50. The Prayer of Acts

50. The Prayer of Acts 

 

Acts 2: 14-18

 

14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this.

15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that.

16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:

17 ‘In the last days,’ God says,

    ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

    Your young men will see visions,

    and your old men will dream dreams.

18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit

    even on my servants—men and women alike—

    and they will prophesy.

 

▣ The Holy Spirit came upon the 120 people who were praying in Mark's upper room on the Day of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit came, they prayed in tongues.  People mocked him for being drunk.

Against this, Peter testifies that this was accomplished only by the presence of the Spirit of the Lord as prophesied in the Bible.

The prayer of Acts, which raised the early church, had such a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit.

The history of prophesying, seeing visions, and dreaming arose.

The prayer in the book of Acts was a prayer in which a spiritual work that transcends the flesh takes place.

 

1. The prayer of the Acts of the Apostles was wrought by an angel of the Lord

 

5 But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.

6 The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. 7 Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.

9 So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. (Acts 12:5-9)

 

It happened when the apostle Peter of the Jerusalem church was imprisoned.

The church members prayed earnestly for Peter.

As the saints pray, an angel of the Lord rescues Peter from prison.

King Herod put an army in front of him and put him in prison, but the Lord works through angels.

The prayer in Acts was a prayer in which the angel of the Lord worked.

 

2. The prayer in Acts prophesied.

 

9 I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. 10 It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit.[a] Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. 11 It said, “Write in a book[b] everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” 12 When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. 13 And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man.[c] He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.

(Rev 1:9-16).

 

The book of Revelation is a prophetic book written by the apostle John, a disciple of Jesus, who was exiled to the island of Patmos and heard the word of God's revelation.

 

During the Roman Empire, Patmos was an exile for political and religious felons, especially Christians.

The apostle John, the only disciple of Jesus who was not martyred during the reign of Emperor Domisian (circa AD 95), came into exile to this island and lived for about 18 months. I did.

 

On the mountainside of Patmos, there is a 'Cave of Revelation' where the Apostle John is said to have received a revelation.

When Christianity was living in a dark and gloomy time due to severe persecution, the apostle John was dragged to Patmos, a small island in the open sea, the valley of the shadow of death, where he lived in exile.

He led the 95-year-old old man, doing hard labor during the day, and prostrated himself in the cave at night and dawn to pray to God.

It is said that the apostle John was blind, and his disciple Procorus, the deacon, wrote the contents of the revelation. Procorus was one of the first seven deacons of the Jerusalem church and was full of faith and the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5).

 

The Lord made known that the future of mankind is in God's hands by showing His servant John the things to come, with the words of revelation, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

 

The prayer in the book of Acts was the prayer of receiving God's revelation and prophesying.

Even if people of faith are confined in a narrow and dark cave, God allows them to see wider and more distant days.

Even though the body is dark, the spirit is brighter.

 

3. The prayer in Acts had a vision.

 

1 This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I[a] was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. 3 Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know 4 that I was caught up[b] to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. (2 Corinthians 12:1–4).

 

Paul is referring to the visions and revelations of the Lord, and testifies that he went to the third heaven fourteen years ago.

Strangely, the man he saw is Paul himself, which he describes as 'he'.

This means that you do not know whether it is inside the body or outside the body.  It also testifies that Paul was taken to Paradise, where he heard indescribable words. He confesses that he has deeply experienced the spiritual world.

Here, the first floor means the sky of the world, that is, the sky of the atmosphere.

The second-tier heaven means the heavens where the spirits rule above and beyond the atmosphere.

The three-tiered heaven is the eternal heaven, the transcendental concept of heaven, the heaven where only God exists completely, and it means the sky above the heavens.

In fact, it is literally open to several interpretations.

But what is clear is that there are other spiritual dimensions.

The prayer in Acts even gave us a vision of the heavens above.

I hope that many Christians will go deeper into prayer and reach a place where they experience a deeper spiritual world.

 

 

4. The prayer in Acts showed signs.

 

16 One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.”

18 This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her. (Acts 16:16-18).

 

The Apostle Paul was preaching the gospel in Philippi when he met a slave girl who was possessed by a demon.

When Paul commanded the woman to leave her demon and prayed, her demon went out.

In the early church, the sign of demons retreating appeared.

 

17 These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. 18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” (Mark 16:17 -18)

 

Many Christians today forget the history of prophesying, seeing visions, and dreaming. For some, it feels like a fairy tale from a long time ago.

However, there are many miracles that can happen even today if God works.

God is waiting on our knees, waiting for our obedience.

I hope you will go into deeper prayer and experience a deeper spiritual world.

He wants to have a deeper encounter with God.

He wants us to experience God who works beyond our physical limits and beyond our instincts.

I hope that you will become a person of prayer who experiences the prayer of Acts in your life every day.