In our family devotion time tonight, there was a scenario given in the devotional. The author stated that elephants, though they weigh tons, can be contained by flimsy chains that easily could be snapped with very little effort on the elephant's part. It seems that a baby elephant, introduced to chains in captivity very early, will become conditioned to the fact that he cannot break the heavy chains in which he is ensnared. Once the elephant is fully grown, these same chains still hold this elephant in place, yet comparatively to the elephant's size now, the chains are small and the elephant could break free at anytime. In his mind, the now relatively small chains, are still just as big and strong as the first day he became captive.
So it goes with our sins. There are those bound in chains by the enemy of our souls. They have been taken captive. The lure of the angel of light was too strong for just a short period too long. You see the enemy comes as every thing you could ever want. He comes in the person that promises you everything you think you do not have. He comes in the possession you think you must acquire. He comes in the activity that possesses your most frequent thoughts. Satan can take something that very easily could be a good thing, and twist it and turn it and manipulate it into something unrecognizable.
The pitcher plant symbolizes this easily. The unique and beautiful carnivorous plants emit pheromones from the nectar that is irresistible to small creatures of every kind. Now, this is no normal nectar. The nectar is actually the digestive juices of the plant. Once enticed into the neck of this plant, its prey finds itself drawn deeper and deeper into the belly by false exits and counterfeit pathways, until it is finally engulfed in the sticky sweet toxic juices. Slowly and steadily the victim is digested alive. The intended diner has become dinner.
The snare of the enemy is just like this. Sin lures us in with the promise of what we think we desire most. A counterfeit reality that is so appealing and speaks to those places in the corners of our minds and souls where our deepest insecurities lie. For a while, we settle into this sin that seems like everything we have ever wanted. We taste its pleasures and are mistakenly convinced that we have hit the jackpot. We become convinced that this thing that has called us to this place is the very thing that will set us free from a bad job, a bored life, a struggling marriage.
For me, this was exactly how it began. Feeling neglected and under appreciated, not to mention insecure in myself with my weight being over 70 lbs heavier than I should have been, at a time of deep depression, the enemy found me ripe for the picking. Having allowed my relationship with the Lord to wain, it was incredibly easy for Satan to ensnare me. Just a few words from a source from my past and I was lured by our enemy into a situation that spiraled out of control and would have become my down fall if the Holy Spirit, in His grace and mercy, had not called my name.
You see, I had been a believer. I had ministered the gospel. I had taught classes. I had lead worship. Yet, despite all these "good works" my heart was not where it should have been. I had let my relationship with the Lord become stale and ineffective. It was this gateway that the enemy used like the mouth and nectar of those pretty carnivorous plants, to pull me in and slowly begin to devour me a little at a time.
Though my emotional affair did not result in a physical affair, the enemy still took this and ran with it. My accusers would exploit this stumbling and use it to justify their own submission to the enemy and his plan. This too is what the enemy does, he not only binds you in the chains that he has placed on you, but he allows the transgressions of others to imprison you also.
Having not been taught how to pray scriptures, how to speak to the enemy, how to conduct spiritual warfare, I was powerless I thought to change my circumstances. The sinner ensnared will often adopt a hopelessness. After the Lord reclaimed me as His own, the battle raged on and took another turn. My prayers began to be for the souls of those I loved that were now ensnared in the enemy's trap.
2 Timothy 2:26 "and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." became the prayer of my heart for my loved one taken captive. Morning, noon and night, I would pray this scripture fervently for my loved one who had so cunningly been enslaved by the pretty poison of the enemy.
There is a term for those who have left their covenant marriages to follow the counterfeit plans of the enemy. The term is simply "prodigal". Prodigals that have returned from the far country will all report that the very things that promised pleasure become the fetters around their necks. Experts also tell us that former prodigals report repeatedly to them that the desire to go back home was overwhelmingly great, yet the enemy kept telling them that what they had done was too horrible for them to make restitution to their spouses and to God.
Drug addicts, pornography addicts, alcoholics and murderers alike report the same feeling. The chains of the enemy leave the captive feeling that it is useless to repent, that God could never forgive them and neither could the people that they have harmed the most.
LIES, LIES, LIES. straight from the enemy to keep "baby elephants" bound to chains that could be easily snapped into by calling on the name of Jesus.
In 1917 Haldor Lillenaus penned the lyrics to the Hymn Glorious Freedom
Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters;
Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain.
But I received a glorious freedom,
When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.
You see, I sit here tonight a former prodigal. The insecure, depressed, captive woman, who almost walked completely away from the best things that life had afforded her can tell you with total humility and assurance, that our God forgives. Our God will restore our souls. He will give us back the years the locusts have eaten, if we sincerely repent, turn from our sin and live a life obediently surrendered to our Savior.
Yaweh himself called King David "a man after His own heart", yet David had broken every single commandment given on Mt. Sinai. David coveted the wife of one of his very own, he committed adultery against the wife of his youth (Michael was not deceased, nor did he turn her away, she was tucked away somewhere). When David discovered that this woman he had taken, was now with child, he ensured the death of her husband, thus committing murder. Over and over, David grieved the heart of God and over and over, God forgave him. Why? I submit to you that it was because David was a man that knew how to repent. When you read the Psalms, you can feel the anguish experienced by this earthly king. The words bring to life vivid images of a man not just sorry that he had been caught, but lamenting the distance that he had placed between him self and his Lord and the damage he had done to others. David was a man that knew how to learn a lesson. He never repeated the same sin twice. It was for this reason that he became a man highly esteemed by God, not that he did not sin, but that it was his desire not to and when he did, David did not blame someone else and he did not try to justify his sin. David was a man that knew how to repent. He owned it, he admitted it, he repented it and he turned from it and so it was in his turning that David gained the attention of the Almighty. Though, there were earthly consequences for his sin, the Father restored David's soul into right standing.
My friend Ricky Atkinson wrote a song several years ago called The Prodigal, he also wrote one called The Prodigal's father. The lyrics state, "What about the Prodigal's father? What about the grace He'd shown? Talk about his love and forgiveness when the prodigal came back home. What about the Prodigal's father came running to meet his son? What about a great celebration when the prodigal's journey was done?"
Reader, I do not know what you have have done. I do not know your sin. I do not need to. The Father knows. Psalm 139:7 states "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.…" There is no where you can run in your sin that the Father does not see you. I don't know about you but this thrills me and terrifies me at the same time. Yet I rest in the assurance tonight, having repented and turned, having surrendered everything to our Lord to be covered by the blood of Jesus, that the sins of my past will no long be counted against me.
My soul finds rest in the comfort that the Holy Spirit is with me, and that the HOly Spirit caught me before my sins became an abomination. I am grateful for the mercy of our Father and the sacrifice of our Savior.
Isaiah 52:2
Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
Imagine yourself now as that prodigal, filthy from the muck and the mire of the pigpen of your shame. The penalty for what you have done, by law is death, but the Father seeing you while still in that far country, is running to you beckoning you to meet him there. Picture yourself on that road back home, where the Father waits to rejoice over your return. Meet him on that road. Embrace the sacrifice of the Savior.
Isaiah 61:1 is the scripture the Lord has been continuously sending me today. THE Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.
Today on Joni Tabletalk, Dr. Doug Weiss, the guest speaker says that Pride is the only thing that hinders us from surrendering everything to the Father and getting free. Get the enemy out of your ear, find someone to admit this sin to, repent and turn, run to arms of your Father, let the atoning blood of Jesus break every chain the enemy has used to keep you bound. I pray this gives you hope, I pray this gives you the encouragement you need to surrender your chains to the Savior. For whom the Son has set free, is free indeed.
Blessings,
Shannon
Today's video: Chris Tomlin, Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone
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