The Believers Pray Boldness

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 14

Acts 4:23-31

The Believers Pray for Boldness

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Carefully read the passage of Scripture. Reread it.
  6. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. Peter and John, arrested by the Council are ordered to stop proclaiming Jesus, but state they must obey God instead.
  8. When released they rejoined their “friends” and make a full report to the gathered followers of Jesus.
  9. The reaction of those believers was to begin praying to their “Sovereign Lord” the creator of all things, and they also quote from Psalm 2, where David spoke of opposition and persecution that would come to the Lord’s anointed.
  10. The list of those who oppose the Gospel is essentially inclusive of all rulers and peoples.
  11. The early church is keenly aware of the predestination work of their creator God. Thus they are not shocked or shaken by the forces arrayed against them.
  12. The difficulties are not ignored nor minimized but admitted.
  13. There is no mention or retreating, going underground, or softening the message; rather the believers pray for boldness to keep on with their commission.
  14. The believers also know that by means of signs and wonders their message will be affirmed and confirmed.
  15. “Holy servant Jesus” is how those early believers spoke of Jesus, and servant is paida which is Greek for child.
  16. The prayer concluded, (it is not clear what form the prayer took nor if all prayed or if there was a leader) the unknown location they were in was “shaken” (wish we had more details on what this was) and the believers were “filled” with the Holy Spirit. Not likely a second Pentecost but an inner renewal and strengthening of those present at the time.

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