Great Things Happen When God’s People Pray!

Great Things Happen When God’s People Pray!
John R. Petrilli

George Mueller was responsible for the care of thousands of orphans in Bristol, England. He never asked anyone for a single dime, but instead, relied on faith and prayer alone to supply their needs. For decades Mueller watched as God answered prayer after prayer enabling him to house, feed and clothe these homeless, destitute children. On one occasion he sought the Lord for 607 consecutive days until the 11,062 pounds needed to buy a piece of land came in! If God responded to George Mueller’s prayers, will He not respond to ours also? God is waiting tom open the storehouse of heaven and shower abundant blessings upon our lives. In Acts chapter 12 we see how God gives astounding answers the believing prayers of His people .

GREAT THINGS HAPPEN BECAUSE THE POWER OF PRAYER IS NEVER LIMITED BY OUR OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES! Acts 12:1-4

Satan, the chief architect of all persecution, made an all-out frontal attack on the church. The devil decided to go straight to the top, inciting King Herod to raise a violent hand against the church’s leadership. He began by murdering innocent James in cold blood. The political capital gained by that action moved him to go after Peter next. Herod’s strategy was as old as the hills … go after the leadership and you succeed in destroying the entire movement. The only problem with Herod’s plan was that Peter wasn’t the actual leader of the church … Jesus Christ was! But persecution wasn’t the only circumstantial difficulty threatening the church. They were also suffering severe economic hardship from a famine which had struck the entire region of Judea. Although the impact of that famine was mitigated by financial help sent down from the church at Antioch, many believers remained unemployed, having lost their jobs because of their faith. These foreboding circumstances of poverty and leadership attrition combined to paint a very bleak picture for the struggling congregation at Jerusalem.

GREAT THINGS HAPPEN WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE JOIN TOGETHER IN FERVENT, PERSISTENT PRAYER! 12:5

When life backs us into a corner and the tide turns against us we don’t have anywhere to turn but to God. After Peter’s arrest the church had no time to mount any type of legal appeal, and certainly found no sympathy from their fearful neighbors. But what they did have was a secret weapon that had already given them great success a number of times before. Their secret weapon was prayer, and it worked like a charm. Their upper room prayer gathering resulted in the Spirit’s outpouring upon them on the day of Pentecost (ch. 1,2). Later, when Peter and John’s fearless preaching landed them in jail, the church watched God engineer their quick release (ch. 3). And their prayer for evangelistic courage was answered as God literally shook the building they were in and empowered them with holy boldness (ch. 4). The early church had a grasp on the importance of prayer that we today seem to be missing. We see it as a rider we tag on at the end of our plans, but they saw it as the first order of business. We often see prayer as a means of securing God’s blessing on our work, while they saw it as THE work. Prayer was the most important ministry they could join in, and participate they did! The early church knew how to organize a band of intercessors on very short notice. James was gone on to glory, with Peter’s head next in line for the chopping block. Time was the one thing they couldn’t afford to waste Satan was moving in on the church for the kill. With emergency circumstances like these, it’s no wonder they prayed with such urgency and fervor. The disciples threw their entire being into their prayers, and God took note of their purposefulness.

By way of application, Jesus wants us red-hot for Him, but we’re too often barely lukewarm. Instead of being in the tepid zone, our prayers should be in the torrid zone. Jesus’ half-brother James reminds us that it’s torrid praying that gets God’s work done (James 5:16). This is the kind of praying that grabs God’s attention, and the contemporary church desperately needs to recapture this indispensible, non-negotiable ministry.



GREAT THINGS HAPPEN BECAUSE PRAYER UNLEASHES THE RESOURCES OF HEAVEN! 6-11

A wise sage once said, “Man proposes, but God disposes”. That would be a fitting subtitle for this portion of Acts 12. Herod was on the political roll of a lifetime. His approval ratings shot through the roof when he executed James. With Peter in his murderous clutches, he held the fate of the church in his hands. To insure Peter’s containment, Herod ordered no less than 16 guards to secure the prisoner and prevent any chance of escape. But 16 soldiers were no match for an angel of the Lord. This showdown was a mismatch from the getgo. Human strength is simply no match for angelic power. King Herod set armed guards, but God would send a mighty angel! The use of chains along with the large contingent of security personnel makes this tantamount to today’s maximum security prison.

The stage is set, the players are cast. Then comes an escape the likes of which even a Harry Houdini couldn’t pull off! Peter is sandwiched between two guards and bound with two chains. Such a situation is a human impossibility. But we’re not talking human here, we’re talking angel! Human impossibilities are a piece of cake for an angel of God. The angel spoke, the chains fell off of Peter’s body, and the greatest escape of all time was under way. The next problem was getting past 14 armed soldiers guarding the prison at different checkpoints. But the Navy Seals-like extraction was a total success as they got by security undetected. Only one more obstacle stood between Peter and freedom. An iron gate. But once again, in clearly miraculous fashion, the gate opened by itself. Off they were. Herod planned to execute Peter, but God sent a mighty angel to emancipate him!

GREAT THINGS HAPPEN BECAUSE PRAYER CAN YIELD RESULTS THAT FAR EXCEED OUR EXPECTATIONS! 12-17

The narrative moves us back to an earlier scene where the disciples had called together an emergency prayer session. Having successfully escaped the prison, Peter’s first inclination is to return to his Christian friends to relay everything God had done in answer to their prayers. Saying we’re believing God for something is one thing, but really trusting Him to do that “something “, well, that’s a whole different ballgame. Once word had reached the prayer group that Peter was free, the news was greeted with everything ranging from cautious skepticism to outright denial.. Granted, they were expecting God to intervene, but apparently didn’t expect Him to do so in such a dramatic fashion. An angel? Broken chains? Self-opening gates? But to their utter amazement, there stood brother Peter in the doorway. Following a quick report on the stunning events of that night, Peter whisks away into the night, leaving his believing friends dumbfounded and overjoyed. There come those times in our lives when we pray for those big things too, and come and equally shocked at how God answers us. I think this is what Paul was referring to when he explained to the Ephesian Christians how God can do “immeasurably ore than we could ever ask or think”!

All of us wants to see our prayers answered as God does great things in and through our lives. Great things really do happen when God’s people pray, and great things can and will happen when our churches set themselves to praying. We need not wait for a crisis, for to do so is to lose out on all the ways God wants to bless us along the way. Great things happen when God’s people pray. Brethren, let us pray!