If you know Jesus, the fight is fixed,” said Frederick Haynes, pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, referring to a fixed boxing match. “If you know Jesus, all you have to be doing is standing at the end of a fight.”
Acts 12:5-16 provides a model of the New Testament church handling a situation beyond the members’ control, a situation Haynes called “circumscribing circumstances.
The key to handling situations beyond one’s own control is prayer, Haynes said. If your hands are tied, they’re in praying position.” The church found that James had been killed, Peter was in prison and the church could do nothing to change the situation.
It seemed there was no exit until the subtle shift in verse 5, the word but. The church was in prayer, Haynes said.
Haynes said there is also greater power in partnership. He noted all elements of the armor of God cover the front.
Therefore, Christians must stand back-to-back in prayer thus someone is fighting on both sides.
“If we want to break down Satan’s kingdom, we’ve got to link up in prayer,” Haynes said.
According to Haynes, as a child he watched Batman and Robin. During each episode, Batman found himself in trouble, in one of those circumscribing circumstances. It seems there is no way Batman can escape. Then the announcer says, “Tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel.”
“That’s what you have as a child of God,” Haynes said. “No matter how bad your situation may be, the child of God says ‘Tune in tomorrow. For weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
If people are struggling, wondering if they are going to make it — “Tune in tomorrow,” he said.
Batman always broke out of the situation. Haynes questioned his father as to why Batman always got out of things. His daddy told him, “The reason Batman always escapes is because it’s in the script.”
“If you know the Lord for yourself, we do have a script, and all we have to do is understand what is in the script, and the script says that no weapon formed against us shall prosper …” Haynes said.
Haynes said if Christians pray by God’s script, He “will take the situation out of your hands and place it in His hands, and His hands can do what our hands can’t do.”
Haynes noted, too, there is faith in flashbacks. He defined flashbacks as looking back on instances when the Lord has prevailed and called them, “heavenly highlights of what God has done.” The church often prayed at Mary’s house. It was a location with a history, reminding what God had done for them in days past.
Checking highlights reminds people that God has worked in mighty ways in their lives and will continue to do so.
In verse seven, an angel comes to the scene, answering the prayers of the people.
“While we try to figure it out, God works it out,” Haynes said, noting that while Christians are praying through a battle, God has already won it.
In another message by Haynes, he discussed going places without being able to see, just as Elijah did in 1 Kings 17.
“God is ordering our steps… faithfully with His word,” he said. “God is calling us to go where we cannot see.”
Painting the picture of a sculptor slowly chipping an image into stone, Haynes said, “If you allow God to direct your steps, God will send you through those cutting times, chipping away all of those things that don’t look like His final product.”
Like Elijah, “your brook will dry up,” Haynes said. “For God to get into our spirit, our brook must be dried up.”
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