Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Jim…
Comparing Peter’s bondage to that of the church…
My mom has been running a short prayer service on Saturday nights immediately following the service. She talked about Acts chapter 12 before one of the prayer meetings. Picture Peter and the position he’s in. Maybe see it representing the church. If we look at this in the spirit from what was the physical there. We’re looking at Acts 12:1–3.
“Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.”
Number one…
King Herod basically cut James’ head off. And he saw that the religious Jews loved that. So then he arrested Peter during Passover week. And seeing Peter as a major piece of the church, being put into bondage or stronghold. In verse four, they seized Peter, put him in prison, delivered him to four squads of soldiers of four each to guard him… Sixteen guys after the Passover purposed to bring Peter forth to the people and probably cut his head off too. So you have bondage, or stronghold. Number one, the prison itself is bondage, or stronghold.
Number two…
Number two, you’ve got four squads of four soldiers, 16 soldiers. They went to great lengths to hold him in his place. And so you can personalize this with yourself also. But verse five, Peter was kept in prison but fervent prayer for him was persistently made to God by the church. So fervent and persistent. They weren’t fooling around. They did it fervently. And so we have the church getting together corporately at this point to address in prayer strongholds or bondages. And that is what we’re doing today.
Acts 12:6, the very night before Herod was about to bring Peter forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, fastened with two chains. So the believers were extremely nervous. He’s chained inside a cell inside a prison, plus two centuries on top of that guarding.
Number three…
So stronghold number three, two chains.
Number four…
Stronghold number four, two centuries by the door. Keep in mind the number of soldiers who’ve got guards by the door. The church in Acts is not acutely aware when they’re praying of the specific precautions that the enemy has taken to hold Peter and bondage… chains… 16 soldiers… two more guards inside a cell, inside a prison.
Herod went to great lengths. But it shows that the believers didn’t need to know necessarily the details of what was going on in the prison to the extent that he was bound. And you’ll see that in order to deliver Peter completely out of his bondage, there were actually more strongholds than that.
Verse seven says, “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shown in the place where he was.” The angel moved Peter; he gently smote Peter and awakened him. He says, “Get up quickly.” So Peter had to get up fast. He didn’t have time to wake up… one of the bondages fall. Because he awakens. You have Peter awakening at this point. One of the strongholds fell off, which allowed him to move as soon as he’s awakened. The chains fell off.
The angel led Peter to freedom…
Verse eight, the angel said to him… So he had to do some things fast. Tighten your belt… bind your sandals. I’d like to look into that and see what that is in the spirit about what the church would need to do once they awaken. And he did so, and he said to him, wrap your outer garment around you. What’s a garment? We look into the New Testament. It’s usually righteousness. We have armor, but righteousness is a robe. Peter wraps that garment around him. Following him, he was not conscious of what was apparently being done by the angel. He thought it was a vision. He thought he was maybe in a dream. He was not even aware that he was conscious.
Verse 10…
They went through the first guard, then they went through the second guard, another two more, another bondage off. Another stronghold gone. Came to the iron gate, which leads into the city. The gate just opens up. The last strongholds just opened without him doing anything. And they went out, passed through one street. The angel left him.
So we can see here Peter’s passed through the centuries that we talked about. He’s out of the bondage of 16 special soldiers assigned to guard him. There’s an iron gate that just swings open for him. He’s completely out of the prison.
Peter came to himself…
In verse 11, he came to himself and said, “Now I know and I’m sure that the Lord has sent His angel and delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting to do to me.” Which basically, they wanted his head cut off. And you have Peter, after being delivered of these five different bondages, great precautions to keep him in bondage. If you count them: prison, prison cell, 16 soldiers, two different guards, and then the final gate. And he steps out into the street. He was initially awakened from his sleep.
The church is asleep…
I truly see the church as asleep. The church is asleep. I mean, we’re talking about awakening. The church is asleep because of different bondages. One would be apathy.
And so you have Peter being delivered from five different bondages. But what caused this deliverance from these five to six different strongholds that were put into place was Acts 12:5. Peter was in prison and fervent prayer for him was persistently made to God by the church assembly, the whole church.
Do not fret or have anxiety…
And so, two things before we pray. And I go to this a lot because Philippians 4:6, “Do not fret or have anxiety about anything.” It’s talking about prayer. “But in every circumstance and in everything.” So you should be in connection with Him. And I think in times like this, we’ve got to really press to get out of the anxiety here. I know that if you’re connecting with Him all day, you’re going to be dealing with things at times. And I think He has mercy on that. But also it says “with thanksgiving.” And so there’s an order here. And you see that it’s talking about taking care of your anxiety before going into prayer, before letting your requests be made known to Him. And then it talks about thanksgiving. So we’re talking about care, anxiety, worry, and fear.
And there is all types of prayer…
First Peter 5:7, “Cast the whole of your care.” This is what it’s talking about. Philippians 4:6 talks about doing this. You’re best off if you do this. You cast the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns once and for all on Him. I myself have not perfected “the once and for all.” Sometimes you need to do it. And then you need to do it again. And then you need to do it again. And if you don’t practice this prayer, you won’t be good at it. And if you look at Philippians chapter 4, after Paul says, “This is how you pray.” He says, “practice these things.”
The prayer of commitment…
And so this is what Kenneth Hagin calls the prayer of commitment, committing our problems to Him. And so the apathy, the laziness, the just not carrying, the bondage, all of that… all we can do is commit that to Him. That’s all we can do.
And so, whatever it is that you deal with… Is it grief? Is it worry? Is it fear? All prayer is not the same. And if you need a basic teaching on prayer, I promise you, the best book you could ever possibly buy is the Bible Prayer Study Course [by Kenneth Hagin] where it talks in-depth about each type of prayer. All prayer is not the same. The Bible’s very clear. There’s many different types of prayer. And without getting all wrapped up in all the rules and regulations, because yes, sometimes you just need to talk to God. It’s a really good book to read.
Kenneth Hagin, I was reading after him. He said if Christians would do more casting their cares upon the Lord or praying the prayer of commitment, there would be many things about which they would not have to prayer using other kinds of prayer. Sometimes simply casting your cares on the Lord will eliminate some of the problems in situations people are praying about, because then the Lord will begin to work their problem out. Some people are praying about certain situations and are getting no results. They don’t get an answer because they’re not praying in line with the Word of God. They’re not doing what God said to do about cares, anxieties, worries, and concerns. It’s not going to do any good to pray concerning your cares, anxieties, worries, and concerns unless you are going to do what God tells you to do about them.
In other words, there are some things about which we do not need to pray, about which we should not pray. This is Kenneth Hagin. This isn’t me. This surprises some people. They say, “Brother Hagin, I thought you’re supposed to pray about everything.” Well, you aren’t. There are many things you don’t have to pray about and shouldn’t pray about. You don’t have to pray about the Bible, for example. You just need to accept God’s Word and believe it. The Bible is true. It will read the same way when you’re through praying as it did before you started. Therefore, if you would just believe what the Bible says and do what the Bible says, you would not have to do some of the praying that you’ve been doing. Some way or another, some people seem to get help just thinking or acknowledging the fact that God knows and understands what they’re going through. But they still hold onto their cares and don’t receive deliverance from their problems or situations. God wants to deliver you out of your afflictions. Psalm 34:19.
But in order for God to help you, you’re going to have to cooperate with Him. You’re going to have to do what the Word says. You’re going to have to cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you. If you want to receive total victory and deliverance, it’s not enough just to know that God understands and cares. You must go on from there and do what God said in His Word, what He tells you to do. God wants us to cast all our cares, anxieties, worries, all of our concerns and fears upon Him. This is the prayer of commitment.
So we are committing our problems to Him…
I want to start with that. You think about the things that take the most space in your mind. The most space. What is it? Is it finances? Is it children? Is it health? Is it depression? Which comes from how you’re thinking? Thought patterns… thinking over and over and over about something. It’s a stronghold that’s slowly being built. What is it? What is it?
Casting our cares…
And so, Father, we cast it. We cast these cares on you. We cast all worry, all fear… sadness, sorrow, regrets, condemnation, things that happened in the past that we cannot let loose of… physical fear… fear of people. I cast it all on you.
There’s different ways to do this. Sometimes you picture them here and the Lord taking them from you… throwing it to Him. I’ve got extreme ways like stuffing them in a cannon and shooting them out into the sea of forgetfulness. Just see them go.
But we give them to you, Lord, however we do it. We cast them on you. Put them on you. It says in Psalms to roll them… roll your cares on Him. And we thank you, Father, for a lot of the basics that sometimes we don’t think about just the health to be here for the people online, for the health of just the people that can get online and take part in this.
