{"id":1677,"date":"2019-07-03T05:14:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T13:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2019-07-03T05:14:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T13:14:00","slug":"devotion-acts-1211-19-yes-he-can-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1677","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 12:11-19 Yes He Can Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 12:11-19\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0Then Peter came to himself\u00a0and said, \u201cNow I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me\u00a0from Herod\u2019s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.\u201d\u00a0 12\u00a0When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark,\u00a0where many people had gathered and were praying.<\/span>\u00a013\u00a0Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.<\/span>\u00a014\u00a0When she recognized Peter\u2019s voice, she was so overjoyed\u00a0she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, \u201cPeter is at the door!\u201d\u00a0 15\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re out of your mind,\u201d they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, \u201cIt must be his angel.\u201d\u00a0 16\u00a0But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.<\/span>\u00a017\u00a0Peter motioned with his hand\u00a0for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. \u201cTell James\u00a0and the other brothers and sisters\u00a0about this,\u201d he said, and then he left for another place.\u00a0 18\u00a0In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.<\/span>\u00a019\u00a0After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cBut Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Rhoda kept insisting that she had seen and heard what she had seen and heard.\u00a0 The adults kept insisting she was crazy and those telling her to hush up could not dissuade her. \u00a0She knew what she had seen and would not be told otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter kept knocking at the door without being let in.\u00a0 Who knows how long he was there knocking?\u00a0 Remember that he was now a God rescued escaped prisoner.\u00a0 There were saints inside the house praying and none of them heard him knocking, only the little girl had heard and she had run away and not opened the door.\u00a0 He was even at the door of the house, he was at a large outer gate that was large enough for carts to come through with deliveries.\u00a0 He was knocking.\u00a0 He was knocking loudly to be heard.\u00a0 He could have been seen and heard by anyone.\u00a0 Perhaps his guards had detected that he was missing and they were looking for him and the commotion he was making would lead them right to him?\u00a0 Peter didn\u2019t know about all the \u201cwhat ifs,\u201d he only knew that Jesus had sent an angel to free him from death and he had to tell people what God had done for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rhoda, a little girl knew what she had seen and heard and no-one was going to tell her different.\u00a0 Peter had a story of being rescued by Jesus and he was going to keep knocking, whatever the risk, until the door was opened and he could share of the faithfulness of God expressed through Jesus to him.\u00a0 Again.\u00a0 Peter and Rhoda had experienced something very real.\u00a0 Peter had been supernaturally saved and Rhoda has seen the answered prayers of all the saints that were gathered to pray for God to save Peter.\u00a0 Rhoda, this sweet little girl, would not stop insisting that God\u2019s answer to their prayer was waiting for them at the front door. God had provided and all they had to do was go the front door and receive the answered prayer, if only they would believe.\u00a0 Peter kept knocking, he persisted until his brothers and sisters inside would come to him and let him tell what Jesus had done for him.\u00a0 From the outside he likely could hear them inside loudly praying, calling out to God to save him, and he wanted them to know that God had heard their prayer.\u00a0 With risk to him he kept making noise until they came and opened the door and received their answer to prayer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Calling out to God the brothers and sisters inside, with broken and desperate hearts, were pleading with God and brokenheartedly crying out for Him to save Peter.\u00a0 They were likely not pleased that Rhoda was interrupting their group prayer to say what they did not believe.\u00a0 Finally, to placate the insistent little girl they went to the door looking to see what had the little girl excited.\u00a0 Can\u2019t we just hear the shouts of praise and shrieks of joy when they saw Peter.\u00a0 They rushed and unlocked the gate and let Peter in.\u00a0 They let in God\u2019s answer to their prayer.\u00a0 They received from God what they prayed for.\u00a0 Oh to only understand when God answers our prayers in the perfect ways that He does, though mostly not as we expect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeter motioned with his hand\u00a0for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. \u201cTell James\u00a0and the other brothers and sisters\u00a0about this,\u201d he said, and then he left for another place.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Peter told them to tell James (the brother of Jesus (Matthew 13:55, Galatians 1:19<\/b>) and the rest of the brothers and sisters what great thing God had done.\u00a0 God set Peter free and guided him to remind his brothers and sisters that Jesus was still alive and still watching over His flock.\u00a0 Rhoda had a job, it was to alert the group about the answer to their prayer that was at the gate knocking to get in.\u00a0\u00a0 Then the gathered believers had a job to spread the good news that Jesus not only spiritually sets captives free, but that Jesus is still physically setting people free from the chains that bind them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Family, when Peter finally understood what Jesus had done for him, he had to tell somebody.\u00a0 When Rhoda saw and heard the answer to prayer, she had to tell somebody.\u00a0 When the gathered brothers and sister saw Peter and knew that God had answered their prayers, they had to tell somebody.\u00a0 How about us?\u00a0 Do we truly know that Jesus died on the cross to set us free from the lie that we were beyond being saved? \u00a0Do we truly know that Jesus put hope and faith within us when we thought we had nothing left?\u00a0 Does God truly live within us and is He keeping us with Him while we our earthly bodies pass and we move from earth to heaven?\u00a0 Then we have the reality of what God has done for us.\u00a0 We need to tell somebody.\u00a0 We need to tell everybody that will listen to us that Jesus saved, saves and will continue to save all that believe His Gospel message and follow Him. Sometimes we are surrounded by those who refuse to believe and so what should we do?\u00a0 We should keep knocking, we should keep insisting that we know what we know, and we should not stop until they finally respond and receive what every soul needs, that being the forgiveness of sin through Jesus so that they may be eternally in the love and grace of God Almighty.\u00a0 Family, let\u2019s persist in spreading the good news and when no one will listen, let\u2019s persist until we find who will.\u00a0 The little girl Rhoda did, to the blessing of many, including you and I.\u00a0 Surely, if this little girl did, we can.\u00a0 Let us be like Peter who had to tell somebody what Jesus had done for him.\u00a0 Besides, we\u2019re just telling the truth.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 12:11-19\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Then Peter came to himself\u00a0and said, \u201cNow I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me\u00a0from Herod\u2019s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.\u201d\u00a0 12\u00a0When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark,\u00a0where…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1969,101,94,17],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-galatians","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}