Hello BRN Family, it’s good to be with you today!

In this next installment of Resurfacing from the Pandemic, I wanted to call attention to prayer — not just typical prayer but the kind of prayer witnessed in Acts 4.

In this scene, the Apostles Peter and John had just been arrested, jailed, and interrogated because of the healing of a lame man at the Temple.

But that didn’t stop the Gospel! Check out what happened in Acts 4:4, “Many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.”

THE CHURCH WAS GROWING!

In spite of the obvious barriers and challenges, God was still on the move, so much so that when Peter and John were released they couldn’t help but praise God!

In fact, the disciples went to their friends and reported all that had happened, “and when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God” (v 24) and asked God “to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (v. 29). That’s so awesome!

I want to point out two principles I have observed in this. First, the disciples focused on praise instead of lament or worry. How easy it would have been to look at the circumstances and give up! Certainly so, in the face of their persecutors.

Secondly, they prayed together — such an example of unity! — and surrendered to whatever God wanted them to do. They didn’t prescribe the plan. They simply submitted to it.

Even more, they asked God to give them greater boldness — “ALL BOLDNESS,” it actually says in verse 29 — and to “stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (v 30).

These men were not satisfied with the status quo. They wanted to experience the supernatural. They asked God to make them BOLD and then they asked for God to BE BOLD in demonstrating His power through them.

Coming out of this pandemic, my prayer is that you, too, will have “ALL BOLDNESS” in proclaiming the Gospel in our vast area of lostness, and that as a result, you will see all kinds of miracles around you.

Do you know why I pray this? Because I believe God answers prayers! Just look at what happens next in Acts 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

The prayers were so passionate that the place shook! And then God gave them what they asked for: boldness to speak His word. This boldness created a movement that flipped the world upside down.

At the BRN, we are here to help churches accelerate Kingdom movement because we believe God wants to turn Pennsylvania/South Jersey upside down with the Gospel. Let’s press in and ask God to give us the boldness to do just that! May He shake our world into His Kingdom as we pray!

Thank you for listening in today. God bless you!