I've had a few moments in my life when I know that God woke me up from my sleep to intercede for either a person or a situation through prayer. Some of those times I knew exactly who I was praying for and the situation, other times I just knew that God wanted to hear from me.
It doesn't have that often, but I actually experienced this last night. There was a girl in my dream who I was never particularly close with, never really actually got along with, and who I haven't seen in over 10 years, but I woke up fairly instantly and felt the need to pray. I don't have any idea why, but I was obedient like I have been in the past and after praying felt right back into sleep.
Unlike last night, most of the situations or people that I've felt God ask me to pray for are close to me. And even though I know that God has called me to intercede in those situations, I'm often hesitant to ask others to intercede for me. When they announce the prayer teams at church, I typically decide I'm strong enough to battle it on my own and that I don't need to waste their time. When my friends ask me if they can pray for anything I typically tell them while thinking that it won't make a difference. I've never been able to understand why someone else interceding on my behalf would have any more power than my asking God directly. That's why this section of scripture I read last night was so profound to me.
In Acts 12, King Herod murders James the brother of John - one of the original 12 disciples. After murdering John and seeing that the Jews approved, he arrested Peter and threw him into prison with the intent to do the same to him. Verse 5 - "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him."
That verse stands alone in the text. Verse 4 talks about how the prison was guarded and verse 6 talks about the result of their prayer. Without verse 5 there is no other reason stated for what is about to happen. We don't know if Peter was pleading with the Lord to be rescued, although I'm sure he was, but that's not what we're told. God specifically wanted this verse to tell us that the church was earnestly interceding for Peter as he was in prison.
In the following verses, Peter is laying on the ground bound by chains and guarded by two soldiers awaiting his trial the next day, where he would surely be murdered, when an angel appears to him and tells him to get up. His chains instantly fall off, and the angel leads him out of the prison, right passed the prison guards and out the city gate which opened on its own as they approached it. Herod and the soldiers didn't even find out until the next morning.
The power of the church called on God to intercede into Peter's situation. Although Peter was most likely asking for rescuing as well, it was the church that the passage credits for praying.
The church is the family of God. The sons and the daughters. When one person in a family stands tall against an injustice, some people may notice. When the entire family fights together, walls come down. God created us to be in community with each other - not just to live alongside each other, but to live for each other and to fight for each other.
Remember the battle of Jericho? God ended up bringing the walls down, but He asked for the entire army to show up. We aren't created to go into battle alone. We're created to go into battle as a family that loves one another as much as we love ourselves. God loves to bless obedience. Through obedience Isaac isn't killed, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego arne't burned in the furnace, Solomon is made to be the wisest person to ever live, Daniel closes the mouths of lions, Lazarus is raised from the dead, the bleeding woman is healed, the lame man can walk, the blind man can see, Rahab and her family are saved.... and probably a thousand other Biblical references to God blessing obedience.
Let's be the family God calls us to be. Let's fight for each other. Let's love each other and care to fight for each other as much as we care to fight for ourselves. When a family stands together in God's name, mountains are going to move.
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