joel 1.14 Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the LORD your God,
And cry out to the LORD.
jeremiah 8.14 Why do we sit still?
Assemble yourselves,
And let us enter the fortified cities,
And let us be silent there.
For the LORD our God has put us to silence.
acts 4.24-31 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:
‘ Why did the nations rage,
And the people plot vain things?
The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the LORD and against His Christ.’
“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

+____)(*^@!!!@^*)(____+~~~+____)(*^@!!!@^*)(____+~~~+____)(*^@!!!@^*)(____+

There is a spiritual power at work in the earth today that savagely resists the supernatural preaching of the gospel. Just as Goliath defied the armies of Israel some 3000 years ago; just as the Jewish ruling council responded to a powerful undeniable miraculous healing some 2000 years ago by breathing out murderous threats against Peter, James, and John – so the powers of darkness today have attempted to put a total gag order on those who would step out in the power of God to preach the name of Jesus accompanied with the miracles of Jesus.

God gave the apostles a wisdom we are in serious need of today. They responded to the gag order by calling a prayer meeting, a sacred assembly: for the express purpose of calling out to God to do what only God can do. Today we have deluded ourselves into thinking men can be educated or socialized or entertained into believing the message of the gospel. Jesus preached clearly that if men did not see signs and wonders, they would not believe. This was not an indictment on the condition of man; this was and is a spiritual fact that demands a spiritual solution.

There must be a people in the earth today who rise to this challenge. If God has promised to confirm the preaching of his Word with a supernatural display of power, then someone has to honestly ask the obvious question, “Where in the earth is this supernatural display of power?!” And they shouldn’t ask this with a prepared scholarly answer in their back pocket. It should be an open question before Almighty God. He should be able to search us and know us as we ask this – he should be able to witness an earnestness and a desperation in us that will not settle out for less than his divine promises.

He will be found by us when we seek him with all our heart. Look at the powerful place of abject need the apostles went to in their prayer, and look how Father responded. Today, someone has to be willing to go that deep and stay there until God answers by fire >>