Acts 10:4
Cornelius was a Gentile; a commanding officer in the Roman military. The Jews hated the Romans; Cornelius wouldn’t have been allowed to set foot in the temple, so no church services for him. There is no record of Cornelius having a copy of the Torah or other books of the Bible. No Youtube videos, Christian books, Christian music, watching The Chosen, or podcasts. No Bible College or hard-core doctrinal positions to camp on.
Cornelius got God’s attention because he was a man of prayer. Acts 10:2 tells us that Cornelius “prayed continually to God;” verse 30 shows us that it was while Cornelius was praying that he encountered an angel. When a man or woman makes prayer their priority and spends hours on their knees, as Jesus modeled for us, their heart is transformed and the Light of Eternity breaks through. They begin to see life through the eyes of God, and are eager to give of themselves, their time, their resources. The foolish, short-lived pleasures of this world begin losing their seductive power. Comfort and what others think becomes less important. Being a man of prayer changed Cornelius’ heart so that he wanted to pour out his life and give “alms,” as the Bible calls it.
“Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.”
What a powerful statement; God loves and hears those who go after Him consistently in prayer. This should give great encouragement to every believer who wants more of God; He hears us, we can please Him, hear His voice, and walk with Him. No seminary degree required. As the early church showed us, to be strong in prayer is to live a supernatural life. The Christian life was never meant to be about being nice, learning your Bible verses, and going to church while rotting on the sidelines. I can attest from personal experience that God comes through in power for those who make prayer a priority, as the Apostle Paul shows us:
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-4
The source of Paul’s power was constant prayer:
“For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?”
1 Thessalonians 3:9-10
In 2020 I wrote the first Rogue Christian book. Part of the catalyst for writing Rogue was reading through the book of Acts and seeing the early church’s emphasis on prayer and how spiritually powerful they were. When I compared the early church, which was a “house of prayer,” as God called it (Isaiah 56:7) with the modern church it was clear there is a big hole there.
After reading the book of Acts, how can we come to any conclusion other than that every believer and church are to make prayer a top priority?
Charles Spurgeon writes:
“We never read that Joshua’s hand was weary with wielding the sword—but Moses’ hand was weary with wielding the rod. The more spiritual the duty, the more apt we are to tire of it. We could stand and preach all day; but we could not pray all day. We could go forth to seek the sick all day, but we could not be in our prayer closets all day so easily. To spend a night with God in prayer would be far more difficult than to spend a night with a man preaching. Oh! Take care, Church of Christ, that you do not cease your prayers!”
Effective prayer demands that we put our heart, mind, will, and emotions into it. Tin-can prayers spoken with a smartphone and media-numbed heart won’t go far. Reading the Bible is easy compared to prayer. Prayer is powerful when we focus on God and turn our attention away from self. Prayer also gains the attention of the enemy, forcing us to become spiritual fighters in the process.
Prayer is the gateway to the spiritual realm, the throne room of grace and power. Prayer is a spiritual force with the power to silence the enemy, spear the flesh, break strongholds, and open the doors to strength, healing, wisdom, life, love, and peace. With so many blessings, why wouldn’t you want to be strong in prayer?
There will be those who prefer a nice lukewarm bath with plenty of bubbles; all that talk about going all-out for God seems like it’s getting carried away. After all, we modern believers have plenty of Christian media and programming to watch.
Rebekah, my daughter, and I talked about praying in church, or rather, the lack of it, recently on Blazing Grace radio for an episode that will be broadcast in the weeks ahead. At one point Rebekah said it felt “weird to pray in church,” which shows how far we’ve drifted.
Cornelius shows us that every one of us can be a spiritual force, a game changer and overcomer, if we’re willing to make prayer our spiritual life blood. Every church can be a spiritual juggernaut like the early church was, if they’re willing to make prayer one of their top priorities and fire up prayer meetings.
Or we can continue to struggle along as we have been, with the world and the enemy taking more ground in the church and in believer’s lives. You need only to read the ongoing flow of new stories of Christians being exposed for sexual sin to know that the church is losing one battle after another.
I suggest you go back and read the verses about from the book of Acts again. Then examine your prayer life and that of your church. Ask yourself some hard questions. Make changes as needed.
The Restaurant
I had dinner at a restaurant earlier this week. To my right, a mother and her teenaged daughter were eating. The daughter’s head was slumped over; she was gazing at her smartphone. They barely spoke.
In front of me was a family of six. Father, mother, three girls, one son. The girls looked like the oldest might have been around 10, if that. One of the daughters was wearing a crop top, which was out of bounds for a girl that age. 95% of the time they were there, Dad’s head was down, glued to his phone. He barely acknowledged that his kids were there. The most I heard him speak was when he told his kids to go to the bathroom before they left. The two oldest girls had smartphones; one had the volume of whatever she was watching loudly turned up.
This isn’t just a restaurant thing. Last weekend at church several women in our vicinity were on their smartphones, and it wasn’t to look at a Bible ap.
And we wonder why the family is coming apart and why so many have the attention span of a fly. Many parents have surrendered their relationship with their kids to their smartphones, and the parents themselves are hooked. I’ve seen families and couples eating out who were all staring at their phones. We’re fast becoming, or already are, a nation of socially retarded people.
Put your phone down. Talk to your spouse and your kids. Show them you care. Listen to them! Parents, kids shouldn’t have smartphones until they’re into their teens and even then, with careful boundaries. If Steve Jobs wouldn’t allow his kids to have a smartphone or ipad, and he was largely responsible for the creation of those gadgets, shouldn’t we take a cue here? Kids are getting smartphones as early as age 4, which is insane. Some of those 4 and 5 year olds will get their first exposure to porn at that age.
The Bible has a word for smartphone addiction. Idolatry. Our little man-made idols have blinking lights where the Biblical kind were made out of wood, silver or gold.
“Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.”
Psalm 115:4-8
