Touched by an angel of God

We're going to go back to the book of Acts this morning and we're going to look at some things in chapter 12, the last time we were together, we were talking about this process that the church went through when Cornelius, the Roman centurion, was approached by the angel of God, Gentile Cornelius, a man who was not necessarily in the politically correct profession, was a Roman soldier, a captain more or less, of the Roman army, an army that oppressed the Jewish people, but he was a God fearing man. And a generous man with the work of God. And that touched the heart of God and oh, it is what God is looking for, the heart, the fear of God, the word says that God will not despise the contrite and humiliated heart.

God wanted to do a work throughout the world, not only among the Hebrews, the vision of the church had fallen short, they thought that this was only for the Jewish people, it was going to be a continuation of what they had already had before, with a now Jewish messiah, but God had a much broader vision, and used Cornelius as a prototype, if you will, Cornelius and his family, and forcibly, violently one might almost say, widened the vision of the church primitive, forcing them to understand that the vision and the call of Jesus Christ was not only for the Jews but was for the whole earth, including the Gentiles, and then we saw how God operated in the church, and there was a process there, right? take the church to another level of understanding.

Because God is always working in our lives, God is always processing us and taking us to other levels. We cannot stay where we were yesterday, we always have to be moving forward. You will remember, what I have told you, through the teachings that I have been sharing, that in the book of Acts, there are about five fundamental themes, which are repeated over and over again, through the different events what the book is about. We have talked about the subject of the anointing, that is to say, the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, miracles, signs, wonders, the gifts that are manifested, revelations, prophecies, we see all these things in the book of Acts in a powerful way, but that is not all that the book of Acts tells us.

The book of acts also tells us about expansion, the expansion of the church, from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the whole earth, right? And we see that sometimes the Lord used very strange means, sometimes he used persecution, to lead his people in different ways to expand, sometimes he used a revelation, as I said, the case of Philip, which miraculously led him to where he was. the eunuch, to speak to this man from the word, and this man was used by God then, who was a high official of the Ethiopian government, to go to Ethiopia, and take his experience with Christ and his baptism to Ethiopia.

And then we see the expansion of the kingdom of God, in many different passages, we are going to see above all now that the ministry of the apostle Paul begins in the next chapter, chapter 13, and the gospel begins to spread in a powerful way. through all the earth. But we have already seen that the theme of expansion, in addition to the theme of anointing, is very present in the book of Acts. A third theme is persecution, and we're going to see this morning in chapter 12 about persecution.

The Bible says that everyone who wants to please God will suffer some kind of persecution. Sometimes it will be open persecution, as our brothers suffer in Africa, or in Asia, in China, right now there is a lot of persecution, in the Middle East there is persecution, here in this country there is persecution of Christians too, but not everything It was rosy, there was a war against the people of God, the kingdom of God is said to be forcibly advancing, violently, and one must also be a forceful person to be able to get in tune with the kingdom of God. The hardy, the brave, the violent, snatch it away, there is persecution.

So the subject of persecution is a subject that we are going to deal with this morning, but much more than mere persecution. A fourth topic that the Bible deals with, and I repeat this because it is good that we have these things in mind, right? I myself forget the different topics like this, but also the topic of definition, we see in the book of the Acts many times in which the church is in a moment in which it has to define itself. The church did not think that the Gentiles were part of God's plan, but they had to redefine themselves with respect to that, and widen to include the Gentiles.

There are times when the church begins to structure itself, when the deacons are elected to give order to the distribution of goods, when there is a meeting in Jerusalem to talk about the Gentiles, what they are going to do with them, when they They meet to choose Matías, the disciple number 12, who would replace Judas, who had hanged himself. Moments in which the church has to add something, define itself, adjust its vision, and we see that many times in the books of the bible, the church that is already beginning to prepare for two thousand years of history, until now, and who knows how many more are ahead, but, the church had to put its theological pillars and define itself, already with the help of the Holy Spirit.

And finally we also see the theme of imperfection, right?, of imperfection, that many times there are fights between the disciples, there is sin, Ananias and Sapphira, the classic case, I think chapter 5, where there is a lie that is given, that God judges, they were ordinary people like us, they had the same nervous system as us, the first disciples, how many of you know that, huh?, they had the same biology as us, so these people were not plaster saints, but rather they pulled the bows from time to time too, and made their mistakes. And the book of Acts points out those imperfections in the people of God.

Well, anointing, expansion, persecution, definition and imperfection. Now repeat it, let's all watch it together, no, I'm playing, but let it stay, just record it there, okay? Because these issues are important. Now let's go to chapter 12 quickly, we have little time, but, it's quite a long chapter, and it talks about, essentially, one of the themes is the persecution by Herod, not the Herod who ordered the children to be killed, to the babies when Christ was born, that was another Herod, it was a family, this is another Herod, but that he was part of that family, he was a Jewish king, well he was not a Jew, but it does seem that he was a convert, he was a convert.

And he had civil authority, from the Romans, to exercise civil authority, in that area where the Christians were. So it wasn't just the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the Sanhedrins, who had only religious authority, but also sometimes abused, and persecuted the people, but Herod was already a king, who had a franchise so to speak, of part of the Romans who were the final authority. And then Herod, who had a, since he was not a Jew, it was always like he had a fragile position with respect to the Jews, and the Jews looked at him with ambiguity, because Jews know that if they are not of his race, You don't count in a sense, do you?

But oh, Herod wanted to please the Jews, because he had to please them to a certain extent, and so it says here that at that time, King Herod laid hands on some of the church to mistreat them, he did not lay hands on them to shake hands with them, but to mistreat them, and among them he killed James, John's brother, with the sword, this James was one of the twelve disciples, who had walked with Jesus, Stephen was the first great martyr, remember?, and now this other martyr, from the close circle of Jesus, was one of the three brothers of the sons of Sebedee.

Interestingly, when these men approached Jesus, so that the Lord would give them a special place in his kingdom, do you remember? One sat on the right and the other on the left. the cup that I am going to drink, and participate in the baptism that I am going to participate in, and they said yes, Lord, we can, they did not know what the Lord was referring to, and the Lord told them, indeed, you are going to drink from the cup, and they will be baptized with the same baptism that I am going to be baptized with. Here it begins to fulfill that, because this was one of the disciples to whom the Lord said that. And certainly the baptism of Jesus was the baptism of the cross, of death, and this man had his head cut off with a sword, for his faith.

So, there the Lord already, I imagine that he remembered that, ah, that was the Lord wanted to say, not after they cut off his head, but probably a little bit before they cut it off, right? (laughter), or who knows if he remembered up there when he was, the Lord told him hey, do you remember what I told you down there?, but he already had his head now, right? So we see that many times the Lord tells us things, and what I always said, crucifixion is a process of human life, of the children of God, it may be physical, it may be suffering, the apostle Paul said that he wanted to know Jesus in the power of his resurrection, and in the power of his sufferings too, right? Don't be like my grandson who only likes the jam that I put on top of the bread, and then he gives me the empty bread so that I can put more jam on it, that's how many Christians are, right? we want the loaves and fish, but we don't want to suffer for the Lord, right?

So the Lord says, the whole package is coming to you, be strong and be brave, says the word of the Lord, then this, one of the disciples is executed by Herod, and you know, the Jewish people liked that he killed him, and Herod He realized that the surveys carried out on television once and for all showed that his popularity among the people had risen. It's a joke please let me know that you guys realized it's a joke. And then he realized that this had pleased him, and he said wow that's good, and he got hold of Peter, the head of the disciples, and put him in jail. One of the interesting things in this chapter is that you see the character of Herod portrayed a little bit.

Herod was a man, what they call in English a pleaser type, he liked to please people, as he was very aware of the opinion of others, and since he saw that this pleased people, he did not think about the morality of what he was doing, but he thought about the expediency of what he was doing, and then he imprisoned the apostle Peter, with the intention, he says here, that when Easter time arrived, he would go through the same, the same fate, the same death, and hand it over to the Jews too, at the strategic moment to gain more popularity. And it is also interesting that at the end of the story, in this chapter, we are told that, on one occasion, a group of people came from another nation, from another of those towns over which he had hegemony, and he gave them a great deal. speech, dressed in his royal clothes, he put on all his clothes like a parrot, dressed very luxuriously, and gave a very elegant speech, and the people who wanted to please him, said this is a god, voice of god and not of men, what a tremendous speech, they praised him for his great eloquence, and this guy swelled up, filled with pride, and drank all that praise from the people, ate it all, and was filled like Nebuchadnezzar with the sense of his own glory, and says that he did not give glory to God. Brother if you do something good in life, hurry up to transfer the glory to God, amen?. I believe that one of the great dangers for those of us who serve the Lord is pride, and that I have to take a pill against pride every day, because I suffer from it like any other human being, but I understand that if I don't do that I give the devil room to attack me, and then I have to take that pill every day, and you have to too, then it is something that is within us, human nature is proud, ask the Lord to give you discernment, because The proud man often does not know that he is proud, he is so proud of himself that he does not know that he is proud.

So we have to ask the Lord, Father, give me the ability to discern, when I am believing that this is mine, that what I did is because I have something special, right? We must always remember that everything we do is for the mercy and grace of God, God free us from wanting to make our name sound, whether it be congregational, or human, personal, we do not serve except by the mercy and grace of God, always, and that is how we always have to do in In our lives, we have to be single-hearted, whether in marriage, we have to share the glory with our husbands, wives, our children, we have to praise others for what they do, we have to be aware of our limitations, and If God uses us in a ministry or something, we always have to exemplify the character of Christ Jesus who, being Lord, washed his disciples' feet so that we would remember that, right?

You always have to be a servant, never stay with the glory that belongs to God, what's more, that is so perverse, we are so perverse, brother, that many times when we say glory to God and to Him be the glory, we are staying as Ananias and Zafira, with a little bit of the glory of God, you know?, you have to, Lord, help me to be implacable with myself, and always be aware, and give the glory to you. The bible says, no one has a higher concept of himself, than he should have, but think of himself as, with sanity. Which means that, exactly, with precision, you are not looking at what others say about you, because many times you cannot trust that, but ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you so that you can see yourself exactly where you have to be there, it's not for you to throw dirt on your head either, oh, I'm a worm, I'm worthless, I'm useless, everyone is better than me, that's not what it's about, with sanity means that you know what you have, but you know that God has given it to you first, right?

And you know that you have something to contribute but you do it with humility and simplicity, because that belongs to God, and not to you, and God has given it to you out of his great mercy. So Heroes was left with that glory because he loved what people thought, and when they told him that, he believed it, and that he says that immediately, an angel of God touched him, and it was not to pass his hand over his head. head, you know, that was a nail that stuck in his stomach, and he says he died eaten by worms, uf, what does he think, a man who is dressed in royal clothes, the voice of god and not of man, and dies eaten by the worms, it was a very appropriate but ironic death, to show that this man was nothing, he took the glory instead of giving it to God.

So we have to be very careful in our leadership, in the things that we do, we have to be servants, servants, and always serve the Father, do what the Father says, not what people want you to say or do, do what the Father asks you to do, obey the Father, listen to the Father, because you have nothing to protect from yourself, you do not have an image to protect, because you are nothing in a sense, but what God it makes you, so what people think is ultimately not as important as what God thinks of you.

So Herod failed because of that, and the devil used him too, because when there is pride, we open ourselves up to demonic deception. So it is interesting that Herod dies, touched by an angel of God. You know that the angels are not just those little cherubs there with two little wings, chubby half that go like little bees flying through the air, the angels can be sinister, you also know, there is an angel of death that destroyed the firstborn of Egypt, the angels because, in this passage the role of the angels is very prominent, and in the book of Acts the angels play a very important role.

God did not eliminate that angelic role in the 20th century or in the 21st century, there are angels, what's more, I would say that if we had eyes to see, we would see a few angels right here, next to you perhaps, behind me who knows, there are some of you who have seen angels here on the platform, and I don't think it was because you ate a lot of porridge before you came to the service. Angels are real, what happens is that sometimes we don't have the eyes to see them, we don't have the frequency, but they are in our midst, and they are said to be ministering spirits that God uses to carry out his work on earth.

I believe that in my life I have been kept and protected by one or another angel at times. And you too, maybe they didn't come into your life dressed with two very big wings and with one of those big robes that comes to them, not sometimes the angels dress in maones and shirts there, who knows, I don't know if they wear tattoos I don't know, who knows if one of those bikers out there, one of those rare motorcyclists, could be an angel that God sent to protect you, or to guide you in some way. But we have to be aware that angels are real, they are real and God uses them to carry out his work on earth. We don't see them very often, but they are all around us, they are doing things that carry out God's will.

Here we saw in this case, God sends an angel, and who knows, if there had been surgeons or doctors at that time, and when examining Herod they would have said well, this is a stomach problem, or a virus that fell on the man, but behind There was a supernatural touch to that, right? So what happens many times in life is that God uses his angels to do things, to communicate things, but what we see is simply the physical manifestation, we do not see the intervention of that spiritual being, of that spirit, before it the demonstration was given, before the demonstration was given.

The angel was used simply as a physical medium in a sense, as an intermediary medium between the will of God, and the hardness of matter, of space, here, and the angels are like being intermediaries in a certain way, I am not going to now put into angelology, but, angels are one of God's creations, which are not like us, men women, because we are another type of essence, but angels kind of occupy a lower level than the purely divine, obviously, there are different categories of angels, there are angels, there are archangels, there are cherubs, there are seraphim, and they have different functions, and different degrees of honor, power, and authority, but God uses them and through scripture we see different angels working through the life of his people, doing very powerful things.

In this case, God sent that angel to play, and who knows how many times things happen in our lives, miracles and situations that happen, just as there are demons, there are fallen angels, who also operate on the physical world, and sometimes there are illnesses, there are emotional and mental situations, there are thoughts that arise in our minds, there are problems in our lives, there are failures, there are attacks that come from those others, who are part of the angelic creation, who are the rebellious angels that God rejected and discarded, but which also operate in the world of time and space invisibly. So what we often see is the effect of their intervention, but we cannot see with X-rays the moment in which they intervened or often operating in the lives of the children of God, and that is why many times we have to rebuke to the devil and rebuke the demons that want to wreak havoc in our lives.

I believe that a part of the life of prayer and intercession of the people of God has to be asking the Lord for discernment to know when the devil is planting thoughts in your mind that you think are yours, but that they came from a spirit evil that wants to hurt your life. How many times are there situations in your marriage that you think is purely a matter of temperament, and character, or thinking, and hormones, or whatever, but it is evil spirits that are trying to do damage and havoc in your life, to destroy you? , and you have to know how to discern and take authority and use the name of Jesus to neutralize the work of the devil, that's why we need to be aware. We inhabit a largely supernatural world so to speak.

I believe that many evangelicals of this time do not sufficiently understand the mysteries of God because they do not take into account the existence of angels and demons. When you bill and enter that into the equation of the Christian life, the demonic and the angelic, that complicates your life and makes it even more interesting, and forces you to go more on your knees in the presence of God, and use authority, the children of God have to learn to use the authority we have, both to call angelic intervention in our favor, and to neutralize demonic intervention in our lives. You know that you have power over the devil, this was not part of what I was going to talk about, I was going to talk about angels, but of course, God brought to my mind that there are devilish angels too, and I want to tell you in this morning that you have authority over those demonic angels, through the name of Jesus, through the blood of Jesus, through your position as a son, daughter of God.

You do not have to wait for the pastor to come to your house to rebuke the devil, you have authority in the name of Jesus, that insomnia that you have in your life, that anxiety that is killing you many times, that depression that you do not know where it comes from, those thoughts of self-loathing that make you feel that you are worthless, and that life has no future for you, those situations of persistent failure in life, sometimes not always, but sometimes there are diseases , there are situations as I said relatives, there are interventions in the lives of our children that we have to take authority in the name of Jesus, knowing that there are powers that inhabit this earth, we are not alone on earth brothers, there are angels, there are demons, and we are the prize, angels and demons fight for our destiny, and we are always in a radioactive world, and we have to understand that dimension of the Christian life.

Because also note that there is another situation here, where there are angels as well, and it is in the case of Peter, this Herod, probably animated by diabolic power, puts Peter in jail, and since Peter had already escaped him once before Also through angelic intervention, remember, Peter and John were put in jail, the angel got them out too, remember, at first, now Herod says, hey, I already know your arts, this time the same thing won't happen to me. So he calls four groups of four Roman soldiers, well trained, these were Seals, these were the frogmen of the Jewish marines. And he puts four groups of them to watch over them twenty-four hours a day, and if you look at how this happens, it seems that there were two who were sleeping next to him, so that he wouldn't escape even at night. They were there tied up with him.

And there were soldiers at the door and all the way, he locked him up well so that this guy wouldn't escape. A very difficult situation. Interestingly, there are so many things in the word of God. I'm telling you this to complicate your life, so you won't enjoy your food as much when you leave here. God does not deliver poor Jacobo from the sword, but allows them to kill him, but Peter is freed by an angelic intervention, and one wonders why, why God allowed poor Jacobo to have his head cut off, and Peter decides to release him, it is that one's mind is complicated in the Bible, because for me this is important, this is not just a little detail, because I was thinking about it, many times we see, for example, John, John the Baptist, God allowed his head to be cut off, and this supremely powerful man in God dies, Stephen dies, but in other cases God frees other people.

And one wonders, well, where is the logic of God, because God heals some and not heals others, because God frees one and the other, and that leads us to something that is very practical for us, look brothers, we will never be able to deciphering the mind of God one hundred percent you know, when you believe what God is going to do, God trips you and it comes out the other way, and many times, I spoke with sister Carmen Rey yesterday about, when God does not sometimes responds to our requests as we want. We pray, we do everything we are supposed to do, we fast, we give tithes and an extra offering just in case, and we serve the Lord, we do everything, hoping that God is going to answer our prayer as we need and want, and the Lord gives a contrary ruling, that person for whom we pray, so loved so dear, finally God decides not to heal her and dies, and yet another little brother says God healed me, and freed me, and I saw his glory and his mercy, and one says and well And because he didn't heal my sister, why didn't he heal me, why didn't he give me what I needed, why did he allow them to take away my house, or cut off my leg, or have me take pills for a sickness, while others he heals, or others he frees, or others do not even suffer from diseases and are healthy all the time.

Look, I have learned brothers that one will never be able to decipher all the mysteries of God, and the only suitable attitude given the inscrutable and indefinable nature of the God we serve is a position of unconditional faith, and to say Lord, your will be done in my life, and what you determine, you will know. I am going to cry, yes, I am going to fast, I am going to ask, I am going to make war, but if when everything has been done you still decide not to give me everything I asked for, your will be done, I am going to kiss you hand, I will serve you, and I will continue looking for you, recognizing you as my God and my Lord, in every situation of life. amen?. Because you never know why God does what he does, so that's an interesting point here, isn't it? He allows Jacobo to be killed, and he elaborates a whole angelic intervention on Peter, very interesting, because while Peter is there surrounded, interesting that Peter he could sleep, the next day they were going to cut off his head, Pedro is there snoring like a dormouse.

How interesting when one has the peace of God in one's heart, when one knows that God is my God, and if I perish or perish, whether I live or die, I belong to the Lord. Peter was asleep there, these soldiers around him, and this angel sent by God comes, and touches Peter, and tells him, Peter, get up, wake up, Peter thinks it's a vision. And Peter tells him, verse 8: "Gird yourself up, tie your sandals, wrap yourself in your cloak and follow me." How interesting again no. Here I put a note that I don't know when I wrote it, it says the natural and the supernatural. Because there's a game here, right? Imagine this angel, and yet, Pedro's sandals don't go on, nor do his clothes climb up like a magic movie, he says no Pedro, put on your shoes, Put on your stockings, tie it up, that lace is loose, tie it up a little more, you're going to have to run, put on your bootie because it's cold outside.

I remember this story in the movie E.T., don't deny it, you were still an adult when you saw it, I wasn't little, you were quite an adult. In E.T. when E.T. I think his mom is coming to look for him from upstairs and he has to take a trip, but he has to go by bike and escape from the policemen who are looking for him, but the girl asks him, can't you just "beam up"? Can't we just like they do in Star Trek, dematerialize and appear in the other place by magic? Because sometimes one believes that the things of God are going to be supernatural, completely, everything is going to be like in the movies, right?

Many times God uses the natural and the supernatural, and it is a mixture of the two. Many times God can come and give you healing but that is going to be through an anointed doctor. It will be through someone who prescribes something rare that heals you. God uses different ways, right? I like to see that interaction sometimes. For example, I think of the prophet Elijah when he is in the stream and God brought him food through the ravens, and the stream gave him water, but he says that one day what happened, the stream dried up, and well I say, the God who had food brought with the ravens, why couldn't he make the stream stand, and so he intervenes in another way by using a widow to give him food, and multiplies the oil and flour.

And these are the mysteries of God, in our lives brothers, of which God works sometimes in part, and this is the mystery that we inhabit in our time, and in our lives. There are times when the power of God will manifest itself in a clear, forceful, undeniable way, other times ambiguous, the Lord healed the blind man, took earth, spit on it, and put it over his eyes, and with that one He wonders why he didn't just say something more elegant, no, heal yourself, sometimes he said that, but why did he have to take dirt and saliva, and put it on, they are strange things, the world of the spirit is very strange, not many times?

That game always impacts me, and we have to have the discernment to know when God is going to work through the natural, through the supernatural, when it requires obedience, specific guidelines, when God is going to wait for us to do the first thing. step and then He is going to use that step of faith that we then bring down his power, there is an interaction of the natural, of the supernatural in God's interventions. I don't know if I'm explaining myself or I'm alone, talking here, crazy, like crazy, you understand what I'm saying, we have to be complex in the way we see, the way God moves in our lives, because there are times that the human element is going to have to cooperate with the divine element, because God could have made Peter disappear and transported him directly to the house where his friends were.

But he sends an angel to intervene very supernaturally, and then Peter does what the angel tells him, he puts on his clothes, his chains miraculously fall off, he begins to walk, and what happens, what does Peter think, that he is seeing a vision, this is very interesting, this is another dimension of this text here, Peter believes that he is having a divine dream, I don't know, he thinks that he is seeing a vision, his faith does not allow him to believe that what is happening is real. And then he does what he tells him like a dream, it opens, the chains come off, they go through the gate, they go past the soldiers who are there at attention watching, and when they come to the gate of the city, an iron gate , it's closed, and what happens, the door opens mysteriously, and they walk, go through the door, and what happens, the angel mysteriously disappears, he already did what he had to do and now, son, fix yourself up as best you can.

How interesting isn't it? God intervenes as much as you need, and many times you are going to have to do your part, okay? There are times when we want God to take us, chine us as the Guatemalans say, all the time there, right? There are times when God is going to say no now, go ahead, I already gave you the floor, I gave you the anointing, I intervene in your life, now depend on the Holy Spirit, on the word and the advice of others, and continue and God be with you. And we have to fight. Many times we are looking for a word, our evangelicals today want a word, they go to so-and-so to be prophesied with whom they should marry, this one or the other, if they should buy this house or they do not want a word. Brother God made His word dwell within you, use the gifts that God has already given you, and do not wait for them to anoint you, or pray.

The Christian life as I say is a mixture of the natural and the supernatural. I am very practical sometimes for my Pentecostal brothers, you know. I tell them we have to be practical, we have to have practical wisdom in life too, because God doesn't do everything for us. There are times when he intervenes to a certain extent but then he wants you to fight back, study the bible, learn the bible, learn the principles of scripture, adjust your character, learn to discern the voice of God in circumstances, and don't live in this mystical dream, because I would say that in eighty, ninety percent of life God is going to tell you, use the strategies and tools that I have given through my word, use the spirit that I have placed in you . Use the maturity that you have acquired over the years, the experience that you have of how I work. You are not a baby that I have to spoon food into your mouth every day, and I glorify myself that you use the tools that I have placed within you.

You understand brother, let me explain? God wants mature people, people who live in the supernatural, but that the supernatural is so much a part of them that they don't even realize when they are using it, do you understand? I believe that the more the power of God dwells within you, the more difficult it becomes to know when the natural ends and when the supernatural ends. You are going to prophesy to people through a conversation, without having to tell them, my son, that's what the Lord tells you now, receive this word, many times the word of God will come out of you in a natural way, a conversation, You are going to tell people what God is saying to you at that moment, you are going to communicate God's truth in a quiet way, but it is the power of God that is within you.

I see that in this whole passage here, the natural, and the supernatural, the human political processes, and the mysterious divine process of God moving there as well. So when the angel intervenes, Pedro finds himself alone and now, well, where am I going, and then oh, wait, I'm going to go to Juan Marcos' house, his mother's, because maybe the brothers are there praying, there was a cell praying, interesting, I'm done with this, time has passed, but there was a cell, in the house of this family, and before all this angelic thing happened, it says that the brothers were praying, verse 5: "so Peter was guarded in jail, but the church prayed without ceasing to God for him". I can't leave without touching that point because then I'd be stealing something from you. You say, steal me pastor, don't worry, no but listen to this before you go. Listen to me this. Before the miracle of angelic intervention occurred, it says that the church prayed without ceasing for Peter, meaning that it was the unceasing prayer of the church that opened the prison doors for the apostle Peter. It was this instrument that attracted divine intervention and released the apostle of God, the prayer of the church.

Brothers, let's not underestimate the importance of prayer. Let's not underestimate the importance of bringing our cry to God, again, in your life, that there has to be more prayer, not less, in the life of this church there has to be more prayer and not less, that's why we have to say Lord help us, we have to pray more at the beginning of the services, we have to call your anointing, we have to bring it, we have to lower it, we have to take that rope and start pulling it so that God's anointing comes down. You have to take time, you have to use the power and authority that we have brothers, so that the things that God wants to do are done in this world.

That church was praying, crying out there, instead of being depressed there because their leader was in jail, they said no, we are going to make war, we are going to cry out to God until the last moment, if they cut off his head, other than for lack of prayer on our part, they prayed, they did their part, the other part was up to the Lord, to decide what he was going to do, but God decided to intervene, and when Peter gets there, he finds a church praying, and how funny, how ironic , this is the last thing, look, I'm going to close the bible even, look, these people who were praying with so much anointing, when Pedro knocks on the door and this little girl arrives who opens the door and sees Pedro, almost gives him a patatús . He closes the door again on Pedro, and runs to the brothers and tells them, Pedro is here!

They tell her, girl, stop with that, what's going to be possible, Pedro is in jail there, and one wondered then well and then what were you doing praying with so much clamor and so much anointing, right? Glory to God, we believe that You are powerful to get him out of jail, but when God does a miracle they don't believe it. And Peter himself believes that what he is seeing is a vision because he cannot believe that it is truly God who is doing the work. And that reminds us brothers, I have to ask the Lord, Father, in this time of my life I am asking the Lord, Lord, give me not generic faith but explosive faith. Do you remember on the day of resurrection that Marta, when the Lord tells her do you believe that I can resurrect your brother, she tells him, oh yes Lord, I know that yes, on the day of resurrection, I know that You, no no, I am going to resurrect him now, now, I have power today to resurrect him, I have come here so that Lazarus may be resurrected today, not in the time to come, but now, here.

And I am asking the Lord, Lord, remove the membrane from my eyes, and give me a faith that can believe the absolutely supernatural, because I want more than simply what I have received. And we have to tell him, Lord, give us faith to raise the dead, give us faith to heal cancer, give us faith to liberate the demoniacs, give us faith to open and close in the world of matter, give us faith to perform miracles, give us faith to unleash Your power and Your judgment on earth, that is what I am asking the Lord for, a faith that can believe that God can do the impossible, because if you are sincere there is something that prevents you from believing those greater miracles that God can do. We say it, we believe that we believe it, but there is something psychologically holding us back and preventing us from truly believing that God can hit the beheaded man's head again. I ask you Lord, visit us with that faith in this time, that I can believe Your miracles, that when we pray we pray with the expectation that You can work, and You can do the impossible, because our faith moves mountains, the Lord said if you you think, you can say to that mountain, transfer yourself, throw yourself from here to the bottom of the sea, and that obedient mountain is going to be uprooted from its foundations, and it is going to fly and throw itself into the bottom of the sea, that is a hyperbole, but what the Lord wanted to say was look, it can reach that level, and who knows if before the world ceases to be a world someone is going to have to pray so that a mountain is uprooted and goes into the sea, for the word of Jesus to be fulfilled, I don't know, I can still believe in those things.

We have to believe, we live in a mysterious world, stand up, a mysterious world, mysterious mysterious mysterious, supernatural, angels walk around us, demons, fight for our soul and our eternal destiny, our daily health, ask the Lord, Father, open my eyes so that I can understand beyond the everyday, and I can see, live in that supernatural dimension, I want to live a supernatural life, where angels are common things, where miracles and God's interventions are things of all day. Where the Holy Spirit is so real to my life that I can believe and live in that realm of faith. Oh Lord renew our understanding. Renew my faith Father, start with me. I say these things and I don't even believe them myself Lord, I want to believe, we want to believe, we want to believe.

Lord remove the membrane from the eyes, tear it out of the mind, in the name of Jesus, remove our unbelief Lord. Heal our biology, heal our brain, our neurological wiring, and give us vision and faith, of a prophet, a miracle worker, renew your gifts in us Lord Jesus, and send your Spirit, send your Spirit, that this church, the churches represented here, your Lord people in this time of history can enter that supernatural dimension, where the devil is defeated again and again, by the powerful intervention of your spirit Lord, we want to see your glory manifested Father, oh, we are hungry and thirst for you Lord, we hunger and thirst for you.

Oh Father, revive your people, get your people out of here with renewed strength, Lord. Renewed spirits Father. We have victory in Christ Jesus, and we declare that victory over our finances, our mental, emotional life, our marriages, our children, we claim them in the name of Jesus, this church, their destiny Lord, Your calling, our lives, our ties and you fight Father, diseases, in the name of Jesus, we declare this afternoon the intervention of Your power Lord, explosive, cutting Father everything that is not according to Your purpose, send faith to Your people, in the name of Jesus, we unleash the move of Your Spirit Lord, begins with me Father, make changes in our hearts, in our minds.

Hallelujah, we adore you Lord, we bless you, fight for your blessing people of God, a transformation in your mind, oh Lord we hunger and thirst for you, we want more of you.