Good morning and welcome this is Pastor lucy painter with your daily insights. It's a new week and we continue with the service, divine experience. How is life treating him? I don't know if you have ever found yourself at a place in life where you've had peace for quite some time, things have just been flowing smoothly, no crisis, no emergencies, you just having a good time, but just when you start getting used to that good time, things start to go wrong. Just start going down hell. Yeah. The backdrop of the text we are going to read today is rather grim. Before Acts chapter 12 the church had gone through a period of relative peace and prosperity, blessings were flowing down through the church as the holy spirit was moving the conversion of the gentiles.

The presence of the christians was growing throughout the roman empire. But sin, the enemy decided to strike back viciously. King Herod Agrippa, the brother of King Herod, before whom Jesus appeared, had the brother of john arrested and beheaded with a sword. James was with Peter during the transfiguration. He was among the leaders of the first Church. And given that he was the first disciple to be executed, his death must have had a shattering effect on the church and it must have really affected Peter two. And to make matters worse, Peter was arrested also almost immediately. So that's the backdrop of the story that we're covering to them and now we're gonna read from verse five at chapter 12, from verse five, the bible says that Peter was therefore kept in prison.

But constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Harold was about to bring him out that night, Peter was sleeping Bound with two chains between two soldiers and the guards before the door while keeping the prison. Now behold an angel of the Lord stood by him and the light shone in the prison and his truck Peter on the side and and raised him up, saying, arise quickly and his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, Guard yourself and tie on your Sanders. And so he did, and he said to him, pull on your government and follow me. So he went out and followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and the second guard post they came to the iron gate that leads to the city which opened to them of its own accord and they went out and went down one street and immediately the angel departed from him.

And when Peter had come to himself he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the jewish people. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of mary the mother of john whose son and was Mark where many were gathered together praying, wow powerful. He thought it was a vision. But it was real. You know, it couldn't have gotten worse than it already was for Peter, his companion and close friend had just been beheaded. Their work had just had the worst setback. This was bound to discourage the new believers. It was going to instill fear into the church and just when Peter dot things are bad, he got arrested and put in prison awaiting the same fate that has befallen James an imminent death.

Harold isolated peter from everyone else and placed him under the guards of four soldiers. He locked him up to make sure that he couldn't continue to spread the gospel and this must have intended to break his spirit and that of the church. But then the bible tells us something beautiful every time I read is I'm so encouraged that the church continued to pray for him when the gates and the doors of the prisons was shut behind him, the doors to a higher place who are kept open and the believers took the chance to intercede on behalf of period after the execution of James. Peter must have known that the king meant business when he planned on having him executed. And I imagine the feelings of hopelessness that must have the developed in his heart knowing that after all the Rocky had put into preaching the gospel of christ.

He was going to have such a tragic end. But you know this one guys that were ready to suffer for christ But then the bible says that behold the nature of the Lord stood by him, Ally shown in the prison. He struck peter on the side and raised him up saying arise quickly. His chains fell off his hands. What an expected ton of event at night before his scheduled execution when his spirit might have as well resigned to the inevitable fate, the Lord sent rescue at the height of what seemed like a definite end, a miraculous deliverance happened. The whole energy of divine nature was set in motion. You know, it's souped down from the highest heavens to the earth to effect delivers. The movie spring for that delivers was the suffering of one man.

The aim was the deliverance of that one man. But the if facts of it would be felt as long as the church living Halloween. Its effect would be the empowerment of not just Peter but the whole church when they heard how Peter's deliverance or card. And I'm sure that you've been in part word even now when you hear this, you get it empowered when the moment of peter, divine visitation came, when his moment of divine experience came, it didn't matter what state he was in. It didn't matter how many guards were guarding the prison self. It didn't matter how many, how heavy or how tight the chains were bound his deliverance was due and it was so magnificent that he thought he was having a vision. A man who thought he had come to the end of the road and the bible says that the chains fell off his hands and the iron gate that led to the city opened to them of its own accord.

After this one visitation, he didn't have to worry about anything that had been a barrier to his freedom minimum. The guards, the chains and the gates that stood before him and his ministry about to the glory that Peter was walking in. The glory went before him, a shielded him. It made him invulnerable. I can imagine the joy in the hearts of those who are praying for him. When they had the Peter was turned into the door. Imagine the joy they had knowing that their prayers had been answered in such a miraculous way. You know, we've been saying this in this series that when the Lord manifests his power, he does it in a way that doesn't leave any doubt about the source of the power. There was no way Peter, all those who are praying for him could have attributed this experience to any other power. But the divine power of the law.

And this is what happens. It went for us when the Lord manifest his power in our lives, it is always clear that it has been done by his hand, Hallelujah. We cannot avoid setbacks in both our lives and ministry. But when the Lord commissions deliverance, it doesn't matter how bad he has been, he delivers, he delivers absolutely he's serving is absolutely his work Is complete. He does his work to completion. May you experience your divine experience today, this is pastor, Lucy painter with your daily insight, and this is divine experience. Day nine Chalone.