“Praying the Word of God” Sunday, 11 September 2022 10:00 a.m.
We are continuing our series called: “The Potential of Prayer.” There is so much untapped power and potential that is at our disposal through the means of prayer. We have talked about the conflict in prayer; the posture of prayer and finally the persistence of prayer.
This Sunday I want to talk about; praying the Word of God. Praying Scripture is a good way to confirm the character of God and the ways in which He works. There are a couple of different ways to pray His Word; either by “research” or “review”. The research method is based on a need. Say I'm suffering from fear or anxiety or whatever and I know that there's scripture there about that I can refer to, I research it and then pray it back to the Lord. The second method would be to “review” by way of prayer as you read the word of God. Say you're reading the 23rd Psalm and you review it in your mind, meditate on it and then pray it back to the Lord.
There is an excellent example of praying scripture found in the New Testament. It is a prayer that is offered up to God by the disciples in Acts 4. In this prayer, they use a prophetic word, that is, a word that is given in the Old Testament and apply it to their lives.
In Acts 4, the religious leaders had arrested Peter and John and incarcerated them. They then set them on trial in the temple; Peter tells them that salvation is found in no other name except the Name of Jesus. The religious leaders are now in a conundrum, a man has obviously been healed who was born lame, now there were 5,000 believers and counting, and there were two uneducated fishermen who were speaking with great authority.
The Bible says that they threatened them to “not speak any longer in the name of this man Jesus.” So now the disciples have a decision to make. They had been commanded by Jesus, as His disciples, to spread His message far and wide. But now they had a mandate from the ruling authorities not to speak in His name. What are we going to do? Well, the first thing that they're going to do is pray.
Acts 4:24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things?26 The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the Lord and against His Christ.’
By praying the prophetic word, the disciples were enabled to get a present perspective on what was happening. The people of the world, the leaders of the world, the kings and rulers did/do not want to be dictated to and told how to live… they had put their faith in their religious system and did not want this "Jesus" interfering in it. And by gaining a perspective on it, the disciples were able to identify the thing they needed most- “boldness.” And the Bible says that when they had prayed the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and with “boldness.”
Join us in person on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. or via livestream by going to https://www.firstbaptistsudbury.com and clicking on livestream for “Praying the Word of God.”
Blessings,
Kevin
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