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Written by Lynne Hammond

I want to follow in the footsteps of the early believers in the book of Acts. They really knew how to release resurrection power!

As far as I know, those early Christians had never been to any special prayer seminars. They weren't super saints or specially trained pray-ers. They were just simple believers who knew how to pray in the Spirit. Yet by nightfall, their prayers had released a marvelous supply of bondage-breaking, demon-conquering resurrection power.

They made enough power available to bring an angel to Peter's side. They generated enough power to cause the chains to fall off his wrists. They sent so much resurrection power into that prison that the iron gate opened for Peter all by itself!

Those believers proved the power that flows from us when we pray is truly the power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at God's right hand. They proved that power is "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come" (Eph. 1:21).

Every demonic bondage that held Peter captive had to fall in the face of that power when it was released by those tenacious, praying saints. Every natural circumstance and spiritual force had to bow its knee to the supply of the Spirit that flowed into that situation through their prayers.

Rocking the Region
That wasn't a one-time event, either. We see the same kind of power released when religious authorities threatened Peter and John and ordered them not to preach any more about Jesus. Acts 4 tells us the Church responded to those threats by calling a prayer meeting that brought such an outpouring of spiritual power that it shook the building.

In truth, it rocked the whole region! That prayer meeting not only provided the boldness and liberty the apostles needed to keep preaching in Jesus' name, it produced power enough for them to work miracles that stunned the city (Acts 5:24-26).

We see another example of the power released through corporate prayer in Acts 13 when a group of prophets and teachers from the Antioch church got together for a time of fasting and worship. Their prayers (worship is actually a type of prayer) made enough power available to launch one of the most vital apostolic ministries of all time (Acts 13:2-3).

The Real Secret of Effective Ministry
My, how we need that kind of power to be released in prayer these days! There are multitudes of ministers ready and waiting to go into the harvest fields of the world, but God won't send them out until a path is cleared for them. He won't thrust them into situations where no spiritual preparation has been made.

That's why Jesus instructed us to "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matt. 9:38). He understood that the sending follows the praying!

Even Paul, who had one of the greatest apostolic callings of all time, couldn't just go out on his own and do the work of God. To be truly effective in ministry, a highway of resurrection power had to be raised up for him to walk on. The same is true for ministers today. For them to be successful in what God has called them to do, they need a pathway cut for them by rivers of living water flowing from the spirits of praying believers.

I've seen that proven time and again. One specific example that always comes to my mind involves a group of missionaries who moved to Afghanistan some years ago and started broadcasting the gospel on the radio. They preached on the air every single day for 14 years, yet in all that time, they didn't get one response to their broadcasts.

Then a church in America began to fast and pray for the Afghan people and for those missionaries. Within two months, their radio broadcast began generating 1,000 responses a week.

What happened? Through prayer, those American believers released resurrection power to go forth and stop demonic powers from blinding people's eyes to the truth of the gospel.

They made tremendous power available, dynamic in its working and that power traveled to Afghanistan. It started raising up people from spiritual death to spiritual life. Without ever getting on an airplane, without ever leaving the city where they lived, those praying believers helped start a move of God halfway around the world.

No wonder God is calling us together more and more to pray these days! As the time grows shorter and the earth grows darker, there is an ever greater need for the supply of resurrection power that resides within us as believers.

As the opposition of the devil against the work of the gospel intensifies, Christian laborers around the world need people praying for them more than ever. They need people to do for them what the Philippians did for the apostle Paul so that they can say as he did:

… I am well assured and indeed know that through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) this will turn out for my preservation (for the spiritual health and welfare of my own soul) and avail toward the saving work of the gospel.
(Phil. 1:19 AAMP)

Let's make a fresh commitment in these crucial days to answer God's call to prayer. We must give ourselves with increased zeal to the thrilling task of releasing the resurrection power of God to a dark and dying world that desperately needs it.