What can happen through prayer? Anything. An amazing series of events, clearly orchestrated by God, are recorded in Acts ten. But notice, first of all, how prayer was prologue to these dramatic events:
"Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray" (Acts 10:9) ... "Cornelius said, 'Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour'" (Acts 10:30)
Two men devoted specific times to prayer - one man prayed at noon, and the other prayed at three o'clock in the afternoon. This was, no doubt, a regular habit for both men. And, more often than not, prayer was simply a quiet discipline - until these two dramatic events. During Cornelius' prayer time one day, an angelic vision directs him to an encounter with Peter the apostle (Acts 10:3-6). And Peter is given a life-changing vision that involves Cornelius and a far greater plan of God than he had previously realized
So, what can happen through prayer? Anything. But, the practice of prayer is the important prologue. Days, weeks, months, and years of the quiet discipline of prayer serve as the backdrop for the most dramatic movements of God's Spirit and plan.
We may never participate in events as dramatic as we read of in Acts ten, but, as people of prayer, we have probably all participated in events more dramatic than we will ever know. Through disciplined prayer we have been directed to pray for an individual or situation, led to a conversation with someone hurting or lost without Christ, or prompted to take a particular action step. Prayer became the basis for something that may not be completely clear this side of the kingdom, but something Spirit-directed and life-changing.
If Acts ten teaches us anything, it teaches us that God works through people disciplined in the practice of prayer. Would Cornelius have ever had a life-changing encounter with Peter, and ultimately the Spirit of God, were he not a man of prayer? Would Peter have ever experienced the paradigm shift in understanding that salvation is for all people, and not just the Jews, if he were not a man of prayer? The answers are self-evident. Prayer was the critical backdrop against which God's Spirit moved.
Like Peter and Cornelius, may we each take specific time in a specific place for the habit of prayer. You never know what might happen then and there today.
Steve
© 2010, Steve Taylor
"Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray" (Acts 10:9) ... "Cornelius said, 'Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour'" (Acts 10:30)
Two men devoted specific times to prayer - one man prayed at noon, and the other prayed at three o'clock in the afternoon. This was, no doubt, a regular habit for both men. And, more often than not, prayer was simply a quiet discipline - until these two dramatic events. During Cornelius' prayer time one day, an angelic vision directs him to an encounter with Peter the apostle (Acts 10:3-6). And Peter is given a life-changing vision that involves Cornelius and a far greater plan of God than he had previously realized
So, what can happen through prayer? Anything. But, the practice of prayer is the important prologue. Days, weeks, months, and years of the quiet discipline of prayer serve as the backdrop for the most dramatic movements of God's Spirit and plan.
We may never participate in events as dramatic as we read of in Acts ten, but, as people of prayer, we have probably all participated in events more dramatic than we will ever know. Through disciplined prayer we have been directed to pray for an individual or situation, led to a conversation with someone hurting or lost without Christ, or prompted to take a particular action step. Prayer became the basis for something that may not be completely clear this side of the kingdom, but something Spirit-directed and life-changing.
If Acts ten teaches us anything, it teaches us that God works through people disciplined in the practice of prayer. Would Cornelius have ever had a life-changing encounter with Peter, and ultimately the Spirit of God, were he not a man of prayer? Would Peter have ever experienced the paradigm shift in understanding that salvation is for all people, and not just the Jews, if he were not a man of prayer? The answers are self-evident. Prayer was the critical backdrop against which God's Spirit moved.
Like Peter and Cornelius, may we each take specific time in a specific place for the habit of prayer. You never know what might happen then and there today.
Steve
© 2010, Steve Taylor
posted by steve @ 7:34 AM
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