Acts 9:36-41 There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha (which in Greek is Dorcas). She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor…she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room. But the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lydda, so they sent two men to beg him, “Please come as soon as possible!” So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed. Turning to the body he said, “Get up, Tabitha.” And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up! He gave her his hand and helped her up. He called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her to them alive.

I have prayed for two people who I saw raised from the dead. But I’ve prayed for many others who weren’t. I asked the Lord why? He said, “I told you to pray for the two, but I never told you to pray for the others!” I was praying in my own “power” which, without the Holy Spirit, is useless! I guess you could say my prayers were dead! Peter didn’t pray for Dorcas until he prayed and got instruction from God.

Acts 16:16-18 is another example. Luke writes: Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

Why the wait? I believe he was waiting on the Holy Spirit’s timing, waiting for the word from the Lord to tell him what to do. When he heard, then he acted! The trick of our enemy, Satan, is to try to get us to do things that the Lord never told us to do. Why? So we will think we failed and our faith will falter, to get us to fall into self-condemnation. Many people around the country call or email us, saying, “I have a prayer request for you.” They continue, “This is what I want you to pray…” and proceed to tell us word for word! We tell them, “If you heard, then you pray!” We can’t pray until God tells us how to pray. First we need to hear. Why? Because we can’t release our faith until we have the faith! When our words become more selective, then our prayers become more effective!

– by Emil Liko 5/22/26