First begin by thanking you so much for coming for this first midweek prayer session that we are having beginning this year. Indeed, as elder said, it's been long since we had this program in our church and many members have been asking Pazawara happened when we starting and we have started today. Can you say amen? It's my prayer that this will continue even to the coming years. I know having been a disconnected program for a long time, it will again take time for people to primatize with the program, but I am glad that those who are here you are able to come and even though no one came, I had vowed today we would stand here and preach and have moments to pray. So when I see you in these numbers, I'm so much encouraged. I want to let you also be very encouraged. Don't look at the numbers and say, no, what is happening here? I am sure that going forward the numbers will continue growing. I want to share briefly from this text of Jeremiah chapter 20 and verse number nine. I know it's a very familiar verse, but as I was thinking through where we start and this thought of igniting came into my mind and I pray that it will set something in your heart to give you reason to come here next week for these programs. We intend also to begin the Friday Vespas and very soon we will be doing that. Now the reading of the Wound of God, various translations try to put it differently. The new American standard version says verse number nine, but I say I will not remember him or speak in more in his name.  The Kijims version which was written to us says then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak in more in his name, but his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was wary for bearing and I could not stay. Let's pray, gracious Father in heaven, hallowed be the name thy kingdom come, thy will be done for this moment, now as it is in heaven, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Lord the next few minutes I pray that you may put your words into my mouth and order my lips as I speak to your children that we may be ignited and feel desire to seize the opportunity to be before you every moment because this is the only way for us to remain steadfast in such a corrupt and decaying world. Lord speak to us this moment, I pray in Jesus name, amen. Jeremiah is a young man who laughs God as a child and his heart is so deep with the Lord. As he is growing with other boys and they are having the boys games and you know those common play games that children will have to do when they are growing. Jeremiah was participating in this kind of games, but Jeremiah was very meek and very kind. Jeremiah always reminded other young boys and girls that there are certain things that they cannot do because it is not right to be done. Jeremiah grew knowing that there is right and wrong and as people who believe in God they ought to practice the right things and not the wrong things. As a child God started noticing his heart and his feeling towards him. Now at around 15 or so years the history tells us God appeared to Jeremiah and God called Jeremiah to become a prophet. The time when Jeremiah accepted the call to be a prophet he was very young about 15 or so years of age and this is just a child. There were many people grown ups, elderly people that God could have called to become his mouthpiece but God chose a young boy called Jeremiah. Now of course you know the calling of Jeremiah and how he hasted this call and he and every excuse why not he thinks he is fit to take up this assignment, but finally God was able to convince him that he would become a prophet. And so Jeremiah is a prophet and he has been in the ministry of being a prophet, speaking prophecies and warnings to the people. Of course you know the times of Jeremiah is being raised to become a prophet. Binks who are not right with Israel, they are in captivity because of the rebellion and the lottery that was taking root and actually taken root in the nation of Israel. God raises Jeremiah to be his mouthpiece, a warning, and a messenger of truth and righteousness in that particular age. Jeremiah excited, but timide, he takes up this ministry in knowing that the Lord is with him, God shall provide and protect him, but as he began his ministry, Jeremiah started discovering that all was not well. He started receiving more suffering, more afflictions than before. Before he became a prophet, Jeremiah had his own life out there, no one cared for him about him because he was anyway a child, but as he began speaking of oracles of God and warnings of God that God gave him, many people started growing cold feet towards him. They started looking at him with a different eye. There were mummarings and rumors and whispers and rumamongering about him. His report was not good before people. They began hating him and Jeremiah started being persecutant. Now, you see every single Christian believer who comes to Jesus, they come with an expectation that all their problems will cease when they accept Jesus. Many people when they accept to be baptized, they are feeling that now this is the end of their trouble and tribulations. But as they begin a new journey with Jesus, they discover they are now more trials and temptations even more than when they did not believe in certain nature of Jesus. Jeremiah is in that experience and as he was being persecutant, we know at some point Jeremiah was thrown into a pit of very cold water where he was left there to die. In fact, the historians will tell us that Jeremiah can more to cry for in his ministry as a prophet than to be happy of. He is known as a weeping prophet. Jeremiah is not weeping because of the things that are happening, he and his business is happening, he and his family because of the wrong things he is doing but Jeremiah is literally suffering because of his commitment to God. Friends, there are times when serving God does not make sense.  You are supposed to be promoted but because of your faith you can't come to work on sub-off, that promotion will go to a different person. You walk into the interview hall and this particular job that has been advertised by a look of all aspect of this this particular opportunity, you have every qualification. The only thing that you suffer from is that you will not work on sub-off and you have been walking from one company to another advertisement and applications that you receiving regrets and regrets because you are not qualified but because you have committed yourself not to work on sub-off. I don't know how your experience looks like.  Your business is not blossoping because many businesses around you receive most customers on sub-off. This is when people make greatest of sale. This is when business are booming on sub-off but you have to close your business on Friday evening and you have to open on Sunday when every other person is now sleeping investing at home. Your business is not thriving like you expect because of your faith. There are bills you have to meet but then because of many challenges you are not able to meet them and so somehow you begin reflecting in your life, reflecting in your work, this relationship you have in God. Now before you be lived and you surrender to him, during many opportunities you are making money and business was growing you have a better career. Maybe you have to stop that career just because of your faith. Yes God, seem to be the reason why you are suffering. Jeremiah was there and Jeremiah became so much frustrated not with people but with God. Jeremiah looked at everything that was happening around him. He had a conclusion that all these things that are happening because I have volunteered myself to serve this God. Why should I serve him? Yet he is not protecting me. He has exposed me to ridicule. Has exposed me to every affliction. I am oppressed from everything just because of my commitment to him. Jeremiah the Bible says he vowed I will never speak of this God again. Jeremiah said enough is enough. I had a life before I accepted this responsibility and a better life before I committed myself to this God now because of him I'm suffering enough is enough. Have I not been dropping every prayer session a prayer request speaking to this God concerning the challenges I'm going through just because of my commitment to him. Have I not been waking in the middle of the night praying to him that he may do something in my life I have become a loving stock in my community. People think that something has wrong with me just because of the faith that I have in Jesus. Jeremiah was there and he felt so broken, so frustrated. He had no faith before his people and he knew all this is happening because of his relationship with God. Have you suffered because of your relationship with God? By the way, if you are a Christian and you have not suffered because of your relationship with Christ something could be wrong in that relationship because as I checked through the scriptures truly those who are faithfully committed into a relationship with God they will have a lot to suffer for. Jeremiah was there and so he said when I interrogated the whole situation the conclusion the investigations were leading to one problem God God and so because of this this is my verdict I then say in my heart I vowed in my heart I will not make mention of him what an unfortunate moment in a believer's life when you have looked at your experience at your life and you feel that the cause of your problems and afflictions tribulations is your faith and this faith is your relationship with God and then you vow and say I have nothing I'm saying I will never make mention of this God again I think without God I have a better life speaking thinks not of God is a better thing for me when I tell people about my faith they hate me I won't admit how could have nothing to do with him and I think they shall give me a new life I say to myself I will never make mention of him nor speak in more in his name are there certain things you used to do for the Lord but now you don't do them are there certain things you used to do as a believer are there certain services used to give because of God is there a ministry that you were involved in because of God but you're no longer involved in it because you got frustrated why you doing Bible studies with some people some are trying to lead them to the Lord but God seemed not to come through for you and who gave up on that why you quick to testify about your faith to the people around you to your colleagues that you workplace to to your friends and but today you dare not do that because people made you suffer for your testimony Jeremiah was there and Jeremiah descended to die go underground and wait for the feet in his life but I love the way the next segment of these verses Jeremiah says but even as I made that himself never to mention his name again even as I vowed never to involve myself in his ministry and in his service even as I got so much with his God and nothing to do with him even as I said I'll never testify about who he is I'll never share my faith with anyone I'll never identify myself as an adventist because this thing is making me suffer in my career life even as I proposed to have nothing to do with my faith when I'm out here but is what can you say man is what but is what was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones so Jeremiah is dead spiritually Jeremiah is given up in his ministry as a prophet and by the way let me tell you this is true for me as a pastor there are moments when I felt like Jeremiah there are moments when I have felt no no no no no no no no God I don't have to be a pastor to go to heaven he got it is too much for me too much for me there are times I felt I need to give up on this thing and go I can become a business person and do other things and so keep my faith those moments have come my way as Jeremiah says as even as I was having that resolve something could not allow me but his word was in my heart as a burning fire in other words as I was dying there is something in me that was reviving me as I was giving up there was something in my heart that was igniting my faith I was trying to throw away everything but something in me was pushing agitating me and reminding me that the birth is not over something was in me that kept me alive when I was supposed to be dead this is but your word you see I don't know what divides you when you are in those low moments and every one of us here have their low moments I don't know what is in you that ignites your faith when circumstances around you have choked your faith I don't know what is in your life that you have hidden so privately that will always ignite your commitment to the Lord when everything around you is pushing you to shut up for Jeremiah he says your word which was in my heart was to me like a fire that was locked up within my bones I would try to quench it but there was no avenue of getting into where the fire is and throw or pour some water that the fire was burning in me this one ignited me revived me and arose again on my feet and I went prophesying and speaking the oracles of God can you say amen I'm just here with this evening friends as we begin this experience of midweek of prayer something that has died in our experiences and I'm just asking you this evening what ignites you as a Christian what is it that when your brother and your sister have panned against you what keeps you holding your faith what is it when brethren in church are in talking about you you have no faith in this church you feel like you gotta go to a different church somewhere or even stop going to church what keeps you afaid what revives you whereas that friend that holds you not to give up Jeremiah says the one of God which I have put in my heart you see friends the one of God is powerful one of God is powerful ignite you the one of God is powerful the spoken one of God is powerful to speak to your heart to penetrate through the dark and thick chambers of your life when you're feeling broken frustrated and giving up the one of God has power to come through and light up a fire that keeps you warm when you are in your winter experience as a Christian one of God pulses is living and operative it has a power to work in us and so the opportunity for you friends to hear the one of God the opportunity for you to spare a moment to open the scriptures and read the one of God the opportunity coming your way to be allowed to hear the one of God to be a privilege that should be coveted by every single Christian one of God says do not give up assembling together can you say man do not give up because when you give up coming together for the breaking of the one of God when you give up coming together for sharing of the one of God something dangerous gonna happen because the life you're living out here has vans and spikes to chalk you to break you to tear you the experiences of this life have enough things to break you to frustrate you to disappoint you to discourage you than the things that it gives you hope secure time to come before me receive my word that in those moments you can be ignited like Jeremiah can you say amen and the reason why we are starting the midweek prayer is because we know the privilege we have in hearing the one of God you see this word is like a seed and in fact an incorruptible seed which once is planted in your soul in your heart it has a way of generating and bringing life within you this one of God Jeremiah says it is the reason why i got courage and we know after Jeremiah's experience and the one of God is tapping him and Jeremiah heading to the ministry of the one of God in his heart Jeremiah picked his pieces and he became a powerful prophet and we know how much Jeremiah ministered with the courage and power because he says the one of God was in me i pray that the midweek prayer experience will ignite your bible study experience i pray the midweek experience the midweek prayer experience may ignite your passion for Christ and for godliness i pray that the midweek prayers everyone is in the church will ignite a sense of your true calling and your relationship with God that no matter the experiences of this life she will have nothing to fear i pray that everyone is that when we come here the experience of the ministry of God may ignite may light up a new light in you that will remind you of that primitive godliness that own relation where David says i sought for privileges to be in the house of the Lord because he says a single day spent in his house is better than a thousand spent elsewhere i pray that every ministry when you meet here for the reading of the one of God even just feeding without expounding those word of God may be in you like it was in Jeremiah to ignite you to revive you to encourage you and to give you purpose to remain faithful and stand fast as a christian misgeneration may you are coming here every when i stay with the reason why you need to stay with the Lord i pray that even this coming this evening do not be in vain may the Lord meet you at your weakest point to see those promises of God those promises in the bible and the bible has enough promises for every single day may we come here every ministry and remind ourselves of the promises of God when we are going through frustrations in our life when we're going through disappointments in our lives when we're going through affliction of every kind we can come here midweek remind us that God has promised to be with us even when we are going through the difficult experiences of life i pray that your faith will be reignited we've just come from the 10 days of prayer talking about reviving our altars going back to the altars i pray that the one of the desire to stand at the one of God may ignite your true relationship with God i remember those days when i was growing as adventist child you know my family i remember vividly how the local church in my village those days the mothers of those days and the fathers of those days they look for one to the midweek prayer i remember how they look for one to the Friday prayer i pray that our speed may be ignited in your life as a believer we are not looking for every member to come but we are looking for the remnant who truly believe that even in this age we can sacrifice a moment to be with the Lord can you say amen are we not living together with brethren from muslim who they have enough hours to worship the Lord every single day they will close the businesses they will they will close you out you have come with your money to give them they have nothing to do with that money because they have an appointment with the Lord there is something in them that keeps them yaning you appear before the Lord i pray that the one of God like of Jeremiah may ignite your faith she will be looking for one to when i stay when you can come and have a moment to hear the one of God and also pour your heart to him i want to give you a moment this evening to speak to the Lord you know from the time we left here on saturday the experience you have gone through and i want you as we are going to pray limit your prayer to the experience of these three days sunday monday and tuesday and maybe today and maybe today what you have gone through just mention it to the Lord if it's something you're not happy with your the Lord please God i have been struggling with this thing for the last three or so days i've brought it to you in wasanctuary please take this away from me give me a smile tomorrow as i work in the morning as i go and sit on that desk as i receive those customers Lord do something let me not end this week with this bit and please and experience do something for me Lord i couldn't wait for somebody to come i've just come midweek to let you know that i need you now challenge him something he has done for you for the last four days just appear him in the sanctuary and tell him Lord thank you for what you have done and if you have done this for me i truly know even tomorrow and the next day you can still do something to me that's why we have come that is pain you have received through the last four days give it to the Lord there are certain things you have done you don't like them you wonder why could i do such kind of things maybe it's a kind of a sin you found yourself in you didn't want to do that thing but you found yourself there you are still struggling in your mind how do i remove this guilt mind of what i've done the reason we have come to the house of the Lord tell him Lord you know my weaknesses these are done not because they want and to please God forgive me take it away from me we have come not to present ourselves to be seen in the church but we have come because there's something we truly want to surrender to the Lord and challenge him to take it away Jeremiah when did through after that verse the experience of Jeremiah is completely different and i pray that you experience the meaning part of this week may be different take time you can kneel down you can sit you can stand but take time talk to the Lord concerning the four days from Sunday Monday Tuesday and today when there's something you need to give to the Lord just take your time that's where you came just take time and pray he is willing to ignite you is willing to divide you is willing to do something in you to give you courage to face this life he is willing to answer that prayer that has been therefore so long he is willing to do it for you just lift it to him never give up remember all his promises Jeremiah says hi was dying hi was getting broken but when i remember his promises when i remember all his promises he's put in his word there's one kept disturbing me reminding me of where i've come from remind me of the things God has done in the times past and if you've done those things in the time past you can do it today remind him you have hand testimonies of people saying what the Lord has done for them remind God that he also may do them to you you need to testify he heals he heals could be sickness god heals he forgives could be a sin he forgives he cleanses create opportunities where there are no opportunities just speak to him i don't know what you're going through he create opportunities look out for him tell him they say i'm looking out lord he opens doors that are shut just speak to him there's no need of you going full bearing that button all the way to the end of the week lay it to him now the middle of this week challenge him through faith gracious father in heaven we thank you so much for the privilege of coming before you midweek to thank you for the things i've done for the four days now pray that lord also you may bear the burden that we have received some could be hurt others could be frustrated others going through very stressful experiences maybe at the workplaces things don't seem to come out well could be businesses your children are doing and things don't seem to come out well could be sickness is the struggling with lord and the fear is setting in it could be that feeling of Jeremiah when he felt abandoned by you and you do not seem to care about him and he was mad with you and frustrated and he vowed never to mention you again or do you again or do anything concerning you lord we thank you for he had taken time as he was growing to feed in a word that word saved him that word revived him that word reki doda fire that word became a save of life that word the many promises that you have given just remembering them and what you have said you are going to do gave him a reason to continue in the ministry you had given him even when everything was falling apart many of us lord like Jeremiah we are torn apart many of us are hand pressed many of us we are afflicted many of us we are mocked prostrated and persecuted many of us we have no face many of us lord we have many things that have been happening just because of our faith we have lost jobs we have lost opportunities just because of our faith many of us are just in the experience of Jeremiah and they could not even be having any reason to waste time they are speaking about you mentioning your name serving you or even creating time for such important meeting like this Lord I pray that you may visit your children and the word which has been planted in their hearts as they were growing the thought of that tool adventist believe and practice so primitive that gives a touch of hope in our hearts may ignite us lord burn a new in our hearts create a desire to stay with you lord create a desire to walk with you like Enoch create a desire to live a god life in this life create a desire to testify about a goodness even when things seem not to be promising you create a desire to be your true disciples Lord I pray that as you begin the midweek prayer for Nairobi central church in these years 2023 may you learn through the power of the Holy Spirit ignite us give us a deep desire to attend these spiritual meetings where we know for sure every Wednesday we have a privilege to hear your word spoken and also a moment to share our burdens with you may we take this privilege and opportunity all seriousness because I know every worship experience somebody's life is transformed Lord I pray that even though Zudi not come as go to next week may we will have come your spirit to ignite in us a desire to share with our family members with our brothers the colleagues the importance of coming every Wednesday to be with you and Lord I pray that all prayers that are being at and in this sanctuary today and every single prayer and desire of the heart shall be presented here every Wednesday will be turned to be a testimony so Lord we thank you so much this even even as you dismiss here we are praying that may we have a new desire a new experience a new commitment a new yearning a new fire within us to revive every spiritual experience and commitment in our lives as we get prepared for the second coming meet your people at that very point of needs they have spoken to you Lord in silence answer publicly that they will know indeed your word is true and they will have confidence to continue approaching you in the experience of this life these are prayer this evening in Jesus name amen thank you thank you God bless you everyone I want to invite our prayer minister leader sister Mary maybe she has some remarks to make and then we can dismiss our evening everyone just to encourage members that prayer the prayer cells are on so that members can join the various prayer cells for prayer we also do have the prayer groups in the women ministry I want to believe that it is also in all departments so be encouraged and join the prayer groups it is it is growth it helps us to know our God better and as we do so it will become our habit will not be struggling to know when it's the time to pray thank you pastor for starting this once again I believe that we will moving forward everyone will join in this midweek prayer that will help us to grow in knowing Christ better thank you very much


Book of Acts chapter 12 and verse 7 Now behold an angel of the Lord stood by him and light shown in the prison and Struck Peter on the side and raised him up saying arise quickly and his chains fell off off of his hands I just quickly say this prayer out loud after me say Lord Jesus Open my heart to your word Lord Jesus Open my heart to your spirit Lord Jesus Open my heart to your faith Amen I want to briefly speak to you on this topic of prison break and this comes from the story of Apostle Peter when the Bible says that Apostle Peter was locked in the prison By Herod and because the next day was the Passover they couldn't execute him But what they did is they left him there to be there for a night and the next day He was supposed to be executed now Apostle Peter Before that in chapter 12 of book of Acts we see that in the verse 1 and lower We see that the other Apostle James. He was executed by Herod Because he was a leader of the church and so you can imagine that Apostle Peter over here is being you know Put into prison and Apostle Peter most likely has you know thoughts that if James got executed James got beheaded most likely similar thing can happen to me and The only reason he couldn't be executed right away is because of the Jewish holiday So he remained in prison and the next day he was supposed to be executed I mean imagine sitting on a death row knowing the next day is your day of execution It is very frightening and a very terrifying moment even for Apostle Peter But the amazing part is though James was executed By Herod God did not have that idea for Apostle Peter And Apostle Peter is not going to have exactly same thing as James Chapter 12 starts out to say that James This is what happened to James, but then God goes in and he completely changes the story of Peter and Peter's Destiny Peter's future is not exactly the same as James's past And I want us to learn today something from the beginning is that you cannot get clues about your future from your past Many times as Christians we begin to look behind our past to try to see that Something in our future will happen as it happened in our past As a Christian you must understand that it's not your past that determines your future. It is God who determines your future and Just because James died by execution It doesn't mean that Peter will die by execution because the God who maybe was like well God didn't step in for James and so maybe God will not step in for Peter But as Christians we don't base our faith on what God did not do for James We base our faith on the fact that God is faithful and his character doesn't changes And we trust that he will step in for us your past can be repeated Your past can be Duplicated, but as a Christian you must understand that your future does not look for clues in your past But the difference between Peter and the difference between James is that we see James when James was went to the trial We don't see the church praying and fervently seeking God But we see when Peter is going to a trial the church starts to pray and the church starts to see God's face Because they realize we don't want same thing to happen to Peter as it happened to James I want to tell you something is that when you live a life of prayer You let God affect your future instead of getting clues for your future from your past Prayer causes the past not to be repeated But for God to change and shift the things in our future for our good and for his glory When we don't live a life of prayer, what's gonna happen is that our past tends to repeat itself When we don't live a life of seeking God's face our past will repeat itself. There was a guy his name is Kinsley and one day he was driving from home and This story comes from the ministry of prophet to be Joshua as he was driving from home He dropped off his wife at at the house And he went to pick up some other things in the storage and was supposed to come back to his house As he was driving he noticed there were people following him and every stop he made they stopped every turn he made They churned and so knowing that they're following him instead of driving into his house He passed his house and as he is driving through other people block his car and guys come out with you know AK-47 and they they loaded guns facing at him and they tap on his window says lower down the window And so he's you know screaming inside of the cars like what do you want from me? I'm not gonna lower down the window well the pointy the gun at him So he lowered down the window they said get out of the car He got out of the car and he says you know what do you guys want from me and wealthy man? And so they got into his car But the issue is that when he got out of the car and got outside somewhere in between him him and outside He somehow lost his keys So now they're looking for the keys to steal his car, but he doesn't have the keys He doesn't know where he lost the keys literally within few feet and God causes them to go blind and not to be able to find keys Within few feet from the car So they're upset and they're like literally beating him trying to threaten him They will do this and this to you and one gentleman goes in and wants to you know Start the car without the keys, you know cutting few wires as he does that something hits him physically. He runs out screaming saying There's somebody there in that car The other gentleman comes in and same thing begins to happen to him the interesting part as this gentleman Kingsley Who's an evangelist laying over there on the floor his car being taken and his life is about to be taken He is there sitting and he's like oh God, please rescue me and he begins to confess his sins He's like because he knows he most likely is going to die. He said Lord Jesus I forgive you of ask you to forgive me all my sins and I want to be welcomed by you into your kingdom when I die When they could not take the car they come to him and they decided to shoot him And so they you know loaded loaded the gun and he said I'm a I'm a man who Knowledgeable in guns and he used to be in military So he's like I know how this stuff works and when I saw that this guy had bullets and he pointed the gun at him And the gun wouldn't shoot They took the gun and shot in the air the bullets came out They should the point at his head and the bullet doesn't come out And the brother keeps praying and he said Lord God, please help me Not just to go to heaven get me out of this because I'm realizing most likely I'm not gonna die today, but please help me to get out of this situation He gets up from the floor faces the guys who supposed to kill him. He said hey guys. This is not your lucky day He said God is on my side and he says you guys better leave me They point the gun one more time and they said well maybe it worked some charm that you have on your life It's gonna work first time, but it's not gonna work the second time The guy takes a little scarlet thing charm around me says now your charm is not gonna work He points at him one more time wants to shoot, but it doesn't shoot and next thing that happens as siren Breaks out and they think a police is coming So they pack their bags and run from that place, but it wasn't a police It was a one driver and I don't know where the siren came he pulled in he says hey What's happening here not realizing that God used that as a distraction to drive him away See how could God change somebody's future? When you pray your past does not determine your future God determines your future somebody say man a Prayer might not change your past, but a prayer can alter your future Whatever you have in your life like Sylvia shared today. Listen.  He knew I cannot change my past But if I'm gonna stop praying I'm gonna start talking to Jesus I can alter my future and when he opened his lips and said Jesus could you remember me in the paradise? The Bible says Jesus looks back at him and says listen today You will be with me in the paradise your past does not have to repeat itself when you pray your past can be Maybe unchanged, but your future will be altered by a mighty God Every prayer that is not prayed is the prayer that will not be answered God answers prayers that are prayed not prayers that are well. I wish maybe I should you have to pray The church prayed God moved if you're facing an illness right now in your body pray When you're facing a joblessness Pray the Bible says that if I if my people who are called by my name if they will humble themselves turn from their evil ways And pray God says I will forgive their sin. I Will heal their land God is gonna move when we pray because somebody say amen we'll learn another thing from Peter is that while Peter is in this prison and The Bible says that when the angel of the Lord begins to come they find Peter sleeping in this prison now we must Keep something in mind about Peter Peter by nature is very aggressive man Peter by nature is that man that when Jesus was sleeping in the storm Peter got so upset with the rest of the Cyples came to Jesus woke him up and says Jesus how dare you can sleep when we are perishing He accused Jesus of being careless in the storm because Jesus slept in the storm Now Peter sleeps in his own storm The very thing he accused Jesus off. He's doing himself now It is not natural for Peter to be peaceful in the place of chaos Peter in the place of chaos goes ballistic Peter in the place of chaos goes worried on steroids afraid Anxious, but you see Peter could literally put a countdown on his iPhone and count hours and minutes before his head will be Removed and Peter has the audacity to sleep Why because Peter's faith finally matured Peter is finally becoming less like Peter and more like Jesus Before when Peter wants to get something done. He cuts people's ears off Before when Peter gets something done. He causes people out when Peter wants something done I mean he was aggressive He is that man that's always full of passion and emotion and you see facing his death and Peter is taking a nap a Faith that caused him to sleep a Faith that caused him to rest and I think during that night Peter learned something That it took him a while to learn and he's gonna take you a while to learn as well Is that peace is not absence of conflict peace is the presence of God? Peace is not when everything is good in your life. Peace is when God is good and he never leaves your side and If Peter can sleep in prison facing a death sentence and Jesus can sleep in the storm Facing death you can sleep in your situation not out of carelessness But out of full complete trust that God is under control and God has God a whole universe in the palm of his hand He sure can handle your life because somebody say amen The faith that can sleep in the storm is the faith that can speak to the storm The reason why Jesus could speak to the storm is because Jesus could sleep in the storm The reason why Jesus could stop the storm is because Jesus could rest in a storm Jesus got up and said peace be still and peace that was inside of him was the peace to fill the storm Whatever you're carrying is the only thing that you can release and the real faith Is not one only you can pray. It's interesting that the church was fully awakened in prayer during this time typically and naturally the church is more sleeping The church is a prayerful church But at the same time you must understand the church is made of individuals and who all are busy who all have their lives And they don't have time to come every single day to pray But now we see the church is praying every single moment constant prayer the Bible says is offered means the church is fully awake Faith woke them up But the same fate they woke up the church puts the man to sleep Because it's not natural for church to be so aggressive and something that is not so aggressive becomes aggressive and someone who is aggressive becomes calm Because faith makes you act unlike you You are by nature may be worried by nature. You are the person who is so stressed out But when faith kicks in You become unlike you You become not like you you become Unrecognizable part of you why because you are maturing and faith in the beginning your faith will not be like that In the beginning your faith will be like Peter's faith Wake up. Jesus. We are dying That's gonna be your faith But it's okay But the bad part is when that faith remains like that for 20 years There has to be a miracle in your faith life, you know, the greatest miracle is not only what happened when Peter got out Supernaturally from the prison. It's the fact that we meet Peter in the prison sleeping. That is a miracle in itself And like Bishop Andrew He was saying that with a miracle that God wants to do God wants to change us and through that He wants to change the world as you are waiting for God to break you out of your prison Can I remind you something while you are there learn how to find God peace in a chaos? Learn how to find God's rest when everything is going crazy Learn how to sleep while you're waiting for your wife Adam because maybe in your sleep God will do something that you could not do when you were awake We must learn to find the rest in God when everything is breaking crazy around us We must learn that rest and peace is not by product of a good life Rest and peace is by product of a good relationship with a good God who has good things for you in Jesus name If we go on and we see that not only Peter has peace in the storm But the Bible says because of the prayers of people God sends a messenger to Peter an Angel of the Lord comes to Peter and this angel carries a message Carries a power and brings a miracle into Peter's life The way God answered a prayer to Peter is that he sent a messenger and what I want to just Underline to you is the messengers proceed miracles We all are anxious Interested and we all want miracles in our lives But we must understand that God's way of bringing miracles many times is by sending a messenger into your life Who becomes the answer to your prayer and this messenger not only becomes an answer to your prayer But this messenger also becomes a key to a prison door Now we have a tendency as Christians to kill messengers Jesus looked at Jerusalem with weeping and he said Jerusalem Jerusalem Whom I have not sent to you.  I wanted to restore you. I wanted to heal you I wanted to get you out.  He is gonna send a messengers into Sodom and Gomorrah They might look like a friend or may look like a human and if you pay attention to the messenger You can escape the wrath of God and Sodom and Gomorrah When God is about to do something God will send a messenger The presence of a messenger in your prison is a sign.  He brought a messenger and wouldn't Mary say Mary says yes, sir Zechariah when the messenger came and said you are gonna have a child and Zechariah is like hey I have my will written down. I already chose my casket I'm ready to go and you're talking about a child. He says no no no no and the messenger says Joe, don't you mess with me? And the messenger says you know what man, you're so stubborn Zechariah. I'm gonna make you mute for that You you took me off Be careful how you treat the messenger because in ignoring the messenger you actually will could miss a miracle in your life there was one one lady She grew up in a religious home that was kicked out of the organization religious Organization that they were a part of because her parents committed some sins And after that she lost her way with God and she started to go the wrong way She started to go in the way of alcohol in the way of drugs and went heavy very heavy into drugs to that degree That she became colorblind. She was not able to see color. She only saw black and white She became very fatigued in her body She started to lose strength and for her to get up from the chair and to walk required enormous amount of courage and physical strength Drugs took everything away from her and the worst thing they took from her the biggest thing they took from her Is a sense of hope and purpose until she found a place that has had a ceiling Put it pretty high up and she tied a rope around the ceiling and decided to climb on the ladder and throw herself From the ladder so she can kill herself and take her life and end her misery And as she planned for that she got as she got up on the top of the ladder To throw herself she started hearing voices one voice said don't do it There's people who care about you and there are people who will really be discouraged and the other voice says You know what your life is pointless and pathetic. Anyway, just throw yourself and she threw herself from the ladder As she's hanging there grasping for air wanting to end her life It happened an accident a person walked by in the hall And for reasons unknown to him he decides to without an invitation walk into the room where she just 30 seconds stepped out of the ladder He climbs on the ladder cuts the rope and brings her down brings her to emergency room and she's upset Because here she wants to end her life Here she wants to die in her prison and there is someone who came in as a messenger into her prison and cut the rope And eventually Few years later God started to deal with her and set her free from that Her collar was restored and she became free and now she lives a completely free woman But my friend miracles bring Are brought by messengers you must understand if we want to have a miracle in our life Pay attention to the messenger god is going to send into your life That's why if we want to have miracles we have to have messengers in our life You got to have him on your phone. You got to have him on your blogs.  Why because a messenger is the key to your prison and somebody say amen When god was about to bless peter with some money He told peter he said go into the river and find the fish And the fish Will have money in its mouth for you We must understand that if you want to have certain things in your life You gotta look for a messenger because many times the messenger will have something in his mouth that you're desperately looking for And needing for at this point in your life When we learn to appreciate the messengers god sends in our life We will soon unlock the potential of god's miracles in our lower life for the glory of god because somebody say amen if you go on And we see that god can use natural means to bring supernatural results In the story of peter it is pretty obvious and it's pretty clear that god supernaturally intervened into his situation But we see there's other Prison breaks in the bible where god used natural means to bring people out for example joseph Joseph was in the in the prison and joseph did not have a 10 year or a 15 year sentence We actually assumed that joseph was supposed to be in prison for the rest of his life It was most likely a life sentence And supernaturally God gets him out But the way the lord got him out is by actually using natural means In the prison he found a man whom he helped with a dream and this man Told the pharaoh at the point when pharaoh had a dream and couldn't find the translation and next thing that happens It led joseph out of the prison into the palace god used natural means to bring supernatural results We see also in the life of paul when paul was in prison for preaching the gospel The god caused an earthquake to happen and through the earthquake Apostle paul was able to be released from the prison But in this story we see supernatural invasion of god's angel into the prison of peter to get him out Before we mention the supernatural ways of god we have to not miss That god can use natural means to bring supernatural results in our lives There are people who will die refusing medicine because they say i want god to heal me only supernaturally Not knowing that the lord can use medicine to also touch your life There are people who will reject a certain thing that the lord will do because they will say well, I want only this way Elijah did not say to god. I will not receive food from ravens I want food like israel in the wilderness. I want men from heaven I don't want unclean unpopular unpleasant bad birds bring meaning food If elijah would have been picky about which way god is going to use to bring blessing into his life elijah would have starved to death Naaman did exactly the same thing he came for healing He came for supernatural result and the prophet says go and baptize yourself seven times in the river and he says what? I don't like this. I want this but I am very picky about this You have to be so focused on your miracle that you're not picky about the method god is going to use to bring it into your life Can somebody say amen? It's like the story of one person who was drowning in the sea and they drowned and they came to heaven fussy and screaming and yelling god Why didn't you rescue me? I cry out to you and god says i send the first boat you decline them I send the second boat you send no to them I send the third boat and you said to them that you're waiting on me All of these three boats were actually me trying to rescue you Many times in your life and in my life the lord will use natural means to bring a supernatural breakthrough in our life And we have to be as christians not be so picky About the methods god's gonna use but be so preoccupied with the miracle that god wants to bring into our life And not miss that for the glory of god Amen same thing happens in marriage where many times, you know Guys or girls they recognize that they want god's best for their life But many people are so stuck about What is god's best? They they know for sure what is god's best for their life? He has to have this kind of hair or no hair. He has to have this kind of eyes or These kind of eyes he has to have this statue. He has to be charming He has to be this and so when you make the list and you miss the point that what you want really is loved Accepted protected and no joker or loser in your backyard But when you get so focused on the means that god could use that you are so picky about that You might get stuck with what you want, but not really get what you really really want in your life Can somebody say amen And so it's so important to recognize god can break you out of your prison But the way he can do it may vary from your life to someone else's I'm so glad paul was not in the prison and when the earthquake happened he said i'm not leaving this prison God didn't send an angel if god sends an angel then i'm getting out But if god does not send an angel i am not leaving this prison because i want exactly same prison break as apostle peter i'm not worse than him You might understand you must understand god may provide for your life differently that we will provide for your neighbor God might heal you differently that when he will heal your neighbor God made differently and he will deliver your neighbor What's important is that you focus your eyes on the deliverer and the healer and on the provider And the ways he will use will always cause you to step over your own little preferences And sometimes cause little offense to your flesh And the god will see do you really want to break through or do you want your way Because if you want your way stick with your way But if you want to break through you sometimes have to give up your way to get what i want for your life So that you can remain humble in that in jesus name because somebody say amen There are things in our life where naturally we will not be able to get far Joseph he experienced the prison break Naturally it was natural means that god used to bring supernatural breakthrough in peters in Paul's life god used the earthquake to bring a supernatural breakthrough But in peters story the story that we read it was supernatural There was no natural there was natural there was no natural explanation for this In impossible situation God can do The unexplainable What happened in peters life was unexplainable an angel without Keys without permission from herit and without any inside connection Get in gets inside of the prison. He did not bribe the the the guards.  He thought it was a vision It was so unexplainable because the situation was so impossible We must learn to expect unexplainable when we are in situations Where there is no way out some of you have heard the story of a gentleman from china who is um I think the story is a little bit further right here Brother yang he's the the book he wrote the book called the heavenly men where in china they put him in prison And they put him in prison quite a few times in china and the lord always had a plan to get him out of the prison And so supernaturally the lord will bring him out of the prison In the supernatural ways where he would walk out of the prison and the guards would not notice him And the gates would be open and he would just walk out And so our pastor actually met him in seattle and so this man is a real man This is not a method and it's not a story and he escaped supernaturally But there was one story in the book and I don't remember the details of it because it was a while when I read it Where because so many times the lord broke him out of the prison What they did when they captured him is they broke his legs So even when the lord will get him out, he won't be able to get out because his legs are broken And so they broke his legs and they put a lot of guards and they said that's it He will never get out and they beat him Mercifully he describes the brutality and the torture he went through how physically they beat him And he would fast for weeks without water and without food And a particular day the lord revealed to him that god is going to get you out out of this impossible situation Supernaturally he said god, there's there's just no way and my legs are broken.  He says lord I don't know the password. He says push it in it's gonna it's already open He pushes it in and the guards don't notice him He walks through the second doors through the second guards and nobody notices him the camera doesn't go off Nobody notices him until he escapes the prison. The problem is the prison has a wall around it And there is no way he can leap over the wall because it's so high Now that sounds ridiculous what he did next but the lord told him To run toward the wall and he was supernaturally pick him up and put him over the wall Now a man who sat in jail and had his legs broken have no reason to lie And that's exactly what he did He escapes the prison and the spirit of god leaves him says go to this house He goes to the house where the christians are gathered the moment he comes to the house They already tell him the lord told us you're gonna escape the prison and you have to leave right now because they will lock the city As the moment he walks out from that house the city is on the lockdown and he escapes the lockdown And today he's a completely free man who is no longer in china but traveling and preaching the gospel Nothing is impossible to our god because somebody say amen When the situation is impossible Expect the unexplainable You may be in something that is so challenging right now physically in your physical health. Maybe in your finances God can use natural means to get us out But there are moments in life where natural means are not enough There are moments in life where medicine is not sufficient and god's grace and god's healing and miraculous power Is the only thing that is gonna get you out for the glory of god because somebody say amen You know I this this year I filed taxes Every year I filed taxes and my taxes are a little bit more complicated because uh, it involves rental properties and it involves The speaking engagements that I have and miles and and so many so many other things So they're a little bit more complicated and this year when um a friend of mine he filed taxes for me I realized that a time passed and I did not hear anything from irs And I did not get anything get anything back from irs And I know one fateful day. I opened my mailbox and I see a mail a letter that says an irs Has been reviewing your file and they have questions about your taxes Now you you know one thing there's two people you don't want to mess with as the lord and it's irs And if irs has questions about your taxes Well, you have every reason to be afraid You have I mean I have nothing to hide I report all of the things that come even if I go to trips and somebody blesses me like 20 dollars I tell irs somebody gave me 20 dollars. I mean, I'm very honest with everything, but I do not want them auditing me And so what I did is I looked through that letter and I typed explain every single thing about why I came up With a certain number on my taxes I send that letter And everything is fine until three weeks passes and I realized that the deadline for me to send that letter is long gone And I have not heard anything from them by letter or by phone So I decide to call irs. I call irs and they said we never got your letter So I'm pretty upset because I sent the letter I have no proof to tell them that I sent the letter Now the time has expired for me to explain about the things and I fear what's gonna happen Is they're gonna start digging through my taxes and they're gonna start auditing me and just literally taking me by pieces I send the second letter we go to vancouver And before we go to vancouver for this trip this weekend I realized that it's been a week and I have not seen On my you know, when you have a certified mail you can see the tracking where the letter is That the letter for the whole week is stuck in spokane So not only the first one is lost the second one is stuck in spokane So I tried to call the postal office. I mean 40 minutes later They find the letter they said oh, we're gonna have to ship it later and all this stuff And they finally ship it few days later into irs. And I mean by this time I'm like lord I said it's over for me. I mean it's it's just gonna be bad We come back from the vancouver trip And the interesting part is during vancouver trip We had a certain thing on our heart to give a certain amount of money away to one particular individual And I was thinking I'm like wait, I'm gonna be in trouble with irs I think I should probably hold on with the whole giving part just in case I'm gonna go down So at least I have some money to pay them in case they're gonna start panel penalizing me But we decided to give it away. Anyway, we come back and I think it was on monday I checked the status and irs and turns out they review my whole file And they found out that the amount of money that they owed me That they didn't owe me enough So they added a lot more. I love to reviewing my file I was like I was like lord if they have any other questions about other things on my taxes I am more than happy to explain to them It's interesting something that I thought will go so against me something that I feared could go against me Actually could churn in my favor and for my good Because when you serve a god who can do anything you can expect the unexplainable You can expect the unexplainable because somebody say amen And the testimony is that you know this particular lady she had a ms. She was diagnosed with ms and She had seizures every single day And the seizures were so severe that one time during work when she was working She had a seizure and they had to actually lay her off of work and they put her on disability Because she was unpredictably in a store behind a car She could just have seizures and the seizures were very severe It came to the point where she actually had to be confined to a wheelchair a little scooter wheelchair And she was confined to it So in case she has seizures that she doesn't hurt her body but that she could live like that She was not a christian not a believer until one of the friends that met her and told her that you need to connect to Jesus you need to read the bible and god can heal you It was an insult to her. She thought she was insulted by that But she decided to give a break and listen to the bible. She listened to the bible She found it very hopeful very encouraging Until they took her to a particular conference Her bible study group. She gave her life to jesus at this conference But prior to giving her life to jesus at this conference in the hotel She had the biggest seizure in her life It was so severe and so bad that that emergency had to come and get involved and they had to literally just release the Spasms in her body and she was convinced She was convinced It's going to be like this for the rest of her life because if you know about seizures or a mess these things don't go away by medicine They can be subsided. They can be suppressed, but they cannot be removed at this conference After already going to church for some time.  She looks at her and she says i command this foul spirit Of seizures to leave your body right now in jesus name And she rebukes the foul spirit of seizures this woman says Who did not believe that god could heal seizures?  I haven't walked for a while, but can i walk again? Listen, go ahead. She gets up and begins to walk And it's eight years since she had a last seizure Our god can do the unexplainable There is no way you can explain how ms cannot hit a person for eight years There is no way you can explain how this can happen But this it happens when we are people who realize Peter was in the prison. There was no way he could get out of there He was not connected to ferrule the herit. He was there was no earthquake coming by goddess Listen, if i don't have the natural means i can come supernaturally and invade your circumstances When i was listening to the testimony of a lady named jasmine From last sunday from fiji but original lives and right now lives in sacramento And she was saying all the things the demon did her in her life They were unexplainable unexplainable The fact that she could come in the bed to sleep and there will be a physical person in the bed with her Sleeping between her and her husband the fact that this being she said physically She saw him begins to drag her out of the bed and begins to torment her and physically speak to her And this do damages to her life and as i'm listening to this post interview i am like this It's unexplainable If demons can do the unexplainable to people how much more our god can do the unexplainable to his children And i believe that this is the time as it's christians today Is we must recognize when you are backed in the corner and there is no way you can get out of that Maybe you it's the sickness. Maybe it's the chronic depression Maybe it's been happening to people like that in the family and you say, you know what? I ran out of my natural options. My medicine doesn't work already the connections i have they're not working I can tell you over god who says when you don't have any other options Pick me because i can step into your situation and i can do the unexplainable I can do the unexplainable. I can make a way where there is no way I can put money in a fish's mouth I can bring bread from heaven on the earth and feed millions of people for 40 years every single day except Sabbath I can do the unexplainable Many of us we wait until we die to experience deliverance If you really think about it all of us will be free from pain during our death All of us will be free from problems when we die. That's why many people Take their life because they want to be free But it doesn't take faith to wait for death to deliver you from your trouble Our deliverer is not death our deliverer is jesus christ And he doesn't want us to wait until we die to experience relief from depression pain Suicide or sickness. He wants us to experience him as a deliverer not an event of death as our deliverer Because somebody say amen You know the interesting part is peter was in this prison for the second time And i think the devil lied to him. I think the devil was speaking to him and saying you know what god got you out first But now you're here second time.  We serve a god of impossible Last Sunday, there was a story of a woman in in a synagogue church of all nations Who was healed of incurable disease lupus And her kidneys were attacked her kidney actually failed And her parents if i'm not mistaken about 25 medications she took every single day 29 29 medications she took every single day And a month she was from south africa her medicine and her Medical procedures cost her parents a thousand three hundred dollars It came to that point where her parents already have written her A will and they already chose a casket and they already were preparing for a funeral because of how sick she was Until what happens is that she comes to the church the synagogue church of all nations Which is located in lego's nigeria and she receives prayer There is no way naturally this woman Could be walking and she goes back to south africa She still had the symptoms in her body But as she goes back to south africa and things begin to just turn around for no explainable reason She goes to the doctor and the doctor finds out she has no trace of lupus in her body And she's completely healed she comes back this sunday testifying That a woman a lady who was supposed to die a lady who is supposed to if she already had a funeral planned god had something else planned While you're planning for death God plans for the liberals Peter is there preparing for death God walks in And says i am prepared for something else and that is your deliberate If god can do it for her god can do it for you god can do it for me and god can do it for anybody When you are in an impossible situation Expect the unexplainable unexplainable amen