No Matter What

When we pray for healing, do we expect healing? The verse about having faith to move mountains – do you have the faith that would move a mountain? I know that I don’t. 

Acts12 Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church, to do them harm. 2 And he had James the brother of John executed with a sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter as well. …5but prayer for him was ring made to God intensely by the church. 

Peter is in prison facing execution the next day. Meanwhile his friends are praying nonstop that he would not be killed the way James had been.  

6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison.  

 On the night before his execution, Peter is sleeping soundly between two soldiers. How can Peter have that kind of peace facing execution? Peter had faith in God’s plan. Now this is the same Peter that denied Jesus 3 times after Jesus was arrested. His faith had increased since that time. Peter was able to rest in peace trusting God’s plan no matter what. Can you say that no matter what happens, I’m okay with it because God is plan is best for me? I’m not sure I can. 

 John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 

Peter trusted. Period. He was going to be delivered by getting out of prison, or by going to heaven to be with his Lord. And he was okay with that. That is a level of trust that most of us just do not have.  

 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly stood near Peter, and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Put on your belt and strap on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and yet he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 Now when they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.  

 An angel appears and wakes Peter up. He tells him to get up, get dressed, and follow him. Now Peter thinks he is in some kind of dream. I mean, he is resting in God’s promise and sleeping and suddenly doors are opening by themselves, and where he was in prison, he is suddenly not in prison anymore. The angel was there and then he wasn’t. Now Peter is alone on the street.  

 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 

Once Peter realizes he is free, he heads to find his friends who are praying for him. When he knocks on the door, a servant answers and recognizes Peter – and then is so excited she leaves him outside and runs to tell the others that he was there. 

 13 When he knocked at the door of the gate, a slave woman named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.”  

 So, we have this picture of Peter left standing outside the gate – like – helloo – you forgot to let me in!!! And Rhoda is telling the people who are praying that Peter is here – and they tell her – you have lost your mind. And she is like – no – I haven’t - he is standing right here – oh no – I left him outside!! 

They think it is an angel – like maybe Peter had already died.  

 The people who were praying so hard for Peter did not believe their prayers had been answered. What were they expecting to happen?  

 So often we pray without genuinely believing God will do anything in our situation. But so often we are praying for what we want, and not praying that God’s will be fulfilled in our lives. Prayer isn’t about getting what we want. It is about growing closer to God, and as we grow closer to Him, our wills diminish and His will becomes ours. As we come to understand God’s will for our lives, we can pray with expectation because we know that His will is going to be fulfilled. But most of the time we are praying about a situation before we have prayed to understand God’s will about the situation.  We pray asking God to do what we want, when we should be praying to understand what God wants. As I get to know the Lord better, I will learn that He loves me more than I love myself.  

 Meanwhile, Peter just keeps knocking.16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. I bet their faith grew seeing Peter standing there. God had answered their prayers even though they weren’t really expecting Him to answer. 

 Why did James die by the sword and Peter go free? It wasn’t that Peter’s faith was greater and it wasn’t that Peter had friends praying while James may not have. It was simply that God’s will was different for James than it was for Peter. Peter was delivered from prison but James was delivered into the presence of the God. So often we try to compare how God acts in the lives of other people with how He acts in our lives. We ask God why because we don’t understand. Why is this person spared from dying of cancer and that person dying of cancer? Why? As we said earlier – prayer is to draw us closer to God, and through that relationship, we better understand what God wants for us – and then what we see in other people’s lives becomes less about us and more about them. Drawing closer to God, we learn want God’s will for our lives no matter what that deliverance looks like. That is a level of trust that many of us just do not have. It is hard to imagine that God could know and love us better than we love ourselves, but He does. He made us! We are His! Pray to better understand His will and that will and that His will becomes our will.  

Peter slept because Peter was at peace in God’s deliverance, no matter what it looked like for him. He just trusted God to know him better than he knew himself.