Yesterday I suggested two applications from the example of 120 disciples who devoted themselves to praying in one accord for the Spirit to empower them as witnesses.  But are we supposed to follow their example?  Is this recorded for us to imitate or is it recorded simply to tell us what happened?

Alan Thompson in his book, The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus, suggests one helpful way forward.  He suggests that something mentioned once is probably to be taken as merely descriptive.  But if Luke mentions something repeatedly, that it is probably to be taken as prescriptive; that is, it is a pattern in the early church that should be a pattern for the church today (see p25-27).

So then, the 120 disciples were devoted to praying together for 10 days.  Do we need to devote ourselves to praying together for 10 days?  Probably not since this is the only occasion that we read of a 10 day period.  And indeed this ten day period between the Ascension and Pentecost (these two great works in salvation history) is unrepeatable.  That is not to say, we couldn’t commit to pray together for 10 days – it may be a great thing to do.  But it is not prescribed for us to do it.

But what about devoting ourselves to praying together apart from the 10 day length?  Is devoting ourselves to praying together merely descriptive, or should we take it as prescriptive.  Three patterns suggest that we should take this as prescriptive.

First, there is a pattern throughout Acts of Christians devoting themselves to prayer together.  It is clearly a regular practice for them.  Why would we think it shouldn’t be a regular practice for us?  And remember that Acts does not give us an exhaustive view of the early church.  Luke merely hits some of the highlights, and apparently Luke thought praying together was important enough to highlight, probably at least in part because he thought we should imitate their devotion to praying together.

Second, if you compare the gospels, the Gospel of Luke has the greatest emphasis on prayer.  Luke clearly wanted his readers to be instructed in prayer, and so it is reasonable that he would continue that instruction into his second volume – the Book of Acts.  Luke is instructing us in how we are to pray by recording for us the practice and teaching of Jesus and the practice of the early church.

Third, there is a perceptible pattern in Acts of the people praying together, the Spirit powerfully working, and the word going forth.  We see it in Acts 1-2 as the 120 pray, the Spirit comes in power, and the word is preached with 3000 people getting saved.  We see it again in Acts 4, as the church prays, the Spirit comes in power, and the people boldly proclaim the gospel.  In Acts 13, the church is praying, the Spirit calls Paul and Barnabas, and thousands will be saved through his missionary work. 

Perhaps we see few people saved today in many of our churches, because we aren’t devoting ourselves to praying together for the Spirit to powerfully work.  Not that we can force the Spirit’s hand, as if he has to act if we pray.  But if we don’t care enough to ask, why would we expect him to act?  If we try to do the ministry on our own without prayer, why would we expect God to bless our ministries?

These three patterns in Luke-Acts makes clear that devoting ourselves to praying together is prescriptive for us.  We are to follow the early church’s example.  What are we waiting for?