Dear Concerning The Times ministry friends, this article comes to us from a beloved brother in the Lord. Doug’s words are a confirmation to me through God’s Spirit and word, and I believe will be to others in the remnant church, that we are to be people of prayer and God’s will, not of institutions and our own agendas.
The Prophetic Problem of Peter in Prison – Doug Ehrgott
Below is something I have been meditating on for several years now. It is from Acts 12:1-17. I am not sending it to criticize the church or its leadership, but I believe it is a prophetic word for what God wants to do and what He wants his people of prayer to do. I am sending this so we will know how to pray for the church. God wants to wake this sleeping giant of faith out of its institutionalized format and use it to alter our world and usher in His kingdom.
“It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So, Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.” When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.” Acts 12:1-17
Let’s start with Peter. He is at the center of this prophetic parable, and I believe he represents the leadership of God’s church today.
“So, Peter (God’s leadership representing God’s people) was kept in prison,”
A prison is an institution, and in this revelation, the prison in which Peter is being held is the institutional church model. (The “four walls” of our churches are our prisons, our institutions)
“but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”
Let me say here that the ultimate answer to what is ailing God’s church is a renewal of prayer by the body of Christ, The Priesthood.
“The night before, Herod (the worldly system/enemy/corporate mentality, Evangelical Institutional Complex) was to bring him to trial, (Herod wanted to destroy the church by striking the leaders). Herod saw how killing James pleased the people, so he arrested Peter and intended to kill him as well.” There are a couple of things to be said here regarding the martyrdom of James.
First, it is important to ask why James was killed and Peter escaped. In my opinion, it is because the church had become complacent concerning prayer. The church had seen the apostles delivered from the authorities several times up to now, and they took for granted this would be like all the other times. The apostles would be arrested and miraculously delivered by God. Because of this expectation, the church had stopped praying.
The other thing to notice is more overt and less subjective. We are told why Herod arrested Peter. Because he saw how arresting and killing James had “pleased the people.”
This paradigm of “people pleasing” is the root of the system that has led to the institutionalizing of the church and its leaders.
Now, we see, “Peter (the faith giant representing God’s leadership in the Church) was sleeping between two soldiers, which I believe represents celebrity worship and leadership cult. And he is bound with two chains (narcissism and consumerism), and the four sentries (commercialism, complacency, fear, and unbelief that keep us from going out) stood guard at the entrance.” This is the present paradigm of the Church.
Peter being asleep illustrates the condition of our leaders today. Not bad or wrong; just unaware of the condition of the institutional church. For the most part, our leaders are so institutionalized that, like prisoners, they don’t know what life looks like outside of the Prison system. So they are unaware of what God is trying to do. In many cases, the Institution has become the identity of the leaders. Consequently, most people identify with their spiritual leaders more than they do with Jesus. People talk about going to or belonging to “so and so’s” church. Or they talk about the congregation they belong to as “their church.” This is a very immature view of the church, according to 1 Corinthians 3:1-4.
(In fact, our worship services are really just visiting hours for the leaders who are imprisoned.) Ouch!
Many leaders I know get upset or frustrated if people don’t come to “ see them” on Sunday or Saturday or whenever the services (visiting times) are scheduled.
“Suddenly, an angel (Messenger) of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up.
The angel interrupted what was happening and illuminated the scene. We must pray that God will help us recognize how God used COVID to interrupt the institutional format of the church and pray that He illuminates our leaders. Unfortunately, most leaders are merely trying to get back to “normal.”
(I added this during COVID because I believe God was using COVID to interrupt what we were doing.
(Intercessors must be praying for a supernatural enlightening and strike/slap from God to wake us up).
“Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” (Get dressed. Get your armor on. The angel woke Peter up, stood Peter up, and dressed him up).
And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. (True leadership is leading people out of the four walls and not just calling them in.)
They passed the first and second guards (He was LED out past the sentries) and came to the iron gate (opportunities) leading to the city (new ministry opportunities).
“It opened for them by itself,” (God will give opportunities to those who are willing to be led out) and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.” (God is trying to lead his church out of the prison of their four walls and back into the streets of the cities to seize His opportunities). The ministry of Jesus began in the streets, “as Jesus was going along.” The Holy Spirit moved from a place to a people on the day of Pentecost, but we keep trying to put the “kingdom” back into a building, where most of what we call “ministry” happens in the building. We are building-centric…just like the temple model. Jesus came and destroyed the temple model and was raised up as the new temple, His body, which is to be more like a virus. Again, I reference COVID here.
The narrative continues with Peter going to Mary’s house, where the people were praying for him, but he wasn’t recognized at the prayer meeting. The prophetic application of this part of the story is that our leaders are not leading the people in prayer. Even though Jesus said, “My Father’s house will be called a house of prayer.” It is interesting and prophetically revealing to me that Peter, the leader, was not recognized at the prayer meeting. Where are the leaders of the church when it comes to prayer? Unfortunately, because they perceive it doesn’t fit the people-pleasing format, they don’t lead in it.
It is also a reminder that God is leading his leaders out of the institutional format of being church and back to the “house of prayer’ format.
5 Things we need to pray for the leaders of God’s people, His Church:
- Pray that God will wake up His leaders and illuminate their minds
- Pray God will stand up His leaders and free them from chains of institutional bondage
- Pray God will dress up His leaders in their spiritual armor to equip them for battle outside the walls
- Pray God will lead out His leaders from the institutional format and back to the streets
- Pray God will lead His leaders back to the House of Prayer.
Some further applications:
Out of the 37 or so recorded miracles of Jesus, only 3 occurred in the synagogue. Many occurred on the Sabbath but not in the synagogue. Most occurred in the streets or in homes. Striking. Pun intended!
A few years ago, Sandy and I attended a worship gathering of a newly forming congregation that was meeting in a public school. Just as the worship team began, the school fire alarms sounded very loudly, and continued to sound to the point we heeded their warning and evacuated the building.
I still remember how awkward it felt as we milled around outside the building, wondering how long we would have to wait and what we should do now. I was just an observer and was watching closely to see if anyone of the more than 100 people present would volunteer a direction or even a suggestion of how to use our time. Nothing! Just some casual conversation about how weird it was that the fire alarm went off, and was it real, and why. And a spattering of conversation about the favorite sports teams or the latest shopping foray. After what seemed forever, but was only 45 minutes, the fire department, which had come to check things out, permitted everyone to return inside the building, where now we were treated to an abbreviated version of the remaining portion of whatever had been planned.
Several things became very clear to me during that, what I call a prophetic experience:
1. We are dreadfully dependent on our preplanned agendas and haven’t learned how to move in the Spirit.
2. We don’t really know what to do outside our plans or outside our buildings. We need a new model.
3. God is sounding/screaming an alarm to get HIs church out of the building.
One of the most well-known parables of Jesus begins with these words. “The sower went out to sow.”
With these words, Jesus, using the common illustration of a farmer sowing seed in his field in order to reap a harvest, defined the scope and arena for where the church ought to be focusing its efforts for harvest impact. Outside the building…the barn, if you will. What would we think about a farmer who only sowed seed in his barn?
Recently, the Spirit challenged me by asking, “Why do you sow all your seed in the barn?”
Stay inspired,
Doug Ehrgott
