Fallout of A Prayer Explosion

This is North Way tape number 533. This message was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian Community on August 26, 1986. Let's look at Acts chapter 4. Now, I have preached from this passage within the last few years, but I'm going to, as you'll see in a minute, do something different here. What I want us to read, beginning at verse 23. On their release, Peter and John... In fact, here's what I want you... Who has a new international version today? One, two... Come on, put them up there. Did you read with me? Let's read it together. On their release... Are you reading with me? No, I don't want your RSV. I want my new international... If you have a new international version and you're not ashamed of it, stand up. All right, now, would you read aloud with me, okay? No, stay up there. Read it with me. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. 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. Very well done. You may be seated. Anytime you read the word of God, by the way, out loud, do it as a declaration. It's the word of God. You speak it out of your mouth, what's going to happen? It comes to pass. That's right. It has the power to fulfill what it's saying. Now, beloved, today, this morning, we are beginning, as you've heard a number of times now, a very exciting and important week in the life of our church, a week of prayer and fasting and seeking God. Now, some of you are expressing with your face that that could be the least exciting and important thing you've ever heard about. Just go ahead and nudge somebody if they're already out this morning. Why is it exciting? It's exciting, beloved, because it's going to be for us new territory. God is going to take us places we've never been in the Holy Spirit. I've already heard that from God. We are going to see things this week that we have not seen. And secondly, it's going to be important to us because, listen, it is a response in obedience to a direct leading of God to this church. And I believe it's significant, it's important, because it will cause us to move in the fulfillment of our destiny as a church. Our program for this week coming up is simply two things. Pray, pray, pray. That's number one. And number two, make our relationships right. We've canceled all of our meetings. There's no music ministry. There's no children's ministry. There's no leadership. Some of you are gasping. That's all right. You'll be all right. There's no meetings for the purpose of giving you time and opportunity to make your relationships right as the Lord leads, and most importantly, to be together to pray. And I believe that as we do this, we are going to see some very, very marvelous things happen. People say, well, what's wrong? What's the big problem? Well, I'm happy to tell you this morning, I need to say to the best of my knowledge, there's no big crises. Maybe you know of one. Lots of times I'm one of the last ones to hear. But I don't know of any crises that's bringing this about. Although, let me say, there's nothing wrong with praying in a crisis time. There's no thing in my heart right now to prove that we're more spiritual than some other churches. We can have a week of prayer and fasting. There's no reason for me to do this in order to just see who's really committed here at North Way. I'm not doing it for that reason. I'm doing it because God's called us to lay aside things and to seek his face. But there is an issue here, church, and I want you to get this. If you have your pen and pencil and something to write on, if you don't have something to write on, we supply plenty of things for you to write on right here, all right? Right in the back of one of these. Take this home with you. The issue is this. Do we believe that prayer, dependence upon God, seeking the face of God, hearing the voice of God, do we believe that is the number one priority of the church or not? That's the issue. Do we really believe that that's what we are called to do above everything else? I've been part of churches for more than 20 years. Have you seen that truth lived out in your church? Have you seen prayer, worship, seeking God, humbling yourself, have you seen that to be the number one priority of your church? Or have you seen it being the religious treadmill of activity and doing and going through the motions, keeping things going? Beloved, either we believe that that's true, either the answer is yes to that question, or it's no, it's not, well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't. And if it's yes, let me say to you today that we need to demonstrate that that's true. We don't just say, well, that's true, and then go off and do our own thing all week. Do you know that there was 500 people to whom Jesus appeared after He was raised from the dead? There was 500 people that watched Him ascend, to whom He gave the command, Go and wait in the city of Jerusalem until you're clothed with power from on high. Do you know how many were in that upper room? How many? 120. That's the Holy Fourth. Now, do you think the other 380 were a little sorry that they missed that? I have a feeling that from that point on, they were hungry to be where the people of God were meeting. Why is that? Because there's something in every one of us that wants to just kind of, you know, call the shots spiritually for our lives. No one's going to tell me what to do. I'm in charge of my life. You know, beloved, that's just the problem. Jesus is either Lord of everything, or He's not Lord of anything. He's either Lord of all, or He's not Lord at all. Now, I'm not able to stand before you today. Please hear this, beloved. I want you to know this. I don't stand here today as some perfected, mighty prayer warrior that's saying, now listen, I've been praying for 36 hours this week, and God has told me that judgment's going to come on you if you don't come and pray. I know that I need to grow in prayer just like you do, but I want to tell you something that's just been stirring in my heart this week. You know, there was a man by the name of Matthew Henry who wrote that great commentary that many of us still use today, Matthew Henry's commentary in the Hobart, who said, when God is about to pour out a great mercy on a people, He brings them to prayer. Now, I want you to know that's been moving in my heart, and I believe God is going to be pouring out a great mercy on my life because He's been bringing me to the place of prayer. I'm anticipating, I'm not coming to this thinking that maybe it's going to be a failure. God's drawing us in, church. I'm just responding, and in my own life, over the last months even, I've seen a thirsting to be in that place of prayer. I thank you for praying for me. Some of you are shaking your heads. Boy, you know I've really been praying for you, pastor. I thank you for that because it's been drawing me into God. I know God's going to pour out a great mercy because He's bringing me to the place of prayer. And I want to say to you, church, that's what I believe that He wants to do. And I'm more and more convinced that prayer doesn't prepare us for the battle. Prayer is the battle. It isn't that we're just trying to get prepared to go out and do God's good works. God's good work is to pray. And service is simply collecting the results of what God's led us to. Beloved, if we cannot pray for a week, if we can't set ourselves to seek the Lord for just a week wholeheartedly, then we are no more than just another cathedral with just a little different look to it. We're just another shell of a church like you have seen everywhere you go around this country, and particularly in Europe and other places. We're no more than that in the annals of hell. See, because the devil lets the church get as busy as it wants, or as preoccupied as it wants, or as religious as it wants, but when the church begins to pray, it's then that hell begins to wake up. And it's my conviction that the reason why there is no great church in Pittsburgh because there's no great praying church in Pittsburgh. And the great churches in this country that I'm seeing, and I'm not talking about great just necessarily in terms of their ability to organize Bible schools, but I'm talking about churches that are making an impact. I'm not necessarily talking about great in terms of big, big numbers either, but making an impact. Salting their society are churches that are praying churches. That's the only kind of church that Jesus is going to have. I want you to know that. And I want this church and you people to be known by every demon as someone to watch out for. And I believe that, beloved. I know, listen, I know that what we want to see happen of revival in this city will never begin, never begin until we're able to walk with some authority and speak the words of God and do the works of Jesus Christ. And so what the Lord's calling us to do is to set aside this week to pray and to fast and to seek His face. Now, beloved, all week long I was saying, Lord, how could I possibly motivate the church? You said in your word things like, call unto me and I will answer and show you great and mighty things that you know not. Lord, you already told the church here in your word that when you seek me, you shall surely find me when you search after me with all of your heart. Lord, it was you that said, these things which I have done, you will do and even greater works you shall do because I'm going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, it will be given to you by my Father who is in heaven. You see, what I'm saying is, church, all through the word, God's already told us. He's already given us the motivation to pray. And I was saying, Lord, what can I possibly add to that? What can I say more than if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal them. What can I say more than that? And so I was laboring all week, Lord, what word can motivate our people? I could tell you all through the scriptures from when God told Moses to ordain a solemn assembly in Leviticus 23, 26. People were not to labor, not to do any work, just seek God for that week. I could tell you about Nehemiah. When he completed the rough work of the wall of Jerusalem and he said, now we're going to set aside a solemn assembly and seek God. Nehemiah 9, 1, you can look at it. I could tell you about Esther. I could tell you about Joel, who later said, the exiles will never come back until we call a solemn assembly. Sound the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm and bring the people of God together. I could talk to you, beloved, all about revivals. Do you know that it's been said that no move of God had ever begun, been sustained, or carried on without a move of prayer that preceded it? We tend to see, you know, we're like the news media in a lot of ways. What you see when someone is presented with a particular commendation or whatever it is, the fruit, you know, when you see that Olympian finishing the course and getting the gold medal, you see that and we all applaud and, you know, he just might as well have just stepped out there and did that. But how do you know there was years of preparation? There were a lot of races that he ran in and probably didn't do very well. And beloved, I want you to know, even though some of you have been running this race and maybe you've stumbled a few times, maybe you've tried to pray, I want to tell you today, it's a new day to seek the Lord. It's a new day to seek God. And he wants to infuse us with new life for that. Now, here's what the Lord gave me to share with you this morning. As I waited on the Lord, particularly Friday morning and Saturday morning, this is what the Lord gave me to share with you. If we will seek God this week, some of you need to catch this. Just go ahead and nudge those people. Hit that one next to you, Scott, right there. Okay. Here's what God wants you to hear this morning about prayer. If we'll seek the Lord, look at verse 31. This is what God quickened in me. 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. Beloved, this is what's going to happen not just in the church, but in our personal lives. Please hear this. God doesn't call you just to come and like, just to give to the church. He's saying, this is for your life. Here are the three things that God made alive to me at the result of this great prayer meeting in Acts 4. This is one of the most beautiful expressions of corporate prayer in all the Bible. Acts 4. We just read it. Here's the result. Verse 31. There was a great shaking. Now, beloved, how many of you know that that shaking was not just physical, but spiritual? I believe there was a... How many have been in an earthquake? And you've seen, you've felt that, and you know it's definable. You feel it. Well, I believe that there was a shaking, a vibrating, if you will, but there was also something in the spiritual realm that took place too. And God is going to move into our lives, and He's going to shake things in our lives. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. A couple weeks ago, I was cleaning out the garage, and in fact, I was going to do some painting on the trim of the house, and I dug out this old paint can. You know which one that was, huh, Butch? Someone sealed it with wax, and that thing looked like a monument. And it had been there when we got the house. And I pried it open, and what do you think I found in there? Well, total separation, right, of the pigment and whatever other materials are in there. So I sealed it back up again and it just shook that thing. Now, how many of you know if I just stuck my brush in that can with the pigment on the bottom and the other stuff on it, what good would that have done? Well, that's like a lot of our lives. We've just been sitting on the shelf, and things are just kind of out of whack inside of our hearts. And God wants to come in and shake us. Now, that shaking may not be a pleasant experience, but how many of you know that it's glorious to open that can up and see in there that pure color still ready to come out and be applied? Well, that's what God wants to do. He wants to shake us up so that He can then use us and apply us where He wants us to be poured out to all the world. You see, beloved, prayer is what's going to bring the presence of God in our life. And when God's presence comes, oh, I'll tell you what, you are not the same. Think of Isaiah when he said in chapter 6, holy, holy, holy. He said, woe is me, God, I'm undone. He was shaken and he was never the same. Think of Paul on the road to Damascus. Great religious man, Jew of Jews, Hebrew of Hebrews, persecutor of the church, gallant champion of righteousness. Wham, the power of God hit him. He's never the same. He was shaken. The Bible says for three days he prayed and fasted. And then he was touched. Or just take John, great apostle John. No man had more revelation of Jesus than John did. And the Bible says in Revelation chapter 1 that he was in the Spirit in the Lord's day. And when the Holy Righteous One of Israel appeared to him, he fell on his face as though dead. He was shaken. Now, beloved, I want to know, how many of us want a revelation of Jesus Christ this week? That's really what this is about. This isn't about getting just, you know, more intense around here. It's about a revelation. It's about seeing Jesus. It's about humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he might exalt us. And so the shaking will be in our hearts and the shaking, beloved, will also be in the heavenly places. I so much want to be a part of a church that's shaking the heavenly places. Listen, if we can't do that, if we're just to hear people say, well, there's already a lot of churches and all this and all that. I was down at the New Mall yesterday. Have you all been to the New Mall yet? There's a lot of your wives looking at you right now saying, you're supposed to take me there and see this. This is a huge place. It's a huge place. I mean, for Pittsburgh, okay? And there's so many thousands of people. Do you know how many thousands of people we have in this area? I'm here to say to you, this area needs to see the power of God. Where are you going to tell people to go to see the power of God? Does it have to be to a crusade that someone else brings in? Or can the power of God be right here for us to bring people and say, Jesus Christ is touching lives? Beloved, if that's not what we can be, if we have to just be fat, happy, charismatic, just going through the motions, let's get on and run North Park at 8 o'clock with everybody else. Let's go play 36 on Sunday morning. You're pretty serious about this. All I can tell you is I see around me so much shallowness, so much religious shallowness. It's no wonder the world doesn't really care to hear what we have to say. We need to have depth, beloved, rooted and grounded in the Word of God. And I believe God wants to do that in us, don't you? He wants to use us to see that happen, shaking in the heavenly places. Let me just go on quickly. The next thing God told me is going to happen as we pray, is that a great filling is going to take place. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now church, what happened just a little while earlier in the book of Acts? Was this Pentecost or was Pentecost in chapter 2? It was earlier, wasn't it? Well, what is this then? It's the same Greek word, the word fulfilled there, ploreso. What does that mean? Well, that means this. A great discovery happened in my life. I'm going to ask you if you've had the same discovery. I sought an experience with the Holy Spirit for about two years. This is when I first, just prior to when I came to Pittsburgh, in that year I came, 1973. I was seeking an experience. How many of you have sought an experience with the Holy Spirit? Be real honest. You sought an experience. I was seeking the Holy Spirit's fullness. This was the height of the charismatic movement and everything was really... And guess what? The Holy Spirit met me. But you know what I discovered? That's not the end of the whole story, is it? It's to be a day by day by day refilling. And you know what? A lot of you would be a lot better off if you got away from looking for an experience and just got on living every day with Jesus. Because what you'd see happen is the filling would begin to come. Now, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is definitely something for you to experience. I'm not saying don't look at that. I'm saying, though, you'll be really surprised when you realize that three days after you've been filled with the Spirit and spoken with tongues, you may feel bad again. You say, well, wait a minute. What happened? Why? Because it's relationship that God wants. And what happened here was the church was in right relationship. And God said, now I'm going to pour out my Spirit again. Now, I'm here to say to you, this isn't just for then. It's for now. My prayer time this morning, I was saying, Lord, I was praising Him. I praised Him as my righteousness, as my holiness. And I said, Lord, I thank You today for filling me with Your Spirit. Think for a minute where you're going after right now. Some of you got to go right back into the sack. It'd be the best place. Okay? But assuming that you're going to go on through the day, what would happen differently if you were filled with the Holy Spirit? What would happen to the people that you'd touch if you were filled with the Holy Spirit? What would happen in the conversations that you might have at Denny's or at your mother-in-law's or grandma's or wherever it might be? Can I tell you something? God wants to fill us. He didn't redeem us just to have us sitting on the shelf kind of half full. He wants us to move in fullness. And I left my prayer time this morning thinking, wow, you mean, God, I'm going to get, I'm going to come to church and be filled with the Holy Spirit today? And the Lord said, well, if that's okay, that's what I'd like to do. And I'm excited because, you see, this ongoing filling is what's going to explode the power of the church. That's what's going to explode it. And finally, the Lord said to me, I could say so much more. Let me just make one more point here about power. We are seeing God do things. A brother had a prophetic vision just a few weeks ago. Have you ever seen one of those great big hydroelectric dams? A brother had a vision of one of those huge dams, like the Hoover Dam. And in it he saw small cracks where water was beginning just to seep through. In some places you'd see a little gusher coming through the wall. I really believe in some respects, church, that's what we're seeing. We're seeing a few over here miraculously healed. I had a phone call from a man this Monday. He called me. He said, Jay, I just wanted you to know I came to church last Sunday, eight o'clock, because I wanted to get home as soon as I can because I had eight hours of paperwork to do. I wanted to get... I appreciated his honesty. He was here to take his pill and be religious and go home again. And he said, God met me at church last week. He said, and when you preached that sermon on growing strong in a time of change, it was like God just spoke to me. And he said, and something I've been fighting for 13 or 18 years. I forget what he said. How many? 18 years. God said, now it's going to change. And he called me and his heart... I heard something in that man's tone of voice over the telephone that I know was God. It was a lift. It was a lightness, an expectation. And he was meeting the next day with his boss to tell him, I've been changed. And now I've got to change this situation. And I'm talking about a significant radical change in his whole direction of life. Why? Because the power of God is seeping through. But beloved, a day is coming when that dam, as this vision unfolded to us, that dam is going to break. And people are everywhere going to be swept up in the tide of God's spirit. You say, well, that sounds awful idealistic. I've never seen that happen. Well, you know what? It is happening. I can take you to places where it is happening and people in scores and in hundreds are being swept up in the tide of God. You say, well, we're not spiritual enough for that yet. Jesus in us is spiritual enough to do anything God wants to do. And I'm ready for it. Let's just, let's get out of our minds that somehow, well, you know, if God started sweeping in scores and hundreds of lives into the kingdom that we wouldn't have our nice little eight o'clock service anymore. How many of you are willing to sacrifice the intimacy of this to see people come to know Jesus? To see their lives put back together again? The Lord's been showing me this final thing that there's going to be a great speaking, a great shaking, a great filling and a great speaking. One of the spirits that we pray against so frequently is a spirit that's very prevalent particularly here in our nice middle to upper middle class area of fear and intimidation. How many of you find yourself when you're ready to share with somebody, Scott told us here exactly what happened to him a few weeks ago. You find it just when you're ready to speak something comes up and you just, if I say that I'll be so weird this person will think I'm off the wall. They'll call me a religious freak. They'll say go back and dance or whatever you do. I was with someone just a few days ago. This happened to me. That's why I know it's so real. Our kids were playing together over at the BMX bike trail there in North Park. So we're sitting under one of these little things and I really didn't know this person very well. I knew his name and that was it. And we're talking a little bit and I was saying Lord I'm ready to be used. Every conversation you have to say Lord I'm ready to be used. I'm ready to be used Lord. We started moving the conversation toward what do you do. You never really get that what do you do. As soon as I say I'm a pastor that's why he gets shut down. I'll tell you right now. So I was asking him before he asked me hoping to get the conversation going. And he said something about the fact he owned his own company and then he described what his company did was to go out and find executives all around the country. I had noticed that his car was like three blocks long and his kid was riding solid gold bicycles and stuff like that. I started putting all this together that this man was a very successful executive search person. Headhunter or whatever you want to call it. I just want you to know how the devil used that against me. Intimidation. How many of you ever had that happen to you? Well God's saying to us if we'll come to a place of prayer that when he shakes out of us those things that aren't of him when he fills us with his spirit beloved there's going to be a great speaking with boldness. Not a boldness that puts people down but a boldness that says the greatest thing in all the world is knowing Jesus Christ and I want to share it with you. That's what God wants to do. He wants us to learn to speak to him with boldness to speak against the enemy with boldness and to speak to the lost world with boldness. And God's promised that if we'll pray that's what he wants to do. I want you to bow your heads with me right now as we conclude this time together. Holy Spirit of God. Holy Spirit of God. It's so possible Lord. It's so possible Father for you to do exceedingly abundantly above that which we ask or think. Oh Lord. Father my prayer for this church from these dear ones Lord is that you would be stirring in them God all this week Father. That behind the doors of their home Lord there would be a stirring in the spirit. So that Lord when we come together it would be an explosion of prayer Father. Lord it wouldn't be stirring up some prayer spirit Lord. But it would be an explosion. It would be bursting out of us God. And Lord as we set ourselves to seek your face and to humble ourselves God to repent of our sin that Lord you'd move in us a great shaking and a great filling and a powerful word to be spoken through us Lord. A great speaking. Oh Jesus. Let me ask you to stand where you are please. Hallelujah Lord God. You know beloved there's nothing more I can say to motivate. Let me just say this. I think most of you know that we're in this ministry at the calling of God. This ministry emerged because God called it into being. Yesterday we had a wedding here and most of you know Chuck Gavitt our custodian got married to one of our gals. As we were here together you know the Lord just he just peeled back something in my spirit and he showed me a family. He did. He showed me a family. And there was such love in my heart yesterday for you all. Standing with this couple whose personal families are very needy. And God showed me us in a way I'd never seen this before. He showed me this family of believers. And I believe with all my heart that the greatest motivation that could ever rise up in us is a desire to love our family enough that we'll surrender our rights and we'll surrender our comforts even just for a week and come together and pray and be before God. I believe you all can do it. The question is will you? Will you seek Him while He may be found? The Lord has told me that there's going to be rest this week. Rest is going to come. It's not going to be an intense draining week. There's going to be rest. And secondly we're going to see many people receive from God. And I think that's what that prophetic word was. Many are going to receive from God. It's up to you. Let's pray. Would you lift your head before God? Father, we pray right now that because of what you want to do in us because of the love that's in this family of believers we'll be here, God morning by morning and evening by evening as you lead us to pray, to seek your face. And we believe you, God to honor your word now to fulfill your promise. We'll worship you and praise you and give you all the glory and all the honor. Glory to your holy name. Blessed be Jesus. Blessed be Jesus. Glory to his holy name. I will come and bow down at your feet, Lord Jesus. In your presence is fullness of joy. There is nothing, there is no one to compare with you. I take pleasure in worshiping your Lord. Praise God. I believe as we conclude this morning that the spirit of God was at work in several of your hearts. I just want to ask you a question of response today. How many of you right now would be honest before God and willing to acknowledge before me as your pastor that you need that kind of stirring in your life? You need a shaking and a feeling and an ability to speak. Let me see your hand. God bless you. God bless you. I believe the Lord will honor you as you respond to his prompting. I believe that. I want to ask this final question today. At this service, most all of us have known the Lord for some time or walked with him but there may be some today who've come to visit with us who've never clearly come to a point in their life when they've received the love of God and Jesus. It's early in the morning and you may not even feel like you're thinking straight but inside you know something's happening. You know that you need God to order your life. You need Jesus to set things in order. There are many people here today that at some point in the last five years in the life of this church did what I'm going to ask you to do. They prayed with me and then they said, I'm receiving Christ. I'm beginning a walk with Christ today. As I look around here today, I just want to ask you, do you know the Lord today? Have you received forgiveness of sins? Pray with me right now, would you? If you've never received Christ or if you have some vague relationship, pray this prayer. Heavenly Father, I see my need for you today. I ask you God to come into my life now, set my life in order. I receive the forgiveness that's mine in Jesus Christ. I give you my life, Lord. Walk with me now. With every head bowed, please. Who today would say, Pastor, I prayed that, that's the desire of my heart, that's where I am. I need the Lord today. If you'd say that, I want you to do this for me. Would you give me the privilege of agreeing with you that today you're beginning this walk with Christ? I want to agree. The Bible says, when two or more of us agree on earth as touching anything we ask, it'll be given to us by our Father in heaven. Yes, sir, I agree with you now. The love of God is coming into your life and settle down in there and it'll never take it from you. I agree with you today. Anyone else wants to receive that, acknowledge that love, just wave your hand at me and let me agree with you. Anybody else? Let me just see your hand quickly. Anyone else today? Praise God. Thank you, Father. Lord, we thank you for your church and we thank you for what we know you're taking your church into. Lord, we ask you to seal this decision, Lord, and all the rest of us now who've made acknowledgement of your moving in our hearts. Do it, Lord. We're going to give you the praise and the glory and the honor in the mighty name of Jesus in everyone's sight. Amen. Beloved, tonight we meet at 7.15 on Wednesday night and Friday night. Tonight I'm going to do this. I'm going to do two lessons on how to pray for an hour. I'm going to compact them into about an