(April 6, 2011)

Prayer House News

No mid-week services tonight - it's FAMILY WEEK!

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Pastor John is asking anyone who might be interested in attending his new Connect Group or just to ask questions about it to email him at; PastorJohn@prayerhouseag.org

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Devotional!

Behold, He Prays

If we look back at verse 11 we see Paul doing something that speaks to the heart of God. "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.” He is praying!

When verse 11 says, “he is praying.” This little phrase is the key to this whole section of scripture. Some of the other translations of the bible use the word “behold” here. “Behold, he prays.” Samuel Chadwick in his book, “The Path of Prayer,” refers to this little phrase as bringing wonder to God. He says, “God speaks of prayer in terms of wonder: “Behold, he prays.” Prayer is the language of humanity, but it is the only speech man knows, and however inadequate it may be, it stands for corresponding reality in God. Can God wonder? Can there be in Him elements of surprise and amazement? Can it be that there are things that to God are wonderful? Yet that is how God speaks about prayer. It would seem as if the biggest thing in God’s universe is a man who prays. The only thing bigger would be the man who knows to pray and willfully chooses not to. That also is a wonder to God.

Behold He prays! It was during Paul’s prayer time that he received the vision of his healing. Because he prayed God spoke to Ananias and told him to go to Paul and pray for him. Prayer becomes the point of revelation for us. Not too many of us have been knocked off our donkey and stricken blind at the revelation of Christ but we can have revelation through the practice of prayer.

This one incident tells us a lot of what God thinks of prayer. His mind concerning prayer is seen in every command to pray, in every law of prayer, in every promise concerning prayer, and in every example of answered prayer. There are three people in this incident of prayer. There is the man who prayed, Saul. There is God, who heard the prayer, and there is Ananias, the man through whom the answer came. However, God is central in all of this. It is to Him we pray, through Him prayer is interpreted, and by Him prayer is answered.

The conversion of Saul is the final and complete expression of the scriptures. This is what it’s all about. It’s about men getting saved and coming into an intimate relationship with Him. “Behold he prays,” is more than just an exclamation that someone is in prayer.

This is everything the Damascus road experience was meant to lead up to. When God speaks of it He sums it all up in the words, “Behold, he prays,” or “He is praying.” Prayer is the privilege of sons, and the test of son-ship. That is what it meant to God, and that is what it always means to Him. Prayer is the symbol and proof of Grace. All that happens in the converting work of Grace whereby we receive the adoption of sons is that, being sons, we begin to pray.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

A Case of the Flu

Suffering from a bad case of the flu, a man phoned his doctor for to get an appointment.

When he was told the scheduled date of the appointment, he became outraged and bellowed, "Three weeks? The doctor can't see me for three weeks? I could well be dead by then!"

Calmly, the receptionist replied, "If so, would you have your wife call to cancel the appointment?"