Rich Kao

They didn't pray for their own safety.  They didn't even pray for their leaders' safety.  How did they pray?  They prayed that they would become all the more bold in preaching the word.  Such was the faith of the early church in the face of persecution and attacks against their top leaders.  Act 4:29-30. 

There was something about the word that the early Christians comprehended.  There was power in it.  There was authority in it.  There was life in it. And there was signs, wonders and miracles in it.   Rather than back down in the face of trouble and attacks, they prayed to become all the more confident in their declarations of the word.  The comprehended something divine about the word because the word had apprehended them.  Their focus wasn't on themselves, it was on something much more important. 

How did God answer their prayer?  With an earthquake.  Acts 4:31.  As far as I know, it's the only all-church prayer meeting recorded in scripture that was answered with an earthquake.  That's endorsement.  It was one of the most powerful prayer meetings ever had.   (Acts 16:25-26 - God answered Paul & Silas' worship time with an earthquake too).  But in reality, it wasn't a earthquake, it was a "Wordquake,"  a people so confident about the vitality of the word, that they were willing to put their lives on the line.  Would you die for the word?  Are you willing to risk your life and safety for the word? 

May God fill us with the same cry of the first Christians, "Grant that your bond-servants may speak your word with great boldness."   May we return to the same soul-challenging convictions that the early church had, and in the process find out where our true delight and calling is. 

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