The Prayer That Opens Doors
Message Title: The Prayer That Opens Doors
In today’s message, we will be examining “The Prayer That Opens Doors” God has the capacity to open all doors unto you when you pray.
Bible Passage: Acts 12:1-19
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 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. 4 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.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.6 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. 7 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.
8 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. 9 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. 10 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.
11 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.”
12 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. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 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.
18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.
Matthew 7:7
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Explanation of the Bible Passage
- King Herod locked James in the prison and eventually killed him because the Church refused to pray about it
- The case of many Christians is like that of James. So many doors are locked against Christians today because we have refused to pray
- There was no record that James prayed and there was no record that the Church prayed for James
- James was a Christian and he was even an Apostle. It means a Christian can die under a closed door if she or he is not prayerful
- Satan normally uses the same strategy, we only need to know how to counter him. The moment King Herod realized that he was successful with James, he arrested Peter also.
- Those who were praying for Peter did not even believe that God could answer the prayer. When Peter showed up at the door, they refused to open the door for him
- Peter kept knocking until the other door was opened unto him
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