Prayer Is Essential

Prayer changes things, prayer changes people, and prayer changes churches when they really pray. Things really happen when churches pray!

We see in Acts 12, a story of how the church faced terrible persecution for their faith. The evil King Herod, was killing the apostles and seeking to kill more apostles. We see that the church gathered together during this time of need and emergency, and the first thing that they did was appeal to God through prayer. The church met together - James had been killed by the sword, and now Herod was turning his wicked attention to Peter, and we find in verse 5: “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”

In verse 12 many gathered together praying. Right throughout the whole of the book of Acts, we see that prayer was an integral part, of the operations of the church of Jesus Christ in its beginnings.

Things started to happen when these Christian people prayed together. In fact, the miraculous happened, because we find Peter lying here in the prison, and an angel comes and taps him to wake up, and delivers him - and the iron gates yielded to the power of God, and effectively we see the power of God in answer to the prayers of the church.

Peter comes knocking on the door of the place where the people are praying, and Rhoda comes to the door. She can hardly believe it’s Peter, she’s in such shock that she hasn’t time to open the door, and she runs back to the people saying it’s Peter. They said: “No, it couldn’t be, it must be his spirit or his angel!”. Great things happen when a church prays, when it really prays – It’s easy to doubt that something we pray about can happen.

How often has God astounded you because He has done something that you didn’t even think could or would ever happen?

Do we all believe that things happen when churches really pray?

We could consider many occasions when God came to them in answer to their prayers, but one very famous one was when God addressed His people in 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 14, and said: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” He was instilling in them, the fact that great things happen when the people of God join together and really pray.

Are you willing to do your part today? There is no better time than the present to start.