AFTER

I was catching up on some blogs that I like to read and came across this from Dan O'Deens who pastors a church closer to Philadelphia (http://danodeens.wordpress.com/). It is very fitting in regards to our Year of Prayer here at Grace Church:

Acts 4:31 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.

Does the word ‘after’ sit well with you? Is anyone out there as impatient as I am? Does anyone really want to ‘wait?’ Are we actually more prone to think that we can really provide for ourselves rather than pray and wait and depend on God?

In the early church the people understood the importance of the gathering of the saints and when they came together they did not teach about prayer or have a discussion on prayer, they actually got down on their knees and prayed. ”After” they had prayed, the place where they prayed was not the same, it was shaken. The people were not the same, they were no longer under the illusion that they were in control of themselves and their situation, they were filled with or ‘controlled’ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Matt Chandler so accurately said, “when the dillusion of control disappears, men and women are drawn to their knees in prayer.”

“AFTER” that, they could not help but speak boldly the Word of the Lord! That just might be the reason that the Lord added to their number….daily!

So why then do we so freak when God acts in the supernatural. When God breaks our paradigm we must increase our faith!