“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” Acts 16:25
Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison after they were beaten and whipped. The jailor had orders to “keep them safely,” so he put them into the inner prison and had their feet locked in stocks.
It’s difficult for most of us to relate to the pain of the whip, the darkness of the jail cell, the cold clammy conditions, and the intense pain they were in from the many stripes on their backs by Roman whips. Today, it would be considered cruel and unusual punishment – and yet, “…at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.”
Paul and Silas began to look up from their pain, they looked beyond the inner prison, and started praying to the God who is bigger than the mob, bigger than a prison, bigger than their pain, and they just began to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit. They began to praise God, and they were loud enough for the other prisoners to hear them. As they were praising it says, “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”
Sometimes you’ve just got to stir up whatever you have on the inside by faith, regardless of how you feel. That means to start feeding and fueling the joy that’s inside you with prayer and praise! First, in John 16:24, Jesus said, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Answered prayer fills your Joy with a power that the devil has no defense for! If we don’t pray, God has nothing to answer. But, if we do pray, He is bound by His own Word to answer our prayer, because He said, “…everyone who asks receives!” (Matthew 7:8) That’s a promise!
The other part of stirring up our joy, is to praise the Lord! Praise is a weapon that brings powerful angels into our camp, where the presence of God can manifest in kingdom power and deliverance! Paul and Silas had no way out, no way to accomplish their mission. All they could do was to wait for Roman justice to come down on them at their hearing, and the mob of accusers were uncontrollable!
At midnight – at the darkest hour, and in the darkest moments of fear and hopelessness, “Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God…” and it ruined the devil’s plot. It destroyed satan’s demonic hold on the city Philippi, and the Church at Philippi was birthed in a display of tremendous supernatural power. Even the Jailor and his family came to the Lord! Why is this in the Bible? It’s there to serve as an example for all of us to follow! You can pray. You can praise God! You can experience the presence and power of God just like Paul and Silas… It will set you free and many others too!
With Love,
Pastor Tom
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