I recently heard an excellent teaching by Jentezen Franklin and it was based on Acts 12 when Peter was put in prison by Herod and he was chained and had two guards on each side. The way Jentezen explained it was the chains were fear and doubt and the guards were intimidation and discouragement, but the angel of the Lord came and broke Peter out of jail and told him to put his shoes and his clothes on. He began to walk forward, and the doors were opened for him. So, we can apply this to our lives today to break free of fear, doubt, intimidation and discouragement and walk forward; keep moving into our destiny and the Lord will give us favor and open doors of opportunity.
When Peter was supernaturally freed from the prison, he did not believe it. He thought he was seeing a vision. The group of people praying for his release did not believe either. They thought that Peter’s ghost was knocking on the door and told the woman who saw him that she was crazy. Sometimes when we pray for something and get it, we have a hard time believing; even then God is faithful to us.
Acts 12 New International Version (NIV)
Peter’s Miraculous Escape From Prison
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 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. 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. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
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.”
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. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 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.
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