{"id":5859,"date":"2025-12-25T20:17:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T20:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/?p=5859"},"modified":"2025-12-25T20:18:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T20:18:02","slug":"sometimes-joy-needs-a-good-stir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wow\/word_of_the_week_post\/sometimes-joy-needs-a-good-stir\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes Joy Needs a Good Stir"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cAnd at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.\u201d Acts 16:25<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison after they were beaten and whipped. The jailor had orders to \u201ckeep them safely,\u201d so he put them into the inner prison and had their feet locked in stocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 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, \u201c\u2026at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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, \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you\u2019ve 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\u2019s inside you with prayer and praise! First, in John 16:24, Jesus said, \u201cHitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.\u201d Answered prayer fills your Joy with a power that the devil has no defense for! If we don\u2019t 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, \u201c\u2026everyone who asks receives!\u201d (Matthew 7:8) That\u2019s a promise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At midnight \u2013 at the darkest hour, and in the darkest moments of fear and hopelessness, \u201cPaul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God\u2026\u201d and it ruined the devil\u2019s plot. It destroyed satan\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2026 It will set you free and many others too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor Tom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kingdom Business is Eternal, as are the rewards that come from God. If this ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider partnering with us in prayer, as the Lord leads you, or in financial support. Please visit our website at www.testamentoflove.org to learn more about this ministry! Luke 6:38<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.\u201d Acts 16:25 Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison after they were beaten and whipped. The jailor had orders to \u201ckeep them safely,\u201d so he put them into the inner prison and had their feet locked in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word_of_the_week_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5861,"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859\/revisions\/5861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testamentoflove.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}