The Impact of Prayer

Timeless Insights from the Early Church

By Dick Eastman

Dr. A.T. Pierson, a contemporary of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, wrote, “Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both starting-point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permanent progress. Wherever the Church’s sluggishness is aroused and the world’s wickedness arrested, somebody has been praying.”1

This was certainly true of the early Church. The Book of Acts is a record of answered prayer and a demonstration of the supernatural in response. All this was at the heart of the spread of the gospel.

Today, the Book of Acts is very much alive in the advancement of the gospel globally. Consider an Asian nation where our ministry, Every Home for Christ (EHC), launched a work more than 25 years ago. The entire country had only 25,000 believers, at best, out of a population of some 20 million.

Despite danger, our workers bravely took the gospel from village to village. Soon our office was following up on 3,000 or more decision cards monthly. We have now processed more than 350,000.

I traveled to that nation to see firsthand what God was doing in answer to prayer. “Was there an explanation to this miraculous growth?” I queried our director.“It’s because of miracles in answer to prayer,” he explained, “just like in the Book of Acts.” He added, “More than 60 percent of all our conversions are the result of signs and wonders.”

He told a story about a team of EHC evangelists who visited a mountain village, hoping to share the gospel. In that culture the chief of a village must grant permission for anyone to visit a village in such a way. The chief bluntly refused.

Understandably dejected, our workers visited a neighboring village. But first they gave the chief several gospel messages in the local language, hoping he might change his mind and invite them back.

Within days, that chief’s daughter became ill to the point of death. Village witchdoctors and tribal medicine could not help her. The chief remembered the words of the evangelists and still had some of the gospel booklets about Jesus—Savior and Healer.

He ordered the evangelists to return. They prayed in faith over the sick child, and she was healed instantly. The chief quickly gave our team permission to visit every home, and almost everyone in that village came to Christ as the result of that one miracle. Not only that, the chief offered property to build a church.

The Book of Acts is more than a mere record of how God moved among His children in the early Church. It’s a manual and model for praying believers today.

Seven-Fold Impact of Supernatural Prayer

One of the most fascinating passages in Acts demonstrates several ways the early believers responded to persecution as the Church began to grow.After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all (Acts 4:31–33).

These believers clearly knew they were serving a supernatural God who performed supernatural acts. The word supernatural is almost synonymous with the Book of Acts. Super means “over and above; higher in quality or degree.” Natural means “having a normal or usual character; not out of the ordinary.” Combining these words, supernatural means “departing from or over and above what is considered usual or normal—that which transcends the laws of nature.”In the backstory to this passage, the apostles, specifically Peter and John, had witnessed a remarkable miracle: a 40-year-old lame man healed at the Gate Beautiful (see Acts 3:1–9). A massive crowd gathered in response to the miracle. Peter preached about repentance, and some 5,000 believers were added to the Church (see Acts 4:1–4).

Obviously, this greatly troubled the authorities, who arrested Peter and John. Acknowledging the astonishing miracle—thousands had seen the once-lame man “walking and jumping, and praising God” (Acts 3:8)—they felt they had no option but to let Peter and John go. But the authorities threatened them never to speak of Jesus again. Peter and John returned to their fellow believers who immediately prayed, asking the Lord to reveal Himself supernaturally:

“Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29–30).

They prayed for supernatural intervention—and God didn’t let them down. Seven distinct results made an impact—something of a second Pentecost for the advancement of the gospel. Each of these impacts must be prefaced with “when they had prayed.” Prayer was key to each supernatural outcome.

Impact #1 Supernatural Shaking

Whereas the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost included a mighty rushing wind accompanied by tongues of fire resting on all present (Acts 2:1–4), the prayer of Acts 4:31 resulted in a literal, physical shaking of the place where the believers had gathered.

This passage reminds me of an unusual experience early in my ministry. About 150 young people were attending a prayer retreat at Mammoth Mountain in Southern California. I decided to give a brief devotional on prayer and then have the youth kneel and quietly confess anything that might hinder their praying throughout the weekend. After I shared from Acts 4:31–33 I said, “You never know, when you begin to pray, but that God might just come in a unique way to shake things up! Let’s all get on our knees and expect God to meet us!”

Suddenly a 3.5 earthquake struck directly below the mountain! Granted, the region had quakes of that magnitude relatively often. But the building shook enough to cause a mini-revival among the youth.

Not all praying, of course, produces a physical shaking. But I believe that when God gets His people’s attention today, preparing their hearts to encounter Christ personally, many of their prayers bring about a spiritual shaking.

Impact #2 Supernatural Empowerment

The second impact of this Acts 4 Pentecost-like outpouring of God’s Spirit was a supernatural empowerment. Just before the ascension of our Lord, He declared, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

To empower is “to give power or authority to; to authorize; to enable, permit.” Becoming Christ’s witnesses came supernaturally and produced believers who could function in the supernatural.

Impact #3 Supernatural Courage

A third impact naturally flowed from the second. Holy Spirit saturation included a baptism in boldness, a supernatural courage.

One cannot read Acts without marveling at the holy boldness and courage of the early disciples. They were a praying people. And that prayer produced courage.Consider the courage of Stephen (Acts 7: 54–60), whose powerful sermon led to his martyrdom. As he was being stoned to death, ringleader Saul consented to it—and watched. Stephen’s last words, an eight-word prayer, impacted not only Saul but the Church universal for generations. Stephen prayed simply, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).

God heard that prayer and the Saul of Acts 8 became the Paul of Acts 9.

Impact #4 Supernatural Unity

A fourth impact of this outpouring of God’s Spirit was a supernatural unity. This was an “over and above what is considered normal” unity. Acts 4:31–32 says, “After they prayed . . . all the believers were one in heart and mind.”

One quality of every great revival is unity. The growing global prayer movement of our day is bringing the Body of Christ together. We see that unity especially in movements such as America’s National Day of Prayer. In the late 1970s, a handful of prayer leaders formed the National Prayer Committee. And we rejoiced in 1988 when President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law, designating the first Thursday of May as America’s official National Day of Prayer.

This past National Day of Prayer, Statuary Hall in the Capitol Building was packed with congressional representatives, business and ministry leaders, and intercessors, celebrating this day. Nationally, in 40,000-plus local gatherings, hundreds of thousands of believers united in prayer for our nation.A spirit of united prayer in our nation clearly is growing! Could another Great Awakening be on the horizon?

Impact #5 Supernatural Generosity

A spirit of generosity and corporate care also resulted from this Acts 4 prayer encounter. “After they prayed . . . No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had” (vs. 31–32). Praying people become giving people.

A study of past revivals and awakenings shows a similar spirit of generosity. I recall a time in our ministry when we were tested financially. Our nation was in a severe recession. Yet God had convicted our executive director, Tim Middlebrook, that our ministry should be debt free. At that time, we faced 20 additional years of $30,000 monthly payments for our headquarters, The Jericho Center.

At a monthly School of Prayer I was conducting, I asked Tim to share his burden about our finances. Afterward, one of the intercessors approached me, weeping. She gave me a check for a rather odd sum, totaling just over $5,000, down to a few cents. The Lord had impressed on her that she should empty her bank account, even to her last penny, as firstfruits on paying off our debt.

I wept with her and said I believed something had “broken” in the heavenlies because of her gift. She had given all she had! And that demonstrated supernatural generosity. Within 24 months, without sending any specific debt-retirement appeals to our ministry’s general donor list, the entire debt of our building was retired 20 years early!

Impact #6 Supernatural Anointing

Those who gathered for that early Church prayer encounter also received a supernatural anointing of authority and power: “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33). Prayer made this possible. These anointed early believers witnessed with supernatural authority.

Luke, the author of Acts, also recorded in his Gospel these words of Jesus to His 72 disciples: “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you” (Luke 10:19). I believe God unleashed this power as a result of the prayers of these early believers.Prayer is the key to all fruitful evangelism. I’m convinced that the degree to which prayer is mobilized will be the degree to which the world is evangelized!

Impact #7 Supernatural Favor

Finally, the prayers of these early disciples resulted in the release of a supernatural favor. The biblical word for this favor is grace. The passage concludes with a simple but vital statement: “And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all” (v. 33).

Some time ago, a team of our EHC workers, traveling in a remote area of Papua New Guinea, came to a wide river separating them from a village they could see on the other side. But they also could see several crocodiles lining the river banks. They huddled for prayer and decided to hang onto logs and float across, holding their backpacks, filled with literature, above their heads.

One by one, while villagers watched, our team crossed the river safely. The village chief joyfully invited them into the village and allowed them to share the gospel. The team leader used the story of Daniel in the lion’s den to demonstrate how Jesus Christ can save men and women from the jaws of Satan and sin—and crocodiles!The chief declared, “Until today we have worshiped the crocodile as our god. From today we will worship only Jesus Christ and the God of these men!”

The favor of God.

Truly, the Book of Acts and the impact of supernatural prayer are very much alive in the advancement of the gospel globally. Have we fully tapped into its power?

1A.T. Pierson, The Fundamentals: Volume 9, Chapter 6: Divine Efficacy of Prayer, scribd.com/document/297160901/The-Fundamentals-Volume-9-Chapter-6-Divine-Efficacy-of-Prayer.

DICK EASTMAN is international president of Every Home for Christ, a home-to-home evangelism ministry with 8,000 staff operating in 189 national offices globally. He is the author of 15 books on prayer and evangelism, and a member of America’s National Prayer Committee. His ministry has equipped more than three million believers to pray for global evangelism.