PRAYER IS THE WORK

Pastor Mark Lee | Vantagepoint Church

Luke 11:9 - Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

Mark 11:24 – Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,

believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

Matt 21:22 – If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in

prayer.

Acts 7:55 – full of the Holy Spirit he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of

God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Acts 12:1 – It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who

belonged to the church intending to persecute them. He had James, the

brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased

the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.

Acts 12:12-15 – When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of

Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered

and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance and a servant named

Rhonda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was

so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the

door!” “You’re out of your mind,” they told her.

Acts 12:5 – So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying.

Haddon Robinson- Where was it that Jesus sweat great drops of blood? Not in

Pilate's hall, not on his way to Golgotha, (in other words, he didn’t just pray while

he was in the trial) it was in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he offered up

prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save him

from death. Had I been there and witnessed that struggle, I would have worried

about the future. If he is so broken up when all he is doing is praying, I might

have said, what will he do when he faces a real crisis. Why can't he approach the

ordeal of his three sleeping friends with a calm confidence? Yet, when the test

came, Jesus walked to the cross with courage while his three friends fell apart

and fell away.

Charles Finney - I have never known a person to sweat blood (while praying);

but I’ve known a person to pray till blood started from his nose. And I have

known persons to pray till they were all wet with perspiration, in the coldest

weather in winter. I have known a person to pray for hours, till their strength

was all exhausted with the agony of their minds.”

Augustine’s mother - It is not possible that a child of such tears can be lost.