Jesus, The Chain-Breaker

I do not presume to know the nuances of physical imprisonment. Commanded from clothing to haircuts, the lunch line to sleep time, every move scrutinized, it is a life I have no reference point for. By God’s grace I have been able to choose my education, profession, state of residence, car I want to drive, food I want to eat, and I can come and go with having no one to answer to.

Despite these external liberties, for many years I was in chains of a different strain. Oh, how they weighed and rankled a constant pain in my side. Anxiety. Depression. Torment. It was a sentence of solitary confinement to me. Alone. Left Out. Abandoned. Outsider. The constant impression that I was. The label I assumed and wore many masks to hide the guilt and shame from this presumed identity. Orphan. I was bound a slave, a slave to sin, to cover the inner squalor I wallowed in.

Alcohol. Drugs. Sex. Overdosing on achievement and adrenaline. No fix could fix the depravity of my life, sin piled on sin piled on a broken home and a fragile little girl who was molested despite her best attempts to stop it. What did I do to deserve this? I shook my fist at God as I watched others develop and achieve and receive blessings and bounty in life and me? I was the constant leftover. Even after I was saved.

Yes, I was saved. When I couldn’t save myself as smart and intelligent and wise and hip and sure as I was and as hard as I tried. Jesus met me on my own dramatic road to Emmaus experience. Right when the options were death and death, life came. But with it came at first even more of the same ensnarement. The language of slavery was so familiar, so emblazoned on my heart that His Life felt just as confining.

Religion. Rules. Expectations. Performance. Identity in doing, in service, in being a good Christian. I had to perform to keep this gift, to keep this grace of salvation. I was free yet unable to breathe in the new atmosphere of the kingdom because my lungs were so conditioned to another air.

Still searching, still striving, still seeking, deliverance, inner healing, He came in His time to every broken window, every ragged lie, every shadow, and every hidden closet in my heart. He came and breathed for me, His Words. Wonderful words of life that healed the pain.

He came and in His grace I am settling into the rest, the answer I’d been looking for from the inception point. I am loved. This is the gospel. I am loved. It is unconditional. Not predicated on whether I lift my finger for Him, save a single soul, or even obey His words and commands. This is the good news. I am free. I have complete and constant liberty.

Yes, at times there is a natural response to want to praise, to want to give back, to want to share. But there is no compulsion in His kingdom. The liberty of the gospel is so radical. So dangerous that most don’t understand it or are afraid of the abuse of liberty's grace. It’s not a new struggle. Did you ever read Romans 6, 7, and 8?!

I am inspired to share this message today because I awoke as from a dream when I took a nap just the other day. I saw so clearly in my spirit, that the Lord wanted and could heal people who were bound in prisons of their minds and emotions. It can be more crippling than physical prison! Is that you? Are you in need of healing?

First if you don’t know Jesus. He is the Son of God. The God who created all that exists, who created us, and set us here, and appointed us for times and seasons, chose to send us His Son in the form of a man so that we would know He is a Father and that He is good. How can we know that? When Adam and Eve sinned, when they were deceived in the garden and disobeyed God, they became separated from the communion, fellowship, and friendship of God that they had total freedom to enjoy. Death entered the world and thousands of years later we were born into this system of lies and deception! When God sent His Son, He was showing us that we didn’t have to try to make up for their and our sin anymore. In fact, we couldn’t do anything to earn our way back into that kind of communion with Him. God shows us in His Son Jesus that only God Himself can restore us back to the Father’s Heart. Jesus did this by living a sinless life and ultimately, He paid the price. He was put to death because His message of Love was so hated by the Religious folks. ALL you have to do is believe. If you know you can’t be good enough in and of yourself, if you’re ready to put down the futility of trying to be good enough, you can simply receive this gift of grace. Without Jesus you will never be good enough. However, Jesus testifies that you are good enough already, the fall couldn’t change your core identity in God’s eyes and He loves you enough to prove it and die for you. Just Receive this amazing gift of Love.

Secondly if you already know Jesus as your Savior, I want to encourage you, if you are struggling with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, if you are stuck in poor relational patterns, if there are lies in your mind that you repeat over and over, and you are seeing cycles of sin, repentance, repeat in your life, you are still in bondage, and there is more liberty available for you. Maybe your identity is wrapped up in what you are doing instead of being. Maybe you are driving yourself ragged trying to be everything to everyone, to save the world, and yet at the end of the day you don’t feel like it or you are good enough. Maybe you wonder if there’s anyone looking over and loving you because you’re doing all the right things and still something is missing. These are all signs and symptoms that you still believe and are acting and living as an outsider. If you have a feeling or hunger or longing that there must something more, than you my friend are ripe to receive more love, healing, and the grace of God the Good Father. You simply just need a hug on the welcome porch of God’s Home!

How can I be sure that healing, freedom, and love are available to your hurts, pains, and imprisonments?

His word says in Isaiah 61 that He came to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and open the prison doors of those who are bound.

His word also says in John 8 that He would not leave us as orphans but that He would come to us.

That means He wants to deliver you and will meet you right where you are.

There is a grace, a healing, an opportunity, and a revelation for you to walk in if you are reading this message right now. I declare over you in the name of Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Son of God that You are LOVED, that you are beloved. You have been known from every moment from before you even took a breath in this old crazy world. You have been created to be Loved, to know you are Loved, and to be made whole in Love. For God so Loved You that He gave you Jesus Christ that whoever believes in Him shall not suffer want or lack but be filled with the abundance of a life that defies this world of lies and deceptions around us. The world may be slowly passing away, but we can await with undaunted expectation for a radical revelation of God’s enduring Love in the Life to come that we already have the privilege to experience here and now. I pray peace for you in your innermost being, that you would know what it is to walk with Jesus, to run this race, from a place of power, the place of rest, and peace that His blood testifies, as His beloved son or daughter. I declare over you that anything you may have experienced at the hands of others, any insults, injuries, violations, and sins has NO power over you to define your worth, but that the blood of Jesus can cover the sin, and make you white as snow, on earth as it is in heaven. I also declare over you by the power of the blood of the Lamb where in your brokenness you have sinned or continue to sin, that you are forgiven. Furthermore, wherever you may be lacking or wanting in your life right now, wherever there is deficits in finances, in relationships, in schooling, in opportunity, I speak to doors and say be Loosed in the name of Jesus. You will walk in new levels of freedom, for He goes before you to prepare the way for You, for He will make your feet like deer’s feet, He will make you walk on your high hills. You will see His kingdom in the land of the living. You will know His victory in your mind and emotions and in your life as He is on the boat and is calming the storm even now. In Jesus’ name.

For further thought: If you have any questions or concerns about what you just read, if you're in need of more prayer, if you are ready to take steps deeper into this life of marvelous freedom, contact me: jointfitlife@gmail.com. I am praying for you dear one.