My dear readers,

The Prayer Meeting

- a New Testament Continuation

(Dr SH Tow, message at Sunset Gospel Hour, 15 January 2012)

"God’s PLAN of ACTION"

Search the Scripture and it will be evident

1. In O.T. time God answered prayer – from individuals as well as from groups

"He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him" (Ps 91:15).

"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jer 33:3).

Many psalms were individual prayers but there were also "group" psalms like Psalm 137. So, OT saints prayed and God from heaven answered.

2. In N.T. time, God answered prayer – from individuals as well as from "prayer groups."

Thus:

a) Individuals praying received answers from God, as before.

b) Groups of God’s people praying ("Prayer Meeting") became a powerful force in the New Testament Church (complementing individual praying), perfecting God’s purpose for the end time.

Examples of "Praying Groups" or "Prayer Meetings"

The "Acts of Apostles" traces the beginnings of this important development.

1. Acts 1:8 –" ... ye shall receive power ... ye shall be witnesses ...." The Lord promised power (of the Holy Spirit) to make their witness effective.

2. Acts 1:13-15 – "... they went up into an upper room ... all continued with one accord in prayer ... (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty)." This was the very first "Prayer Meeting."

3. Acts 2:1, 4 – "... they were all with one accord in one place ... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost ..."

4. Acts 2:14, 38, 41 – "But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice ... Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized .... in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ... and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."

This was the first recorded result when the disciples all "... continued with one accord in prayer and supplication ..." (Acts 1:14), and some three thousand souls were saved in Acts 2 to begin the new witness of the local church.

Here the pattern is established for the New Testament Church, the ascended Lord Jesus having "All power...in heaven and in earth" given unto Him(Matt 28:18): Christ will be with God’s people as they serve Him on earth!

That power from henceforth is manifested by the filling of the Holy Spirit, whenever God’s people gathered "in one accord in prayer and supplication.".

5. Acts 3 and Acts 4:1-23

This was the account of the healing by Peter and John of the man (lame since birth). The authorities "laid hands on them" (Acts 4:3, but finding no grounds to detain or punish, "they let them go" (Acts 4:21).

Now, Acts 4:23,24: the gathered believers, praying for Peter and John, "... when they heard (the news) ... lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is."

Verse 31: "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness."

We shall look at one more example of the N.T, pattern of the "Prayer Meeting" being firmly in place. Acts 12 is an account of Peter’s arrest by King Herod, and his rescue by God’s angel, even as the believers gathered: and "...prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him" (Acts 12:5). God answered their prayer.

In summary

Our Lord having completed His atoning work, returned to Heaven, victorious and highly exalted (Phil 2:9). From then onward, the further "Gospel ministry" on earth was committed to the Apostles and the N.T. Church, with the Lord Jesus directing and empowering the Church on earth with Holy Spirit power.

But the "channel of communication" to the Lord in heavenwas by the "prayers of the Church," both by individual believers and by the Church "in one accord and gathered in one place."

Herein is the vital importance of the "Prayer Meeting" – God’s plan for the Church of the end time.

God bless you dear readers.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,

Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor