Sovereign

Acts 4:24-31

"When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign LORD,” they said, “You made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the LORD and against His anointed one.’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, 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.” 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."

The Apostle James reminds us that "the prayer of a righteous person has great power to prevail (Jam 5:16)." Here we see the disciples of the budding Church in prayer, seeking God's miraculous rescue in the rejection of God's message and persecution in the hands of the political and religious leaders. Interestingly, they affirm God's sovereignty in that the power-brokers of the world only did what God's "power and will had decided beforehand should happen (v. 28)." This reminds me of the book of Daniel and the overarching message of God's supreme power and authority over events and history even among those who do not recognise Him. Daniel reminded king Belshazzar, in interpreting for him the writing on the wall, of how God dealt with his father Nebuchadnezzar: "Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position He gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him... But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone He wishes. (Dan 5:18-21)." In Isaiah, we see this as well, God calls Cyrus king of Persia, "I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by name. For the sake of Jacob My servant and Israel My chosen one, I call you by name; I have given you a title of honor, though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me (Isa 45:3-5)." Finally, it always brings me back to the words of our LORD to Pilate: "So Pilate said to Him, “Do You refuse to speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?" Jesus answered, "You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of greater sin (John 19:10-11)." Like the early church, let us be feverent in both individual and collective prayers, seek God's authority in enabling us to speak His word with great boldness amidst the creeping threats to our religious freedoms to do so, and prevalent cultural derision against our message, and ask also for God to stretch out His hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Jesus (vv. 29-30). In the end the battle is not of flesh and blood (Eph 6:12), but in the spiritual realm (also, the realm of hearts and minds) but it has effects on our physical world and so when they prayed, the meeting place was literally shaken,a nd they have been encouraged (v. 31), this is an impressive reminder that it is best to understand that it is "not by [physical, political, cultural] might nor by power," but by God's Spirit (Zech. 4:6)!