ACTS SERIES: WEEK 10 “THE POWER OF A PRAYING CHURCH”

ACT CHAPTER  12:  The Power Of A Praying Church

Acts 12:1-5
About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church and he executed James, John’s brother, with the sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.

Two Lessons We Learn From This Text:

  1. Whatever God does satan counterfeits.
  2. We War In The Spirit

Here’s the truth… a prayerless church is a powerless church.

Jesus said it this way – that my house will be called a house of prayer.

Matthew 21:12-14

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

But Jesus is looking for His church to be a house of:

  • Purity
  • PrayeR
  • Power
  • Praise

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12

Today’s Big Idea: A praying Church is a Powerful Church, and a Powerful Church is a productive Church, and a Productive Church is a God-honoring Church

Acts 12:5 – Peter was kept in jail, but the church was praying fervently…

Oxford Dictionary defines it. having or displaying a passionate intensity.

James 5:16b – 17 Amplified says “ The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours [with the same physical, mental, and spiritual limitations and shortcomings], and he prayed intensely for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

7 practices of effective prayer.

  • Pray with passion
  • Pray consistently
  • Develop a regular pattern
  • Pray alone before together
  • Worship
  • Pray in your spiritual prayer language
  • Pray the scriptures

Spurgeon said, “Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.”

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