Study in Prayer

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 4:31

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

Prayer in the Early Church

When you get to the place where you can get serious with God…when you get the place that you don’t care who sees you, hears you praying or hears about you praying – THEN you will begin to see the results. Amen!

We’ve been studying the past few days about God shaking the places the disciples were praying from. Prisons, rooms with other believers, etc.

But I want to look at what actually caused Peter and John to get in trouble in the first place.

In Acts chapter 3, verses 6-8, you can read the story about how they healed, in the Name of Jesus, the crippled man at the Gate Beautiful. And how this was done openly, publicly and word spread quickly that this notable healing had occurred.

This word soon got back to the Pharisees who sent the Temple Guard to bring Peter and John in for questioning. 

They wanted to beat them and lock them up…but someone reported this news had already spread all over town. It could not be swept under the rug or denied. 

So, they decided to threaten Peter and John before they let them go. 

This happens in our society today. If you preach against homosexuality or transgenderism or anything the left says is normal but the Bible calls an abomination – you will be threatened…

I was preaching up in Canada a few years back and was told by the pastor, “Please don’t say anything about the gays. The government will shut down our church.” This cancel culture syndrome is now in the United States – especially with this administration that is running the show now.

Anyway – we are here to talk about prayer and the power of prayer, amen!

We covered yesterday Peter’s reply from verses 19 & 20 about “whether it is right in the sight of God to obey you or Him, you decide, but we are going to keep on preaching…” Glory to God (that was my paraphrase, by the way).

We also covered how they went back to their own church members and reported what had happened and then they all prayed TOGETHER, verbally and in one accord and how God shook the building they were in…

He did not send an earthquake to the area. He did not shake other buildings. He did not destroy anything. He simply shook the building and answered their prayer for BOLDNESS. Amen!

That’s what they asked for in verse 29 – BOLDNESS as they were determined to keep on preaching and teaching, despite the threats. Amen!

In verse 31, we see God immediately answering their prayers with a confirming sign! The shaking and the filling with the Holy Spirit to have a spirit of BOLDNESS!

The exact thing the Pharisees did not want to happen is the thing that did happen! 

They told two disciples to shut up and go home…

Those two told their friends and they all started to pray that ALL of them would receive BOLDNESS to preach the Gospel – and God granted their request and answered their prayers.

Now, instead of two bold disciples of Jesus – there was a whole ROOM FULL of disciples hitting the streets, declaring the Name and Power of the Name of Jesus and healing all sorts of manner of diseases – all in the face of the Pharisees! Glory to God! Don’t shout me down when I’m preaching good! Amen!

We will pick it up there again tomorrow. I want to pray for you to receive that kind of BOLDNESS in the Name of Jesus! Amen!

Until next time, this is Pastor Bob Thibodeau reminding you from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 in the Living Bible to “Always Keep on Praying!”  Be blessed in...

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 4:23

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

When Believers Pray

In Acts chapter 4, we read an account of a company of believers in the Early Church who lifted their voices in united prayer and received an immediate sign their prayers were answered.

Peter and John had healed the cripple man at the gate of the Temple called “Beautiful.” This offended the hierarchy at the Temple and they had Peter and John arrested.

When they were questioned by the Pharisees, and it was determined that nothing could be done against them because the miraculous healing was now public knowledge, they threatened Peter and John and to never teach anymore in the Name of Jesus.

In verse 19 and 20, Peter replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge yourselves. As for us, we cannot but speak about the things we have seen and things we have heard.” AMEN!

After they were threatened again, they were released and our scripture today says, they immediately went back to their own company and told them what happened.

It is good to be with friends and like minded believers when you are in trouble and having a hard go of it. It is also good to be around those of like precious faith in troubling times, too. Amen!

If this would happen today (and it is, believe me, it is AND it will become more prevalent in today’s society as well with this cancel culture now running the government)… if Paul and Silas would go running back to most church pastors today, things would be different from the Church in the Book of Acts.

Most churches would form a special committee and research whether Peter and John had, indeed, broken some local ordinance. They may even try to make an appointment with the local officials to work out some kind of arrangement where they could pray for sick folks inside the church and not out in public or some other such thing.

These Pharisees were religious. They just did not accept that Jesus was the Messiah.  These leaders believed in the same God. They believed in the Power of Prayer. They believed God could heal someone miraculously. They just did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. Amen!

The believers in that home church did not pray for the destruction of the Temple or for something bad to happen to the leadership. No. Not at all. They prayed that God would give THEM BOLDNESS! 

Boldness to continue preaching in the Name of Jesus! Amen!

Then, look at what happened. I’ll just mention it here and we will look closer at it tomorrow…

Verse 31: “And when they had prayed… the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke the Word of God with BOLDNESS.”

Amen!  

Two things I want to point out here and then we will close…

Just like with Paul and Silas – this place was SHAKEN. Amen! No other reports of buildings damaged or any major earthquakes, etc. JUST WHERE THEY WERE PRAYING. Amen!

AND – their prayers were answered!  The Holy Spirit imparted to them BOLDNESS to keep on preaching! Amen! Glory to God!

We need to pray like that too. We need BOLD preachers today! We need BOLD BELIEVER’s today! Amen!

Let’s pray for BOLDNESS to be imparted to us by the Holy Spirit.

Until next time, this is Pastor Bob Thibodeau reminding you from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 in the Living Bible to “Always Keep on Praying!”  Be blessed in all that you do!

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Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 16:25

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”

When Is Your Midnight?

As we started to share yesterday, Paul and Silas had been beaten and thrust into the inner prison with their feet put in stocks, all for preaching the Gospel. But instead of griping and complaining, they lifted their voices together in united prayer and praises to Jesus and to God. Amen!

What about you?

Would you be praying and praising in those circumstances? When it looked in the natural like your life could be over. If not physically, at least freedom wise?

But look at what happened. As Paul and Silas prayed, in united prayer, lifting their voices so loud all the other prisoners could hear them, God brought a mighty deliverance.

Verse 26 says an earthquake shook the very foundations of the prison and all of the prison doors were opened, physically popped off the hinges. But that was not all, every single shackle has been loosed!  That should not have happened because of an earthquake! But it did! Amen!

As I related  yesterday, I found it interesting that there is no historical references of an earthquake destroying anything in that area at that time. None. Not in the Bible and, as far as I have been able to determine, nothing historically either.

But, praise God, that jailhouse was shaken! Amen!

When the prisoners realized what had happened, you would have thought they would have made a run for the hills as quick as possible. Some had probably been their quite a while and probably had lost all hope of ever being free. Here was their chance. 

That is what the jailer thought, too. That’s why he was going to kill himself. If he allowed the prisoners to escape, it was on him to suffer their punishment. 

But Paul told him to stop because NOBODY had ran away. NONE! Not one person left the prison!  Why?

Because every prisoner in their knew it was from God. They felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and they witnessed the Power of God this Silas and Paul had been talking about. They did not want to leave that presence! Amen! They wanted MORE! Glory to God!

The Jailer knew he had witnessed a miracle. The prisoners knew, too. The results was the entire family of the jailer was saved that very night. And the Philippian church was formed that night, too. With the jailer as the pastor of those inmates. Glory to God.

That is what happens when you cry out to God in prayer and praise in YOUR midnight hour! Amen!

There are a lot of people today just sitting around doing nothing…waiting on God to do something. Something FOR them. 

They will say, “Well, if God wants me to get out of this mess, He will just have to do it, I guess…”

But that is not true, not in any sense of the Word. Amen.

If it was true, why did Paul and Silas have to sing, out loud? Why didn’t they just say, “Well, Silas, I guess this is where the Lord wants us at right now. That’s why this happened. So let’s just accept our fate and see what else the Lord can do…”

No, they prayed in one accord and sang praises to God! And notice their situation did not change UNTIL they prayed and sang praises to God! Amen! Did you get that! As a result, God moved! Glory to God!

We need that kind of praying going on today. We need to start shaking things up in this nation and around the world. It is time for the TRUE, born again Christians to take their rightful place, publicly and visible for all to see and start praying and singing praises to God! Amen!

You see, a shaking like that would cause...

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 21:5

“They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”

Group Prayer

When I first started to attend Full Gospel services, I was not used to this idea of everyone in the building praying out loud, some in other tongues, some in English, praying at the same time for about 5 minutes or more.  That just seemed weird to me.

Even when I was a Bible School, some instructors would come in and we would do this. I didn’t like it. Not at all.

But, I was at least willing to acknowledge that “I did not know everything” and, after all, I was at Bible school to learn, right? 

I also understood that true Church was meant to be fashioned after the FIRST CHURCH – which was the Church in the Book of Acts. 

In the Bible, it is called the “Law of first mention” and if the Church of Acts was the first church that the Holy Spirit set up after the ascension of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost, it must be how He wants it to operate  (despite man’s best attempts at doing otherwise).

So, I decided to study this out for myself. And when I did, I found this verse and others like it (Acts 2:1; 4:24: 16:25 and others) that showed me there was POWER in the unity of prayer like that! Praise God! I was onto something!

These scriptures referred to “THEY lifted their VOICES…”

This was not one man praying out loud and everyone else remaining silent…

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my one on one time with the Lord in prayer. I tend to receive Wisdom and Inspiration on matters that I lift to Him in my private prayer time.

But there are times when we need to be united in prayer and everyone “lifting their voice in one accord.” Amen.

Another example is when Paul and Silas were praying while in prison. This scripture also references they were praying, out loud, together, at the same time. Amen! Don’t shout me down when I’m preaching good!  What happened?

An earthquake hit that opened every single door in that prison…but nobody escaped!  That was unheard of – back then and today! Amen!

But what else happened?

The jailers entire family was saved!  And don’t you know the reason none of the prisoners escaped? All of them were born again, too! They didn’t want to leave that prison because, for the first time in their lives – they were TRULY set free! Glory to God!

And, for further proof of that, Paul wrote a letter to the “Church of the Phillipians.” This was the church the jailer founded – with the prison inmates! Glory to God!

What else happened?  I’ll get more into this aspect tomorrow… but I want to zero in on one more thing as an example of the power of a united prayer – out loud in front of everyone – and how God responds…

The Bible says an earthquake occurred that opened the doors to the prison, right?

Did you ever notice there is no record in the Bible of an earthquake shaking anything else except the prison? Right where Paul and Silas were praying? How’s that for answered prayer?

Nobody except those who were praying received that kind of answer to their prayers!  I believe some of the prisoners, hearing Paul and Silas talking and then singing and praising God and praying out loud – I believe some of them joined in as well. This is what brought God on the scene! Amen!

If He did it for them, what does the Bible say, He will do it for you! For God is not a respecter of persons, Amen!  Glory to God.

So – YES – a united group prayer is important. It is effective. It does work. But, as with everything else, DO NOT make this a doctrine or a

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 21:5

“When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.”

United Prayer

There is power in unity. In the natural and in the Spirit. 

In fact, that is where unity in the natural obtains it power!  It is based upon Spiritual principle.

Matthew 18:19 says, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”

When two people agree on earth, in the Spirit or in the natural, their power is multiplied. This can be for the good of the people or, unfortunately, evil can use the same principles for the destruction of the people (like we see happening politically today).

Leviticus 26:8 says, “Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.” 

This clearly illustrates the more people you can win to your cause, the more powerful your cause will become. 

How do you think the Gay Pride and LGBQT or whatever they are going by today was able to destroy the fabric of American life so easily? Because the Democrats were looking for a new voting base and sold the soul of America to the devil in exchange for political power.

Why do you think “suddenly” there is this cancel culture chasing down anyone who even hints the Conservative values are important to the survival of America? It is because evil now reigns in American government. 

There are so many Biblical passages that clearly indicate we are on the precipice of destruction in America. Everything we were founded on is either already destroyed or in the process of being destroyed. Anyone who speaks out against the flood of demonic forces is identified and tried to be silenced.

But, we are to trust in PRAYER. And that is the purpose of this year long series on teachings of prayer. 

It would be too easy for me just to invoke 2 Chronicles 7:14 and say “all will be well with the world.” Because it won’t be. We are too far gone as nation. 

But, I’m not too concerned about it!  

“What? How could you say that, brother Bob?”

Because the Bible is very clear that all these things must come to pass just before the return of Jesus! That means, as we see these things happening, YES we need to resist them. YES, we need to pray for deliverance. YES, we need to come together collectively as believers and try to stop these political forces…

But we need to also keep our prayers going for the soon return of the Lord. He will be the ultimate deliverer for us and for the nation and for the world and for all believers everywhere!

When Jesus comes back, which is going to be very soon, He will be the one who destroys the works of the devil, and his followers who are now in charge, with only ONE WORD from His mouth! Praise God!

There are too many things for me to try and share with you in this short teaching on this very important subject.

But the bottom line is “we are not without hope.” 

We also need to work together, praying in unity, gaining that power that comes from praying and working together in unity – and achieve total victory!

If you want to join me in this, let’s pray right now for Power from on High to be imparted to believers everywhere. Power to resist. Power to overcome. Power to endure and most importantly, Power to pray in UNITY and get even more people to become Born Again before Jesus returns. Amen!

Let’s...

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 12:12

“When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.”

The Power of Praise pt 2

Yesterday, we talked about how the Power of Praise worked for the people of Judah when they were about to be attacked by the combined armies of four of their enemies. We talked about how, the king, their leader, called for a prayer meeting. I believe our leaders today would fair so much better by acknowledging God and calling for national days of prayer – instead of gathering their advisors, wringing their hands and deciding “they know what’s best” for the country. 

Anyway – they don’t. But God does! Glory to God! Amen!

If we would just walk in the light of the Word and continually be in an attitude of praise and thanksgiving, we would be a witness to other people for the Lord. Amen! People would see our continual gladness of  heart and would desire to experience that joy and gladness for themselves.

They would actually start to seek YOU out and ask, “How do you do that? Why is God answering your prayers all of the time?”

This is just one area in which being baptized by the Holy Spirit will help us. Although a person can have joy and have a thankful heart because of the new birth, being born again – it is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit that helps us to Praise God in times of trouble and to be a powerful witness to the power of God in any situation. Amen!

I remember, now this was many years before I was born again, but a person lived across the street from us back in the little town of New Llano, Louisiana. He was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. I would talk to him sometimes when we both happened to be outside in the front for whatever reason.

I noticed he had a habit of always saying something like, “Praise God” or “Amen” or “Praise Jesus” when we were talking. It seemed that every time I would say something positive that was happening, maybe, “I finally got my old truck running again,” he would say, “Praise God! That’s awesome…”

I just thought he was a little weird. I’m just being honest here, folks. Remember, I said I was not born again at the time.

But, for him, it had become a habit of giving God praise for all of the little things. Amen! I thought it was weird, simply because I was not in a relationship with the Most High God like he was – through Christ Jesus! Amen!

Now, as I was preparing to teach on this today, I realized I had developed the same, “habit.” Amen! 

Because I received Jesus on January 25^th, 1992 in a little empty apartment in Columbus, Georgia at 1135pm ET while in the midst of despair and contemplating suicide – GOD SHOWED UP AND SHOWED OFF in my life! Amen! And my life has never been the same since! Praise God!

That one night changed my life, changed my destiny, forever. I was born again AND Baptized in the Holy Spirit all at the same time! 

It was not long before I realized “I was praising God” like our neighbor was doing! 

That is why I am emphasizing here, over the last several days about praying to God about the little things – well, in addition to praying about the little things, you need to PRAISE HIM about the little things! Amen! Praise the Lord!  (there, right there…did you catch that? I can’t help but Praise Him!)! Amen!  Don’t shout me down when I’m preaching good!

You need to praise God in the little things and in the BIG THINGS! You need to Praise Him when things are going great and when things are looking bad. You need to praise Him in the closet and Praise Him on the roof

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 20:36

“When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.”

The Power of Praise pt 1

When you praise God, especially when you sing praises to Him, things will begin to change. They may be dramatic changes that make you say, “WOW!” But, more often than not, it is the little things that begin to change. Small things that most people are not even aware of -  unless you are looking at them spiritually instead of in the natural.

If you are truly in tune with God (and the only way you can be in tune with God is THROUGH His Word and spending time in prayer), YOU will begin to pick up on the little, subtle changes that are beginning to change.

But, what about those situations when there is an immediate need for God’s Presence to be on the scene? An immediate need where, if God does not do something NOW – there may not be a tomorrow?  

Let me give you an example of how Praising God change bring swift changes to your situation, whatever that may be…

In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, King Jehoshaphat and Judah went out to fight their enemy, the combined armies of the Ammonites, Moabites and the people of Mount Seir. These combined forces had banded together to destroy Judah. 

In the natural, Judah had no chance against these combined enemy forces. Things were looking pretty grim in the natural.

It’s amazing to me that almost everyone, when their back is against the wall and they have exhausted all of their ideas on how to fix any particular problem, only THEN do they turn to God and ask for His help. If we would just reverse this process, things would always go so much easier…

Well, in this situation, what did the king of Judah do?  He called for a prayer meeting. Praise God! At least he still had enough sense to do that!  Instead of “run for the hills, every man for himself,” he said, “Let’s run to God and ask for His help in this situation.” Praise God, Amen!

Well, the Holy Spirit moved on a young man who then stood up and began to prophesize. To save time, I will not read all of the verses here. To summarize what was prophesized, was, that the Lord told the people they have nothing to fear. (That was a shock to some of them standing there, I’m sure…).

They were told, “To go out to the battle, but it is not your battle, it is the Lord’s battle.”

The next morning, they all woke up and started to put themselves in battle formation to go out and fight the enemy. But instead of putting their best soldiers (in the natural at least), they put the choir out front.

How do you think those choir members felt?  “What? You want us to go out in front? With no weapons? No training? You just want us to walk about there and start singing?”  I’m sure those thoughts were running through their minds…

But let’s look at what happened…

They sang and praised God as they were going forth. The ministered to the Lord and sang praises to Him right in the faces of the enemy! This is just like Paul and Silas singing in prison, amen!  But look at what happened…

As the choir was singing “Praise the Lord, for His Mercy endures forever…” (and notice, there are no other verses indicated here. To me, that says they sang that one verse over and over and over. That tells us they were FOCUSED on what they needed and WHO they were Praising and WHO they were expecting to help them. Amen)!

So, what happened as a result of PRAISE?

The enemy armies began to fight amongst themselves!  They started to attack each other! 

As Judah’s army crested the hill and prepared to engage in battle, all they could see, as far as they...

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 10:4

“Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.”

Your Giving Captures God’s Attention

Cornelius had been praying. Scripture tells us he was a believer in the God of the Hebrews. He was doing his best to help the Jewish nation and the people he was in charge of.

As a Centurion, he had control, militarily, over that region.

But, he was also a person who believed in prayer. And he was praying to the God of Heaven. Amen!

As part of his prayer life, he would give financially to the support of the local synagogue. And he was not a cheap giver either. He wasn’t just giving a pocket full of quarters in the Salvation Army bucket at Christmas time.

No, he was KNOWN for being a giver. That is why, later, when the people he had sent to get Peter to come back to his home, they testified to his Faith and how much money and support he had already provided to the Jews. They were saying, basically, “This guy is for real.”

But here, I want you to notice, the angel said, “Your PRAYERS have come up as a memorial before God.” (Yes, I know, I misquoted – but stick with me here, I’m making a point).

Cornelius was a praying man. This is what God’s attention. Does God ONLY hear the prayers of the righteous? No. He hears everyone’s prayers!

“Wait a minute Brother Bob, God hears everyone’s prayers?”  YES – absolutely!

He heard your prayer when you prayed to receive Jesus as your Savior, didn’t He?  

“Well, yes. Of course.” 

Well, before you prayed that prayer; before you received Jesus as your Savior, were you righteous or unrighteous?  Were you still in your sin when you prayed to God? Of course!

So that is proof, right there, as well as other scriptures, that says God hears the prayers of the righteous and the unrighteous.

So, first and foremost, Cornelius was a man of prayer. THAT is what caught God’s attention.

But, Cornelius went one step further than simply praying. He put money where his mouth was, so to speak.

He became such a giver, that his GIVING also caught God’s attention. 

There is a difference between someone who prays because they know they need to pray – and someone who prays and then GIVES SACRIFICIALLY because of the prayers. In addition to the prayers. Who puts FAITH to work by sowing sacrificially into the works of God. Amen!

If you want to get God’s attention, it really requires you to do THREE THINGS.

“Three things, brother Bob? I thought you were talking about prayer and giving here?”

YES…but what needs to come first, as I’ve been teaching for about a month now on this program, is this…

You need to spend time in God’s WORD on a daily basis. For yourself! Not relying on someone else to read the Word for you and tell you what it say (hello! Like so many of you do when you fail to read the Bible or even take the Bible with you to church and only rely on your pastor to tell you what it says… Don’t shout me down when I’m preaching good!)

When you spend time with God – IN HIS WORD – and then spend time TALKING TO GOD in prayer and then you back up all of that with sacrificial FINANCIAL GIVING – with your prayers over the seed you are sowing – you can’t help but GET GOD’s ATTENTION! 

Amen!  

And we see that is what happened right here with Cornelius. 

What was the result?  The first gentile convert to Christianity! Praise God!

And it did not just bless Cornelius and him alone. It says his “whole house, family, friends and servants”...

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 7:59

“While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Faith Works

Have you ever faced an extreme circumstance where you were facing death in the face? I have. My time in the military and a few instances as a police officer, I have faced the prospect of “this could be it.” 

How do you react in those situations? 

By FAITH.  You see, faith WORKS every single time it is put to the test. Every single time.

If you believe you will fail, guess what – you will.

If you believe you will persevere – you will.

That does not mean you can say over and over, “I believe I win; I believe I win; I believe I win” and then, miraculously, the enemy just dies of a heart attack right before you very eyes. It could happen, but that does not mean that. 

What I’m talking about is this…

In those situations I was describing, I had to rely on my training. I had been trained for those exact situations. I had received the best training available. And the exact situation I was facing at that time, in my mind, though it was real, the training I had received kicked in.

That is why the military trains so much!  We used to say in the Cavalry, “We train today just as we will fight tomorrow.” We had another saying that “we train to be wet, cold, tired and miserable. And we are experts at it.” Amen!

But, when you are facing death in the face, you need to rely on your training. Then, something called, “muscle memory” kicks in.

I was trained in martial arts in my military days. That training served me as a police officer a few times. 

I remember one instance, this person loved to fight cops. I did not know it at the time of the traffic stop. But our dispatch did as they were running the tags. I heard them call another unit to come to my location and they gave a code word that meant I had a dangerous subject stopped. 

I did not react to the radio call to the other unit. They called me on the radio with the code word, I just reached up and said, “10-4” and continued talking in a normal tone to the driver. He had no clue that I knew what was about to happen.

As the other officer arrived, I asked the driver to step out of the car. He did so, and I informed him he was being placed under arrest (I’m not going into details as to why, that’s not important here). But, when I grabbed his arm to turn him around, because of my martial arts training, I felt him tense up and begin a move to break my grip…

Because of my training, and muscle memory, I immediately countered his move and he ended up in an arm bar on the ground. The other officer was only about four feet away and did not even have a chance to move in and assist! That is how fast my reactions were.

Now, I credit that to my training. I had trained hundreds of times, at least, for that exact situation. So, when it happened, I did not have to wonder what I was going to do. I did not have to ask for assistance. I did not panic. Muscle memory took over and I did what I had been trained to do.

What does that have to do with this scripture of Stephen or you facing a life or death situation?

The point I am making is, just as we have been talking about all week, you MUST KNOW the voice of the Holy Spirit concerning the situation you are in. 

I’ve heard stories from Navy Seals, one in particular I’m thinking of, when he and his buddy were pinned down and it wasn’t looking good. His buddy started to panic and yelled over, “This is it…what are we going to do?”  Scott looked over at him and said, “You’re a Christian, right?” The other guy said, “Yes!”  Scott then replied and...

Scripture of the Day:   

Acts 3:1

“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.”

 Pray for Others You Meet

I remember way back when I was in Bible School at Jerry Savelle Ministries, Bible Institute and School of World Evangelism. One of the requirements was that we had to witness to people and pray with them. We were to keep a record of that and turn it in every week to receive credit. I believe, if I’m remembering correctly, we needed three such instances every week.

Anyway, I’m not positive on that so don’t hold me to it. But it was more than one anyway…

I made it a point to look for people that needed physical healing. And, truth be told, they are all around us. Just look at how many people are in wheel chairs, walkers or canes when you go to the grocery store. They may not be wheel chairs, but using those little carts, right?

Well, back then, they didn’t have those little carts everywhere like they do today. So I would look for people in wheel chairs. I would not interrupt their shopping or anything. But if they were sitting outside (probably having a cigarette, they could do that back then), I would zero in on them.

My wife would see them about the same time I would and she would just step back because I would make a pivot and go into witnessing mode. Praise God!

I would walk up and say something to the effect of, “Excuse me. As I was walking by, the Holy Spirit of God urged me to come over here and ask you if there was something I could pray with you about?” Usually, I would say 8 out 10 times anyway, they would say, “YES” and then tell me what they would like me to pray for. Sometimes it was their health, sometimes it was their family or finances, etc.

That is what we are reading today from our scripture. Peter and John are walking into the Temple area to pray and they see this man at the gate. He’s been there a long time. They’ve seen him on several occasions. He’s not new to the town.

But this day, something is different. Something about the man is different. Something about Peter and John is different, too.

They sensed that God was about to do “something.” They did not know what it was. But they “knew” in their spirit – just like Simeon and Anna did when Jesus was being dedicated at the Temple, as we covered a few days ago.

As they were walking up to the gate area, here is this beggar and he is doing what he did everyday, begging for alms. Begging for dollars.  

Peter and John didn’t have any extra money on them, but when the beggar looked into their eyes, the Bible says he looked, “Expecting.”

It was like the Holy Spirit had prompted this man to identify these two strangers out of the crowd. It was like the Holy Spirit had told him (he probably did not know it at the time, but sensed it), that these two men were going to bless him with a tremendous gift that day!

The Bible says he looked up at them, “expectantly.” 

Most preachers will say, “expecting them to give him some money.” That could very well be the truth. But let’s look at it from this angle and it makes a lot more sense.

He is EXPECTING. Peter and John can “see it” in his eyes, the Bible says. And then, you know the rest of the story. 

Peter says, “Silver and gold, we have none. But what we do have, we give to you. In the Name of Jesus of Nazereth (which this man must have heard about or it would not have activated Faith on the inside of him), GET UP AND WALK.” Praise God!

But notice, Peter and John did not just “pray” for him and walk inside. No, they ASSISSTED HIM.

They reached down, the Bible says, and grabbed his arm and yanked him up to standing