How to Bring God's Power into Your Impossible Situation

I’d like you to think of a mental chalkboard, in your mind, and I’d like you to think, for a second, What’s the most impossible situation I would like to see God change? What relationship, what finances – what is it about me that you can’t change, you’ve tried to change, it hasn’t happened, it’s impossible? What would you ask Him?

Jot that on the chalkboard of your mind, will you? You got it? Because I want you to read this passage, and hear what God’s going to say, on the basis of Him actually wanting to move in, in that impossible situation.

Now, granted, sometimes God says “no,” and I understand all that. But what I’d like to suggest is that God would like to say “yes” a lot more than any of us would ever dream.

Let’s pick up the situation in Acts chapter 12, verses 1 through 19. “It was about that time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the Church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. And when he saw that that pleased the Jews, he proceeded also to seize Peter. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And after arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each.” Sixteen guys to guard one guy. “Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.” That’s the situation.

Verse 5: “So Peter was kept in prison.” Sounds pretty impossible, doesn’t it? You’re a brand new, multiplying Church. You’re against the entire Roman army, the fighting force of the land that controls the known world, and they have sixteen soldiers surrounding your leader. And we’re going to find, at night they put him in a cell, and they had one man on one side, and one on the other, and they had him chained. They don’t want this fellow getting away.

“So Peter was kept in prison, but” – how did the Church respond? – “the Church was earnestly praying unto God for him.” They didn’t have any weapons. They didn’t have any armies. They said, “We have an impossible situation. He’s a beloved leader, greatly used by God. We will earnestly pray, specifically for Peter, unto God for his deliverance.”

Let’s find out if God hears the prayers of people when the Church gathers. “That night before Herod was to bring him to trial” – the night before his execution – “Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and sandals.’ And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,’ the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea what the angel was doing was really happening.” He’s a little groggy right now.

“He thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and the second guards; they came to an iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself –” You can almost see him rubbing his eyes. The cold air hits his face.

Now, Peter, first observation: How many of us would be asleep on the night before our execution? This guy is resting in Christ. Secondly, how many of us, if there were a crisis in this church – how many of us, in the middle of the night, 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., would think to themselves, Oh, if I’m here, I’m sure there’s a prayer meeting going on praying for me?

You see, the Early Church was built around an absolute commitment to corporate prayer. Crisis, problem, need – prayer. It’s all through the Scriptures.

And so, Peter ends up meeting where a large group is already praying. “He knocks on the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized his voice,” she gets so excited and overjoyed, she runs back, without opening it, and exclaims, “‘Peter is at the door!’ ‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her. When she kept insisting it was so, they said, ‘Well, it must be his angel.’ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.” God had done the impossible.

“Peter motioned with his hands for them to be quiet and then he described how the Lord had brought him out of prison.” And then, he told them, “‘Tell James and the brothers about this,’ and he left for another place.”

An impossible situation; the Church responds in prayer. God responds through sending an angel for deliverance. The faith of those people, I bet, grew a little bit that night.

Just so it could be in the annals of history, the author, Luke, writes, “In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter” – an epilogue. Back at the ranch, what happened in prison.

“After Herod had a thorough search made for him and didn’t find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed for a while.”

It’s a pretty simple story, isn’t it? And by the way, this isn’t about signs and wonders. This isn’t about apostolic issues. This isn’t about gifts. This isn’t about things that may have happened in the first century that don’t necessarily normally happen today. This is about an impossible situation, and a group of people who took it seriously and prayed.

Now, what I’d like to suggest is that there are four key principles we can learn from the Early Church, so that we can bring God’s power into our impossible situation, and all four of those, I think, are found in verse 5. Flip back the page, or look in your Bible.

Notice, the impossible situation is Peter in prison, but, now, look at these four phrases: “But” – here’s the first phrase, number one – “the Church,” the gathering of God’s people – number two – “was earnestly praying.” It’s continuous action, and that word is a very specific word that we’ll look at. Number three, they prayed unto God, and number four, they prayed for him.

Now, I’d like to take these in order of, I think, priority – not as they are here, but in priority of learning how to pray to bring God’s power, supernatural power, into your impossible situation.

The first thing, I think, we learn is that we must learn to pray unto God. The little word to, or unto, it’s a little preposition in Greek. It means “before,” or, “before the face of God.” It means “motion towards, access to, or nearness at something.”

Now, some of you, at this point, are saying, Chip, who do you think we’re praying to? We pray to God. What do you mean we must learn to pray unto God?

You know what I’d like to suggest? This has been the most profound difference that I’ve learned, in my own prayer life. I’d like to suggest that maybe fifty to seventy-five percent of the time, in your prayers, and mine, we don’t really pray unto God.

Now, I don’t mean you’re praying to some false god, but I’d like to suggest that, most of the time, when we’re really not conscious, that when we pray, our focus is on our words; our focus is on what we are saying. Our focus is on other people in the room, and how they might think about what we are saying, or our focus is on pure autopilot.

Have you listened to your kids, and yourselves, pray in groups, how these little phrases keep popping up? “Oh, Lord, keep us safe. Protect all those, duh-duh-duh, do-do-do-do.”

What I mean, and I think what this passage means, that the Early Church did, when they prayed unto God, is, they came, and they knew, and were conscious of, they were in the very presence of God, and their focus was on to Whom they were speaking, and they were absolutely certain that they were talking to Him.

Now, think of the difference. Think of the difference, instead of bowing your head, and just letting your mouths start to go, if you stopped, and, somehow, like the picture in Revelation 5, or Isaiah 6, you realize, here’s the throne room of God, and there are seraphim flying – “holy, holy, holy.” And He’s an unapproachable light, and He’s all-powerful. And then, combined with that, the Lamb of God, and His goodness, and His tenderness, and His love, and His desire to bless and draw you near. What if, in your mind, before you said a word, you realized who God really was?

I tell you, it will transform your prayer life. When you consciously become aware of, and take time to focus on, Whom it is you’re speaking to, all of a sudden, the size of your problems begins to shrink, and your emotional struggles begin to shrink, because it’s like bringing penny, and nickel, and dime issues to a multi, multi-billionaire.

Can He change your relationship? Like that. Can He heal a body? Like that. Can He turn a situation around at work? Like that. Praying unto God is coming unto God, with an awareness of who He really is, before you say a word, and then, being certain that you’re actually talking to Him.

R. A. Torrey writes, in his book [The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power] – and I wrote down a quote – “We should never utter one syllable of prayer, either in public or in private, until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence of God, and we are really speaking to Him.”

I’ve really been trying to practice this. I try and ponder His attributes. And I remember reading about Martin Luther, and how he would read through, carefully, the Lord’s Prayer, and then recite the Ten Commandments, and a number of things, just to remember Who God was.

Let me ask you: are you praying unto God? Are you really aware of who you’re speaking to, and are you certain that, as you speak, you’re really talking to Him?

That raises a couple of questions, doesn’t it? Some of you might say, “Well, gosh, maybe God just works this way for people like Chip, or for pastors, or missionaries, or whoever else. How could I know that I could come into God’s presence, and then how could I know for sure that God is really going to hear me?”

Let me give you the assurance. It has nothing to do with your status. It has nothing to do with your merit.

The basis of our assurance before God’s throne is the work of Christ on the cross.

The way that you can know, and I can know, and every single person on this earth who knows Jesus in a personal, saving way, that when you come before God, you have access before the very Throne Room of God – look at the verse I’ve put down – Hebrews 10:19.

It says, “Therefore, brothers, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place,” or “the Holy of Holies,” where God’s power is, where the most intimate expression of His Person is. And how do you get there? “…by the blood of Jesus.”

Your merit, your absolute guarantee that you can come into the presence of the Almighty Creator of the universe isn’t because you’ve been a good boy or a good girl today. It’s by the blood of Christ.

The problem that keeps me from God, is my sin. And when He died on the cross, He paid for your sin. When He rose from the dead, and was seated at the right hand of God, He pioneered a trail so that you and I have absolute confidence, right before the throne of God, on the basis of not your spirituality, but on the basis of His finished work on the cross. That’s powerful, people. You can know for sure.

Well, the second question that may come up is, “What if there are some issues in my life that need to be taken care of?” Great – 1 John 1:9. 1 John teaches that not only did He do that once and for all, but the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing. If there’s an issue between you and another person, or God, confess your sin, and he says He’ll cleanse you, and forgive you. And then, He’ll draw you near.

The second issue is, well, that’s how we have basis, but how does it actually work?

The Scripture is very clear here. The means of access into God’s presence, twenty-four hours a day, is by His Spirit. You see, the Scripture teaches we pray to the Father; we pray on the basis, or through the Son; and we pray in the Spirit. It’s the Spirit’s ministry.

You know what His ministry is? His ministry in prayer is to take you by the hand, and me by the hand, and personally escort us to the very throne room of God, to make God’s presence real in our hearts, and in our experiences. It’s true in reality. There are no barriers between us and God because of the work of the cross. But in our experience, often that doesn’t jive out. And so, it’s the work of the Spirit to do that.

Notice the verse here, from Ephesians 2:18. It says, “For through Him” – Christ – “we have access” – and that word means “introduction into God’s presence” – “to the Father” – how? – “by one Spirit.”

The second thing He says that we need to do is that we need to pray earnestly. The word earnestly, here, is a compound word. It has two parts. The first part, ek, means “out,” and the second half of this word means “stretch.” The idea of our English word, we get the word for tension. It’s translated in 1 Peter 1:22 as “deeply,” or “fervently.”

It’s a word used in Luke 22:44, where Jesus is praying. And then, He sees the disciples, and He goes back to pray. And it says, “Therefore in agony He prayed more earnestly as He was doing battle.”

The idea here is: “focused intent and passion.” It’s coming to God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, saying, God, I mean business! I want what I’m asking of You. I’m not going through the motions.

The third thing we need to learn to do is, we need to pray corporately. We need to pray unto God, we need to pray earnestly, and we need to pray corporately. I get that from that little phrase: “The Church earnestly prayed unto God for him.” The Church, the meaning of the word the Church means “the assembly,” or “the gathered ones,” the ekklesia.

The Church was born, it grew, and it exploded, in the context of a commitment and belief that the body of Christ, gathered for intercession, is the most powerful force on the earth. The Early Church believed that the most powerful force on this earth was when the body of Christ gathered, and approached Jesus, and the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they asked in unity.

Historically and globally, you’ll find every great movement of God is tied with people who begin to lay hold of what’s true about prayer. You can look at the Wesley brothers, Jonathan Edwards. You can go back to the Reformation, or you can go over to Korea today, where God is moving marvelously, and you’ll find the Church is hundreds of thousands of people pray daily, corporately.

The final point: Not only is it unto God, and earnestly, and corporately, we must pray specifically. Did you notice? It’s “for him.”

You’ll never see God’s power until you start praying specifically.