With One Accord in One Place. Armin Gesswein

has in mind. And it calls for us to be so much a part of such a congregation that we can never be the same again.

      The plan calls for that Jerusalem praying congregation to dominate the book of Acts and to determine the course of the church.

      Why does the prayer meeting have such priority? Why was it the first thing Jesus established when He built His church? When He left for heaven, why did He leave a praying congregation behind? Why was every member present there involved in “prayer and supplication”? What motivated all the new members—by the thousands—to become prayer meeting members, and to do so at once? How could they raise and uphold this kind of a standard for every member? To ask such questions is to ask God for some of His greatest secrets for our congregations.

      Our Lord did not hide these secrets. They are written plainly in the blueprint He left so that we could work together with Him in building churches according to His plans. How exciting that we can be workers together with God!

      And what a fellowship in the building! He is always the Master Builder—but He works in and with and through and for us, and always according to His Word. By His Holy Spirit He does it all from heaven. He watches over the blueprint of His Word ever so closely. Let us make sure we work according to His Word, too, as He did!

      ASSEMBLY MEETINGS

      It is very revealing and rewarding to note how many different assembly meetings are described in Acts. Look at some of them.

      Chapter 1 is full. In chapter 2 we see the whole Jerusalem assembly on fire with its own kind of powerful action all day long. Then, in chapter 3, more assembly action and preaching hits us with full force and moves us right into chapter 4 with further high explosives from the same congregation. In chapter 5 we find ourselves in a very different kind of atmosphere, full of the awe of God and power of the rarest kind on earth.

      Suddenly we attend two funerals, of a husband and a wife, all within the space of a few hours, and all of this in the midst of God’s assembled people.

      These are but a few highlights. In chapter 6 we see yet another kind of assembly action, and we can read on and on and find ourselves still in the glorious action of the risen Christ at work in building His Jerusalem congregation. Thank God for the tremendous potential of one small congregation of about 120 members!

      The most important and strategic of all the assemblies recorded are the prayer meetings. Like powerful munitions, they appear at the most crucial times and win the day.

      So powerful are they that the whole forward thrust of the church comes from them, as the thrust of a jumbo plane comes from its jets. Even before the day of the Jerusalem congregation the disciples had learned something about this. For the Lord had enjoined them to “pray . . . the Lord of the harvest, that he will send [thrust] forth labourers into his harvest.”

      Of all the many assemblies, the most power-packed are the prayer meetings. When the chips are down, when the battle is joined at the very gates of hell, the prayer meetings rise to the call of duty and take over. Like a mighty army of God, the church marches forward on its knees—on its witnessing feet, too, but its method is to take ground first on its knees, in prayer.

      Observe a few examples. In chapter 1 the 120-member prayer meeting in the upper room is pregnant with “prayer and supplication,” waiting to be delivered. Pentecost would celebrate a birth.

      If we want to see how much power a great prayer meeting can unloose and set in motion, look into chapter 4. Notice that the original prayer meeting (chapter 1) did not weaken or thin out; the membership increased to many thousands! The prayer meeting increased as part of the “increase” (Acts 6:7). What a blueprint for our day when “church growth” is such a popular subject!

      SIDE ACTIVITY?

      Why do we feel a prayer meeting must always be a little side activity? Think of the prayer meetings that generated the mighty revivals in our nation’s history. Think of the “American Pentecost” of 1857-58 when the nation became a nation of prayer. Think of the famous Jayne’s Music Hall prayer meeting in Philadelphia where thousands gathered for prayer every noon, giving birth to revivals in churches all over that area. Think of the powerful prayer meetings which generated the movement of the Christian & Missionary Alliance.

      Speaking on Acts 1:14, Dr. A. T. Pierson once said: “There never has been a revival but by such united supplicatory praying, and no revival has ever continued beyond the continuation of that same praying.”

      Most churches are said to fail because they do not generate their own power. This is also true of the individual Christian. Prayer is the generator. The great London preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once took some people down to his Metropolitan Tabernacle basement to show them his “power plant.” There, on their knees, were about three hundred people praying for the service!

      In Acts chapter 12 we see the Jerusalem church still praying at the same high upper-room level. Once again the battle is joined. Peter, their powerful leader, is to be executed. Why did they not call on just a few—the “prayer warriors, those in the church who really know how to pray and lay hold on God”? Because they all knew how! “Prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (verse 5, italics mine). There was an all-night prayer meeting in Mary’s house, where “many were gathered together praying” (verse 12). And Peter was delivered from prison and death by an angel!

      That is not all. The angel also delivered Herod to death. But the prayer victory was even more far-reaching than that: “the word of God grew and multiplied” (verse 24).

      No wonder the golden-mouthed Chrysostom once said, “God can refuse nothing to a praying congregation!”

      Where have we failed? It seems that not only have we been ailing and failing—we have fallen.

      First, our vision of the church has declined. This is primary. In practical language, our members place a low priority on strong and faithful assembling, though this is what the Lord really has in mind for His plan. People can miss meetings without any twinge of conscience. The book of Hebrews flashes the danger signals, and this is one of them: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (10:25).

      Today, we not only see the signs of His coming, we can actually “see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). We should be assembling more faithfully, not less. God’s Word here is a very earnest word.

      Second, with that decline in assembling, the prayer meeting has also suffered. Instead of the prayer meeting being a concern for the entire assembly, it has often dwindled to the care of the few. It is generally considered to be an adjunct to the otherwise busy ministry work. This prayerless condition has now become so general that it is dreadfully specific—totally unlike the Jerusalem congregation!

      Third, the Great Commission has also suffered and been weakened in this decline. The result is that we are heavy on the “Go ye” of the gospel but we are failing in other facets of it— without even seeming to be aware of it. The Great Commission includes many commissions—not just one. It is a command with many commandments. We need to see it whole.

      We must “repair the breaches.” God remedies spiritual ills by revival and renewal. Renewal comes at the point of the fall. God’s call to repentance always brings us back to beginnings.

      The blueprint shows that the Great Commission with all its varied commissions, like so much building material, was meant for the church God was building in Jerusalem. They will all be “fitly framed together . . . for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” The church is the new abode of His glory, His new method for fulfilling His commissions—and the only creation having all the dimensions needed for worldwide evangelization. When we study the book of Acts, we see God’s methods for fulfilling the Great Commission.

      EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON PRAYER

      Why a prayer meeting first? Because there is nothing in His church that does not depend on prayer! Its new abundant life, love, unity, purity, power, constant renewal, warfare, world evangelization, leaders, unending advance