Touched by an angel of God

(Audio: Spanish)

SUMMARY: In chapter 12 of the book of Acts, we see the theme of persecution as Herod, a Jewish king with civil authority, begins to mistreat and even kill members of the church, including James, one of the twelve disciples. Herod imprisons Peter with the intention of killing him after Easter, but the church fervently prays for his release and an angel of God miraculously frees him. This chapter also shows Herod's character as a pleaser type who seeks popularity and praise from others, leading to his downfall when he accepts praise as a god and does not give glory to God. The book of Acts deals with five fundamental themes: anointing, expansion, persecution, definition, and imperfection.

The story of Herod in Acts 12 highlights the danger of pride in leadership and the importance of giving glory to God. Herod, a pleaser who cared about the opinions of others, imprisoned Peter with the intention of pleasing the Jews during Easter time. He was also filled with pride when people praised him for his eloquence, and he did not give glory to God. An angel of God touched him, and he died eaten by worms. The story also reminds us that angels are real, and they play a significant role in carrying out God's work on earth. Demonic forces also exist, and Christians have authority over them through the name of Jesus. The story of Peter's imprisonment and miraculous escape also shows the power of angelic intervention.

In this passage, we see a contrast between the natural and supernatural as God intervenes in the lives of his people. He allows James to be killed, but intervenes through an angel to free Peter from prison. This shows that we can never fully understand God's ways, and the only suitable attitude is one of unconditional faith. Sometimes God works through the natural, and other times through the supernatural, and we must have discernment to know when to act. The church's unceasing prayer was instrumental in Peter's release, emphasizing the importance of prayer. We must not underestimate its power and authority to bring about God's will in our lives and in the world.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of prayer in the church and asks for more faith to believe in God's supernatural power. He asks for a renewal of understanding and faith, and for God to remove any unbelief and heal physical and mental ailments. The speaker declares victory in Christ Jesus and claims God's intervention over various aspects of life. The message ends with a call to hunger and thirst for God and to fight for His blessings.

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.