Sunday Service

I have often given this advice to people: If you want to grow in the Lord, read your Bible. Secondly, ensure that your life is clean before God. There should be nothing between you and God so that He can speak to you. And thirdly, live a life of prayer.

Acts 16:25 – 34 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

As I read this portion recently, I was deeply touched and I trust that the Lord will make it alive to you, as He spoke to me. I realised how important and powerful prayer is. However, before we get there, allow me to relate what happened before the conversion of this jailer.

Paul and Silas had been preaching the Gospel in various places. God was with them and used them. It is said that as they were preaching, those who were saved became great in number and they were strengthened in the Lord.

Reading that part, I paused a while. I pondered on this. When we preach the Gospel, do people increase in numbers as they commit their lives to the Lord? If they do not repent, we should ask ourselves - why is this?

I was reminded of a story that Rev Stegen related to us. Please forgive me if I do not relate it correctly. This is how I remember it – it happened soon after the Lord started working in revival power. A young girl got converted, after her meeting with the Lord, she went about winning many others and bringing them to the services. She preached to them – diligent in pointing people to Christ.

One day when she came to Rev Stegen weeping. She said, Rev Stegen, please pray with me. She explained that from when she got converted, God had used her to bring people to the Lord daily. However, in recent months, she said, she had not brought one person to Christ. She was very troubled, but as she was explaining the situation to him, suddenly she remembered a sin that she had committed. She made it right. Rev Stegen prayed with her for forgiveness. Thereafter she left. At the next service she arrived beaming with people that she had won to the Lord. It was clear that God could only work through her if her relationship was right with Him, no hidden sin in her heart.

Paul and his fellow workers, these men of God, were preaching the Gospel, being led by the Holy Spirit,  they were on the way to a certain place, but the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God did not allow them to go there. They bowed and obeyed the Spirit.

If you are a preacher, or just a child of God, you should obey what the Holy Spirit tells you. Then Paul had a vision. He saw a man standing on the other shore, calling out – come! Paul realised that the Holy Spirit was leading them to that place. They understood that the Holy Spirit had not allowed them to go where they had planned to go because they had to go to this place.

When they arrived at Philippi they went to the river outside the city gate (verses 13 – 14  And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. 14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul ).  She accepted the Word of God and she and her family were baptised. After that she opened her home for Paul and his fellow workers to stay there. Have you received the gift of hospitality, welcoming people into your home? Lydia’s home became the base for Paul and his team when they were in that area.

One day Paul and Silas went to the place where they prayed. A girl, possessed by evil spirits of divination followed them and called out that these were servants of the Most High God and were telling the people how to be saved, they should listen to them as they spoke words of God. (verse 17) She was speaking the truth, but she did it with the aid of an evil spirit,18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.

When the owners saw they had lost their business as the girl could not tell fortunes anymore, they became upset with Paul and Silas. They dragged them to the magistrates and accused them of causing much trouble in the city. The magistrates sentenced them to be beaten and thrown into prison. Then they were put into the inner prison and their feet were fastened in the stocks. There was no way for them to escape. But thanks be to God! There is nowhere where Jesus cannot enter. You cannot close Him in.

At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns. Remember, they had been beaten with rods and must have been most uncomfortable in the stocks, but the other prisoners could hear them praising God in the middle of the night.

When you are in extreme difficulties, feeling forsaken, do or can you praise God?

When they prayed, something amazing happened. Verses 26 – 28 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”

This touched me deeply – they prayed – it is important for a child of God to be quiet in prayer. Brethren, pray when it is going well, pray when it is going badly. God in heaven listens and He will hear your prayer.

There is one thing that will hinder God from hearing your prayer – it will be if there is sin – sin will part you from God and God will not hear that prayer.

Is 59:1 – 2 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.  If your iniquities have been dealt with, you can cry to God with all your heart, He will hear.

When Peter was in prison, we read that the church prayed for him with one heart.  In the night, an angel came and woke the sleeping Peter up, told him to put on his shoes after his chains fell off. As he followed the angel, one door after the other opened in front of them. Peter walked with the angel, and when he was outside the prison gate, he realised that it was real, he was not dreaming. This happened in answer to the prayers of the brethren for him.

This is what I wanted to emphasise - the power of prayer in the church that is united. There are new converts who have repented and met with the Lord, spiritual life does not end there, it is very important to confess your sins, but don’t think that that is all it means to be a Christian, live a life of prayer with the Lord.

I prayed this morning and asked Lord to please help me to share clearly what He revealed to me in a fresh way. Maybe I could give you examples out of the Bible, what happened when people prayed.

I was reminded of King Hezekiah. This king loved God. The Bible tells us that he walked in the ways of his father David. When Hezekiah was deathly ill, God sent the prophet Isaiah to his king to give him a message. He was told to put his house in order as he would not recover from this ailment. King Hezekiah became sad, and turned his face to the wall, crying out to the Lord. (2 Kings 20:1 – 11).

If Hezekiah had just accepted the message, maybe he would have died that day – but he cried out to God. His cry in prayer caused God to change His mind that day. That kind of prayer was prayed by Paul and Silas in prison. It touched God in heaven, and He sent an angel to shake the earth.

Allow me to ask you, child of God, when last did you take time to pray to God? Where do you go, and do you wrestle with God? Or are you a child of God that only prays when they wake up and go to sleep. Maybe when you eat? And that is where it ends. You do not make time for prayer – where you wrestle and hold onto God.

Remember the story of Jonah. The people of Nineveh had sinned so much that they were on the verge of destruction. However, God sent Jonah to them with the message that they would be destroyed in 40 days. After he first disobeyed God, Jonah eventually went to that great city and preached the message of judgement. When the people of Nineveh heard the message, they humbled themselves and cried out to God in sackcloth and ashes. After they repented and cried out to God, God forgave them.

Allow me to ask – do your prayers stop where they are heard, or do they reach God? What causes our prayers not to be heard?

It is said that in old times, when people still travelled on horseback, there was a family that prayed together. Each evening they would meet to pray and to thank God. If I remember the story correct, the father of the home was not alive anymore. The oldest son worked in a shop. At the end of the day he would cash up the money and then he would take the money on horseback to the owner, passing through a dark forest.

One evening, after their prayers, the mother asked her son, whether he would go to work tomorrow. The son said, yes mother, I will go to work. She said, my son, my heart is burdened. I think you should rather not go to work tomorrow. The son said, mother, I feel the same but I will pray and then go to work. They prayed together and the following day the boy went to work.

At the end of the day he took the money to the owner as usual. He got onto his horse with the bag of money, and rode away. Before he got to the forest, he stopped his horse, got off, knelt down and prayed. After his prayer, he felt that God was with him, and he got onto his horse. He navigated the forest, got to the other side, and delivered the money to the owner of the shop. Nothing happened to him.

At home his mother asked him how it had gone. He explained how he had prayed before entering the forest. He said he had peace in his heart and could continue. His mother asked him what time it was. He told her the time. The mother said, I was also praying at that time for you – on my knees. After that I also experienced peace.

After some time the boy received a message to come to the hospital. He met a stranger who had asked him to come. The man said, I know you don’t know me, but I know you. He explained that he knew the routine where the son would take the money to the owner on horseback every day. One day he planned to shoot him in the forest and steal the money, He saw him approaching on horseback and took aim, he would not have missed as he was a good shot. Suddenly a bright light shone around him, it came from above and blinded him that he couldn’t see the young man who rode past peacefully until he disappeared from sight in the distance. “Young man, that is why you were saved. Now I want to apologise to you for my evil intentions and tell you how you were saved.” Remember, I speak of the power of prayer.

Detlef Stegen

We have heard this wonderful news – to cry out to the Lord from our suffering, our problems, our difficulties, troubles. How wonderful to have this hope that this God whom I serve is with me in every situation.

Do not try and pray when your heart is filled with sin, because then He is far from you. You have heard that the Gospel is wonderful, it parts a person from their sins.  Have this assurance that you have been washed of all your sins so that when you pray, your prayer can reach heaven.

A life of a Christian is a life of prayer. There should not be one day, one hour that passes by where you are not in communion with God. God’s word says, pray without ceasing. It is wonderful to hear stories of people who were connected to God, knowing that they could pray at any moment, and God would hear their prayer.

If God through His Holy Spirit prompts you to pray, be obedient, and if you do that you will experience an amazing blessing. When you wake up in the morning, pray, thank the Lord for having kept you – ask the Lord to keep you, preserve you, that you will not sin against Him.

Plead with God, ask Him, Lord please be with me, preserve me, preserve my thoughts, that I can go through this day without sinning. And then you thank Him for having kept you.

Our mouths, the mouths of our hearts should be overflowing at all times, praising God and thanking Him for His greatness each day. We do not want to live without prayer. Never! May it be our desire, may we be determined to know this – Lord, when I pray, my prayer will reach you.

Hearing about the miracles of Paul and Silas in prison – the Lord is always there. He wants to do something wonderful, accomplish that miracle, even in your life. If you do not know of God’s miracles, then pray, cry out and say – oh God, may I see those wondrous works, and may I experience them.