[children laughing] ♪ music ♪
♪ noble music ♪
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[male narrator] It all started in a small upper room,
with humble, fervent prayer
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threatened by the authorities
and banned from preaching,
the church prayed and two men witnessed
with great power and grace.
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And people prayed everywhere, in one accord
in repentance, with confession and humility.
And the lives of people were changed.
[plunged stone] ♪ music ♪
Two men started out on a missionary journey
that would turn the world as they knew it upside down.
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And the message went out to the world beyond.
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Corporate prayer helped a prisoner escape.
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A king requested that his people fast and pray
and the enemy was defeated.
A battle won without the need to fight.
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Through a faithful servant and a young queen's faith and courage,
a people were saved.
Stories in the Bible showing the power of united prayer.
As I read the book of Acts,
it's really a book about believers coming together to pray,
and a prayer-answering God.
Personal prayer is important.
Secret prayer is the life of the soul.
But we know that there has never been a revival anywhere on this planet
that wasn't preceded by united and continuous prayer.
Our Lord on one occasion says where two or more of you agree
on touching anything that is according to My will, it will be done.
So there is a synergy that happens
when we hook up together and unite our voices in crying out to God.
As the spirit of prophecy tells us,
prayer is the key that unlocks the storehouse of heaven's treasury and blessings.
Some of Ellen White's counsel and statements
on united prayer are powerful as well.
She says in one place that...
when she was writing to the Farnsworths, I believe it was, she said
there's more power in united prayer
than even in private prayer.
Then she says, why is that?
It's because the unity of heart of the believers.
It's like God gets really excited
when we're really of one accord
when we unite together just like they did in Acts.
Another statement she says,
at the sound of fervent prayer, Satan's whole host trembles.
Jesus knows that the habit of praying with others
helps to rid our lives of the self-centeredness of our prayers
when we pray by ourselves.
So when the Bible talks about continue earnestly in prayer,
that's not just an individual activity.
It's a call to the church as a community to call out to God.
Not to change God's mind,
but that we come into alignment with God's will
and actually I think he uses us as part of the answers to those prayers.
As you look at the book of Acts,
united prayer brought God's people together.
In Acts chapter 1 and verse 14 and 15,
the entire church met together and prayed.
They knew that the task before them was too great.
They knew the challenge was too immense.
They knew there was no way they could carry the gospel to the world.
But yet as they prayed, God did something miraculous.
He poured out His Holy Spirit on the day of Pentacost
and three thousand were baptized.
You know one of the ... when you read the text there,
one of the things that jumps out at me is the simple English phrase—
they were in one accord.
Pentacost was just an extraordinary event.
It came after the culmination of Christ's ministry on this earth.
And it looked as though everything was completely dashed and destroyed.
When Christ was hanging on that cross
and then of course the resurrection took place.
And He appeared to His disciples
which gave them a completely different perspective
on what their ministry was all about.
Our blessed Lord told His disciples
to tarry in Jerusalem united in prayer.
And that was one of the prerequisites
for bringing that rushing mighty wind
and the presence of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentacost.
[man speaking berber]
It was the time of Passover
and we were in an upper room in Jerusalem.
We were all praying in one accord.
We were praying for repentance and humility,
and we were confessing our sins.
We were also seeking the Lord's vision, power and the Holy Spirit.
There was an incredible feeling of oneness
as we prayed earnestly together.
[man praying in berber]
[woman speaking in berber]
[female speaker] Suddenly there was the sound of a violent wind
that filled the whole room where we were sitting.
[wind sounds]
Then tongues of fire came down
and this fire rested on the people.
[man speaking berber]
[male narrator] All the people in the room were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now remember that at the time of the Passover,
people came from many countries to worship
and now suddenly they could hear the gospel
each in their own language.
As a result of this, three thousand people
were added to the believers in one day.
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[woman speaking berber]
[female speaker] The people devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and of prayer.
Every day they would meet together in the temple courts.
In their homes, they broke bread and ate together.
And the number of those being saved grew daily.
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And we believe something like this
is going to happen in the last days as well.
But I think only as a church and as a people
we get together in one accord
and in fervent prayer, will we ...
till we do that, we won't see that happen.
And really what happened at Pentacost
is going to be again duplicated by the Lord
in an even greater fashion
as the three angels' messages go forward
as the fourth angel of Revelation 18 has proclaimed
and as the final loud cry is heralded all over the world.
And it's going to be people who have submitted to the Lord,
confessed their sins,
and then the Holy Spirit can fall
and can use us in a mighty way.
Well I think in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 6
it seemed like a good problem.
The church was growing exponentially.
But in the midst of that, there's this food distribution challenge.
[men arguing in berber] ♪ music ♪
[male speaker] The church was undergoing practical challenges.
The Hellenistic Jews were complaining against the Hebraic Jews
because the former's widows were being overlooked
in the daily distribution of food.
The apostles decided that they needed
to focus on the ministry of prayer and the word.
And so they requested for seven deacons
to be chosen for these other practical tasks.
♪ animating music ♪
[man speaking berber]
[male speaker] The apostles asked us as a group
to chose seven men who were known
to be full of the Spirit and have wisdom.
This proposal from the apostles
pleased our whole group.
So we went about selecting the seven men.
Once the men were selected,
they were presented to the apostles.
The apostles laid their hands on them and prayed for them.
[2nd speaker] With prayer as a priority, the church would never fail.
After this, the number of disciples increased rapidly.
And a large number of priests became obedient to the work.
So I think we find a case study there
that says when we face challenges,
let's use wisdom, let's use our training
but let's also recognize that we have
a prayer-answering God who will give us wisdom.
I've seen this over and over and over.
Churches with big problems
have solved them when they come together to pray.
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[Chief priest lecturing Peter and John]
[Chief priest continuing to lecture Peter and John]
[male narrator] Peter and John were called in
by the chief priests and elders about their preaching.
They tried to defend their actions,
but the leaders were very hard on them.
They were commanded not to speak
or teach in the name of Jesus.
After further threats, they let them go.
Peter and John went back to their own people
and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said.
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[man speaking berber]
When we heard all this we immediately raised our voices in prayer to God.
The entire group prayed for Peter and John.
We prayed for God to give boldness to these two humble servants.
Such intense prayer I had not experienced for a long time.
After we had prayed, suddenly the whole place was shaken.
[another man speaking berber]
People were filled with the Holy Spirit
and Peter and John went out
and gave witness with great power and grace.
They witnessed throughout the land
about the resurrection of their Saviour.
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So I think Peter and John drew great strength
both from knowing they were praying
but also from the power that's unleashed
when people pray for us.
There's a peace.
There's a power from God
that comes into us when that prayer is being answered by many believers.
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[female narrator] Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai—
Go and gather all the Jews who are in Susa together
and pray and fast for me.
Do not eat or drink anything for three days and nights.
I and my maidens will fast as you do.
After that, I will go to the king
even though it is against the law.
And if I perish, I perish.
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We look back at Esther now
and we think what a gutsy girl.
You know, what a woman of faith.
But she was probably just as terrified
as any of us might have been.
It was a very desperate situation...
You know the old saying, there's no such thing
as atheists in foxholes.
And I think this was a case where
they knew without divine intervention,
without divine intervention, all was going to be lost.
But she was wise enough to say to her uncle, Mordecai—
I will fast and pray.
And I will have my people here in the palace fast and pray.
But I want all of God's people to fast and pray.
I think we miss out a lot
on the unleashing of God's power
in this world by not fasting.
And it doesn't have to mean you have to go totally without food
but some form of giving up something
we really love every day
and uniting that together with prayer
and praying with others, it does something,
moves in this great controversy.
It's very easy at times to forget
just how dependant we are upon God.
And as Dwight Nelson likes to remind us—
Pray desperate prayers!
And Esther was desperate.
Pray urgent prayers!
And pray prayers of expectancy!
And I think her prayers encompassed all three.
If you look at the book of Acts,
prayer was very uniting.
Take, for example, Peter and Cornelius.
Cornelius, a Jew – a Gentile. Peter, a Jew.
And Jews and Gentiles would not possibly come together
in any intimate talking
or visiting in one another's homes
or eating together.
This was the Holy Spirit breaking down some walls.
A Gentile of the Italian band, Cornelius, was praying.
It was no accident. He was praying.
Peter on the rooftop, praying.
And he prayed so long that he fell asleep.
Peter has this dream of the sheet coming down
with all these various animals in it.
And God says, Peter, rise and eat.
And Peter says, I've never eaten snakes
and crocodiles and rodents.
The vision of course was not about
clean or unclean foods.
The vision was about respect for other cultures.
Respect for other people.
And God sent visions, epiphanies, to both of them
that broke down the walls
that divided them.
And Peter declared, God has shown me
that He is no respecter of persons.
As both of them prayed, Jew and Gentile,
their prayers ascended to heaven
and met at the throne of God.
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[1st speaker] It was around noon when Peter went up to the roof to pray.
It was here that Peter had a vision
about a large sheet containing a mix of unclean animals
representing God's affirmation
of the diversity of peoples
in the growing church.
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[2nd speaker] We had heard that Peter was staying
at the house of Simon the tanner,
and were instructed by Cornelius, the centurion, to go out and find him.
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[1st speaker] While Peter was still thinking about the vision,
the Holy Spirit told him to go downstairs
because three men were looking for him.
Peter went down and told the men
that he was the one they were looking for.
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We then told Peter
that Cornelius, the centurion,
had been told by an angel
that Peter would come
and see him at his house.
So, unbeknown to Peter,
Cornelius was already expecting his visit to Caesarea.
What happened here was quite unusual.
Just the fact that Peter entered the house.
Remember that it was against the law
for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile.
Cornelius told Peter how three days earlier
he had been praying in his house
when an angel had appeared before him.
Peter shared with Cornelius
his new understanding that God
does not show favouritism
and is the Lord of all.
This was a real turning point.
From this point on,
the gospel was also given among other people groups.
And it all started out with prayer and fasting and a vision.
Cultures were bridged.
Barriers were broken down.
Hearts were united.
And they became one in Jesus Christ.
And the gospel was open to the Gentiles.
What does united prayer
do for breaking down cultures?
When we are kneeling together
different cultures, different backgrounds,
different sociological backgrounds,
different educational backgrounds,
different racial complexions.
When we are kneeling together
our hearts are united as one in Jesus Christ.
I look in Acts chapter 13,
where the church in Antioch
is sending out Paul and Barnabas.
And they hands on them.
And they pray for the blessing of the Holy Spirit.
The laying on of hands was the setting aside in Acts 13
of Paul and Barnabas for ministry and mission.
They were going to launch their missionary journeys.
I don't think there's anything magical about the hands.
I think it's a symbol.
Like water is with baptism
or the unleavened bread and the unfermented grape juice
are in the communion service.
When the church comes unitedly,
and lays hands on an individual,
they are praying for that individual,
setting them aside for a specific task of witness and ministry.
As the prophets and teachers of the early church
were fasting and praying,
the Holy Spirit called Paul and Barnabas
to go on their first mission journey.
The church prayed together before sending them out.
Hands were laid on them and we prayed earnestly.
As a united church, we prayed for their safety
and that God would grant them
the right words to speak to the multitudes
We prayed that our missionaries would be successful
in spreading the gospel.
Paul and Barnabas travelled to several places.
In Cyprus, they proclaimed the word of God
in the Jewish synagogues.
In Pisidian Antioch almost the whole city
gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
When the Gentiles heard their messages, they believed.
The word of the Lord spread throughout the entire region
and the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church
and prayed with fasting commending them to the Lord.
They gathered the church together
and reported all that God had done through them
and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
As a praying community,
when we lay hands upon those that we're praying for
it represents the hand of God.
Kneeling around that person,
setting them aside for that task,
we're asking the Holy Spirit to come
to empower them, to strengthen them
for the task that God has given them through the church.
I remember a story where Paul was -
he encountered a beautiful woman.
Her name was Lydia. And she was praying.
And, I don't know, that might have been beside a river, for all I know.
It may have been beside a well.
Maybe it was in the middle of a market.
You know, at their time. Wherever it was.
God was able to reach her heart
and the Bible tells us that she accepted
the message of the gospel and she was baptized.
We were a group of women outside the city gate
by the river at a place of prayer.
Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth,
from Thyatira was also there.
Two men came along and started to speak to us,
and asked to join us in prayer.
We later learned that they were Paul and Silas.
The Lord opened Lydia's heart to heed Paul's message.
She and all the members of her household were baptized.
Another day Paul and Silas were on their way to a place of prayer.
They were met by a female slave
who had a spirit in her that could predict the future.
She earned a lot of money for her owners by fortune telling.
She followed us and shouted at us.
This was disrupting and so Paul ordered the spirit out of her.
When her owners realized that their chance of making money was gone,
they dragged Paul and Silas to the authorities
and they were put in prison.
At around midnight, these two very positive prisoners
named Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God.
The rest of us were listening to them.
Suddenly there was a violent earthquake
and the prison shook.
All the prison doors flew open
and everyone's chains came loose.
The jailer woke up, saw all the doors open
and drew his sword to kill himself.
He thought all the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul assured him and shouted
that he should not harm himself.
The jailer ? rushed in and lay in front of them, trembling.
The jailer accepted Jesus Christ
and his whole family was baptized.
So prayer can happen anywhere.
For Hope Channel, you know I anchor a program -
I co-anchor a program called Let's Pray.
And so here we are in a television studio
with lights and cameras and action
and yet we are a very much in the manner of prayer.
And we have seen God, we have seen
amazing answers to prayer from the studio.
So it can happen anywhere.
One friend of mine has said
that we must pray with such specificity
we will know when God answers our prayers.
In Acts chapter 12, Peter is in prison.
He is scheduled for execution.
He's chained between soldiers.
Herod has decreed that he will die.
As Peter's in prison, the entire church,
I like that, the entire church is praying
for Peter in prison.
Right before that, James was, you know,
taken to prison but was killed.
And I think the people got really concerned
that they may now lose Peter
when he was hauled off to jail.
And that caused them to get worried
so they got together and really prayed all night long.
King Herod had arrested some that belonged to the church
and was planning to persecute them.
When Herod had James put to death with a sword,
and saw how the Jews had approved of this,
he seized Peter also.
Peter was guarded by four squads
of four soldiers each.
We were very concerned for his safety.
And the church prayed earnestly for him.
The night before Herod was going to bring him to trial,
Peter was sleeping between two soldiers
bound by chains and centuries stood guard at the entrance.
Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared
and light shone into his cell.
The angel struck Peter on the side to wake him up
and the chains fell off his wrists.
As he was instructed, Peter followed the angel out of the prison
past all of the guards to the gate of the city.
Many people had been praying together
in the house of Mary, the mother of John.
As the servant in the house, I heard knocking on the door.
With caution, I went to open the door
and to my surprise, there stood Peter.
We had just been praying earnestly for him in prison.
Once again, united prayer had worked
and the word of God continued to spread and flourish.
No one who was at that prayer meeting that night
would ever forget that they have a God
answering prayer after that night.
Everywhere those people went
for the rest of their lives, they told that story,
which is part of the reason we know it today,
they told that story with great power
because it was utterly convincing to them
of not only God's willingness to help,
but God's ability to do it on a grand and surprising scale.
Here were three big, huge nations
converging on his little dinky kingdom of Judah
and from a human standpoint, it was wipeout.
Jehoshaphat says some very honest things
about the ones praying.
We don't know what to do.
We're weak.
We're helpless against this great number that's come against us.
But he says some very honest things about who God is too.
God, You are capable. You are willing.
You are able and we are ready.
All of which prepared God's people for His deliverance.
But I think when we humble ourselves in prayer
we're giving God permission
to break through in a supernatural way.
And, we're even told in the book, Christ's Object Lessons,
that we are to present our prayers
with a determination that will not be denied.
What a promise.
♪ music ♪
Many people came and told Jehoshaphat
that a vast army was approaching to wage war against him.
Alarmed by this news, Jehoshaphat proclaimed
a fast for all of Judah.
People came from every town in Judah
to fast and pray together.
We were part of a large group and
Jehoshaphat was earnestly asking God for assistance.
Than a man called Jahaziel stood up
and said that Jehoshaphat should not be concerned,
that it was not his battle but God's battle.
♪ music ♪
It was early in the morning
when we set out to the desert of Dacoa(?)
We were seriously concerned about facing
this huge army, but we were told to have faith.
We had also prayed.
When our reconnaissance platoon came over the hill,
we only saw dead bodies all around.
The enemy had apparently turned on each other.
Jehoshaphat's prayers had won them the battle
without even having to fight.
When you look at prayer
in the book of Acts in the Bible,
a definite pattern emerges.
That pattern is that the disciples,
as they begin to share what God has put on their hearts,
they are persecuted, sometimes to the point of death.
As the persecution begins,
they actually gather the believers together.
They pray and the Holy Spirit is poured out.
Thus causing the word of God
to be spread even more boldly.
Thus the church of God grows.
United prayer is critically important
to the church because it is the key
to national revival and to the healing of national challenges.
Prayer, especially united prayer,
is not about leverage,
twisting the hand of God with more people
praying the same phrase over and over again.
It is about God's people together
getting aligned with His will.
When we pray, I think it changes our hearts.
And when we can unite together in prayer,
there is a unity that is experienced.
And then when we ask, whatever we ask,
in the powerful name of Jesus, things happen.
Why is united prayer important?
Because it opens our hearts
to the power of the living God
to accompany our witness.
It brings you to the foot of the cross together.
United prayer is unleashing God's power
in the universe and I believe
in a great controversy.
He's what we need, not the prayer.
In the controversy between good and evil
God does not violate our freedom of choice.
But as we pray, God opens up new avenues of working.
Isn't God already working for that son or daughter before we pray?
Isn't He working for the community before we pray?
He is. But he's limited by their choice.
But as we pray, just like in the book of Acts
as the church prayed, God honours the choice of the praying one.
And miracles occur as we pray unitedly.
When we get things right on the vertical
they will become right on the horizontal.
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