Prayer Precedes Power

     She came to us in tears. 
    She had just received news that she had cancer. She was scared and in pain and she brought her distress to the only place she knew might have answers or at least some comfort. We knelt with the women together and prayed over her.  Knowing that God alone has the power to heal, we brought it to the church leadership. Some protested that we shouldn't pray for healing, because it would only disappoint her in her new faith in Christ.  But we knew that God had the power to heal.  God accompanies His word and His gospel with signs and wonders!  We gathered together the leaders and prayed over her. 
    A week later she walked back through the doors of the church, beaming.  She gave me a hug and cried again, reporting that her doctor had no idea why, but he could no longer find any evidence of her disease.  It was a powerful testimony to herself and all who witnessed the tremendous power of God and care for one, distressed woman.  
   Only the name of Jesus could free her from her bondage to disease! 
   Power is always preceded by prayer!
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12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. 13And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. 14These all continued with one unity in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. Acts 1:12-14
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PRAYER UNIFIES BELIEVERS

  Upper room waiting is prayer that stays in faith, waiting for God to respond.  Its effect is a deep unity among believers as we join together to seek God for His glory and His kingdom above all things. Prayer calls us to lay aside everything that divides us. 
    Jesus said to ask and keep on asking.  Upper room prayer is persistent, coming to a good, loving Father who who wants to give good gifts to His children!
    In the desert the people of Israel ate manna from heaven. They simply gathered.  They did not need to plant and harvest.  Upon entering the promised land, however, they would co-labor with God to bring in the harvest every year.  The first sheaf they would gather would be brought as an offering to God.  During the Jewish Feast of the Firstfruits, which took place at the same hour of Jesus’ resurrection, they would bring in a sheaf of barley, wave it to the four corners of the earth, and declare their gratitude to the Lord of the Harvest for supplying everything they needed.
   Jesus was the first sheaf of the harvest. Jesus told His disciples as they watched the people come out to hear the gospel, “look at the fields, they are white and ready to harvest!  Ask the Lord of the Harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”  There would be many, many more brothers and sisters brought as fruit of the kingdom!
    This is what the disciples were doing in the upper room.  Aside from praying for the power of the coming Holy Spirit, they were also praying that God would supply more workers because it was time to declare the gospel throughout the world. 
   But they had a problem: Jesus had chosen 12, one for each tribe of Israel, but Judas had betrayed Jesus and later killed himself. They needed another worker to complete the representatives to the 12 tribes of Israel.  
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​15And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16“Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; 17for he was numbered with us and allotted a lot in this ministry.” Acts 1:15-17
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PROPHECY FUELS FAITH

40 days of prophecies make 10 days of upper room waiting full of faith.

   After Jesus' resurrection, He spent forty days with His disciples, men and women, revealing to them the prophecies about Himself. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Reading through the prophecies about Jesus, His coming, His death, His resurrection, the promised Holy Spirit, the victory we have in Jesus over the enemy, and the coming return of Jesus with His kingdom will help us through the difficulties that come with being ministers of the gospel.  
     You and I, all believers are called to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus.  We are called to witness to people about Him.  But we need to know God’s Word, and by prophecy wage a good warfare (1 Tim. 1:18). When we are fueled up with the Word of God, we know who we have believed.  We know He is faithful to keep His promises.  We can count on God to fulfill His promises because He has in the past!  The Word of God gives us courage.
     The people of Israel have genealogies.  Their names would be written down from generation to generation.  These genealogies would let people know that they belonged to the people of God.  There is a Book of Life in heaven as well—where believers’ names are written. 
     Judas is our contrast.  He was numbered at the time, but his name would be stricken from the Book of Life.  He was just like the people of Israel who saw God’s power in the wilderness and refused to enter into relationship.
    Judas had his name stricken because he turned to lust after the things of this earth instead of spiritual things.  Just as the people of Israel complained and grumbled and lusted in the desert, Judas traded an eternal reward for an earthly one. 
    This was not a sudden loss of relationship, it was consistent practicing of evil and unbelief. Long before Judas betrayed Jesus to death, he was the son of a prominent pharisee and had charge of the money donated to Jesus’ ministry.  He thought no one would know, so he would regularly siphon off some of the money for himself, embezzling the funds.  He didn’t believe that God would see and know and judge.
     He saw Jesus’ power regularly, but refused to believe. Judas chose an earthly wage rather than an eternal one. He chose an earthly field to harvest, rather than a heavenly one.
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​18(Now this man purchased a field with the misthos/reward/wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels [splachna\ poured out. 19And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field[place/land\ is called in their own language, Akel Dama, that is, Field[place/land\ of Blood [kinship\.)
20“For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
‘Let his dwelling place be desolate,
And let no one live in it’; Acts 1:18-20
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PLACES OF WITNESS MUST BE STEWARDED

  ​Believers have an earthly allotment to oversee.  We will have an eternal allotment/inheritance over which to reign!
     We live in the woods in the mountains of the Cascades.  We have a couple of acres with trees, lots of blackberry bines and woodsy plants.  One of Jeff's first things to do when we purchased the house was to talk to the neighbors and walk the property lines, trying to establish the lot lines.  He would try to part through the vines and weeds to locate the illusive iron pins sunken into the ground.  There are still some we cannot find!  These pins establish where our lot lines are, and whether or not our neighbors can encroach onto our property.  
     Owning a property gives us many rights--the right to build, the right to garden and plant, and especially the right to pass it down as an inheritance perpetually throughout our generations.  
    When the people of Israel entered into the promised land, God told them to divide the land among them, tribe by tribe, family by family.  Each family had a share, a lot of land, which would pass down to their descendants by inheritance. Even if they sold the land for a time, it would always revert back to their family line. They would establish these lot lines through the method of the casting of "lots," which were often clay pieces or rocks with the names of tribes or family leaders written upon them.  As they would pull up the randomly chosen lot, it would be ratified as God's choice of inheritance for each of His people.  
     In ministry, our jurisdictive spheres of leadership are also chosen for us by God.  We each have places of ministry to steward for God, given temporarily into our hands to keep, build and bear fruit upon for God's kingdom.  These are not only our physical resources, such as our homes, our finances and our bodies, but also groups in which we take part: our families, our workplaces, our communities, our hobbies and specific ministries.  In whatever way we participate with others, we are to steward these resources and places to witness about to God and to build and edify the church.  As a result, we will receive a "reward" or "wages" from God at the end of our lives--an eternal inheritance that can never be taken away.  
     Judas, however, chose to use his “reward” in his present time on an earthly inheritance. This inheritance would not pass down to his descendants.  This passage Peter is quoting in Acts 1 is from Psalm 69:19-21, 25-28, a prophetic psalm of Jesus:

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19You know my reproach, my shame and disgrace.
All my adversaries are before You.
20Insults have broken my heart,
and I am in despair.
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
for comforters, but I found no one.
21They poisoned my food with gall
and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.
 
May their camp be a desolation;
let no one dwell in their tents.
26For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.
27Add to them punishment upon punishment;
may they have no acquittal from you.
28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
let them not be enrolled among the righteous. Psalm 69

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    Judas and those crucifying Jesus shut down their compassion.  They gave Jesus gall and vinegar on the cross.  The word for compassion is the word in both Greek and Hebrew for the inner part of ourselves: the bowels or the womb.  Judas closed up his splachna, his bowels of mercy and compassion.  Instead of witnessing for Christ, he witnessed against Christ. Therefore, it was his splachna that was spilled in the field of blood. Instead of rescuing someone in need, he betrayed his own blood, his own kinsman.
    In the Hebrew, the Greek word equivalent for "splachna" is רחמ (r-ch-m), and is translated both as tender love, mercy, compassion, or the womb.  Both the womb and the bowels give life.  Our intestines take our nutrition from our food and distribute it and its life-giving energy throughout our body.
    Mercy or compassion is an attribute of God that He displayed toward us when He sent Jesus to die to save us.  When Jesus would see the crowds, the Bible tells us that He was moved in his inner being with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  He longs to be their Good Shepherd and to give them under-shepherds who would care for and feed them.  
    Where has God called you to witness to what He has done?  Where can you show life-giving compassion by being blessing to those in need according to your gifts?  We are called to lay down our life for others, just Jesus, our Good Shepherd, did for us.  
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​16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his splachna/heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:16-18
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1So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any splachna and sympathy, 2complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full unity and of one mind. 3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Phil 2:1-4

     Each of us have a stewardship to be like Jesus in this compassion and mercy to the world.  The world is broken, in need of a Savior.  When we see the lost, the broken, the blind, the hopeless—we carry with us the good news about Jesus!  We have each been given an eternal allotment, and inheritance in Jesus.  We must steward this inheritance by having mercy on those we encounter.   
    Unlike Judas, however, we have eternal reward that cannot be taken away, reserved in heaven for us. This reward is coming with Jesus.  Jesus tells us in Rev. 22:12 I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me!
    Now the people had come together to choose and appoint one more witness with them, one who would watch over the flock of God faithfully.
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...​and,
‘Let another take his overseership.’
21“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
23And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. Acts 1:20b-23

PROPOSALS BUILD THE CHURCH

     Along with the giving of the Spirit, God’s people are filled with the gifts of the Spirit: helping, serving, ministry, administration, miracles, healing, faith, wisdom, words of knowledge…among others.
    Take note of others and how God might gift them. Encourage them to develop this gifting.  Take opportunities to develop what God has given you by being a blessing to others.   Take note of these things in others and encourage them to use whatever God has gifted them in, both naturally and supernaturally, to bless the world and build the Church God. 
    Why was it important to pick people who had walked with Jesus a long time?  They were to choose 2 people who had walked with Jesus in companionship the entire time from Jesus’ baptism under John through to the ascension.  These two were people who had walked faithfully with Jesus and could handle the weight of stewardship about to be handed over to them.  When we are choosing leadership, the Bible has character qualifications we are to look for. When we are walking with God, He is trying to prepare us for works of service so that we can be a blessing to other people.  We start with the small things and as we are faithful with those, God gives us bigger assignments. 
    God knows the hearts. He alone knows who should be doing what and why.  Submission to His divine plan is the only way to accomplish the mission.
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24And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen 25to take place of ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” 
26And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Acts 1:24-26
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PRAYER BRINGS THE GIFT OF GOD

    "Ask and keep on asking, and you will receive! (Luke 11:9)"
   The people chose, God confirmed, and the apostles appointed. 
     Lots were used in ancient times to allot portions of land for inheritance.  So they also chose to use the lot to divide and discern between the two people proposed.  They used a divine “chance,” to understand the leading of the Spirit.  This was the last recorded time.  When Jesus was soon to leave His disciples, they were disappointed. Jesus explained, however, that it was so very much better for His physical presence to leave so that the Spirit of God could come and fill each of them.  The Spirit was then with them, but soon He would be "in them." That is the difference of a need for a physical, external lot to decide what God wants and how the believers would soon be able to discern God's will--through the internal voice of God. As Spirit-filled believers now, we can listen to the voice of the Spirit together through sincere prayer and fasting.   
     Matthias means “Gift from God.”  Just as God was about to give them the Helper, the Holy Spirit, so God gave them also people to bless one another with. 

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Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding."
Jeremiah 3:15 

7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it a says:
“When he ascended on high,
Leading a host of many captives
and gave gifts to his people.” b
 11So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4

​   The goal of the gospel includes bringing all God’s people safely to maturity in Jesus, blameless at His coming. God longs to give good gifts to His people!  When we spend time in prayer together, we can count on God's good gifts to us as individuals, as well as the giving of us to one another.  In this way, we equip and bless and help one another onto spiritual maturity through spiritual accountability, encouragement, teaching and discipleship.
     We need to be asking ourselves these questions regularly:  "How has God gifted me for works of service?"  "To whom am I actively and regularly being a blessing?"  When we ask these questions and listen to the inner voice of God's Spirit, we will bring in a harvest of people that is a worthy offering to the Lord of the Harvest.  
     As we approach Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, let’s be praying for God to gift us people who can help build His kingdom.  Let’s be asking God to give us gifts and equip us to be a blessing to His church.  As we grow in these areas, let’s pray that we would steward well the allotment He has given to us.