There are times in everyone’s life that it seems you always get the short end of the stick. And in the balance of life, sometimes the scales always seem to tip in the other person’s favor. Doesn’t it seem in your darkest hour, the sun is shining for everyone else? These dark hours, which I call “midnight moments”, are when our family is falling apart, or when we’re facing divorce, bankruptcy, or a jail sentence. In these midnight moments, we can find ourselves locked in prison cells of depression, sickness, anxiety and loneliness. Whether we cause these moments to occur or whether they are out of our control, everyone will face midnight moments at one time or another. The good news is that God works the midnight shift! And in fact, God sometimes does his best work on the midnight shift. Acts 16 tells us what God did on the midnight shift for Paul and Silas.

“Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God… Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!” (Acts 16:25-26)

Paul and Silas were arrested for doing God’s work and beaten with rods before thrown into prison yet God showed up to save them. Even in their darkest hour, Paul and Silas never stopped praying and even sang hymns to God. Imagine them singing praises at midnight. For many of us, singing and praising God is easy to do when all is going well but how easy (or difficult) is it to praise Him in our midnight moments? Ironically, it is perhaps how we spend our time in those dark hours that determines how we will emerge in the morning.

So how do we get ourselves to praise Him during those dark times? First, we should realize…

1.      God will use midnight moments to catch your attention: SO…WAKE UP!!

Peter was another man who has a lesson for us during the midnight hour of trials. Although Peter was a great leader of the church, he was under the rule of a very wicked man named Herod. Herod hated the Christian church so much that he would arrest Christians in order to put them to death. When Herod beheaded James, he saw that people enjoyed it so Herod decided to arrest Peter. Intent on keeping Peter in jail, Herod assigned 16 soldiers to guard him and even chained him between two soldiers. However, Acts 12 tells us about how God saved Peter in his darkest hour.  

“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 … struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.” (Acts 12:6-7)

Unlike Paul and Silas, Peter was sound asleep in his dark hour, probably due to exhaustion, without hope and believing that his days had come to an end. The enemy does this to us, too. He will press and bind us to the point that we feel it is impossible to get free from our prison cells (made up of our past failures or despair) so we lay down to sleep, void of hope and oblivious to what God is about to do for us. But as mentioned, God will use midnight moments to catch our attention so in the dark hours…wake up! 

From the story of Peter, God is telling us not to give up in those midnight moments but to wake up and pay attention to what He is about to do for us. The Bible tells us that God is omnipresent which means He is everywhere, 24/7, even in the darkness. God is also patient so none should perish, whether you are in your highest or lowest point of life. The Lord is always watching over us but we miss His presence because we are not looking for Him or we don’t believe He is there. Sometimes we miss Him because we’re complaining so much about His absence that we don’t recognize His presence. Sometimes, we ignore Him because He requires us to change but we don’t want to. What many people don’t realize is that change is easy once you come to love the Lord.

So often we remain within our prison cell, reliving our pains and sorrows over and over again because we are afraid of the unknown beyond our cell. The nation of Israel chose to remain within its prison cells, refusing to change even though prophets told them time and time again to change…“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place’” (Jeremiah 7:3). Yet, they refused.  

To get out of our midnight moments, we must open the eyes of our heart to sincerely see what the Lord is showing us. Learn the lesson He is teaching you and then you can begin to change. When that happens, you will be following Him out of your prison cell. So the second lesson here is….

2.       WHEN GOD BEGINS TO MOVE, RESPOND.

“Then the angel told him, ‘Get dressed and put on your sandals.’ And he did. ‘Now put on your coat and follow me’ the angel ordered. So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was really happening.” (Acts 12:8-9 NLT)

Peter was convinced that he would remain in his cell without any chance of escaping. He was spiritually asleep even before the Lord could do the miraculous in his life. Like Peter, we can remain in our prison cells when we have no expectations to be free from them. But, remember John 8, which says, ‘if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.’ It’s more than just having the cell doors open for you. It is an empowerment from God that enables you to walk out of those prison cells. John 14 goes on to say, ‘the things that I do you will do also, but greater things than these will you do because I go to the Father.’ It’s saying that we can do greater things than Jesus has done. This is the greatness of God’s empowerment to us when we respond. Even if the response doesn’t make sense and requires much risk, we must respond in order to receive God’s miracle in our life. We must trust in the Lord, as Proverbs 3 instructs us.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

Before becoming a Christian, I held my future…or so I thought. I was an attorney making a lot of money. Before long, I became a judge who would decide upon the futures of others, yet something was missing in my life. I tried to fill my life, and that void, with “things” yet all it got me was two failed marriages and a poor relationship with my son.

People told me that I should listen to Pastor Wayne Cordiero’s messages but I didn’t need a pastor telling me what to do with my life; after all, I was a circuit court judge who already had the keys to my future. But, little did I know those keys were to my jail cell, not my future. I was 41 years old, a circuit court judge, living at my mother’s house when my father finally said to me, “What’s wrong with you!?!” One day while riding in my car, I popped in a tape of one of Pastor Wayne’s messages. It was funny and entertaining so I decided to check out one of his services. I must admit, I thought everyone was crazy as they sang and clapped their hands, but when Pastor Wayne spoke, everything faded away and it was as if he was speaking only to me. He seemed to know exactly what was wrong in my life and delivered a message of hope. I kept coming back week after week, until finally, I handed over the keys of my future to God.

I practiced being a Christian, both as a judge and as a father to my son who was living with his mother at the time. When my son and I attended a men’s Christian conference in 1997, we prayed for each other’s lives. My son told me that night that all was forgiven, that he loved me, and that we should start over again. God healed my son’s heart and opened the cell door of my prison to heal our relationship. Understand that God will take you out of your darkest prison cell and free you, but first you need to wake up, and then you need to respond (or follow Him).

Many times, we want to get where God is leading us without going through the process but the process is crucial. Devotions and serving in ministry are what will make our paths straight. Serving was difficult for me because as a judge, I was used to people serving me but I listened and obeyed even though it didn’t make sense. I worked with the Levites and clean toilets (because, frankly, that’s the only place where I could serve without being bothered by anyone). There was a pridefulness within me that still needed washing away. But, as I began to serve and seek the nature of God, the Lord began to do His work in my heart. It molded and shaped me in ways that prompted a decision to change my future. Would it be ministry or the bench? Much to my surprise, my family supported my choice for ministry (in fact, they reportedly knew about it even before I made the decision) even it would mean a major shift in our lifestyle. Our finances would be extremely short but my wife said to trust God and He would work it out. To prove the point, a man I met on the mainland sent me an email when he found out about my decision to move into ministry. He said, “There are a thousand judges in the world but there is only one New Hope,” and he sent me a sum of money from his foundation that matched, to the penny, our financial shortage. And, finally……

3.      God will turn your “prison” into a pulpit.

Because Peter was willing to follow, the Lord led him to become one of the greatest leaders of the New Testament church, as Acts 12 tells us.

 “Past the first guard and then the second, they came to the iron gate that led into the city.  It swung open before them on its own, and they were out on the street, free as the breeze… Peter realized it was no dream. ‘I can’t believe it—this really happened! The Master sent His angel and rescued me….” (Acts 12:10-11 MSG)

When we are set free, there is an empowerment from God that prompts us to testify our experience to others who need to be free from their own prison cells. In fact, 2 Corinthians gives us explicit instructions on the importance of sharing.

“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT)

There is no greater credibility to the gospel than to hear the testimony of someone whose life has been changed and transformed.

Roy Yamamoto is a fine example of how the gospel transformed his life. This is his testimony:

As a child, I grew up in an abusive environment that landed me in the hospital for over a year. After returning to school, I was so far behind that I gave up and never really learned to read or write. I hung around the wrong crowd, drinking and smoking marijuana. I managed to graduate only because someone else did my homework for me. I went on to play football in the mainland. Sports kept me in school although my grades were not up to par. Then, I got introduced and eventually became addicted to cocaine. When I returned to Hawaii for the summer, I replaced my career in football with a career in drugs. I had to get married when my girlfriend became pregnant. I needed to find work and without an education I had to become an ironworker, like my father. At that job, I discovered a new drug, called ice. My first ‘hit’ of ice was all it took to destroy my life. I wouldn’t come home for weeks and my marriage ended in a divorce. I covered my pain with more drugs that became a $1,000-a-day habit for nine years.  Along with the drugs came the crime and I ended up in prison, five times, looking at a life sentence. I believed that I had used up all my chances of turning my life around and faced with a life sent, I prayed to God saying how sorry I was for the person I had become. Seeing the condition I was in, my cellmate invited me to a bible study where I accepted Jesus into my life. God made me a new person, for it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and behold the new is come.”

I was embarrassed by my inability to read well; however, through those bible studies and God’s grace, I learned to read. When my court hearing arrived, I was facing life imprisonment. I prayed and gave it to the Lord. I prayed for another chance although I knew I didn’t deserve it. I prayed for that chance to reach out with God’s Word to my daughter and my family. And, I prayed for a Christian judge that would see me through God’s eyes. I prayed hard for this miracle to happen. The witness didn’t appear at the hearing and as a result, the charges were dropped and I was released from prison. I thanked God because it was He who released me. But the very next day, the devil appeared on my doorstep, tempting me with more drugs. I proudly resisted, remembering the new life God had given me. Because I endured that temptation, God continued to bless my life. I found a new job as an electrician and began a group called “New Start for Ex-prisoners.” I renewed my relationship with my daughter after 13 years and saw her accept the Lord as well. Things were going well until one day when the State appealed my case and won. Again, I faced another trial which could put me in prison for 20 years. At that time, it didn’t matter if I had to go to prison because I would still serve the Lord. If I had to serve Him in prison then that’s where I would go. I pleaded guilty for a sentence of 20 years. Two weeks later, I was in court to receive my sentence. God was there also and He filled the courtroom with people to support me. The judge appeared and told me that he knew God had changed my life and so, instead of sentencing me, he gave me my freedom. I continued to give my life to God, and he answered me with a full-time staff position at New Hope as the Prison Chaplain. His blessings on my life just continue. I am so grateful for all that God has done!

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