A Message on Prayer
Cane Creek Friends Meeting 3/9/25
A bus driver and a minister were standing in line to get into heaven. The bus driver approached the gate and St. Peter said, "Welcome, I understand you were a bus driver. Since I’m in charge of housing, I believe I have found the perfect place for you. See that mansion over the hilltop? It’s yours.
The minister heard all this and began to stand a little taller. He said to himself, "If a bus driver got a place like that, just think what I’ll get."
The minister approached the gate and St. Peter said, "Welcome, I understand you were a minister. See that shack in the valley?"
St. Peter had hardly gotten the words out of his mouth when the shocked minister said, "I was a minister, I preached the gospel, I helped teach people about God. Why does that bus driver get a mansion, and I get a shack?"
Sadly St. Peter responded, "Well, it seems when you preached, people slept. When the bus driver drove, people prayed."
I’ve been led to speak on prayer today. A topic that, in my opinion, we just cannot get enough of.
Prayer is one of the greatest privileges of the Christian’s life, and oh what a wonderful gift it is to us.
This Meeting, our close-knit Church Family, our extended families, along with our friends and loved ones. We all know the importance of an extensive prayer life. When I think about this group, I honestly can’t think of another that is more engaged in praying. Whether it be for others, for this Meeting, or even strangers, I am honored to be just a part of it.
So, why speak on Prayer?
We got it.
There is really nothing else we need to know.
Jesus approves.
We are seeing answers to our Prayers.
Although, I do believe that most would agree that in the Christian Walk, becoming more Christlike, includes looking for ways to improve in every aspect of the Christians life.
So, this morning I would like for us all to examine our prayer lives and see if there are areas where we can Pray more like Jesus and the many examples in God’s word.
Jesus instructed that prayer was to be an intimate conversation between two parties that deeply cared about each other.
Matt 6:6
6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
When you get a card from a friend in the mail what matters the most to you? The professional poem written by a professional, or the hand scribbled note at the bottom written by your friend. For most of us it’s not the professional poem it’s the handwritten note at the bottom because it’s an intimate expression from someone who cares about us.
Prayer is not to be a formal ritualistic activity of repeating the same words over and over until we don’t even think about the meaning. It is to be a genuine expression of the soul. A personal conversation with the heavenly Father.
Let’s look at four examples of prayer in the early church as we look at how they are recorded in the book of Acts. In each instance let’s notice which request was made of God, and how specifically the Lord answered the prayer.
Hopefully this will motivate us in our prayer life to more frequent, more meaningful, more intense prayer as a church.
The first instance I want us to look at is recorded in Acts chapter one and chapter two. After Jesus’ ascension He gave the disciples instructions to go to Jerusalem and stay in the city until they received the power of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 24:49
49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
So, in Acts chapter one we find the disciples in the upper room in constant prayer praying for the “power from on high” that Jesus spoke of. This is the prayer, and we find the answer in chapter two.
Acts 2:1-4
2:1When the day of Pentecost came; they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:7-8
7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
As a church we need to be praying that God will continue to anoint our ministry with the power of the Holy Spirit. What has happened here in the last years can’t be reduced to a human formula. It’s just that God has chosen to pour out His Holy Spirit on us.
There seems to be two major qualifiers for the anointing of God’s Spirit.
- It is always dependent upon obedience to God’s commands.
1 Sam 16:14
14Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.
Because he walked in continual disobedience with the Lord.
Just because God blesses a place, a minister, or a work of God for a certain time doesn’t mean he always will. The more God’s people walk in obedience the more the Spirit of God can flow, that’s why it’s so important to live out our faith on a daily basis.
1 Thessalonians 5:19
19Do not put out the Spirit’s fire;
- It’s often dependent on the prayers of God’s people.
They spent 10 days in a prayer meeting then came the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Before a Billy Graham crusade, the team spent weeks in prayer that God would bless the meeting.
Many times, our problem isn’t that we’re not praying our problem is we aren’t asking God for specific things when we pray as a church.
Illustration: Have you ever heard of George Mueller? One day he looked down the streets of Bristol, England, & saw 100’s of homeless children. He was so moved with concern for them that he decided that something had to be done.
He had only two pence in his pocket. That’s two cents. But he decided to start an orphanage. In 60 years, beginning with two pence, George Mueller took care of 10,000 orphans. He looked out & saw homeless kids. He could have said, "But, I don’t have any money. But there is no way to care for them, to meet their needs, to buy the food."
Instead, he looked at them & said, "Therefore, I will reach out & help them." And God blessed his efforts in a mighty way. He told amazing stories of answered prayers.
He kept a record of his prayers, & his prayer records filled more than 3,000 pages. His notes show that more than 30,000 prayers were answered.
One night there was no food in the orphanage to give to the children for breakfast. But at 3:00 in the morning a baker called him up & said, "I just can’t sleep. I’m going down to the bakery to bake some bread. Would it be all right for me to bring some over to you this morning?"
One time a milk truck just happened to break down in front of the orphanage on a day when they had no milk. The truck driver came in & said, "This milk is all going to spoil. Would you like some of it?" And their need was met.
Time & time again, 30,000 times in 60 years, God answered George Mueller’s prayers
Acts 4:24
24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
We tend to pray more fervently when we’re threatened by some kind of pressure.
Illustration: Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background. One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands.
He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong--the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face.
By this time the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, "I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground."
What did the early church pray for? You would think they prayed for exemption from persecution, but no they prayed for boldness.
Acts 4:29
29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
And their prayer was answered.
Acts 4:31
31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
One of the things we need to pray for as a church is courage.
Eph 6:19 19Pray for me, too, and ask God to give me the right words as I boldly tell others about the Lord and as I explain to them that his salvation is for the Gentiles too.
Acts 6:7
7So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
God answered and the early church grew.
We should pray that God would bless our Pastor, our Sunday school teachers, and everyone involved in ministry in this church. Praying also for the blessing of other churches, our Country and its leaders.
Praying with the believing faith in our most powerful God who is most capable of anything that we can imagine!
I would like to close with two amazing true stories, examples of what our confident prayers based on the powers of the almighty God and the interaction with the Holy Spirit can do.
I believe that I have shared the first before although it is well worth repeating. From a missionary in Africa.
One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do she died, leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator) and no special feeding facilities.
Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. "And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed.
As in the West it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.
"All right," I said, "Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm."
The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.
During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. "Please, God," she prayed, "send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby’ll be dead, so please send it this afternoon."
While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, "And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl, so she’ll know You really love her?"
As often with children’s prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, "Amen"? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything. The Bible says so. But there are limits, aren’t there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home; anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses’ training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box.
From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys; eyes sparkled as I pulled them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas --- that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the ..... could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out --- yes, a brand-new, rubber hot water bottle! I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could. Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted.
Looking up at me, she asked: "Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she’ll know that Jesus really loves her?"
That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child --- five months before --- in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year old to bring it "that afternoon."
Illustration: Tony Campolo, A Baptist minister, was invited to speak at a college in Valley Forge Penn. He drove to the college and before he spoke several men took him in the back room and began to pray for him, that God would use his speech. While these men were praying, one man, just off the cuff began praying "And Lord, about Burt Harris. Lord, Burt Harris needs you really badly. Because he lives in that trailer down the street and he is considering leaving his wife and family. And Lord if you could just get through to Burt Harris...that would be great." and then went on with his prayer. Campolo thought, "that is strange that he should pray that here." He went out and he spoke and finished his message and then he got in his car and was driving home. And he picked up a hitch hiker. He said he knew that he wasn’t supposed to pick up hitch hikers, but he thought, ’being a preacher, anytime I can get a captive audience, I’ll take advantage of it." So, he gets this guy in the car and he is talking to him and he says, "By the way, what is your name?" and the man said, "Burt Harris". Campolo stopped the car, turned it around and immediately and headed in the opposite direction. The man looked at him and said, "What are you doing?" Campolo said, "I am taking you back to your wife and family whom you are trying to leave." The man went white! He never said another word; he sat there speechless and Campolo drove him straight up to this guy’s trailer. And the guy says, "How do you know where I live?" Campolo said, "God told me." (In a way He really had.) Campolo said "I took this guy inside his home and the family and marriage was restored and God did an exciting thing."
Contributed by: Michael Cassara Sermoncentral.com