Collegiate Day of Prayer Global: 40-Day Prayer GuideSample

Day 34: Pray Great Things

By Steve Hawthorne (Steve works with WayMakers, a mission and prayer mobilization ministry.)

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.

— Acts 4:31

We’ve become accustomed to prayer gatherings in which we pray for needs or problems that some of us may be facing. There’s nothing wrong with this; God cares about everything in our lives. But God is doing something different and greater than helping us through difficulties. For many generations, God has been promising and then unfolding His purposes among every people and place. I’m convinced that God is about to do some of the most astounding, ginormous, and beautiful things that He has ever done.

Of course, God can do anything without anyone praying, but He delights to act in keeping with what His people have been praying. Why? I think hearing and responding to the prayers of His people is God’s favorite way of being recognized, praised, and loved. We easily celebrate when we see God act in keeping with our prayers.

We have much to learn from the prayer movement that preceded Pentecost, often referred to as “the upper room” (Acts 1:4). We misunderstand the upper room prayer gathering if we think that all they were praying for was for the outpouring of the Spirit. That was certainly part of what they expected, but they saw the giving of the Spirit as one marvelous part of a far greater fulfillment of all that God would ever do in all places and peoples.

We see them continue in organized and intentional ways. They gathered at the temple at particular hours. They gathered in homes with regularity and discipline (Luke 24:33, Acts 2:46). The upper room prayer movement was anything but a spasmodic series of crisis prayers. But when there was a crisis, they gathered again, praying, as they had before Pentecost, “with one accord” (Acts 4:24-31, NASB).

In this time of prayer, we see the upper room way demonstrated: They distinctly prayed from the Scriptures, worshiping God as He is described in Psalm 146:6 (Acts 4:24), and then basing their appeal on what Psalm 2:1-2 revealed about God’s purpose among all peoples (4:25-28). They basically asked God to keep on doing the great things He had promised long ago.

The Passion that Sustained Their Prayer

The account describes their praying as being “with one mind,” or as is sometimes translated, “with one accord.” The Greek word behind this expression is a fascinating word: homothumadon. It simply refers to sharing the same (homo-) passion (-thumadon, which has to do with zeal, desire, passion). The English word “enthusiasm” is built on the same word group as homothumadon.

Regrettably, some translations use a weak translation for homothumadon, only inserting the English word “together.” This translation fails to convey that they prayed with a great deal of common zeal, shared passion, and united mind. They weren’t just praying together. They were pursuing what God Himself had promised, confident that whatever God had promised, He would certainly do, and do it soon. The entire story was all about global glory coming to the King of the Kingdom, “the Christ” Himself.

This was not a triumphalistic tale with a cheap happy ending. It involved drastic suffering for the Messiah and those who followed Him. But the story would culminate in the King of all the nations becoming known throughout all peoples (Luke 24:46-47). As the risen Jesus unfolded this epic story about His global Kingdom from the Scriptures, He “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (24:45). No wonder they realized that their “hearts were burning” with passion, confidence, and hope (24:32).

PRAYER POINTS:

• Allow the risen Jesus to open your eyes, along with many others, to understand and to pray the Scriptures.
• Pray that He will find our hearts flammable to pray great things with yearning and hope.
• Pray that God’s people will have a common zeal, shared passion, and united mind about the Kingdom.