Empowerment through Prayer
Scripture: Acts 1: 1-14
"Prayer is that slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence" - Charles Spurgeon
After Jesus's resurrection, our risen Lord spent 40 days with His disciples. He taught them about the Kingdom of God. They were to take the message to the end of the earth, an awesome responsibility... but he told them to wait. They were going to need help.
Waiting can drive us to our knees and draws us closer to God. It causes us to be more dependent on the Holy Spirit.
For the disciples, this is probably the most important thing they did. They prayed. For what?
- Discernment?
- Courage?
- Guidance?
- Empowerment?
- Patience?
- Openness?
- Direction?
- Wisdom?
Who knows? Prayer and discernment and empowerment all go together. Whenever God wants to do something great in His Church or in the world, He first stirs His people to pray. Prayer is always the first stage in God's plan to change the world.
Jesus promise that when they were baptized in the Spirit they would be given power to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
So they waited.
As they waited they prayed.
If we want to experience a fresh outpouring of God's Spirit in our church so we are empowered to do His will, we must do the same.