FROM WHERE DOES OUR POWER COME?

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the holy name of your holy servant Jesus.  After 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 (Acts 4:29-31 NIV).

The apostles Peter and John had been jailed for preaching about Jesus Christ.  Upon their release they returned to the assembly of Christians and reported to them what had happened.  Then they prayed.  The cited text above is their prayer.

In his book, The Great Omission, Robert Blair makes an important assertion for us to give some serious consideration:  They [Peter and John] didn't petition the Lord to change the authorities' hearts or to alter the high court's decision.  They didn't beg for leadership skills and money to form a popular protest.  The church solicited two things from God.  First, they wanted boldness to continue their witness in the face of threats.  Second, they asked God to do something else few Christians request today -- "Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."  . . . Current Christians depend too much on lawyers, letter-writing campaigns, political clout, and legal maneuver.  Jesus' real followers fearlessly declare his good news and pray powerfully.  They do not demand a cozy, comfortable, safe environment.

The Christian consensus is gone.  Perhaps that is a good thing.  In times past, most people lived their lives by Christian assumptions, but they were not Christian.  Now the contrast between a Christian and a person of the world is much more distinct--as it should be.  It is more difficult to live as a Christian now.  Where does the power to stand for Christ come from?  I think Blair's point is valid.  Our source of power is from God.  The great weakness of the church today is that we seek power in the wrong places.  As our culture becomes less and less moral, do we try to correct it by more political action or by prayer and disciple making?  As I have said in an earlier post, in a government of the people, by the people and for the people, I have the responsibility to participate in it--and I will speak up politically.  But my power doesn't come from government, but from God.

Perhaps the most powerful thing you can do for God, others and yourself is to organize a powerful prayer meeting--it is something any Christian can do (see Matthew 7:7-12).

Our Father's Blessing,
Tom