The People Of God And The God Of The PeopleEsimerkki

## A God-sized prayer “While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” When you are praying to a big God, you make your prayers big, God-sized, bold, impossible. Ask the sort of things that only God can do. When I am praying with people and I hear a big, bold ASK, I smile inside. I love it. I can only imagine what God thinks. In Acts 4, we have a big ask. “While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Heal. Do the miraculous. Do the impossible. The request is not about self. Not about a person’s ego, a person’s pocketbook, or a person’s comfort. It’s about Jesus and His kingdom, so there’s no need to hold back. What God has done anywhere, God can do here. What God has done at any time, God can do now. What God has done with any other people, God can do with us. God did it in Jerusalem. God did it in the first century. God did it with the early Christians. So why not ask? James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” What are you trusting God for that only God can do? What are we, as a church, trusting God for that only God can do? “While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After these Christians prayed, there was a most interesting result. It was as if God expressed His deep pleasure with this united, faith-filled prayer. “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” O Lord, may it happen here. May it happen now. May it happen with us.