Message
In , after the apostles were imprisoned and threatened, they returned to their own company, and with one accord, they lifted up their voices to God. The first result of their prayers was that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach the word of God with boldness (). Another result of their corporate prayers was the grace and power to preach the good news of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, as we see in :
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus:and great grace was upon them all.
Beloved, do you want great boldness to do God’s will? Do you want to experience great power and grace? Then, you must live in unity with other believers. Whenever there is peace and unity among believers, God’s power is unlimited. In , Herod began to persecute and kill Christians. He first arrested James, the brother of John, and because there was no resistance from the believers, he killed him. Afterwards, he arrested Peter and imprisoned him, planning to kill him after Easter. However, the church gathered together to pray continuously for Peter and did not stop until he was miraculously delivered from Herod ().
We must also live in unity with other believers if we want to experience exponential increase. The devil understands the power of unity in the church; therefore, he constantly tries to do all he can to keep us in disunity by making us fight one another and gossip about ourselves.
In today’s Bible reading, when the devil tried to cause disunity in the early church, the apostles quickly appointed faithful men to take care of the people who were complaining. Immediately the apostles solved the problem that threatened to divide the church, the word of God increased, and the number of disciples multiplied. Churches that are not operating in unity will not see the increase of God’s word and power among them until they deal with the things causing disunity.
Beloved, do not neglect the times set aside for corporate prayers in your local assembly. The church is a family, and a popular saying goes:the family that prays together stays together. This is true because the Bible says that one shall chase a thousand, but two shall chase tens of thousands.