e heard taught more than once. It's the story of the Apostle Paul and Silas getting thrown in prison for being used by God to set free a young slave girl who was demon-possessed. It's a cool story. You can find it in Acts 16. At any rate, the story goes that they were placed in an inner cell with feet shackled to the floor. The Scripture says that "about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them." Midnight is known as the darkest part of the night time. And it can represent moments that seem quite hopeless. Interestingly, when Paul and Silas should have been frustrated to say the least in the natural, they began to sing. It's more than coincidental what happened next. "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose." The miracle is not really in what happened after they sang, but rather that they could sing at midnight. Instead of being down right discouraged and overwhelmed with hopelessness or a "what's next" feeling, they prayed and sang...loud enough for other prisoners to hear. This teaches that a biblical melody can keep midnight out of our minds. Praise is prophetic in nature. Scripture doesn't say how long they were in prison when they started to sing or how long they were physically bound after they began this praying and singing business. But their expression of praise evidently got their minds full of the good things of God...onto the solution and not the problem....that "suddenly," a suprise to them and everyone else, their breakthrough was manifested. So...KEEP SINGING! Get that biblical melody going, play that God-honoring song and sing it with them. And...watch the midnight turn to daylight...IN JESUS' NAME!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Keeping Midnight out of your Mind
I recently read and taught on a passage of Scripture that I have studied and hav
e heard taught more than once. It's the story of the Apostle Paul and Silas getting thrown in prison for being used by God to set free a young slave girl who was demon-possessed. It's a cool story. You can find it in Acts 16. At any rate, the story goes that they were placed in an inner cell with feet shackled to the floor. The Scripture says that "about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them." Midnight is known as the darkest part of the night time. And it can represent moments that seem quite hopeless. Interestingly, when Paul and Silas should have been frustrated to say the least in the natural, they began to sing. It's more than coincidental what happened next. "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose." The miracle is not really in what happened after they sang, but rather that they could sing at midnight. Instead of being down right discouraged and overwhelmed with hopelessness or a "what's next" feeling, they prayed and sang...loud enough for other prisoners to hear. This teaches that a biblical melody can keep midnight out of our minds. Praise is prophetic in nature. Scripture doesn't say how long they were in prison when they started to sing or how long they were physically bound after they began this praying and singing business. But their expression of praise evidently got their minds full of the good things of God...onto the solution and not the problem....that "suddenly," a suprise to them and everyone else, their breakthrough was manifested. So...KEEP SINGING! Get that biblical melody going, play that God-honoring song and sing it with them. And...watch the midnight turn to daylight...IN JESUS' NAME!
e heard taught more than once. It's the story of the Apostle Paul and Silas getting thrown in prison for being used by God to set free a young slave girl who was demon-possessed. It's a cool story. You can find it in Acts 16. At any rate, the story goes that they were placed in an inner cell with feet shackled to the floor. The Scripture says that "about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them." Midnight is known as the darkest part of the night time. And it can represent moments that seem quite hopeless. Interestingly, when Paul and Silas should have been frustrated to say the least in the natural, they began to sing. It's more than coincidental what happened next. "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose." The miracle is not really in what happened after they sang, but rather that they could sing at midnight. Instead of being down right discouraged and overwhelmed with hopelessness or a "what's next" feeling, they prayed and sang...loud enough for other prisoners to hear. This teaches that a biblical melody can keep midnight out of our minds. Praise is prophetic in nature. Scripture doesn't say how long they were in prison when they started to sing or how long they were physically bound after they began this praying and singing business. But their expression of praise evidently got their minds full of the good things of God...onto the solution and not the problem....that "suddenly," a suprise to them and everyone else, their breakthrough was manifested. So...KEEP SINGING! Get that biblical melody going, play that God-honoring song and sing it with them. And...watch the midnight turn to daylight...IN JESUS' NAME!
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1 comment:
Thank you for this message...I have not stopped listening to that song "I Never Lost My Praise". So powerful! So true! The enemy can try to take so many things from us, but he can never take our praise!!!
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