Prayer for the early church was a spiritual habit it was a regular practice. This demonstrates the awesome power of prayer to affect the circumstances of persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. Incredibly, at the same time the disciples are praying for Peter, an angel of the Lord helps Peter escape from prison. While Peter was in prison, “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church” (Acts 12:5). In Acts 12, Luke records that Herod had beheaded James, the brother of John, and was planning to do the same to Peter.
Third, God answers specific prayers to rescue His disciples. Stephen’s prayer is followed by Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. This prayer would have included Saul, who was at the execution. While Stephen is being martyred for his faith, he prays for his persecutors and cries out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). The most notable is the conversion of Saul, a persecutor of the church. Second, God uses prayer to lead people to salvation in Christ. Therefore, on three separate occasions, the Holy Spirit responds to the prayers of the early disciples. Together they pray to God, and “ when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31, emphasis added). Luke records, “Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17).Īfter the first recorded incident of persecution from the council of the high priest, Peter reports to his friends everything that has taken place. To make this even more clear, in Acts 8:15, Peter and John pray that the Samaritans would receive the Holy Spirit. Luke intends his reader to make this connection. The coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:3 is directly tied to the devoted prayer of the disciples in Acts 1:14. First, prayer precedes the filling of the Holy Spirit. In almost every case, prayer precedes powerful works. Throughout the book of Acts, God uses prayer as a means to achieve His ends. It is these devoted prayers that God works through to accomplish His will. Once again, the disciples announce, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). It was important for the disciples to delegate this work since they did not want to be distracted from their specific calling. In Acts 6, the disciples were given the task of appointing seven deacons to serve the widows. The disciple’s devotion to prayer was both ongoing and central. The church had just grown from a little over 100 people to about 3000 people, and their first response was devotion to prayer. Acts 2:42 records, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (emphasis added). From the very beginning of the early church, prayer has been primary.Īt the end of Peter’s famous sermon at Pentecost, there is a similar act of devotion to prayer by the new believers. Luke records that the first activity of the disciples was to join together “devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14). Immediately following Jesus’ ascension into Heaven, the eleven disciples returned to the upper room in Jerusalem. It was the driving force behind all that they did. Devotion to Prayerįrom the inception of the church, the early Christians were devoted to prayer. If we want to improve our prayer life, it might be helpful to look to the early church for direction.
Prayer precedes the filling of Holy Spirit, multiple healings, bold preaching, and comfort for persecuted believers. In fact, prayer precedes almost every major event of the early church. The book of Acts provides a recorded history of the vital role prayer played in the lives of the disciples, who were completely dependent on God. This is more than any other book in the New Testament. In fact, there are about thirty references to prayer in the book of Acts alone. Interestingly, I don’t think the early church shared this challenge. My suspicion is that many professing Christians today struggle with this. There are seasons in my life where I’m just not consistent.
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