by: Dr. Allen Domelle
Acts 4:31
“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”
You often hear leaders say that they need to shake things up. When they say this, they are saying that they need to do something drastic to change their current circumstances. Shaking things up gets people out of their apathy and comfortable settings and usually gives enough fear or motivation to get people to get off their seat to do something. The whole reason you shake things up is because something needs to change.
The verse above says, “…the place was shaken where they were assembled together…” The early church needed circumstances to change. They had been threatened and told not to say anything more about Jesus, and they knew they needed something to change. The verse above says, “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken…” The answer that changed their circumstances was prayer.
The only answer to shake things up in your life is prayer. Prayer is the only answer to shake things up where you work. When you need things to be shaken up in your marriage, prayer is what you need. When your family is headed the wrong direction and you need to shake things up, you don’t need to lose your temper and go off on a tantrum; you need to find a closet and pray. When your finances have dried up and you are about ready to lose everything, prayer is the only thing that can shake up your financial world. When your church or ministry seems to be existing on a plateau that you can’t overcome, prayer is the answer to shake things up and bust through that ceiling. You will never see things shaken up in your life without prayer.
Friend, prayer ought not to be the last thing you do to shake things up, it ought to be the first thing. I know that we humans often exhaust our own resources before going to prayer, but it should not be that way. When you see the storm clouds coming, it is time to pray.
Prayer is the only thing that shakes up any world. When Nebuchadnezzar made a decree that everyone should fall down and worship his golden image, the three Hebrew children prayed. Darius made a decree that the people could only pray to him, and Daniel knelt as he had before and prayed. Elijah prophesied to Ahab that the drought was going to end, and he prayed again. The early church needed something to change after Jesus ascended to Heaven, and they prayed. It was prayer that shook things up in every one of these circumstances.
Prayer is the only answer to shake up your world. Christian, you will never see things change until you pray. When is the last time you prayed until your world was shaken? You can run to the preacher for help, and there is nothing wrong with that, but have you prayed? You can read books to find the answer to help you with your situation, and there is value in that, but have you prayed? It ought to be said that every time you need something to change in your world that you prayed. If your life is going to shake the world around you, then you must pray. Don’t settle for the norm. It is time to shake up your world, and the only way you are going to do that is through prayer.