The fourth item that the early church continued steadfastly in was prayer. This should not be a surprise, as we have already seen that they were with one accord in prayer when they entered the upper room in Acts 1:14, and again, we see them ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, still in the upper room with one accord. One preacher observed how grossly our focus has shifted. He said, that Peter and company prayed ten days, and then he preached ten minutes. Today, we pray ten minutes and preach an hour. This would probably also explain why we have so little results today.

I usually refer to Acts 4:24 when talking about the united prayer, the prayer that shook the building, but there are two key ingredients, in one place and with one accord, found here in Acts 2:1. Today, with all the latest technologies such as prayer lines, Skype, Face time, Facebook Live, and live streaming, we can tap into the power of God in the comforts of our own homes. Or can we? It might be ‘virtually’ the same, but it is NOT the same. To be in one place means you have to show up for this anointing! Dialing in won’t suffice.

But showing up in one place alone does not mean that you will have united prayer. You have to be with one accord. Neither does having ten people in one place praying about ten different things constitute united prayer. We said early to be with one accord means to be harmonious, with one mind, with one purpose. In Acts 4 the Church was threatened or under attack. This gave them some help to show up to prayer meeting, get united, and all praying the same thing. I hope it doesn’t take this for the Church to get back to that place, but it might.

Actually, the scripture says that “they lifted up their voice to God” which to me indicates one voice. These days, I am grateful for all the saints just showing up in one place. To me that in itself is awesome, but again, it is not enough. To be honest, I have only seen the one voice aspect kick in only a few times. If we really understand the power released when all three aspects kick in, we would strive for this more often. Let’s make this our prayer, Lord grant us grace that this year we together will be in one place, with one accord, and with one voice at the appointed times of prayer.