PROCLAMATION
“And at midnight Paul
and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard
them. And 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 bands were loosed.” Acts 16:25-26 (KJV)
EXPLANATION
These are the acts of
the apostles of Jesus, The Christ, as written by Luke, the physician, under the
influence of The Holy Spirit of God. Luke records that when Paul and
Silas came to Lystra they met a young disciple named Timothy, of a Jewish
mother and a Greek father, who the believers spoke well of. (Acts 16:1-2) Paul circumcised him and he traveled with
them from town to town. (Acts 16:3-5)
When they came to Troas, Paul had a vision telling him to help the
people of Macedonia. (Acts 16:9-10) When he arrived in Macedonia he
met Lydia, a wealthy woman who worshiped God. He baptized her, and
he and Silas stayed at her house. (Acts 16:13-15) One day, on their
way to the place of prayer, they met a female slave who had a spirit within her
by which she predicted the future. Her owners earned a great deal of
money from her fortune-telling. For many days she followed them
around shouting, “These men are servants of The Most High God …” and annoyed
Paul so that he called the spirit out of her. (Acts 16:16-18) This
upset her owners who lost their hope of making more money through
her. So they had Paul and Silas arrested. Because of the
charges which they brought against them, they were stripped, beaten, severely
flogged, thrown into prison, and put in the stocks. (Acts
16:19-24) While in prison the prayed and praised God, and suddenly
their chains fell off and the prison doors flew open. However, they
did not leave the prison. When the jailer saw what had happened, he drew
his sword to kill himself because he thought all of the prisoners had
escaped. Seeing him, Paul shouted, “Do
thyself no harm; we are all here.” (Acts 16:27-28) When the jailer saw that they all had been
freed, he asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Then he led them out of the
prison and brought them to his house. There Paul and Silas spoke The Word
of The Lord to all that were in his house, and the jailer and his whole
household were saved. (Acts 16:27- 34)
APPLICATION
We are encouraged to
always pray (Luke 18:1) and His praise should always be on our lips. (Psalm
34:1) However, when things appear to be at their worst, that is the
time when we should pray and praise The Lord anyhow. The Lord God
can make a way out of no way. There is no problem or situation that
is so bad that God cannot fix it. Remember, we cannot have a testimony
without first going through a test. Trust in The Lord. Pray
until something happens. We should praise Him in the midst of our storms
because all things work together for the good of those who love Him. (Romans
8:28)
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