Wednesday January 08th, 2025
« Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church »
Read Acts 12:1-11NLT
1About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church.
2 He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword.
3 When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.)
4 Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover.
5 But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.
6 The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate.
7 Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists.
8 Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.
9 So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening.
10 They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.
11 Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”
For anyone who is not born again, it is dangerous to be around angels.
In Acts 12:20-24, Herod was smitten by an angel and worms ate him up because he was filled with pride.
In 2 Kings 19:35, when a king thought that he would deal with a child of God, he came with a mighty army and a single angel killed 185,000 soldiers in one night.
Anyone not on the side of God would be treading dangerously when walking around angels, everywhere.
On the other hand, anyone who is born again is very safe because there is always at least one angel walking around with him or her.
Such a person would have a security detail better than that of the president of the most powerful country on earth.
The unfortunate thing, however, is that many born-again Christians have made their angels redundant.
In our Bible reading for today, Herod took James and killed him, but when he took Peter, an angel came to rescue him.
If you look at the difference between both incidents, you will see that when Herod took James, the Church did not pray.
They did not activate the ministry of the angel of God, but when he took Peter and they prayed, the angel’s ministry was activated.
- There are many things we suffer even though we have angels around us and this is because we don’t pray.
When your prayer altar is cold, your angel is rendered redundant.
As you make petitions to God either in your understanding or in the Spirit in the place of prayer, God issues instructions to your angels.
Pray to activate the ministry of angels in your life.
In 2 Kings 19:20NKJV, God sent a message to King Hezekiah thus saying
« Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’ »
It was the prayer of Hezekiah that activated the angel who went out and killed 185,000 soldiers of the Syrian army in 2 Kings 19:35. If he had not prayed, he would have been easy prey for his enemies.
Application – When you pray, you activate the ministry of angels in your favor.
Author – Bishop Enoch Adejare Adeboye; General Overseer of the RCCG
Soul-restoring, mind-recalibrating Praise and Worship sessions – Evangelist Jemps Benoit ; Minister Paola Médi
Life changing Christian stories : Supernatural Stories
♥ Sharing is caring, please share this devotion, and the Lord will bless you for it ♥
Copingwords@gmail.com
