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Prisoners Go Free!
by
R.W.
Schambach
“Yes, we had the sentence of
death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God
who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does
deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.” (2
Corinthians 1:9,10)
“The Spirit of the
Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to..proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are
bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord..” (Isaiah 61:1b)
Many years ago, I
was invited to preach at a campground in Ashland, Virginia. I
was with my dear friend Brother Wallace Heflin who is now home with
Jesus. As I walked across those grounds, a big man about 6'5"
came out from behind the trees, and excitedly asked me, “Are you
Brother Schambach?” Before I had a chance to answer him, he
began to pick me up and dance me around those grounds. “Yes,
brother, “ I responded but quickly added, “Put me down!
Please put me down!”
Obviously the man
was happy about something, and what he told me in the next few minutes
was one of the greatest testimonies of deliverance I had ever
heard. He had been incarcerated for killing a man, a life
sentence with no chance for parole. When he was placed in the
prison, he was an angry bitter man. He hated white people and
preachers, wanting nothing of so-called “religion”. Tears
filled his eyes as he told me the next part of the story.
Back at home he had
a mother who knew Jesus and prayed for her son constantly.
She knew he could listen to the radio, so she purchased one for
him. One day he turned on the radio and came across a white
preacher named Schambach. ecause he was so angry, he couldn't
tolerate the message, so he slammed the radio against the wall and
broke it to pieces. That didn't stop his praying
mama. She just sent another radio. Well boredom and
loneliness drove him to tune into that preachers program. As
he listened day by day, this man's heart began to soften, until he
surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.
From that day forward he was
a different man. He began to share Jesus with other
prisoners. He held prayer meetings. He wrote to
Schambach's office and they sent literature to him in prison.
Prisoners began to get saved by the scores. One day, an
officer came to see this man and told him the governor of his state was
waiting for him. He thought the officer was mistaken because
he knew he had no chance of parole. But the governor met with
him. The governor told him that the state had allocated a lot
of money to rehabilitate prisoners, yet with all the money they had
spent, the programs were not working.
He told this
prisoner they had been watching him for months. He was having
greater success with his prayer meetings at rehabilitating the inmates,
than the state had with all their expensive programs. Then
the governor told him something that would determine the rest of his
life's course. In the governor's hand was a pardon.
The governor explained that he would receive a pardon on one condition:
he had to promise to come back once a month to preach to the
inmates. This hardened prisoner had been so radically changed
by the power of Christ, he had been set free from his life sentence.
Within days of
being released the Lord brought three men into his life to help him, a
general contractor, a builder and a tailor. The general
contractor gave him a good paying job; the builder rented him an
apartment and the tailor gave him three suits. Not only did
God set him free, but He totally restored him and prepared him for
ministry! Oh, hallelujah! God is in the restoration
business. He wants to set people free from prison's grip
physically, emotionally and spiritually.
This is the pure
and simple message of Jesus. He came to set the prisoner
free. Jesus' self-proclaimed mission was to open the prison
bars of every man and woman living under the domination of the wicked
one. On His ordination day in Nazareth (Luke 4:18) Jesus
boldly read from Isaiah 61, proclaiming liberty throughout the land and
promising deliverance from the chains of oppression and the setting
free of prisoners to sin. Jesus raised His voice like a
trumpet, declaring perpetual Jubilee.
God instituted the
celebration of Jubilee in Leviticus 25. Every 50th year was
to be a celebration of freedom and liberty. God's people were
to set their slaves free and deliver them from their debts in that 50th
year. This amazing celebration demonstrated the heart of God
toward His people. He did not want one person to be in bondage to any
man or any ruler. God commanded liberty for His
people. With this powerful celebration, the Lord God was
picturing the eventual deliverance Jesus would bring to mankind through
His death on the cross. As He paid the penalty for all man's
sin and bore the wrath of God for that sin, He delivered people from
their prisons of sin, sickness and despair. Any man or woman,
by embracing Jesus as Savior and receiving His great gift of love, can
be wonderfully saved from sin and delivered from bondage.
FREED
FROM MANY TYPES OF PRISON
Jesus lived His
life on earth demonstrating the compassion of the Father toward people
who were slaves to sin. When He met a Samaritan woman at the
well in Sychar one day, He knew by the Spirit of God that she was an
adulteress. Because she came to the well at midday, the time
when the sun was hottest, she was probably avoiding those in the
community who would ridicule and accuse her.
Yet, Jesus made an
opportunity to minister life to her. He offered the woman
living water, eternal life. He told her the truth about
herself, yet He still invited her to come to Him and live.
That day, a hardened woman was set free from her prison of sin, lust
and condemnation. Jesus gave her freedom, and many from her
village believed on Jesus because of the miracle He worked in her life.
Deliverance comes
at the moment of faith and trust in Jesus. There is no
12-step program with Jesus. He delivers instantaneously when
He breaks the prison bars of sin over a person's life. As
Jesus was dying on the cross, positioned between two convicted thieves,
one of those men cried out to Jesus, “Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom!”
Before Jesus took
His last breath He spoke deliverance to that condemned prisoner, “Assuredly, I
say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42,43).
That man who humbled himself before Jesus, found instant release from
his sins.
ONGOING
DELIVERANCE FOR EVERY BELIEVER
While the work of
salvation is immediate, sometimes the process of deliverance continues
throughout the life of the believer. Deliverance is linked to
the amount of truth a person receives and his faith to trust Jesus for
a breakthrough in a specific area. For instance, when a
person hears the good news about the Lord's deliverance from sin, he
repents and begins to walk in newness of life. Later, as the
Bible opens up to that individual, he may learn he can also be set free
from sickness or disease by trusting Jesus, and receive healing in his
body.
Usually the day of
salvation is the beginning of deliverance for the believer.
As a person comes to know Jesus more fully and understands the
completeness of His triumph at the cross, he or she can continue on the
pathway to deliverance, being set free from the prisons of oppression,
bad habits or fear.
I like the way The
Apostle Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 1:9,10: “Yes, we had
the sentence of death in our-selves, that we should not trust in
ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still
deliver us.”
Paul pictures our
deliverance from sin as something that is past, present and
future. God is continually setting us free until we have our
final redemption. Yes, one day we will have a full and
complete deliverance from these earthly bodies, but we don't have to
wait for Heaven to receive victory.
Jesus paid the
price at Calvary for our sin, sickness and infirmity. Through
Him we can live free from sin. We are able to “Stand
fast...in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,” walking in the
Spirit and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:1)
Jesus is our
Jubilee. He has opened prison doors, setting captives
free. As His Church, we march forward toward ultimate
deliverance, sounding the trumpets of deliverance, proclaiming liberty
throughout the land and leading prisoners to freedom through the blood
of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
WHEN YOU NEED PRAYER CALL THE POWER PHONE!
Every day of the week, from 7am - Midnight, a dedicated, faith-filled Bible-believing Prayer Partner is ready to talk with you and pray about your needs.
Call us at 903-825-9361
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