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God Leads Revival | Eld Terence Atkinson

Acts Klang

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  1. You're listening to a message to go from X Church.

  2. We hope this message will light up your day.

  3. God leads revival. God leads revival. So, you know, we're

  4. doing the second letter of the word dream. So, D

  5. was discipleship and R is revival. But, you know, there

  6. are some things about this that are going to apply

  7. to your life. In general, not just about revival. but

  8. about your circumstance, about your situation. And you'll begin to

  9. see that sometimes the rough stuff that happens to you

  10. is under God's direction. See, if you and I want

  11. to see something different in our life, we should not

  12. be afraid when something different happens to us. Alright, it's

  13. just part and parcel of growing up. So let's get

  14. to it. Let's read from Acts chapter 16, starting at

    Acts 16 chapter mention

  15. verse 16. Now it happened as we went to prayer

  16. that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of

  17. divination met us who brought her master's much profit by

  18. fortune telling. So, okay, I'll read the second verse. this

  19. girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these

  20. men are the servants of the Most High God who

  21. proclaim to us the way of salvation. Now, reading the

  22. next one, and this she did for many days, but Paul,

  23. greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command

  24. you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her.

  25. And he came out that very hour. And when her

  26. master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they

  27. seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace

  28. to the authorities. Okay. You know, as it happened, as

  29. we went to pray, these were the normal things that

  30. Paul and Silas did. As it happened, they were on

  31. their way to pray. And as they were on their

  32. way to pray, something happened. something took place. You always

  33. wonder to yourself, hey, I was just doing good. I

  34. was on my way to do this and then the

  35. next thing I knew, my tyre of the car fell off.

  36. And you ask yourself, why did the tyre fall off?

  37. How many of you have tried to do good things

  38. and when you're doing good things, something bad happened along

  39. the way? Has that ever happened? Now let me see

  40. your hands really so I know that I'm speaking to everyone.

  41. So you know this to be true. You are just

  42. going about doing your right thing. You're going, wasn't going

  43. to pray good stuff? Was good, right? And how many

  44. of you have been on your way to do good

  45. things and something bad happened along the way? So, thing is,

  46. do you and I fall to pieces? Do we give

  47. up on life because something bad happens to us? Do

  48. we throw in the towel and we go on strike?

  49. I'm not going to do good things anymore because every

  50. time I try and do something good, something bad happens

  51. along the way. Is that the way we're supposed to live? No.

  52. You just go on living your life and God is

  53. going to come through in every circumstance. Now, what was

  54. this thing that happened? So there was this girl who

  55. was following Paul And read what the Scripture says. Go back.

  56. These men are the servants of the Most High God

  57. who proclaim to us the way of salvation. I thought

  58. about this for a long time. And sometimes something bad

  59. comes wrapped up in wrapping paper that looks like it's

  60. a gift. Isn't it true? Sometimes you do not know

  61. that something good that has happened to you may not

  62. have been so good after all. Look at this. She

  63. was saying, these are the men who are preaching to

  64. us the Word of God, who are showing us the

  65. way of salvation. Sounds good, right? How many of you

  66. think this is bad? How many of you think that

  67. this was true? Let me see a show of hands.

  68. You've got to commit yourself. Then only you learn something.

  69. All right. So, not sure. No, but it was the truth.

  70. They were showing the way of salvation. But I want

  71. you to know that sometimes some good things can be

  72. so irritatingly put that it distracts more than it helps. Now,

  73. if she had said it like this, I don't think

  74. Paul and Silas would have got annoyed if she had

  75. said it like this. These men are the servants of

  76. the Most High God who proclaim to us the way

  77. of salvation. Sound nice, right? Okay. I cannot imitate a

  78. nice sounding girl's voice, okay? So I have to do

  79. it in a pleasant voice that I have, okay? Right?

  80. So yeah, you're right. Now, She had said it in

  81. a voice like this. Acceptable or not? In fact, it

  82. sounds kind of nice. It's like, these guys are good.

  83. These guys are good. Listen to them. They're good. But

  84. do you think that's the way she talked? How many

  85. of you have ever heard a person possessed talk? Okay,

  86. you and I, right? Do they sound nice? No. No.

  87. Let me give you an idea what it would have

  88. sounded like. These men are proclaiming the way of salvation. Now,

  89. for a long time that keeps coming, you won't get irritated.

  90. You won't want to put your hands around her throat

  91. and finish the job. You will, isn't it? This is

  92. what was happening. So although truth was being spoken, it

  93. was put in a very irritating way. It was meant

  94. to distract. It was meant to take away from what

  95. God was doing. It was meant to destroy those around.

  96. So be careful because sometimes people use the right thing

  97. for the wrong reasons. Is there such a thing that's happening? Well,

  98. there's an example. So this went on for many days,

  99. I think. What's the next verse say? You got to

  100. give Paul credit. Paul had patience. I don't think I

  101. would have had that kind of patience. But then again,

  102. I'm not Paul. So this, the scripture says, went on

  103. for many days. Then Paul was greatly annoyed. So Paul

  104. was annoyed. But after many days, he became greatly annoyed.

  105. Do we need to wait until we are greatly annoyed

  106. to do something about it? I don't know. So then,

  107. he turned and said to the spirit, I command you

  108. in the name of Jesus Christ, I'm out of here.

  109. And he came out that very hour. This morning, I

  110. was praying for you. I went on my walks. But

  111. I want you to know that my knee was damaged

  112. as a result of being dislocated for four months. And

  113. so there was a lot of pain in my knee still.

  114. And so I asked the physiotherapist, why? He says, it's

  115. very simple. There's a muscle on the left side of

  116. your leg, on your knee, there's a muscle on the

  117. right side and these keep your knee in place. What

  118. happened was when your knee was dislocated out of place,

  119. the muscle on the side took its position. So for

  120. four months, this muscle had an easy ride because it

  121. wasn't stretched. It was right in place of where your

  122. kneecap was. So now that you've put your kneecap back

  123. in place, it's quite upset. And it's fighting you for

  124. that position. So as a result, I couldn't really do

  125. my walks. So this morning, I said, God, I have

  126. to pray for X Clang. I'm sharing the word. I

  127. need your Holy Spirit to speak to the people. I

  128. need your presence. And right around the second kilometer, I

  129. became greatly annoyed. So I said to this knee, Be

  130. healed in the name of Jesus. I command you pain

  131. to go away. You will not interrupt my prayer this morning.

  132. And immediately, the pain left. And I did five kilometers

  133. without an issue. Not quite half a marathon. But it's okay.

  134. It's okay. And I got my prayer done. And actually...

  135. As you go on, on, there is a little bit

  136. of a word for exclaiming. The Lord put it in

  137. my heart. All right, so he came out that very hour.

  138. And the master saw that the hope of profit was gone.

  139. The world profits on profit. People's pain. Do you know that?

  140. The world tends to profit when you are having issues.

  141. How many of you know that medicine costs a lot?

  142. It's really, really expensive. One time they used to say,

  143. do no harm. That's the Hippocratic Oath, right? Now the

  144. Hippocratic Oath is matched with a little bit of something else,

  145. which is called, and make them pay. It's true. You

  146. know that Donald Trump was fighting the drug companies in

  147. America because Americans pay four times or five times more

  148. than what other people pay for the same medicine in

  149. their country just because they can afford it. That's a

  150. lot of money. So people are profiting. You know how

  151. many billionaires were made during the pandemic? Did you know that?

  152. People profited off People's pain. So you see, they were upset.

  153. They were upset that their hope of money was gone.

  154. Do you think the medical fraternity is very happy when

  155. all of you are healed? No. Because there's no money

  156. to be made. That's why you and I need Jesus.

  157. Because it's going to get more expensive as time goes on.

  158. to go and see the doctor. We need the Lord

  159. to keep us well. We need the Lord to keep

  160. our health going. All right? So profit was gone. How

  161. many of you know that in your working life, there

  162. are a lot of people who are not happy when

  163. you do good? True or not? I used to work

  164. in a place here in Port Clang. Okay, it was

  165. in a factory. Okay. And in this factory, they were

  166. making pipes, you know, PVC pipes. So what happens in

  167. PVC pipe is when the heat comes or the pipe

  168. comes out of the machine, all right, the pipe just

  169. keeps on coming out. And then they cut it, okay?

  170. The first liquid or the first material that comes out

  171. is usually wastage. They call it wastage. It doesn't come

  172. out very well. It's not very well formed. So they,

  173. you know, they let it go and then they cut

  174. and they throw it behind. So what happened was, these

  175. plastic pipes are made from a resin. It's a white powder.

  176. There was a shortage in the world. The world was

  177. having a shortage of this resin material. And we couldn't

  178. buy it. And it was not available anywhere. So my

  179. boss was kind of upset because although you can send

  180. LCs and all that, letter of credit for money, you

  181. can't get the material. I had just joined, one, two months.

  182. I walked behind and I looked at the store and

  183. I saw all this wastage material at the back. So

  184. I told my boss, this pipe is 100% recyclable? Yes,

  185. it is. I said, would you say you got about

  186. five tons of wastage at the back? He looked, he said, yeah,

  187. that would be about right. So I just told him,

  188. it is costing you $ 25, 000 a month to keep that

  189. at the back. Because you're paying interest. So why don't

  190. you use that pipe, convert it to the powder, reuse it,

  191. and you'll save yourself a whole lot of money. Now,

  192. that made him very happy. You know what he did next?

  193. He called the general manager. Come here. You have been

  194. working with me for 16 years. This guy has been

  195. working for me for two months. Why is it he

  196. can tell me what to do to solve my problem

  197. and you cannot? Oh dear, I just made an enemy.

  198. So for the next few months that I was there,

  199. she hated my guts. Because I did something good. That's

  200. what happened here. Paul and Silas did something good. They

  201. resolved to call out from this woman someone that was

  202. causing a pain. She was healed. But were the masters happy? No.

  203. Because their hope of profit was gone. That's why you

  204. and I need Jesus. Because the world hopes to make

  205. profit off of your misery. Do you know that? You

  206. need Jesus. Let's move on. And they brought them to

  207. the magistrates and said, these men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble

  208. our city. All they were doing was they were going

  209. to pray. They didn't do anything against these people. And

  210. they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans,

  211. to receive or observe. I want you to remember a

  212. few things that's going to make your life very easy.

  213. Do you know that against truth, the enemy only has lies.

  214. This was a lie. This was not the truth. The

  215. enemy has only lies against you, you know. Because the

  216. Lord you believe in is the God of truth. Guys,

  217. you're so quiet, I hope I'm not putting you to sleep.

  218. Don't be surprised. If many rise up against you or

  219. that you seem alone. Do you know that the multitude

  220. has a long history of always being wrong? Guys, don't

  221. follow the crowd. They're always wrong, you know. Oh, everybody

  222. wants to get this. You remember this Takaguchi? Is it Takaguchi? Tamaguchi,

  223. this little thing where you got to feed it every

  224. few minutes. And the kids went crazy. I mean, everybody

  225. had to have one. You don't even look after the

  226. real pet you have at home. You want to look

  227. after this pet. So you got to see that this

  228. is a situation that the crowd is not always right.

  229. If the crowd was right, then it was right for

  230. them to crucify Jesus. But they called for his crucifixion

  231. when days before that they were celebrating, oh, Hosanna in

  232. the highest, Hosanna in the highest, now crucify him. The

  233. crowd just doesn't think. Mob mentality. I think in Pahang,

  234. just a couple of days ago, there was a couple

  235. of weeks ago, there was another bullying case which ended

  236. up in a student passing away. Right? Why was it?

  237. Mob mentality. Without Jesus, the devil whips people up into

  238. a frenzy and they do wrong things and people get hurt.

  239. Then the multitude rose up against them, you see. This

  240. one is drama. You want to know where Korean drama

  241. got all this? The next verse will tell you where

  242. they got it from. Okay? Because then the multitude rose

  243. up together against them and the magistrate tore off their

  244. clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. What's

  245. wrong with the magistrates? You're the judge, right? So somebody

  246. tells you something, what do you do? You take off

  247. your clothes. You tear off your clothes. Who lost the money?

  248. You lost the money. They did wrong and you tear

  249. off your clothes. Those fellas gonna be sorry that you

  250. tore off your clothes. No, you just a little bit

  251. screw up, screw loose. Lot of drama. The world tries

  252. to confuse you with its drama. Are you going to

  253. get caught up with the theatrics? Are you going to

  254. get caught up with the drama? So those in authority

  255. were worse. And do you want to know something? Sometimes

  256. it's going to hurt to do the right thing. Do

  257. you know that? You want to do the right thing

  258. and people don't pat you on the back. What do

  259. they do? They beat you with rods. Are you and

  260. I going to stand up and try and do the

  261. right thing even though it hurts us? The time is

  262. coming when you and I will have to make such

  263. a decision. Do we stand up for Jesus or do

  264. we deny him? Hey, always remember something about heaven. I

  265. just learned this. So, the Lord says, well done, enter

  266. into my, you know, the joy of the Lord, thou

  267. good and faithful servant, right? So only those who are faithful,

  268. the Lord will allow them to enter into heaven, his joy.

  269. Billy Graham said this, how on earth do people think

  270. that they are going to spend an eternity with Jesus

  271. when they cannot spend a little bit of time with

  272. him here on earth? Do you get that? How on

  273. earth are people expecting to live an eternity with Jesus

  274. when they cannot bear to spend a little bit of

  275. time with him here on earth? Guys, you and I,

  276. we got to get our act together. All right, we

  277. got to understand. So when that time comes, when they

  278. put you against the wall and you say, do you

  279. deny Jesus? What should you say? No, I will not

  280. deny Him. Many years ago, I think I shared this

  281. with you the last time I was here. 47 years ago,

  282. when I first became a Christian and I told my father,

  283. I'm a Christian now. He said, you cross over this

  284. line and I'll punch you. This Jesus. So I crossed

  285. the line and I said, Jesus is Lord. and he

  286. punched me in the face. He was a boxer. He

  287. punched me in the face. So the only time I

  288. was ever punched in the face because of proclaiming the

  289. name of Jesus was by my father. Do you know

  290. I didn't feel anything? It's quite amazing, you know. I

  291. didn't feel anything, and my teeth did not break. Wow,

  292. how cool is that? 47 years later, my father receives Jesus.

  293. My father is terminal at the moment. And he's in

  294. a very, very serious situation. In fact, six months ago,

  295. he outlived, no, two or three months ago, he outlived sepsis.

  296. He recovered from sepsis, you know, septicemia. He recovered. Then

  297. he went in again last month. In fact, the doctors

  298. sent him home because they say there's nothing left that

  299. can be done. We're sending him home to live out

  300. his last days. So they sent him home. They never

  301. expected him to live this long. He went in again

  302. to hospital. And they just sent him back again. But

  303. this time when he was in hospital... So now he's

  304. in emergency, right? He's in emergency. So I come to

  305. hospital in the morning. This is my dad, okay? I

  306. come to hospital in the morning. And from across the corner,

  307. now I'm walking into emergency, okay? From across the corner,

  308. this 94-year-old man calls, Terrence! Wow, how did he see me?

  309. He called me. So I went up to him. You

  310. know what his words were? Jesus! Jesus. I have never

  311. heard my father call the name of Jesus ever. And

  312. he did not say, you know, I've been Jesus. You know,

  313. the curse kind of, the way they use Jesus. No, no, no.

  314. This was two declarations of faith. Strong. He said, Dad,

  315. are you okay? He said, yes. So after he said that, Dad,

  316. are you okay? How are you? And his words are always,

  317. I'm fine, thank you. How are you? And then he says, Dad,

  318. are you in pain? He says, yes, I'm in pain.

  319. So I didn't care. All the people around me said, Father,

  320. in the name of Jesus, heal him of this pain.

  321. And I didn't realize that everybody was now looking at us,

  322. you know. All the other people in the beds, they

  323. were looking. And I didn't get it. I should have,

  324. at that moment, I should have preached Jesus because there

  325. was an anointing there. Who cares if they threw me

  326. out of the hospital? But I didn't. Sometimes your head

  327. is a little bit thick. You know, you don't get it.

  328. But if ever that happens again, I don't care. I

  329. will just share the name of Jesus. So I prayed.

  330. Then I went up to the doctor and said, my

  331. dad is in pain, give him. painkiller. So they went

  332. and gave him morphine and he was okay. He spent

  333. about a week there and they sent him back. Back home.

  334. They sent him back home because there's nothing I can do.

  335. His leg is really, really bad. But I went to

  336. see him two days ago and this time when I

  337. went to see him, he's in pain, right? He says, Terrence,

  338. I know you and Malcolm are praying for me. Malcolm

  339. is my pastor brother. I know you and Malcolm are

  340. praying for me. Wow! This is in the midst of

  341. his discomfort, you know. He can acknowledge that. I said, Dad,

  342. are you okay? Yes, I'm fine, thank you. How are you?

  343. My father... If I were to describe what he's going through,

  344. it's not for this service, okay? It's really bad. But

  345. do you know what the Lord was showing me? So

  346. our prayer is always, Lord, take him home. Lord, have

  347. mercy on him. Okay? You know what's God's answer? Life

  348. and death are in my hands. I know what I'm doing.

  349. I've heard my father declare the name of Jesus, where

  350. 47 years ago, he punched me in the face for

  351. declaring the name of Jesus. Now he is declaring the

  352. name of Jesus twice. Then he tells us, I know

  353. you're praying for me. God is doing a work. And

  354. sometimes that work is preparing someone for heaven. So when

  355. somebody is around and remains around even though they're going

  356. through a rough time, it's okay. It's okay. God is

  357. preparing them. So I want you to know, That even

  358. if you have to go through tough stuff, it's going

  359. to be all right. Okay, that's not the message. And

  360. when they had laid many stripes on them, okay, they

  361. beat them up, okay, laid many stripes, and they threw

  362. them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

  363. Having put such a charge, he put them in the

  364. inner prisons and fastened them to stocks, their feet in

  365. the stocks. Do you know that the enemy wants you

  366. to disappear? The enemy, when you are doing the work

  367. of God, the enemy wants you out of his sight.

  368. He wants you out of his, out of your shot.

  369. He wants you gone. You think that prison that Paul

  370. and Silas was pretty? Amen, it was stinking. In case

  371. you do not know, in case you, their hands and

  372. feet were in stocks, okay? meaning they couldn't move anywhere.

  373. When they wanted to do short call, where did they

  374. do it? Wherever they were. When they wanted to do

  375. long call, where did they do it? Wherever they were.

  376. Do you think there was a toilet in their prison?

  377. The whole floor was a toilet. Hey, imagine, okay, Imagine

  378. rats everywhere. You think what, there was lights in that prison?

  379. It was dark. It was dingy. It was damp, probably

  380. damp from all the urine. It had cockroaches, bugs everywhere.

  381. Oh man, they were crawling up your skin. This was

  382. the horrible situation. You see, Paul and Silas were on

  383. their way to get a job done. They were on

  384. their way to prayer. They were on their way to

  385. share the word of God. And where were they sent?

  386. In the dungeon. You see, the work of God is

  387. not necessarily where we think it is. The work of

  388. God to be done is wherever God says it's to

  389. be done. Guys, you will be sent where you have

  390. not asked to be sent. Some of it will be okay.

  391. Some of it will be dark and dingy. But wherever

  392. you're sent, don't despise the work of God because that's

  393. where you're meant to be. And this is the word

  394. for exclaim. You thought that perhaps the work of God

  395. was to be with campus. It ended up being with

  396. young working adults. then your heart was for young ones.

  397. From your own words, you never expected it to be

  398. with teens, right? You see, God has sent you to

  399. where you did not expect to be because that's where

  400. the work is. The work is not necessarily where we

  401. expect it to be. The work is wherever God tells

  402. us to go. And I want you to know that

  403. when you go to where the Lord tells you The

  404. answer is always supernatural. The answer is always miraculous. I

  405. had some work to do in the house. And this

  406. was the kind of work I've never done before. Because

  407. it is electrical work. When I talk electrical, I don't

  408. mean just fixing a plug. I mean this is fixing

  409. a DB box, a distribution box. pulling it from the

  410. main distribution box all the way to the kitchen so

  411. that other things can be wired so that it can

  412. be safe, right? So what did I do? I did

  413. what every sane person would do. We hired a contractor.

  414. We hired a contractor to pull this line from the

  415. main cable to the kitchen. Oh, man. I couldn't take

  416. the way the fellow worked, look. I just couldn't take it.

  417. One day, this guy just drove me completely insane. It

  418. was so bad, his work. He had messed up my

  419. house so badly. It was so... And these are the experts, okay?

  420. Three people, okay? Three people doing this job, and it

  421. was so bad. You know what? I called the boss

  422. and said, no need. After they finish the work today,

  423. forget it. Let it be. Let them finish where it is.

  424. I will do it from then on. So they just

  425. pulled the cable. Just connected it to the box. That

  426. was it. So what did I do? I've never done before, right?

  427. And the Lord said, you do it. Huh? I'm going

  428. to do it. I've not done this before. I don't

  429. have the confidence. It's going to be okay. So he

  430. directed me to AI. And I literally had a conversation

  431. with AI on doing a DB box. asking every question,

  432. getting every answer, asking every question until I finally saw

  433. it in my mind. Two days, I finished all the wiring.

  434. And praise the Lord, it worked. That's a new skill.

  435. And that's because through Jesus Christ, we can do everything, anything,

  436. if He helps us. And you want to know something?

  437. The Lord helped me with safety because Many times, I

  438. had to stand on the final step of the ladder

  439. and stretch out because of cabinets and all that. The

  440. big ladder couldn't work and I had to literally balance.

  441. It was so dangerous. If I had fallen, I would

  442. have broken bones or I could have killed myself. All right?

  443. And let me tell you, I started on the 16th.

  444. At 9 o'clock, I finished 2 a.m. on the 17th.

  445. Every muscle in my body cramped, you know. When I

  446. put my finger out like that, my fingers cramped. Then

  447. I had to wait a while, stretching. And finally, it opened.

  448. Then I take the screwdriver. The moment I screw in

  449. the wire, finger cramped again. And then my hand cannot

  450. pull back because my whole hand is cramped. And then

  451. my toes, my legs, every muscle in my body was cramping.

  452. But you know what? The Lord said, He's going to

  453. help me. I finished it. Will I ever do it again? No.

  454. But I want you to know, I only needed to

  455. do it once. So when God sends you into a

  456. place that you're not familiar with, He will send you

  457. with the ability to do it. So how many of

  458. you think you're not good at studies? Oh, if I

  459. had it all myself, I would not study. If you're young,

  460. you have no choice. You are sent into that prison

  461. to study. So study. That's what you're supposed to do.

  462. But God will help you. Now, how do you handle

  463. a situation where you go into something that's not good

  464. and see an answer? That's where the next scripture provides

  465. us an answer. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were

  466. praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were

  467. listening to them. Wow, suddenly, suddenly there was a great

  468. earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken

  469. and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains

  470. were loosed. I want you to know what this praying

  471. and singing actually meant. I'm not going to go deep

  472. into the Greek word But I want you to know

  473. that it simply means, one of the meanings is, it

  474. is towards an exchange. See, Paul and Silas were locked

  475. in that position in stocks and chains. What did they

  476. do when they prayed? You know what they were doing?

  477. They were exchanging their situation for what the Lord's situation

  478. would have been. Guys, When you're going through your difficulty

  479. because you're dealing with kids or dealing with teens or

  480. dealing with anybody in a situation you never thought was possible,

  481. let me tell you, when you praise the Lord, when

  482. you pray, you're giving Him your problem. You know what

  483. He's giving you? When He gives you the answer, He

  484. gives you something supernatural. The things that hold you down,

  485. that prison that keeps you locked in, cannot stand against

  486. the presence of the Lord. It shook and the chains

  487. fell off. So you think that's the end of the story?

  488. You think that, you know, when you are free, that's

  489. your answer? No. That's just one of the answers. And

  490. the keeper of the prison, awakening from sleep, you see,

  491. the world is always asleep, right? and seeing the prison

  492. doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword,

  493. was about to kill himself, but Paul cried out with

  494. a long voice, Do yourself no harm, for we are

  495. all here. Do you understand that this is a very

  496. important statement? Do you know why? Imagine I explain to

  497. you how horrible the prison was, right? Those days, no Instagram.

  498. No Facebook. What are the other ones? No WhatsApp. No Telegram.

  499. No TV. No satellite. Nothing. If these guys ran out

  500. of the prison, well, they got photo-stating machine, huh? This

  501. is the face, this person ran out from prison. No,

  502. nobody would have known. If they ran from prison and

  503. ran away, nobody would be able to catch them. Correct

  504. or not? How many of you agree with that statement?

  505. Why could Paul say, everyone's here? And this is the

  506. blessing of the Lord. When you are sent to where

  507. you did not expect to go, God will honor you

  508. with the anointing to get a great work done. You see,

  509. Paul and Silas went into the marketplace. Please don't ever

  510. be a marketplace Christian. Be a Christian in the marketplace.

  511. Because marketplace Christians, sometimes I've come across quite a number

  512. of them, they are wishy-washy. But a Christian in the

  513. marketplace knows how to honor the Lord even in the marketplace.

  514. Nobody ran away. And that's important. Why? Because in the

  515. process of Paul and Silas singing and worshiping God, the

  516. prisoners accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts. You see, the...

  517. Prison doors of their heart were opened. Their chains were loosed.

  518. They didn't need to run anywhere. They didn't need to

  519. leave that horrible place because they were already free in

  520. their spirits. What did Paul say? We are all here.

  521. So you see, when you do the will of God,

  522. irrespective of whether you understand or you don't understand, irrespective

  523. of whether it's in a dark dungeon or not, or

  524. where it was in a place that you did not

  525. mean to go. But as long as you are doing

  526. what the Lord has told you to do, to worship

  527. and praise Him, He will make that work. And they

  528. saw a greater revival happen in that prison than they

  529. did in the marketplace. Am I telling you don't go

  530. to the marketplace to share the word of the Lord?

  531. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, that it

  532. doesn't matter if you don't see what you're intending to

  533. do because the Lord has sent you somewhere else, there

  534. is still a work to be done there. And these

  535. people whom the world had forgotten, nobody remembers those that

  536. are in a dark, dirty dungeon. Nobody remembers those who

  537. are in stocks and in a filthy, horrible place in prison.

  538. Would you go and visit someone in that kind of

  539. a prison? I dare say no. Not many of us

  540. would have the courage to go and visit someone there.

  541. So God sent His servants there and they did the job.

  542. They did the job. Conviction by the manifestation of the

  543. presence of God, the people will stop running away from God.

  544. If we will exchange our ideas for His ideas, and

  545. start to praise him in our pits, people would see

  546. God's hand and it will convict them. Then he called

  547. for a light, ran in and fell down trembling before

  548. Paul and Silas. And they brought them out and said, Sirs,

  549. what must I do to be saved? Do you know

  550. that Paul and Silas, because they still upheld the name

  551. of God, It is because of them we have this

  552. great verse today. So they said, believe on the Lord

  553. Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.

  554. 47 years it took. But my father and my mother,

  555. they have received the Lord. 47 years. This scripture is

  556. true because Paul and Silas prayed and worshipped in that dungeon.

  557. So you see the work continues when you obey the Lord.

  558. They spoke the word of the Lord to him and

  559. all those who were in the You know, if Paul

  560. and Silas were not in prison, a whole family would

  561. have been lost. If they were not in prison, not

  562. only would those prisoners not know Jesus, but the jailer

  563. and his family would also not know Jesus. Who is

  564. going to be saved by your troubles? Remember this question.

  565. Who is going to be saved by the troubles you

  566. go through? Don't knock those troubles because they are a stone,

  567. a stepping stone for somebody else to be blessed. So,

  568. and he took them that same hour of the night

  569. and washed their stripes. And immediately he and his family

  570. were baptized. And when he brought them into his house,

  571. he set food before them and he rejoiced, having believed

  572. in God with all his household. I want you to

  573. know when you do the work of God, God will

  574. always soothe your wounds. He will not leave you. He

  575. will not abandon you. But He will heal your wounds.

  576. And then I want you to know, do you think

  577. that it just ends there? No. It ends with celebration.

  578. He set food before them. Guys, isn't food a great

  579. way to celebrate? What were they celebrating? They were celebrating

  580. their salvation. So God is not adverse to celebration. He

  581. wants to celebrate with us when people get saved. And imagine,

  582. we went through hard times. We were thrown into a

  583. place where we did not expect to go. And because

  584. we continued to do that work where the Lord was concerned,

  585. We were successful. People came to know Jesus. And then

  586. what happens? All our troubles are taken care of, you know.

  587. The prison doors are open. The jailer brings us out,

  588. set free. We have summer work to be done there.

  589. Somebody else gets saved. And then after that, whatever hurt

  590. that we have is soothed, is tended to, and then

  591. we have celebration. What a wonderful picture. So guys, Jesus

  592. Christ is the Lord of revival. Revival is not necessarily

  593. what we see. Revival is wherever the Lord sends us

  594. to go. And if we're not afraid to do that,

  595. we will see great works happen.

  596. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

  597. information on our church, please visit axechurch.org. We are also

  598. active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

  599. is going to be a good week ahead for you.

  600. God bless.