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An important feature of Hebraic prayer is that it puts God’s will at the centre and requires us to seek Him for the empowerment to obey His call.

“Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word…” Acts 4:29

In this last and final instalment of our teaching series on Hebraic prayer, we discover that prayer is not about making God conform to our wishes, but rather about us conforming to His will.

A family member of ours is deeply into New Age teachings. Over the years, she has witnessed God answering the prayers of my Mum and I, so now whenever she faces a crisis she is quick to come to us and ask for prayer. In a nutshell, her prayer requests are always about making God bring about her plans for her life and family. And this is the essence of much of the New Age and occult world, where the worshipper attempts to undertake certain actions or say certain prayers in order to make the spirits or gods do what they want.

Christian prayer should not and cannot be like this. Here in Acts chapter 4, the disciples give us an amazing example of a very different approach to prayer.

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done

The disciples were facing intense threats of persecution, jail, torture, and even death. Yet remarkably they didn’t pray for their own safety, nor did they pray that the persecution would stop. Their prayer was centred around God’s will being done, and specifically that the preaching of God’s Word would not stop.

In other words, the disciples knew it was God’s will for them to preach the gospel, and this was their unshakeable and primary commitment. However, they also knew their own human weakness in the face of these threats and looked to God to enable them to do His will.

Too often, people treat prayer as an opportunity to present wish lists to God. Yes, it is true that Jesus encouraged the disciples to ask that they might receive, however, the focus of prayer should not be asking for our own blessings. Rather, our prayers should be about committing ourselves to God’s will and seeking Him for the enablement and empowerment to obey His call.

Western Christians today are shocked as they hear of increasingly anti-Christian laws and sentiments in our societies. But first-century believers, in the words of Peter, did not ‘consider it strange’ (1 Peter 4:12). Maybe this is another reason they did not pray against persecution. After all, they knew persecution would come (see 2 Timothy 3:12), and they had counted the cost when they decided to follow Jesus.

What was the result of their prayer? The Bible tells us that God heard their prayer and the place they were in shook as they were filled afresh with His Spirit. New boldness and power came upon the disciples, enabling them to continue to speak the Word of God without fear or hesitation.

Many of us wish to see such powerful answers to prayer. But if we are to see similar results to our prayers, we have some serious adjustments to make. Our prayers must be centred on the fulfilment of God’s will.

A Summary of the Series

In this series on Hebraic prayer, we have learnt how the early disciples modelled prayer that is:

• God-focussed rather than problem-focussed
• Scripture-based
• More corporate than personal
• Conformed to God’s will above all else

And as we pray like this, in line with God’s will, the answers will certainly follow.

Let us close with these words from John the apostle:

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 John 4:14-15).

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