| Held In Captivity |
| 23: And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, |
| charging the jailor to keep them safely: |
| 24: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, |
| and made their feet fast in the stocks.( held in bondage ) |
| 25: And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God: |
| and the ( other )prisoners heard . |
| 26: And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken |
| and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed . |
| 27: And the keeper of the prison ( awaking out of his sleep ) and seeing the prison doors open, |
| he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners has fled . |
| 28: But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying do thyself no harm for we are all here . |
| 29: Then he called for a light and sprang in, and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas . |
| 30: And brought them out and said, Sirs what must I do to be saved ? |
| 31: And they said , Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ , and thou shalt be saved, and thy house (his family) . |
| Just as Paul and Silas were locked up in a prison along with other prisoners, |
| their feet held in bondage, and guarded by the jailer , |
| Each of us have within ourselves a prison of our own making, hidden deep in the earth of ourselves |
| this dungeon like prison dark and unyielding does house the painful memories and hurtful attitudes |
| we choose to hold onto . |
| Held in darkness and bound by our own bands of self inflicted punishment, we refuse to surrender |
| these to God, so we keep ourselves in bondage with these unresolved issues . |
| Paul and Silas chose to pray and to sing songs of praise, to God, even in what seemed to be |
| the worst of conditions, by choosing the good things of God they were sent a miracle from God, |
| ( Isaiah 58:6 ) breaking the bands of wickedness and the setting free of the captives . |
| The jailer, even he and his family were set free from the yoke of sin when he asked, |
| Sirs what must I do to be saved ? |
| Each of us has to seek our own deliverance the unresolved issues for each of us differ , |
| with a renewed heart and a regenerated mind we must realize that we are our own jailer . |
| Yes, in each of us we have the wrong thoughts, attitudes not pleasing to God, old and painful memories |
| we choose to harbor rather than to surrender to the Father . |
| Just as Paul and Sila's jailer called for the light, we must also call forth the holy light |
| of God into the dark places within us, to reveal these and to be set free . |
| Each time the Father has tried to deal with us about these dark spirits we have refused to surrender , |
| causing the delay in our arising in him, each of say we want to go higher in God and his word, ...but do we really ? |
| We say we do and we really do attempt to, but still we have not allowed the Holy Spirit sent by the Father |
| The cleansing process is a sanctification of our innermost selves , the letting go of whatever it is that |
| to do the work in us needed . |
| God brings to our remembrance . As children of God we must be willing to submit to his will, |
| refusing to surrender nothing, that he would require of us . |
| When we are faced with the choices that Paul and Silas had to make we must be able to choose |
| as they did the good thing, to pray and to sing praises unto God . |
| We can if we allow the work needed to be done, we are cleansed and made acceptable to house |
| the Holy Spirit of God . |
| 1 Cor. 3:16 |
| In God's word he said "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you " ? |
| So then we must be willing to yield to the hand of God and to the leading of the Holy Spirit to be set free from the |
| prison of our own making, by doing so we will set the other captives free, ( our families also will be saved ) |
| and the jailer of our prison ( ourselves ) . |
| So then each of us must do our own search within to find those things withheld from God, and |
| allow him access to the innermost depths of ourselves, and give to him that he does require of us . |
| We must search out these places when led by God to do so, and release every painful memory, |
| every dark spirit we nurture, and allow God our Father and his kingdom to occupy this space in us . |
| These areas of our lives once cleansed and emptied are to become the dwelling place of his Holy Spirit . |
| Uplifting and bringing us higher in him and allowing us to enter into his kingdom . |
| Return To Inspirational Page |
 |
| Isaiah 58:6 |
|
| Go To Index |
|
|
| November 15, 2003 |
| Acts: 16: 23 - 31 |