Acts 12: Prayer and an Open Cosmos
Over the course of the autumn term, we want to have one simple focus: PRAYER!
As a church family, we want to grow in our dependence upon the Lord, and one of the clearest expressions of that dependence is prayer. We can have plans, ideas, vision, and opportunities before us, but unless the Lord works, our efforts will achieve very little (Ps 127:1). Prayer reminds us that we need him for everything.
Throughout the term, there will be a variety of opportunities and resources to help us grow in prayer, both individually and together. My hope is that, by God’s grace, prayer will become an even more natural and central part of the life of our church.
To help us get started, I want to provide two short articles and a set of key prayer points. The articles are designed to encourage us to pray with greater confidence/urgency, while the prayer points will help focus our prayers on some of the significant things we are asking God to do amongst us.
These are not small prayers. In fact, many of them are things that only God can do! But that is precisely why we should pray them.
Recovering Earnest Prayer (Part 1)
Acts 12 offers a clear window into the praying life of the early church. When Peter is imprisoned by Herod, Luke records a remarkably simple response: “the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (Acts 12:5). That single sentence reveals something profound about the instincts of the first Christians. Prayer was not a last resort but their first response. Rather than being overwhelmed by anxiety or consumed with strategy, they gathered before God in persistent, united dependence.
The language Luke uses suggests continual, fervent prayer. It carries the idea of prayer stretched to its limits—urgent, persistent and wholehearted. The early church believed that God truly acts in response to the prayers of his people. This conviction shaped both their expectations and their practice.
Throughout the New Testament, prayer is not merely an individual discipline but a corporate privilege. Paul asks entire congregations to pray for him (e.g. 2 Corinthians 1:11), implying that the prayers of many matter in God’s economy. Jonathan Edwards recognised this when he encouraged ‘concerts of prayer,’ believing that united prayer was one of God’s appointed means for advancing his kingdom. Likewise, Charles Spurgeon described corporate prayer as ‘the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence,’ while John Wesley famously insisted that prayer is where the real work is done.
Prayer therefore is participation in God’s kingdom rather than passive reflection. It is a place where God forms his people and where the unseen purposes of God overflow into the visible world.
Yet Acts 12 presses us even further. Peter was imprisoned physically, but he remained united to Christ. Many of our neighbours, by contrast, are free outwardly while remaining captive spiritually. Scripture describes humanity outside Christ as living under the dominion of darkness (Col. 1:13). This reality should profoundly ‘shake’ and reshape our prayers.
Understanding this requires us to think carefully about hell. I want to suggest that to ‘get to grips with’ Hell (if that is ever really possible) we need to think about separation from God as one of the primary ideas we keep in focus. If, as 1 John 4:8 declares, God is love, then separation from God necessarily means total separation from the very source of love itself.
Paul’s portrait of love in 1 Corinthians 13 provides a striking theological lens. Love is patient, kind, humble, truthful and self-giving. Imagine the complete removal of every one of those realities. Where love is patient there is only endless frustration. Where love is kind there is no compassion. Where love rejoices in truth there is only falsehood. Where love seeks the good of another there is only absolute self-interest. Hell is therefore not simply punishment but the complete collapse of every relationship because the God who is love is absent.
Augustine observed that every genuine good ultimately derives from God. If that is true, then hell is the removal of every good gift that flows from God’s common grace. Such a vision should not produce speculation but deep and abiding compassion! If Christ loved sinners enough to give himself for them, then his church must surely pray with greater urgency for those who remain far from him.
Acts 12 therefore calls us to recover earnest prayer. The church’s mission will never outrun its dependence upon God. When we truly grasp both the greatness of God’s love and the eternal significance of the gospel, persistent prayer no longer feels burdensome. It becomes the only fitting response.
The Enlightenment and the Closed Cosmos (Part 2)
When Peter finally arrives at the house where believers are praying, Rhoda announces that he is at the door. Astonishingly, the gathered church replies, ‘It must be his angel’ (Acts 12:15). Just stop and think about that for a moment. How many “guesses” would it have taken you before you arrived at the conclusion that the person who looks like Peter isn’t Peter but is an angel? Their response reveals a worldview fundamentally open to the activity of God and the unseen spiritual realm.
The early church assumed that heaven and earth were deeply intertwined. Hebrews 1:14 speaks of angels as ministering spirits sent to serve God’s people, while Ephesians 6:12 reminds believers that their struggle is not merely against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers. The visible and invisible belonged together within one coherent vision of reality under God’s sovereign rule.
Modern Western Christians often find this difficult. The intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment profoundly reshaped our imagination. Thinkers such as Francis Bacon emphasised empirical observation, René Descartes prioritised autonomous reason, and Immanuel Kant drew firm boundaries around what human beings could know. Together these developments encouraged what Charles Taylor, in A Secular Age, famously calls the ‘immanent frame’—a world understood primarily in terms of natural causes, with transcendence pushed to the margins.
This has not necessarily destroyed belief in God, but it has altered what feels plausible. We instinctively search first for psychological, sociological or mechanical explanations. Divine action becomes the final possibility rather than the first. We may affirm miracles doctrinally while living practically as though the universe were closed.
Acts 12 exposes that tension. The issue is not simply whether Christians believe in prayer, but whether we inhabit a world in which prayer genuinely makes sense. If reality is effectively self-contained, fervent prayer soon becomes symbolic. If, however, the risen Christ actively reigns over a creation alive with the Spirit’s presence, prayer becomes both rational and necessary.
Recovering a biblical worldview therefore requires more than improved discipline; it requires renewed imagination. Scripture consistently portrays a porous universe in which God acts, angels minister, evil resists, and the kingdom advances through the gospel. None of this diminishes responsible engagement with science or careful reasoning. Rather, it insists that the material world is not the whole story.
Perhaps that is Luke’s deepest challenge. The church in Acts expected God to intervene because they believed he truly governed history. Our prayers will rarely exceed our vision of reality. If our world is closed, our prayers will remain cautious. But if we recover the biblical conviction that Christ reigns over both the seen and unseen, then earnest, expectant prayer once again becomes the natural language of the church.
Praying for What Only God Can Do
In light of the previous two articles, I want to invite you to join me in praying for some things that, humanly speaking, can feel a little Peter-in-prison-like.
When Peter was imprisoned in Acts 12, the situation looked impossible. There was no obvious way forward. Yet while Peter sat chained between guards, “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church” (Acts 12:5). The church prayed, and God acted in ways they could scarcely have imagined.
As we look ahead as a church family, there are a number of things that feel beyond our ability to achieve. We cannot manufacture them, plan them into existence, or work hard enough to guarantee them. But we can pray. And we can pray confidently to the God for whom nothing is impossible.
Here are a few practical suggestions:
- Print this list out (or write it out somewhere you will see it regularly).
- Set aside a specific time—or several times—during the day to pray through these points.
- Begin by acknowledging that you cannot make these things happen, but the Lord can. As Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
- When you feel your faith wobbling, remember the honest cry of the father in Mark’s Gospel: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Then keep praying.
- Pray about these things with your family, in Growth Groups, and whenever you gather with friends from church.
1. Pray for Conversion Growth
I’m sure you will agree that we long to see many people come to know and trust Jesus—indeed, we pray that hundreds might be saved in the years ahead.
We know that salvation is a work of God’s sovereign grace. Jesus teaches in John 3 that spiritual birth is the work of the Spirit, not human effort (John 3:5–8). Yet the same God who ordains salvation also calls his people to pray and proclaim the good news.
So let us pray that God would draw many to himself, open blind eyes, soften hard hearts, and save people through the witness of his people. Let us ask him to do “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
Suggested verses: John 3:5–8; Romans 10:13–15; 1 Timothy 2:3–4; Ephesians 3:20.
2. Pray for Growth at Both Sites
We want both of our church sites to flourish and grow—not simply in numbers, but in spiritual health, maturity, and mission effectiveness.
We cannot manufacture genuine growth. Scripture reminds us that “God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7). Yet we can faithfully pray and labour, trusting him to build his church.
If we are to plant a third site in the future, we need to be planting from a place of strength. There is much work to do, and much dependence upon the Lord required. Let’s pray that he would strengthen, establish, and grow both congregations for his glory.
Suggested verses: 1 Corinthians 3:6–7; Psalm 127:1; Matthew 16:18; Colossians 2:19.
3. Pray for the Where, When, Who and How of a Third Site
We believe the Lord is leading us towards planting a third site in the future. This is an exciting opportunity, but it is also a significant faith challenge!
There are many questions we cannot yet answer. Where should it be? When should we begin? Who will serve? How will it happen? These are not questions that can be solved merely through planning meetings and strategy documents. We need the Lord’s wisdom, guidance, and timing.
Scripture reminds us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6).
Pray that God would clearly lead us step by step. Pray that he would prepare the right location, raise up the right leaders and team, provide what is needed, and make his will unmistakably clear. As we seek to step out in faith, let’s pray that we would do so with confidence in the Lord’s direction rather than our own wisdom.
Suggested verses: Proverbs 3:5–6; Psalm 32:8; Isaiah 30:21; James 1:5.
4. Pray for the Word of God to Change Us
God changes people through his Word.
We don’t simply want to know more Bible facts; we want our hearts and lives to be transformed. The Scriptures are God’s chosen means of teaching, correcting, training, and equipping his people (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
Pray that, week by week, God’s Word would penetrate our hearts, expose our sin, deepen our love for Christ, and shape us into the people he calls us to be. Pray that we would not merely be hearers of the Word, but doers also (James 1:22).
Suggested verses: 2 Timothy 3:16–17; Hebrews 4:12; Isaiah 55:10–11; James 1:22–25.
5. Pray for the Spirit’s Enabling and Empowering
Mission and ministry are not solo projects; they are shared responsibilities for the whole church.
Every member has a part to play, but none of us can do it in our own strength. We need the Holy Spirit to enable, equip, and empower us. Jesus told his disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8).
Pray that the Spirit would fill us with courage, compassion, wisdom, faithfulness, and joy as we serve Christ together. Pray that he would raise up people to use their gifts for the building up of the church and the advance of the gospel.
Suggested verses: Acts 1:8; Ephesians 3:16; Galatians 5:22–23; 1 Corinthians 12:4–7.
6. Pray for Resources for the Mission
Mission is costly.
The work before us requires people willing to serve, time invested in gospel ministry, and financial resources to support the work. None of these things are unlimited, but our God is generous and faithful.
Pray that the Lord would provide everything needed for the mission he has entrusted to us. Pray that he would raise up volunteers, provide the necessary finances, and help us all to steward our time and gifts wisely.
As Paul reminded the Philippians, “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Suggested verses: Philippians 4:19; 2 Corinthians 9:6–11; Matthew 9:37–38; 1 Peter 4:10.
Let’s Keep Praying
These are big prayers. In many ways, they are beyond us. But that is exactly why we should pray them.
The church that prayed for Peter knew they could not open prison doors. Yet they prayed, and God worked. As we bring these requests before the Lord, let us do so with humility, persistence, and confidence in his power.
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16).
So let’s keep praying for what only God can do.
