Pentecostal Prayer

This devotional is written by James Haley.

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

There have been moments in my faith (much like many others, I'm sure), that I have seen things that literally blow my mind. The bible calls these signs and wonders. As a church, St. Mary's has always been a group of people that set a high value on signs and wonders. We love them and long to see them. Often because they lead to people meeting Jesus or getting to know him more, but also because they are flipping fun.

When we don't see these things I have been known to get a bit restless (which isn't a bad thing), in fact, I often feel a little bit like the friend in Luke 11 shamelessly knocking at the door for bread in the middle of the night and refusing to go away until I have a nice loaf in my hand for my mate (and me).

I think this is good, because when I get that need for "bread", I tend to go knocking or rather (as is the point of the story in Luke), I tend to pray more.

The apostles and believers in this verse have just come out of the spiritual equivalent of a lock-in. Peter's first words to the people waiting outside the upper room do in fact tell us what the crowd were thinking when he starts preaching, saying "We are not drunk as you suppose".
The bible tells us they had been praying in unity, waiting for the Holy Spirit. Then boom, a scene that we might only imagine we'd see in a film. Beautiful chaos. They knocked and they received "bread", then, "...awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles".

When we knock, we get bread. When we pray, we see miracles.

Let's pray that today we would get restless, that we would keep knocking and start to see Miracles and Wonders that lead us and others closer to Jesus.