The Believers' Prayer

"Lord God, you made the heavens, earth and sea,"
The disciples prayed to Jesus as one,
After hearing of the temple melee;
"You spoke through David in the years long gone,
That rulers and kings would stand against you*;
Indeed, Pilate and Herod did conspire
With your own rulers, leaders of the Jew,
To kill you, the Holy One, Anointed Sire!
They did just what you willed ages ago!
Now, enable your servants boldly speak;
Give us pow'r to heal, wherever we go;
Let no soul be lost by our witness weak!"
The Spirit shook the house with renewed power;
Strengthened apostles went forth from that hour!


*Psalm 2:1-2


The High Priest of Israel thought that crucifying Jesus would end Christianity's threat to Judaism but he thought wrongly. Jesus' resurrection on the third day galvanized and sent His disciples forth with vigor; the arrival of the Holy Spirit to indwell each believer empowered them as nothing else could have. Now the priest's warning to Peter and John not to speak any more in the name of Jesus had the opposite effect on them. They grew absolutely fearless in their witnessing from that point on. Thousands died martyrs' deaths, but that only served to spur them on. Peter's healing of the lame man on the temple steps showed all Jerusalem the power of Christianity; instead of heeding the warning of the High Priest, the incident only made them resolve to speak more boldly in Jesus' name.

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 'What are we to do with these men?' they asked. 'For everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.'" (Acts 4:13-17)

Once again they underestimated the power of Jesus' name and the Holy Spirit. The apostles spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. Although the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., Christianity became the official religion of the Empire in 326 A.D. In a real sense, the peaceful, meek and gentle Jesus Christ DID conquet the conquerers; He did it HIS way. "Not by might, but by my Spirit".