Today’s Devotion
Topic: Intercede Until Their Chains Fall Off!
Text: Acts 12: 5
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Amen
At a time, King Herod begun to arrest some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He even had James, the brother of John, put to death by the sword. When he saw that this was met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. However, the church was earnestly praying to God for Peter.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.” (Acts 12: 1- 11).
Beloved, “many of the many” we observe walking freely about the streets, actually find themselves in several kinds of bondages and chains that require God’s intervention.
Some have by themselves gotten into deals with the devil (through fetishism, witchcraft activity, soul ties, revenge, disobedience to God, rejection of the gospel etc), that keep them bound and tormented every now and then by satan. Others find themselves in bondages that are not necessarily due to some “consented” action of theirs. Mostly is it by virtue of their blood line, tribal affiliations or some unconscious allegiance to the enemy due to ignorance. Yet there is a third group of captives, who like Peter, find themselves in prison for defending the gospel and its righteousness.
Whatever the reason for their captivity is, the CHURCH must not stop praying for the deliverance and liberty of all who are oppressed of the devil. Stop laughing at their chains and feel their pain. The horror of not having liberty to be who God wants you to be is torturing enough. It becomes much worse to know that the captor does not just mean the chains for your limitation but to kill you as well.
Don’t join those who busily criticise the chains of the armed robber, drunk, poor, unemployed, depressed, sexually perversed, prostitute, internet fraudster, thief, drug addict or sick; Neither must we criticise the chains of genuine ministers who suffer imprisonment for the sake of the gospel.
Pray for them now! The church must pray for them. Pray with the song “There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain”. Send the power of God into the cell keeping them, in between the gaurds watching after them day and night, and command their chains to be broken in Jesus name. It will be like a dream to them, how they escape the fowler’s snare like a bird. Jesus came to set the captives free, why should your chains remain?
