Not All Prisons Have Bars

Not All Prisons Have Bars 

Are You Longing For True Freedom? 

Solid steel bars and large reinforced concrete walls make prison escapes virtually impossible. Skillfully engineered prisons are designed to hold people captive and deprive freedom. The residents are confined here for years, decades, and some until death. It is a bleak existence tormented by relentless despair.

It is against the backdrop of physical incarceration we come to understand the spiritual imprisonment of human souls held captive by the invisible forces of our sinful natures, fleshly appetites, and demonic temptations. Conditions such as spiritual blindness, spiritual deafness, and spiritual confusion can unknowingly imprison our souls to a life of separation. Spiritual darkness deprives the human mind of clearly comprehending the spiritual realities of freedom and deliverance so abundantly sufficient in Christ. In a sense, we are dominated, controlled, and bound captives incarcerated inside a prison without bars or walls. Escaping the enforced confinement is not possible; it is beyond our human capacity to break free. We are trapped in the darkness of deception’s prison longing for the freedom we cannot obtain.

There are those who claim to know the way to escaping captivity’s confining darkness. Some believe intellectual and academic achievements will ultimately free our souls from the perplexing darkness, while others say success, wealth, and material prosperity will break the chains of despair and lift us to a higher level of satisfaction. Many of our youth are inclined to practice the epicurean lifestyle of pleasure-seeking as a principal way of life hoping to find purpose through pleasure, while still others now point to social and economic equality or socialist societies as a means of escaping the misery of darkness—if only society was fair we would all be one big happy family. But none of these can free the soul, heart, and mind from the prevailing darkness. Only Christ can do that! No one can escape the darkness, but all can be rescued from the dominion of darkness and only God can do that. Consider this:

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13-14)

One major spiritual psychosis of the dark realm is that most of its inhabitants have lost touch with reality and do not realize they are being held captive. They are mostly resigned to the deceptive idea that there is nothing beyond the darkness. In their minds, darkness is all they have ever known and the idea of another life outside of darkness does not seem credible. However, as one having been rescued from the dark abode of the living dead and freed from its’ confining dominance, I can unequivocally say that there is a life, a “more abundant life” beyond the bars of sin.

Now speaking of sin, it is the reason we are imprisoned. We are sinfully corrupt through and through. Through sin, we have earned imprisonment and we are deservedly trapped in the dark abode of its existence. However, God loved us beyond understanding and sent Jesus into the world to rescue us from ourselves, sin, and sin’s consequences. The consequences of sin are not limited to our earthly lives of darkness but eternal darkness and separation from the light and love of God.

This revelation of deliverance first came to me when I realized the darkness of sin’s captivity and my complete inability to escape its confinement. It was only then that I heard the Savior calling out “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Into the darkness of my life, He came to rescue me in every way! The brilliance of His presence dispelled the darkness of captivity. In the midst of darkness, I was filled with the light of Christ and freed from the bondage of darkness. Though darkness was all around me it was no longer in me, for the light of His glorious presence overpowered the darkness and was now illuminating my life. Before, I had been confused, blind, and unaware of the complete forgiveness and freedom that God had made possible through Christ. It quickly became obvious that I had been a prisoner of sin’s darkness, and the gift of freedom I now enjoyed was so undeserved. What I truly deserved was to remain bound with the eternal chains of darkness and cast into the abyss. Nevertheless, because of God’s amazing love, I was rescued from the dominion of darkness and now reside in the glorious light of His eternal love. Listen to the powerful words of Jesus as He fulfills the prophetic words of Isaiah 61:1.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

God loves you and desires to rescue you from your sinful life and transform you with His divine power. Will you open your heart and turn to Him today?