The Surprise of an answered Prayer by Pastor Dondo

Pastor  Dondo

Opening Scripture Comes from Acts 12:1-17

 "It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.⁴ After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

⁶ The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. ⁷ Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

⁸ Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. ⁹ Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

¹¹ Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

¹² When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark,where many people had gathered and were praying. ¹³ Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyedshe ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

¹⁶ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. ¹⁷ Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place."

If you go through these verses you will find two groups Peter who was in prison waiting for trial and the second group is the church praying for Peter to be released. 

When you are praying God will surprise you 

He can use people, or angels but no matter what what he will use can surprise you 

If you want to get surprise from God you jus pray, Prayer is the key to get God surprises 

We need to pray because God cannot do anything unless is through an answered Prayer 

Dont limit God, our God is a Big God

He is the same God yesterday, today and forever he has not changed, he will surprise you but only when you pray

Three things learned from above verses from Acts:

1.The Church must pray

Christian should have attitude of prayer 

Whatever you are doing, if you are driving, cooking, or walking you should pray

You need to cultivate the attitude of prayer wherever you are even if the situation doesnot allow you to do so

Vs. 5 The church was earnestly praying for Peter when he was in prison 

When we pray things happen, let's carry each other in prayers

2.The Church should pray as a Community 

If we want to see things happening  in out churches we need to pray 

If we want to see our young one getting marriage we need to pray also

When we pray God will give us new ideas and zeal

3.The Church should expect God to Respond to Prayers

When you pray expect God to answer in his own way

We should expect him to answer in his own time 

God has his own way to answer to our prayer, he can answer in a week, month or years BUT he can answer 

He can say YES but sometimes he can say NO

If you are going through something right now refuse until you know it is God willing 

God also can say WAIT, take example of Abraham he waited to have his own child until when God gave him Isaac even if he was old

It doesn't matter how long you have waited but expect God to answer your prayers in his own time and in his own way 

Then at the end of this verse Peter took necessary step and left to another place so that Herod cannot imprisoned him