Power and Boldness

Acts 4:29–31

"And now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness… And when they had prayed, the place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness."

We need to pray.

When the chips are down, what do we do? Do we binge Netflix? Pour ourselves a drink? Take a nap? Reach for the phone and start scrolling? Text a friend to vent? Bury ourselves in busyness so we don't have to feel it? Lie awake at night and worry? Everyone has a reflex when the pressure comes.

The chips were down for the early church. Peter and John had been arrested, dragged before the Sanhedrin, and commanded never again to preach in the name of Jesus. Every person, every family, every church has a go-to when an obstacle arises, when a challenge lands, when tragedy strikes. What is yours?

For the early church, it was prayer. This was an unplanned prayer meeting, a reactive one. It was not on the calendar. They called an audible: we need to pray. And everybody showed up. Not all three thousand, surely, but the key people came, and they raised their voices together. They prayed the Scriptures. They took up Psalm 2 and applied it to the moment. And they asked God for boldness. These were warfare prayers: "Lord, consider their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with boldness. Authenticate your word through signs and wonders."

When a church has a culture of prayer, it responds differently when trouble comes. Instead of reaching for the usual distractions, the people gather. They turn to God, they remember his promises, they claim them, and they pray for breakthrough. This is what we need in every church.

In theological terms, there are two churches. There is the Church Triumphant, which exists outside of time: their race is run, and they are seated in the great cloud of witnesses, cheering us on. And there is the church on earth, the Church Militant, engaged in a battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, facing down the powers and principalities of Ephesians 6. The way the Church Militant advances is by prayer. Opposition comes. The church gathers and prays for breakthrough. God shakes the building and answers. The gospel goes forward.

But the engine that drives this advance is a culture of prayer. That is why the New England Revival Covenant calls believers and churches to commit to praying with their local church every week. We want a deepening culture of prayer in every church in the region, so that when the chips are down and we need to pray, we will. Because that is simply what we do.

Rev. Greg Johnson
Director, Revive New England