Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

— Acts 12:16

Some people say that when you pray, you must have faith, and if you have even a doubt, then your prayer won't be answered. But that is simply not true.

How much faith did Lazarus have when Jesus raised him from the dead? None. How about the people at the tomb who were weeping? Probably not much. How about the man who said, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24), and Jesus answered his prayer anyway?

We all will have times when our faith isn't as strong as it ought to be. But God can work, even when we don't have as much faith as we should. That does not excuse us from having faith. We still should pray with faith. And we should pray with persistence.

When Peter needed a miracle to get out of prison, God waited until the last moment to deliver him. And you really have to admire Peter. Not knowing what his fate would be, he still was sleeping so deeply that the angel had to wake him up. Psalm 127:2 tells us that God "gives His beloved sleep," and He certainly gave sleep to his beloved Peter.

So even though the early church prayed with passion and persistence, they still were shocked when God actually answered their prayers and saw Peter standing before them. Obviously they had prayed with some doubt. But even though their prayer was weak, it was mightier than Herod and mightier than the forces of hell.

That gives me great hope, because I am not always a man of great faith. There are times when I will pray for something and wonder if it would really happen. And it is encouraging to know that even when I am weak, God can still intervene and answer my prayer.

I understand why some people are, to some degree, averse to the gifts of the Spirit, because there has been so much abuse in this area.

Often, the people who claim to be using these gifts behave in rather strange ways. We look at this flamboyant excess and say, "Well, if those are the gifts of the Spirit, then I don't want anything to do with them."

In doing so, however, we can actually be guilty of the sin of omission, which is not doing what we ought to do. If God's Holy Spirit has instilled spiritual gifts in our lives, then it is our responsibility to discover and use them.

The Bible says, "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19 NKJV). To "quench" is to extinguish something, like throwing water on a campfire as you are preparing to break camp.

The sin of quenching the Holy Spirit is when God's Spirit is prompting us to say or do a certain thing and we refuse. Quenching the Spirit could also be failing to discover and use the gifts that God has given us.

So let's look at the gifts of the Spirit in a biblical and balanced way. I believe in the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But I also believe that it is a practical power that God wants us to have—the same practical power that caused the early church to turn their world upside down.

Ephesians 4 tells us that God has given us the gifts of the Spirit "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (verses 12–13 NIV).

The gifts of the Spirit are given for the perfecting, or the maturing, of the saints. God gives us these gifts, working through people like pastors and teachers so that believers are equipped.

We also have the gifts of the Spirit so that we might be equipped to do all God has called us to do in the church. God has given each of us a gift or gifts to utilize to bless others. The gifts of the Spirit are not a hobby to play with; they are tools to build with. And they are weapons to fight with.

God has given the gifts of the Spirit to bring unity in the church as well. Again, Ephesians 4:12–13 tells us that the purpose of these gifts is "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (NIV).

As we use these gifts, we discover that no one person has all of them. God, in His sovereign will, has chosen to give certain gifts to certain people.

The gifts are given for the spiritual growth of Christians and the numeric growth of the church. God "makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love" (Ephesians 4:16 NLT).

When a church is grounded in God's Word and energized by the Holy Spirit, it will reach out, not satisfied with staying by itself. It will permeate, challenge, and confront culture.

Jesus said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8 NIV). It is power with a purpose.

Some people get sidetracked with the gifts of the Spirit. But Christians should not follow signs and wonders; signs and wonders should follow them. The Christian life is one of faith.

As commentator A. B. Simpson wrote, "Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord; once it was the feeling, now it is His Word. Once His gifts I wanted, now the Giver own; once I sought for healing, now Himself alone."

Allow God to pour out His Spirit and bring His gifts into your life when and where He chooses. And in the meantime, be preoccupied with following Him and maturing in your faith.

There are times when we pray about something maybe once, perhaps twice, even three times, and if we don't receive an answer in the affirmative, then we give up and assume that it must not be God's will.

But Jesus taught His disciples "that they should always pray and not give up" (Luke 18:1 NIV).

We need to understand that when we pray, a spiritual battle is raging behind the scenes. In the Book of Daniel, we find an interesting story in which Daniel offered his request before God and the answer finally came. An angel appeared to him and said,

"Don't be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me. . . . " (Daniel 10:12–13 NLT)

It may be that you have asked God for something in your life that He wants to do. Just because it has not happened yet does not mean that it will never happen. God's delays are not necessarily His denials.

Clearly, there are some prayers the devil will oppose more than others. For example, when you pray for someone's salvation, you need to know that it is a spiritual battle. The last thing the devil wants to do is to release one of his captives.

In April 2003, U.S. military forces undertook a courageous operation to rescue Jessica Lynch, a soldier whose unit had been ambushed and captured during the Iraqi invasion. These soldiers risked their lives to save this prisoner of war and recover the bodies of eight other American soldiers.

In the same way, the devil has prisoners of war. And the only way people can be freed from spiritual bondage is when the power of Satan is bound. That is why, when we pray for a person's salvation, we need to pray that God will open his or her eyes so they will see their need for Jesus Christ. We can't give up.

One of the classic stories of persistent prayer is that of the Syro-Phoenician woman, a non-Jew who came to Jesus and asked Him to touch her demon-possessed daughter and deliver her. Jesus said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs" (Matthew 15:26).

But instead of taking offense, she replied, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table" (verse 27).

Jesus was so impressed with her response that He said, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire" (verse 28). The Bible says her daughter was healed from that very hour.

What do we learn from this story? Jesus was not putting up barriers to keep her away, but to draw her closer—barriers that genuine, persistent faith could hurdle. Her faith was so great that even a tiny leftover of Jesus' power, in her estimation, would be enough to deliver her daughter.

Jesus urges us to be persistent in our prayers: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7–8). If you were to directly translate these very familiar words of Jesus, it would sound something like this: "Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. . . . "

Jesus also said, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11). This reminds us of the intimacy and fellowship we have with God.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name" (Matthew 6:9). When we bring our requests before God, we need to remember that we are speaking to our Father.

You see, it is His will to give you the things that you need in your life. Maybe you have been praying about something and there has not been an answer. Maybe there has been an interruption. Remember this: sometimes, an interruption is actually the intervention of God. Disappointment can be His appointment. So don't give up.

The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers.

— Acts 9:31

Acts 9 tells us that after Saul's conversion, the church had peace. Why could they heave a sigh of relief? Because Saul had stopped hunting them down, arresting them, and throwing them into prison. But for as long as he lived, the world never had peace again, because he took the same zeal that had driven him to hunt down Christians and applied it to preaching the gospel.

I wish that Christians would serve God with as much zeal as they once served the devil. Many of us did whatever the devil wanted us to do. He would tell us to jump, and we would ask how high. But once we became Christians, we suddenly became timid. Instead of being bold men and women of God who are making a difference, we think, Well, I don't want to offend anyone. . . . Well, I don't want to say that. . . . Well, I am not sure if people would like that.

The world didn't have rest, because Saul was the kind of guy who got things done. And when he was filled with the Holy Spirit and led by God, he was out preaching the gospel and causing what could be described as a holy disturbance.

Are you causing a disturbance in a good way? Or are you just fitting in—blending in with the woodwork? Instead, may God help you to be the man or woman He has called you to be.

I thank God for heroes like Paul. But I thank God for unsung heroes too. So whether you're a hero or an unsung hero, make your life count. Because you don't decide when your life starts, and you don't decide when it ends. But you can decide what you will do with the days in between.

For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means "Son of Encouragement"). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus.

— Acts 4:36

Acts 9 tells us that it was Barnabas who brought the newly converted Paul to the apostles in Jerusalem. The name Barnabas means "son of encouragement," and his actions reveal that he was an encouraging guy. We all know a Barnabas—the one who always has an encouraging word. When you are down, that is the person you want to call, because you know he or she will encourage you.

You may not be called to preach and teach like Paul did, but you can be an encourager like Barnabas was. You can do your part, because right now, you probably know someone who needs some encouragement—someone who has failed in life, someone who is hurting, or someone who is a brand-new believer. They need someone like you to stand in the gap. You don't have to know every verse in the Bible. You don't have to have the answer to every theological question. You just need to be a real Christian who can show them what it is like to live in the real world.

You can be a Barnabas, an encourager, because everybody needs encouragement. And everyone needs help. Everyone stumbles and falls in some way, shape, or form. Everyone has their down days, even the heroes of life. They may wake up on the wrong side of the bed, be feeling a little cranky, or don't always have the perfect answer for every question. They are human like you are. They need someone to just encourage them. So be an encourager.

Thank God for the Barnabases of the world who help those in need—and all of us need it at one time or another. These are the unsung heroes who play an important part in the lives of great men and women of God.

So the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight."

— Acts 9:11–12

There are three things we see in the life of the newly converted Saul—the apostle Paul—that should characterize every follower of Jesus.

First, Paul was praying. Acts 9 tells us that God instructed a certain follower of Christ named Ananias to visit Paul, where he would find him praying. I wonder what Paul prayed for in those days immediately following his conversion. He very likely prayed for forgiveness as it dawned on him what he had done. He had just seen Jesus on the Damascus road, so he probably began seeing himself and his actions for what they were.

I think he probably worshiped too. All his life, he had tried to be a good, religious guy. He had been devout and kept the Law to the best of his ability. But he had fallen short. Now he had entered into fellowship with God—something he had never known before—and he was praying. Every Christian's life should be characterized by prayer.

Second, Paul was preaching: "Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God" (Acts 9:20). Paul couldn't contain himself. He had to tell others about what Christ had done for him.

Third, Paul was suffering. God told Ananias, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine. . . . For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake" (Acts 9:15–16). Paul was going to suffer as a representative of Jesus Christ. While God used him powerfully to perform miracles and pen the letters (or epistles) that we know as part of the New Testament today, Paul suffered. And we will suffer as well.

Are you praying? Are you preaching? Are you suffering? All these things will characterize the life of the believer.