Praying With A Purpose: Praying With Vision

“On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:” Acts‬ ‭10:9‬ ‭‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Solomon said “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18) Peter is praying and so is a man named Cornelius. Peter knows Christ and Cornelius wants to know and serve the true God. Peter has something to give and Cornelius has a heart to receive. The thing that brings them together is a vision!

Cornelius is a Roman centurion. He is described as one who is “devout, feared God, gave much alms, and prayed to God always.” (v. 2) It sounds like he is a Christian already. He is doing Christian things but lacks one important ingredient. He did not know Christ! All of this devotion, respect, giving, and praying to God left him still with an empty feeling. The reason why was that the only thing that could feel that void was the one who God designed to fill it with to begin with…Jesus Christ!

As Cornelius is praying, an angel appears to him in a vision telling him to enquire of a man named Peter. Cornelius sends a group of men. As the men are on their journey to find him, Peter is on the housetop praying at the sixth hour of the day. In this time of prayer he has a vision that would change his life as well as the rest of the world. It is at this time that God would began to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. Before this could be done God had to deal with Peter’s prejudices. He is prejudice towards Gentiles. God shows him a vision and in this vision he sees a sheet that descends and is full of clean and unclean animals. He heard a voice that says rise and eat. Peter responds with a defiant “no” to begin with because the Law prohibited the Jews from eating certain foods. But Jesus tells Peter “That which I have cleansed call thou not common.” (v.15) As the vision was coming to an end, the men that Cornelius sent was knocking on the door. Peter was now ready to go and share the Gospel to a gentile.

The lesson here is that prejudices were broken by prayer! If Peter would have not submitted himself to a habit of prayer , this centurion may have never met Jesus Christ. God uses men and woman to communicate the good news of salvation. God could have told Cornelius what he needed to do to know him, but He chose the “Foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) Without prayer there would have been no vision. Without a vision, Cornelius would have perished.

The prejudices that you and I have to work through may not be like Peter’s who had racial or ethnic prejudices. We may have to work through

• Social Prejudices

• Religious Prejudices

• Denominational Prejudices

• Various other Personal Prejudices

Which have the tendency to cloud our vision and prevent us from being the useful instrument that God wants us to be.

Prayer is more than us asking God to give us this and that for ourselves. Prayer is also us responding to what others are asking and seeking for. What bridged the two together was a vision sent by a loving God who is able to make “All things work together for good to them who love God, and are the called according to his purposes.” (Romans 8:28) Let us seek to be men and woman of prayer and vision, which in turn will create an atmosphere of opportunity!

Pastor Robby