The Early Church’s Rhythm of Prayer

In this episode of The Restless Ones Podcast, we explore how the early church was birthed, sustained, and propelled forward through a lifestyle of united prayer. From the ten days in the upper room to daily devotion in the temple courts, from crisis moments to global strategy, prayer was not an accessory to ministry—it was the atmosphere in which ministry thrived.

Drawing from key passages in Acts, we uncover how seasons of expectant, corporate prayer prepared the way for Pentecost, shaped the church’s identity, and released supernatural boldness. We also trace the biblical pattern of continual worship and prayer as a key part of God’s mission to reach the nations.

If you’ve ever wondered how prayer can become the heartbeat of your life, church, or community—this teaching will inspire you to return to the sacred rhythm that fueled the early church’s unstoppable mission.

Transcript

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Well, we're going to jump into a bit of a new series and looking at sort of prayer within the New Testament and among the early church and how it was such a foundational part of what the early church did, why we should still do it as a bunch of believers who are sort of living in the New Testament era, that we would be those who would pick up on the rhythms and the patterns of daily prayer that we would be those who would say yes to God's design for the body of Christ. And I'm excited to dive in. So I think that when you look through the book of Acts, when you look through all of the New Testament, there's so many verses that talk about prayer and that talk about connection with God. And it like really worked. And I've been super mind blown over these past few months as we've leaned into praying for our kingdom connections, which is birthed out of friendship with marketplace leaders, with ministry leaders, and with missionaries. We have a foundation of friendship. We acknowledge one another's mission, God-given mission, and then we support them in the place of prayer, the specific requests. And as we've committed to do that, we've seen testimonies that have just been mind-blowing that have helped, I think, all of us, those who are praying, but also those who are receiving the prayer really see that, oh yeah, prayer works. Talking to God and asking Him for specific things, He hears that and He wants to answer those things. And so when we look at the book of Acts and the inception of the church and the early days of the church, we can see some pretty awesome things. So I want to talk about that. And I want to talk about it from the lens of the foundation of the upper room. The upper room is like one of the most important parts of our faith. The leading up to the day of Pentecost and the expectancy in the upper room was so crucial. I mean, it's divided denominations and those who believe that you can be filled with the Spirit, those who believe that that was done. I mean, it's such a big moment for the church today and lots of conversation around it. But I love thinking about what happened in the days leading up to it. So the early church was birthed in prayer. It was birthed in prayer. The church It was birthed. The people of God were birthed in prayer. After Jesus' final instructions to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit's power, the disciples chose active, expectant pursuit over passive waiting. And they gathered with a shared focus, seeking the fulfillment of his promise together. So as Jesus is with them, he gives them a final instruction and says, behold, I'm sending the promise of my faithfulness So he gives them a clear instruction. Hang out here because you're about to get endowed with power. You can look at Acts 4. It says, This is not Acts 4. This is Acts 1. He said, But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So there's this promise that he called them to lean into and to contend for. And the disciples listened. Those who followed him, they listened. They stood in the city and they waited with expectant prayer. They gathered together in unity and they prayed because Jesus said there was something coming. They were about to get filled up. They were about to get encountered by the Holy Spirit. They were about to be filled with the Holy Spirit. the presence of God. And so they gathered together and they prayed. And I would love to be in one of those prayer meetings. What did it sound like? What were the prayers like? What were they crying out for? If Jesus promised something and all they were doing is waiting for that and dwelling in agreement, what were the conversations before and after their prayer meetings? What were the expectant prayers that were prayed on their microphones? I don't know if they had them back then, but what were the expectant prayers that they were praying? And what were the prayers that were stirring one another? Jesus said, wait here, because in just a few days, we're about to be filled with power. What could that have meant to them? And what was the urgency? I want to pray with that type of urgency. I think that there's so much within the scriptures, and there's so many prayer requests that we get. There's prayer requests on the back wall and many places back there. And I think that a lot of those, Jesus has given access and is like, hey, I've paid for that. Pray with some expectancy to see those things fulfilled and accomplished. And I am convinced that if we would do that, that if we would pray with an urgency, believing that he has paid for it, that he has bought it already with his blood, and that we would believe, like, hey, Jesus promised these disciples he was going to fill them with the Spirit. And if we would pray with that same type of urgency and expectancy, I think it would transform things. Letter B, they devoted themselves to continual prayer in the temple. which was the very house of prayer that Jesus zealously defended. Remember, he walks into the temple and he's like, hey, you guys have turned this into a place of unfair commerce, but my house is supposed to be called a house of prayer. My house is supposed to be a place of connection with God. These consistent upper room gatherings became the launching pad for a movement that would change the world. I don't even know how much that they understood what was going on in those upper room prayer readings. This So Luke 24, Jesus sang again. He led them out as far as Bethany, lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he parted from them, was carried up into heaven. What a cool moment. And they, after worshiping him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God. He's there. He's there. He ascends up to heaven and they're like, we worship him. And then they just continued to pray together. It was their sort of first response. It was their first act. They didn't go like, all right, let's go conquer the world. They just listened to what he said and they gathered together and they prayed together in the temple. They went to God's house of prayer that he defined it as a house of prayer and they continued to praise God together. Acts 1.14, we see another picture. And these were continually devoting themselves with one mind along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. So there was people gathering together in unity with one mind in prayer. That one-mindedness is such an important, crucial piece. And it's such a piece of our prayer room that I value. When we're in here in the mornings or in the evenings, we're praying and we're unifying around a topic. We're unifying around a scripture. And we're getting that one-mindedness, that unity in the place. And I think that where unity is, where agreement is, God really shows up. He said that anyway, that when two or three are gathered together in his name, that he is there. I am there. Like my presence is there. I want prayer meetings where Jesus is there. I want prayer meetings where his presence is thick and it's tangible, where we're unified in purpose, we're united in heart, and Jesus shows up. And of course, Acts 2 doesn't explain that. It doesn't explicitly say that they were praying, but it does say when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. They're likely praying. They were likely worshiping, or they were likely hanging out, eating food together, and it broke out. Who knows exactly? But we do know from their patterns, it was likely that they were talking to God together when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. It's a crucial thing for us to understand that I think in this time, day and age we immediately run to like the church growth pastors we run to those who have a quote unquote successful ministry and they've figured out something and they figured out a model they figured out a system and rather than taking the time to pause and to hear the word of the Lord and to remember his promises like the things that he spoke to us we start strategizing and we miss out the that we've got to birth stuff in prayer the things that we're doing the mission that God has called us we've got to birth it in prayer it was necessary like Jesus could have ascended and immediately dropped the Holy Spirit in that moment but it took a few days it took a few days of them waiting being obedient to what he spoke and contending in agreement for what he wants to do and so sometimes he gives us these seasons of divine delay so that we can remember his promise, hold him to his word and agree with it together in one mind. Who knows what the dynamics of those early church apostles were? Who knows how many were like filled with faith, how many were maybe doubting or insecure, but together in one mind, we know for sure they were contending in prayer, believing for his promises. And by the end of those 10 days, the Holy Spirit showed up and something supernatural broke out that began to transform people the world literally in one moment they're speaking in other tongues and other people are hearing and the gospel the presentation of the word of God was being spread forth because they took time to pause to pray and hold on to his promises I think I'm guilty far too often of hearing and remembering a promise from God that he's spoken to me in the scriptures through prophetic word or through words of obvious that I should remember all the time but I don't and I don't contend for those promises like if he said something is going to happen he's like so not in a hurry to make those things happen he will wait and wait until we jump on board with it and we contend and so I want to call us to be a people who would remember his promises like the one we've been praying a lot in this prayer room is the one that Brendan even prayed tonight that according to the riches of his glory he would supply all that we need it's a promise that he would do that. And so many of our kingdom connections, so many of our personal lives, so much of those prayer requests on the back wall there, we haven't seen the provision yet. But we've got to hold on to what God has said and contend with zeal and urgency and expectancy like it's an upper room prayer meeting that we would wait until the promise comes, that we would contend until the promise comes, and that we wouldn't move on until that promise comes. One of the things that we prayed for over this past month was a number of restless ones One morning, Brendan was on the prayer mic and said, Lord, would you give us, I can't even remember what the exact number was, that there would be, we needed six more or something like that, eight, nine more, well, this is close, nine more in two months. And he just attached these things to it. And I don't know if it was a God-inspired thing or if it was just a Brendan Faithfield thing, but he said, we want nine restless ones in two months. So we prayed urgently and expectantly and we didn't see nine, but we've seen four or five that have signed up and said yes. So we could give up and be like, okay, well, God didn't do it. But we're going to hold on to that and we're going to continue contending for the fulfillment of that. We've been praying on Mondays for God to give us 80 restless ones. Not for any reason, but because we believe that He wants to build His house and He wants people to contend. He wants people to sign up for one hour a week to say yes in the prayer room. And so we're going to pray all of those 80 in into our prayer room until it happens. We're not going to give up. And I want to call it to be people who would not give up on the prayers that God drops in our hearts the dream and the desires that he's put inside of our hearts that we wouldn't give up when circumstances change we wouldn't give up when it feels like we're facing pressure and opposition and we wouldn't give up when no one believes us or no one when people speak bad words over us like oh that's a far-fetched dream why would you do why would you do that that we would be those who would contend I mean I think of Noah who was faithful to build his ark when God gave him a promise and said, hey, I'm about to flood the earth. You've got to build this ark. You've got to be diligent for decades to build this ark. And as he was faithful to do that, wisdom, obedience was justified the moment it started to rain and everyone around him was like, oh my goodness, this man was faithful. This man was diligent and what God said is actually happening. So we might be crazy to pray for 80 restless ones. We might be crazy to pray for breakthrough and kingdom connections. We might be crazy to pray for all the stuff that we pray for in this room, like revival and young people coming to know Jesus and the church being set on fire. All of the stuff that we're praying for might be crazy, but if we can contend and wait expectantly and not let it go, I think God will break in. The 10 days in the upper room serve as a model for us today, showing us that seasons of expectantly waiting on God in uniform prayer leads to breakthrough. At Pi Hop, we have created a dedicated space right here in this room where we're gathered today. It's a sort of modern day expression of that upper room, a place where people can gather together expectantly to seek God and his purposes together. Just as the early disciples devoted themselves to prayer in anticipation of the Holy Spirit's power, we also set aside regular times in this prayer room where we call people to adore Jesus, to align I think that too often we pray safe prayers. And I want to call us into prayers that are no longer safe. Prayers that set us up for disappointment. Like Jesus, we want nine restless ones in two months. And if that's wrong, God, then correct us. But I want to pray these prayers that really put God to the test. I think he wants us to put into the test a prayer that says, I think he wants us to ask him for specific things. I think he wants us to pray the bold prayers that seem impossible. Because when we pray that, we can identify it, we can track it, and then we can testify about it. For years and years, we have prayed in general terms, Jesus, bless the church in our region. And I think he's heard every one of those. I think he's moved in power and done amazing stuff. But we can't point to any specific target that we said, oh yeah, God did this because of our prayers. I think God wants to reveal himself through our faith and our boldness and our expectancy. All of these apostolic prayers on our list that we pray, on the four pages that we have there, all of our prayers for Israel that we pray, I think we can attach numbers and names and specific quantifiable evidence that will testify of the glory of God. And I think an element that we've missed out on in our prayer room and maybe in prayer room's globally is the element of celebration and rejoicing in what God has done. If we pray, God, give our kingdom connection three loans. They need three loans this month. And we pray that and God does it, then we have testimony. We have something to say, look what God has done. These loans were impossible. This is a real story. One of our kingdom connections needed three loans. No business was coming their way. And she's like, hey, can you guys please pray? I need three. Well, we prayed and two days later, she ended up getting like three and they were impossible loans. They were dying and God had to inspire her for all the strategies. And today we got the text that the third loan, the third impossible loan is finally going to close. That's a testimony that we can say, okay, God, we prayed specifically, expectantly, and you broke in and you did something. I think that these apostles were gathered in the upper room, reminding him, Jesus, you said that we would be filled with power. Where is the power? Where is your zeal? Where are your mighty deeds? I think they were recalling that Isaiah 63 and Isaiah 64 portion where they're praying and contending. You said this, God, won't you break in and do it? And can you imagine the moment where God broke in? And it was, I mean, you couldn't deny that something was happening. People had no grid for what happened. They're like, oh, these dudes are just drunk. That's what's happening. They're so drunk in the morning. That's the problem. It was such a moment of awe for all those who were gathered in the temple courts area. They didn't even know what to say. And I believe that God wants to do that as we pray together in this room, that we would not pray safe prayers that don't put us on the hook. Prayers that will put God to the test. Okay, Lord, you said this in your word that you would provide for all of our needs. So would you provide for our friends over there having that fundraiser, would you provide all of their needs? God, would you provide what the church needs? When there's all of the prayer requests and all the things that happen in this room, that we would pray the scary prayers that would even set us up for disappointment. And when God doesn't answer them, that we would come back to the prayer room and say, God, why haven't we seen this yet? Hearing your word, I remind you of what you said that you're able to do, what you're willing to do, why won't you do it? I've learned this lesson very well through my daughter, Selah. And I'm trying to coach her because she will relentlessly ask and ask things. Daddy, can I play the iPad? No. Daddy, can I play the iPad? No. Why? Why can I play it? Selah, I've already given you an answer. The answer was no. Stop asking. And she continues to ask, and I'm trying to coach her. If I've given you an answer, you can't ask anymore. That's just the rule. But if I don't give you an answer, you have permission to keep asking because I don't want to crush the intercessor in her. I want her to be persistent in asking. But if I give her an answer, I'm like, nope, you have the answer. Stop asking. And sometimes, you know, that persistent widow parable works for her. She asks so much and it gets so annoying that I'm like, here, fine, here's the phone, here's the iPad. Go, go, run away. Let me finish my conversation. It happens. But I think that when we don't see the answers to those prayers, we shouldn't give up. When we don't see the full breakthrough, when it feels like we just hit the wall and there's a crack in the wall, we should continue to press in and ask, God, why haven't you done it yet? Okay. Man, I took too long on that point, but that's okay. Number two, prayer is a daily rhythm. Prayer wasn't occasional for the early church. It was a daily rhythm woven into their fabric. Acts 2.42-47, it's one of my favorite portions in the entire Bible, where reveals their devotion to like four pillars. They devoted themselves to the apostolic teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread, and to prayer. They practiced these in homes. They practiced it together and daily in the temple courts. For the early church, prayer wasn't this religious obligation or a desperate last resort. It was the foundation and first response to every circumstance. Their prayer meetings became like a heartbeat that was steady, life-giving, and essential for sustaining the church in unity, boldness, and effectiveness in advancing the gospel. So I love looking at these verses because I think within them we can learn some things. That they were continually devoting themselves. That's important. That phrase right there. Continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Here tonight, as a house of prayer, we're going to really major on that prayer reality. Now, that doesn't excuse us from being able to devote ourselves to the other things. I think believers are called to these four ancient pillars, this ancient root system, that we are called to embrace these realities as a part of who we are. Here at the Pueblo Incense House of Prayer, we really lean into that prayer one. And sometimes in churches, they may emphasize the breaking of bread. They might emphasize the teaching. I think it's a really common thing that in the body of Christ, we love emphasizing and rallying around the teaching. And maybe the fellowship and the prayer piece aren't so emphasized. But I think that we're all called to lean into these four pillars. But look what happens when they did that. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. They were mind blown. Many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. All the believers were together and had all things in common. That's bizarre. And they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all to the extent that anyone had a need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, God's house of prayer, and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. So now I don't know if this is a formula. I don't know if this is what God is saying that we have to do this and we'll have revival and everybody in the world will get saved. But here's what I know. If we devote ourselves to these four ancient pillars as the body of Christ, as people of prayer, it can't hurt. I wonder if that we made these these a priority if we might be in a sense of awe at what God might do. I wonder if we devoted ourselves to daily prayer and fellowship and breaking bread and teaching, if we devoted ourselves to these realities, if we might see a breakthrough of signs and wonders, if we might see favor from all people. Like, there's a lot of stuff in here that I think God is whispering. Now, I don't know, because I don't know if I've done it all. I don't know if I've If I've really embraced these the way that they did in the early church. And I think that there's an invitation, perhaps, for us to lean into these pillars and to see what God might do. What would it look like if... If it never stopped, if the body of Christ ate together every day, if the body of Christ enjoyed one another every day, if they prayed together every day, what would the church look like? What would we do? I don't really know, but I'm convinced that if we just return to this ancient root system and just say, Lord, we want to try this. We want to go after this, that things might shift. Even when opposition struck, we're on the top of page two. When opposition struck, prayer remained the instinctive first response for the early church leaders. After Peter and John healed the lame beggar and preached boldly, they ended up being forcefully detained by religious leaders. Acts 4.3 says, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming Jesus, the resurrection from the dead, the religious leaders laid hands, the way that the word is written in the original means forcefully, they laid hands on them and put them in put in prison until the next day. So they were probably beat up a little bit. Put in prison until the next day for it was already evening that day. When they were released, they didn't go back to their friends and have a strategy meeting and have a planning. What do we do? How do we not deal with persecution? Let's talk about this. What's our plan to secretly do this? What they do is incredible. They go back to their friends and they have this fiery prayer meeting. And God shows up in that prayer meeting and he fills them again with the Holy Spirit and gives them boldness to preach the word. The very thing, they pray with zeal. God, we just got beat up and arrested for this. Can you give us boldness to do it again? Can you give us confidence to do it even more so? And God shows up, the place where they're gathered together is shaken and they're all filled with the Holy Spirit. And then they started preaching the word of God with boldness again. Let's read it in Acts 4. When they had been released, they went to the their own companions. It's what they did. They reported everything that the chief priests and the elders said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind. It's crucial. They're always doing this with one mind, in togetherness, in friendship. There's one mind. And they said, Lord, it's you who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything that's in them, and who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David, your servant said, and they open up the Bible, essentially, and they pray these biblical prayers before God. Psalm 2. They say, So they pray this Bible prayer and they're like putting it into real context like okay we've seen this already happen they conspired against the Lord and they say and now Lord look at their threats we were just beat up we were just put in prison overnight look at those threats and grant it to your bond servants to speak your word with all confidence so they didn't shrink back they didn't strategize something else they just asked for more while you extend your hand to heal they doubled down God heal more people we just healed this lame dude and now he's awesome God would you do it again for people? Would you stretch out your hand? And we want more signs, more wonders that would take place in the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak the word of God with boldness. That's the type of prayer meeting that I'm hungry for. Like in our day and age, we don't face that type of persecution or opposition. Like the opposition that we face is, oh, that person saw me post this thing on Facebook or That person heard me say this thing at church and they don't like me. They always make a weird face at me now when they sit across from me at church. It's super rare for you and I to get apprehended forcefully, put in prison overnight because a healing took place. We don't know that type of persecution. Maybe one day we will, but sometimes we come to the prayer room and sometimes our complaints come out. We come to the place of prayer and we complain, Lord, would you just shift the hearts of those people who aren't like me and they do it all wrong, Lord. And no, we've got to like pray according to what God is doing, celebrate it and double down. Lord, we've seen you do this. I'm so filled with faith, like seeing breakthrough with kingdom connections, seeing breakthrough with things that we've been praying for in the prayer room. I'm saying, okay, God, we've seen you do it. Now give us boldness and expectancy that you're going to do it again in greater measure. And I hope it gets us in a at these answered prayers and people that are testifying of healing and breakthrough and deliverance and whatever happens and that it starts to like ruffle the feathers of some of the rulers and principalities over the... I want to get into a little bit of trouble because our prayers are so effective. I want to have to come to a prayer meeting and say, God, I'm terrified because we just upset a demonic force in our city. Would you fill us with boldness to pray for more and that God would show up to that prayer meeting and shake the place and give everybody gathered more boldness to do it again. That's the type of prayer room expression we need to pursue. I'm so excited. Okay, Roman numeral three. Continual worship and prayer as a global strategy. So we're just tracking along here with the early church. The early church understood prayer and worship as central to God's strategy for reaching the nations. At the Jerusalem council, this is so much fun, right? They're figuring things out. Gentiles are getting saved and they're like, so what do we do? Circumcised or not circumcised? They're really having this church planning meeting, and they're not quite sure what the right answer is. And so they're talking back and forth, and we get a little bit of insight into what happens. And James kind of puts things into perspective. He connected their expanding mission, like it was already happening. Gentiles coming to know Jesus, and he recalls the prophet. He recalls the intent of God from way back when. Like, this isn't a new thing. God really wasn't doing a new thing. It was the fulfillment of what he had been whispering throughout the ages. And James is like, guys, hold on. Peter just said something like, this all makes sense. And he says, after they stopped speaking, James said, brothers, listen to me. Simeon, which is, he's talking of Simon Peter in the moment, has described how God first concerned himself about taking a people for his name from the Gentiles. So he's like, this has always been in God's heart that the Gentiles would come to know him. So we're worried about circumcision or not. But remember, This is in God's heart. The words of the prophets agree with this. Just as it was written, after these things I will return, rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David and rebuild its ruins and I will restore it so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who makes these things known from long ago. So he's, what James connects here is that David's fallen tabernacle and the restoration of what happened in David's fallen tabernacle, which we've talked a whole lot about here. It was a place that was marked with a lot of worship and prayer. It was happening continually. Whether that means 24-7 or not, I don't know, but I know it was happening a whole bunch. People were worshiping. They had thousands of singers and musicians that were doing it, so it was happening quite a bit. And James says, hey, this has been in God's heart that worship and prayer would be central to God's strategy to bring about all of the Gentiles who seek God's name. Now, the ultimate fulfillment of this is clearly when Jesus returns. When you read Amos 9, you understand, oh, Jesus is the one who's going to build and restore this. But what James recognizes in the moment is like the near, far, the like multi-layered fulfillment of God's prophetic word. He was like, guys, it's happening. Gentiles are being saved. Like, because we're praying and because we're worshiping, because we're continuing with one mind together in prayer, because it's This is a daily rhythm. God is doing it. Like he's showing up and people are getting saved and signs and wonders. He points that out to them and how crucial that was. While ultimate restoration awaits Christ's return, the early church was experiencing the present reality of God's global strategy. It was already in motion. According to James, the Davidic pattern of continual worship and prayer was an ancient history, but it was a foundational blueprint for the church and a strategy for world evangelization. Through communities committed to a rhythm of worship and prayer meetings, God would shake the nations and draw all peoples to himself Even his own words, prophesying through Isaiah 56. So it was always in God's heart to gather people and it seems as though the means to which he's gathering them through and the means to which he's gathering them to was his house of prayer. His place where people are committed to pray together with one mind. He knows what he's doing and it's why I'm so convinced that in cities and regions all throughout the earth he's raising up little pockets and communities of people that would gather together that would devote themselves to it that would say yes and that he's going to transform that region through little houses of prayer like this like so often we're like wanting the crazy revival where thousands flock to the city and they all get saved and I'm like all God, do that. But also, God, would you plant little pockets of prayer rooms and praying people that would say yes to praying for their region, praying for marketplace leaders in their region, praying for families in their region, praying for local churches? Would you plant people there so that the works of God would be accomplished? Would push back the darkness? and that God would do stuff. It was the sacred pulse here in the final page, page three. Prayer was the early church's heartbeat, sustaining supernatural power, unshakable unity, and unstoppable mission. From the upper room expectancy to the temple court's daily devotion, from crisis gatherings to strategic planning meetings, prayer fundamentally shaped their identity as God's living dwelling place. Nearly every recorded breakthrough in Acts is either preceded or accompanied Most often, in the context of a gathering of prayer, whether that gathering was on the way to the temple courts, whether that gathering was two or three together in somebody's house, whether that gathering was just a couple people in a prison cell singing, it's all over the place in what they're doing. Gathering in prayer always seemed to precede or accompany the breakthrough, significant breakthrough. Listen to a whole bunch of references and There you can read those and they're lots of fun. I won't go through all of them right now for time's sake. But letter B, the pattern is unmistakable. Prayer didn't supplement their ministry. It was the atmosphere where all ministry flourished. They only did ministry. They only did the stuff because it was saturated, birthed, and bathed in prayer. That's where it all flourished from. If today's church desires the same supernatural power, wants to walk in the fullness of her purpose, she must return to this foundation foundational rhythm. That's why we are here. That's literally why we started a prayer room. We started a prayer meeting. It wasn't a prayer room at first. We wanted to go to a prayer meeting and we couldn't find one that was happening. So we said, well, then let's just gather together and do it. And then we couldn't find it every week. And so we said, well, let's just do this prayer meeting every week. And then we kept doing it. And then we added more and then we added more. And then we just kept going and said, you know what? We're just going to really keep having prayer because there's not a whole lot of it that's happening around our city and local churches and let's do this thing. And so eventually they made me give it a name and so now it's Pablo Vincent's House of Prayer and we're having a whole bunch of prayer meetings. We're a house of prayer. But prayer cannot remain an accessory or just an opening ceremony to the more important quote unquote activities. It must become what it was for the fathers of our faith. It's got to be the pulse of what we do. Has to be where heaven meets earth. Has to be where God's transforms the people that are gathered and praying. It has to be the place where it transforms those that we're praying for. And I want to see it. I want to track it. I want to measure it. I want to see the works of God and convince others to join in because it works. Like gathering and worshiping Jesus because he's worthy, I'm all for it. I'm going to do that for the rest of my life. Because he's worthy, it doesn't matter if we've got a thousand people in this room. It doesn't matter if I'm the only one in this room. I'm going to worship Jesus because he's worthy, and I'm going to do it every single day. But I believe that the more testimonies, the more breakthrough, the more expectancy that's happening in this room, it's going to attract people, and it's going to give them a reason to devote themselves to it. I think people were being added to the apostles day by day because they were seeing the breakthrough. They were seeing the miraculous. The kingdom was advancing and invading. And they were still facing opposition and persecution and getting arrested and all the stuff. But people were saying, I'm signing up for this because it works. I'm going to devote myself to this because it works. So here's my heart for us tonight, that we would again, all of us that are gathered in this room, those who are listening on the podcast, we love all you guys. And if you're not in our city, then we want you to start a prayer meeting or go to one and double down. But I'm I want to call us again to devote ourselves to the place of prayer, to say yes. What we do around here, who we are, what makes us Pueblo Incense House of Prayer is that we pray all the time. I want to encourage us not just to show up and fulfill the hour and do the thing, but that we would show up and pray with boldness and expectancy, that it would be a part of the daily rhythm, that we would double down on these pillars of our faith, that we would believe that breakthrough is coming and that breakthrough will not come unless we pray, that we would say yes to it. I want to encourage you to sign up, to become a restless one, to say yes. That's a simple way of devoting ourselves to the place of prayer, that we would say yes to one hour a week. We were talking, Brennan and I, earlier about how many, I mean, one hour a week is like, I devote more time to my phone, I devote more time to eating food. There's so many other things that I devote more time to than one hour a week. It's possible. It's doable for most people. And if the hours that we have don't work, then it's time for some more prayer meetings. It's time to add more. It's time to find a couple friends that would devote to it with you and that would say, I'm going to do this every day at 5 a.m. If you're a 5 a.m. person or midnight, I don't know. We're going to do this. We're going to come to the house of prayer. We literally pay for this space so that we can have as much prayer as humanly possible. And if we do that, then I think God will be Break in, and we'll see breakthrough and advancement of his kingdom in our city. I'm convinced that prayer works, that the rhythm of prayer is something that the apostles said yes to, and it worked, and I believe it still works today. Amen? I'm going to pray for us, and then we'll close. Jesus, thank you.