Friday, October 24th

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Friday, October 24

Acts 4:23-31

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'-- for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

In February of 2010 my wife and I woke up in the early morning hours to the sound of picture frames rattling on the walls of our bedroom. Our bed and the floor underneath us seemed to be trembling as well. After what seemed like minutes, but was really only a few seconds, the  shaking stopped and everything became quiet again. It slowly dawned on us that we had just experienced our first earthquake. By morning all the news shows confirmed that a large swath of Northern Illinois had felt the low-level quake.

While the quake was minor; nothing even fell of our walls; we still remember that moment. In Acts 4 Luke describes a much different kind of quake!

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Notice the similarity to the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The believers are gathered together for prayer. God shows up in a powerful and unmistakable way through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is experienced as wind and fire in Acts 2 and as “shaking” in Acts 4.

Next, notice the connection between prayer and the Spirit. Prayer seems to be the precursor, dare I say prerequisite, to the experience of the Spirit. Now we know that every believer already has the Holy Spirit dwelling in his or her heart. That’s a promise found in God’s word (Ephesians 1:13). So we certainly are to experience the presence, encouragement, conviction and direction of the Holy Spirit when we pray all by ourselves. What we see here, however, is that we can also experience dramatic manifestations of the Spirit when we join together in prayer.

Finally, we see a connection between the Spirit and boldness.

Perhaps we have somewhat misunderstood, or at least underestimated, the purpose of prayer. Perhaps the primary purpose of prayer is not to make our lives easier or to remove us from difficult circumstances, but rather to make us more bold in our witness for the gospel.

Perhaps the role of the Spirit is to shake us up; to awaken us to the power of the gospel; to get us up out of bed and into the world!

Are you willing to be shaken by the Holy Spirit?


Pastor Brian Coffey