Author: missionspaul

‘Stretch your hands out’ prayer. Acts 4:30

“Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

4 words that are so powerful in the Bible, ‘Stretch out your hand’.
It might be that today you need to pray this simple prayer.
You might need figuratively for the earth to swallow the enemy that you are facing right now (Exodus 15:12) or for its authority to be reduced (Exodus 16:27).
You might need saving (Psalm 138:7)
Do not underestimate the hand of God, it has the ability to wipe away nations of people, (Exodus 9:15)
Even Satan knows the power of Gods hand, though he hadn’t anticipated Job’s resolve.

But maybe your prayer should be about agreeing to stretch out your own hand in faith? Maybe God is asking you to believe that His hand can cause your hand to do what may seem unlikely?
God told Moses to stretch out his hand seven times in the deliverance of His people.
To the man with a withered hand Jesus commands him to stretch out his hand for healing (Matthew 12:13)

Finally, maybe the stretching of your hand is not about miracles and your faith doing what cannot be done. But maybe it is about the surrender of your life? Maybe it is about giving to God everything, your very last breath even?
Prophesying how Peter will die, Jesus said he would stretch out his hands at the end of his life. (John 21:18)

So what will your prayer be?
Stretch out your hand.
Is that for God to move powerfully? Or for you to do something that you haven’t done before? Or is that to agree to the surrender of your life?
Whatever it is, the four words will be powerful when you pray and however you pray them.

‘More Lord’ Praying Acts 4:29

“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”

Now, Lord …
How challenging these 2 important words are.
On its own ‘Now’ can be quite childish and immature, demanding, wanting, self-pitying.
I want it now!
But ‘Now, Lord’ is wanting and perhaps wanting in a fervent way but wanting it under the Lordship of Christ, under His rule.

The Church today may have prayed ‘Stop the persecution now’ or ‘God we can’t take anymore, look on us now’ and maybe we would be more spiritual by praying ‘Change their hearts, bring them to your knees’ (but in this scenario we would still be benefiting, a lot of our prayers are sadly for our benefit and not His). A ‘More Lord’ prayer is often prayed with a desire to have more of God. But there is new level of prayer which is higher and more glorifying to God still using the ‘More Lord’ words.

It is seen in how the early Church prays? “Now Lord, Help us to keep going, to keep speaking, but to be even more effective”. More Lord. No thought of themselves. This is praying the will of God.
Adjusting our praying is part of our discipleship journey.
Try a different prayer today.
Amen.

God was before it happened Acts 4: 28

“They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”

The word power is what the Old Testament continually uses but as the ‘hand of God’. So many of the stories of the Bible have God’s hand being stretched out to change a circumstance, to make something happen. His hand moves according to what He has purposed before. He never does anything that does not comply to what His good and perfect will strategically planned beforehand. Sometimes His hand is moving forward, sometimes it is pulled away to allow an event to take place for His glory and sometimes patiently still, strengthening those within the event. But nevertheless His hand is there, His power is with us.
So now, whoever the enemy is, whoever is your Herod or Pilate, a person, a circumstance, an illness, it was decided beforehand. Not by some devil but by your God. Decided upon by His power and will.
Can you say this:
God allowed this and God will sustain me in it or He will move powerfully to change it. Can you say that today?
I’m not interested in any devil. My focus is on Him.
He is far more involved in my life than any devil.

Retelling in prayer Acts 4:27

“Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.”

Picture this: you arrange to meet a friend over coffee to go over the whole story. You don’t leave anything out. This is a story of all stories of what people have done to you, what they have said, the abuse, the misrepresentation, the lies, the list goes on! You know this scenario well, because you do this often. You chew the cud. You mull it over. You go over it with a fine tooth comb. You get it off your chest. Sometimes we leave those coffee meetings better for receiving a listening ear or some wise counsel. Other times we leave worse for the retelling of the story.
Read the verse again.
The Church are praying and they are retelling the story to God. Does he not know? Has he not seen? Is this new news? Of course not!
There are times when we need to come into prayer and just go over what has happened, to just tell God the circumstance and what took place.
Prayer is not only for asking, it is for setting things in order, getting clarity of what has happened.
So go ahead re-tell the story and see what happens next.
Amen.

Never alone Acts 4:26

“The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.'”

The Church quoting Psalm 2 in prayer attribute the suffering of Peter and John as being what David experienced as the anointed one. And of course they see down David’s line seeing the Anointed One, God’s Christ, as being the one who the kings and rulers are against.

Friends, whatever you are facing this year it is comforting to know that there have been saints who have faced the same things as you and probably still are. This is not an unknown path you are going down. Even more comforting is that the Saviour has not just walked where you are walking but He is there now walking with you.

You don’t face anything alone. Whatever ruler or king is trying to control you. No matter what is against you. The Anointed One is with you. What gets thrown at you is thrown at Him. He takes the hits for you.

Confident prayer Acts 4:25

“You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:” ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?”

So they align their earth with God’s outlook of His earth. They do this by bringing the Word of God positively into their prayer.
They use Psalm 2. A Psalm prophesying of the Messiah to come. Everyone knew the Psalm, they could quote a few verses and everyone would know what the whole of it said. How God is enthroned in heaven that He is High and exalted over the nations of the earth. That when the earth flexes its muscle at Him He laughs. That He has installed His King, King Jesus. That He has made King Jesus King over all and has given Him the nations of the earth as His inheritance, the ends of the earth as His possession. He ushers a warning on the earth that King Jesus rules.

When you are facing suffering and you pray this kind of prayer, how confident are you going to feel?! Try it today.

Sovereign Acts 4: 24

“When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.”

They receive their first persecution, they have been arrested and held in Jail and then released, they go back to the Church and they begin to pray:

Not for help, not for peace, Not for deliverance from those who are against them, not for a better life. No they align their earth with God’s outlook of His earth. Often our prayers are negative, save me, deliver me etc but this is not that.

They addressed the Lord as Sovereign. God is more than the sum total of the things that we or others are conscious about. He is a beyond and behind God. He is above and absolute God. He is the owner and omnipotent God. He is master and mighty God. He is ruler and righteous God. He is creator and controller God. And the Sovereign Lord is in control of you.

There are times when in prayer we need to remind ourselves with who God is before we begin to talk of our needs.

Why not pray today by beginning with ‘Sovereign Lord’?

Rest. Acts 4: 23

“On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.”

Do you have someone to return to?
After your trials and accusations can you go ‘back to your own’?
Who are they?
Peter and John had their church who no doubt were praying for them.
Your own can be your church.
It can be your family or a group of friends.
We all need sometimes to go back to our own.
We go back to give our report. To explain what we have been through. To gain their perspective. Ultimately it is to seek the Lord together.
Go back to Him today. Do what the Psalmist says …
Psalm 116:7 “Return to your rest my soul”
Everyone needs a place of rest.

Genuine Acts 4 : 21

“For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.”

This man was over 40 years of age. That is quite some time. This is not a child cripple or a young man but this is a man who has known only one thing in his life that of being a cripple. He had lived for many years knowing no hope whatsoever of his life changing.
The point is this is an impossibility. There was no chance this was some trick or fake. This was genuine.
And that’s the word I want to hold on to this year.
Genuine friendships.
Genuine commitments to Christ.
Genuine healings.
Genuine claims of the above.
Are you ready for the genuine?
Let’s keep it real.
Happy new year!

Limited. Acts 4: 21

“After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.”

They were threatened further.
But because of what appeared to be a revival and the healed man still healed then the Sanhedrin were limited as to what they can do.
Peter and John were freed.

The enemy of your life can be limited.
Limited because of the power of praise.
Limited because of the power of a changed life.
He may still threaten and slander you. He may still demand and you may feel intimidation.
But when you praise he is silenced.
When you testify of the transforming work of Jesus he becomes less important.
So as you end this year know this: you can limit satans attacks! You can limit them right now.
May it be so.