Released Series: Part 2 ARISE!

Released Part 2: Arise and Shine!

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Francis Bacon

The characteristics of darkness is indicative of what it means to be in a prison. Even in the calm, comfort of the darkness of a mother's womb is limited confinement that must cease in its due season. There is a time to die and a time to be born. A time to mourn and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3: 1-4 says it this way: 

For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.

You may be encountering a season of darkness of confinement or imprisonment. It may be a season of sorrow, a season of loss, a season of disappointment, spiritual attacks from the left and the right. Your darkness or prison may be illness, depression or even watching a close loved one go through drug addiction. As a result of the fall of man darkness and dark moments are inevitable. What does it mean to be in a place of confinement or darkness? What does prison look like for you? What is your prison?

The word prison means: 

a building for the confinement of accused persons awaiting trial or persons sentenced after conviction.

any place of confinement or involuntary restraint.

Confine-to keep (someone or something) within limits : to prevent (someone or something) from going beyond a particular limit, area, etc.

The Confining and imprisoning forces of our lives come from intrinsic and extrinsic forces. As a result of being born in sin with out the power of Jesus Christ ruling and having dominion over of us the human mind body and spirit is ruled by innate desires and passions that can only be regulated by satan and demonic oppression. Human beings minus God equals darkness, confusion, bondage, and defeat.

Darkness denotes imprisonment in that darkness is confining. When stuck in the dark one can only go so far. One can only see so far or not at all. When one dwells or lives in darkness one is vulnerable to be controlled, mishandled, carried away and thrown any where. Some one who dwells in darkness is not mobile, is not advancing or moving towards neither can they be elevated to soar to the levels and dimensions that God has planned for their lives. Darkness is indicative of a cell where one remains motionless. 

What has you paralyzed, motionless, at a standstill, unproductive, at a bottleneck? What has you confined? 

When you dwell in darkness it is easy to be robbed and taken advantaged of.

What am I driving at in this blog before I even get to my main point?

I'm driving at that age old adversary that force of darkness that is insistent, deliberately, consistently with out ceasing stretching out his hands to destroy you, your life and those connected to you. 

This is his Character and his Nature:

Genesis 3:3,4-4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

A. The enemy is a deceiver and distorter of truth. 

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

B. The enemy is a murderer and a liar.

10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

C. The enemy is a Thief! The enemy is a destroyer.

1 Peter 5:8

Be sober, be vigilant; because[c] your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

D. The enemy is deliberate and seeks to devour, consume, eat you up, get rid of you!

Revelations 12:10-12

10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

E. The enemy is an accuser of the bretheren

Ephesians 6

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[c]against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

F.The enemy is a ruler of darkness(CONFINEMENT, FEAR, UNBALANCED MINDSET, PRISON, CAPTIVITY, STRONGHOLDS, POWERLESSNESS, FAITHLESSNESS and DEPRESSION AND OPPRESSION) in a spiritual realm in another dimension. 

Meaning: The weapons of our warfare are not carnal-in the flesh, in our own power or might, ability, knowledge or strength but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,2 Corinthians 10:4

Our weapons are mighty in God! Who is God but the supreme, infinite, all knowing, all powerful, all seeing, all sufficient God! He is the God that wars on our behalf which brings us to a continuation of our previous blog post of Peter's release from prison: 

Peter’s Miraculous Escape from Prison Acts 12:6-8

6 The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. 7 Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.

Here we have it in this pericope of scripture that Peter has been imprisoned. Not only has he been placed in prison but he was doubly guarded and was doubly chained. In the background text it says that King Herod stretched out his hands against the Christians to persecute them in order to please the Jews. While he waited to execute Peter the saints stretched out before God in fervent prayer to pray for Peter's Divine RELEASE. Peter was guarded in such a way that they could not have delivered Peter from his point of darkness. 

The women and men of God in the Body Christ had only one resolve and that was to use spiritual tactics to deal with a spiritual attack. Herod really represents and is governed by a spiritual, demonic, prince of darkness. The Christians' response to this attack against the church was to PRAY WITHOUT CEASING! 

God proves in this text that His out stretched hand is bigger than any Outstretched hand of the enemy. The enemy may roam about like a lion, but God has given us power and authority of the enemy and his imps through spiritual warfare.

In order for Peter to be fully delivered he had to obey the voice of the angel of God. Though the enemy has principalities God does too and his power has thee power to overpower the works of darkness. 

Psalms 91 states that he For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.They shall bear thee up in [their] hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Pslams 91:11-12

Psalms 68:17-17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as He was in Sinai, [so also] in the Holy Place (the sanctuary in Jerusalem).

Revelations 12:7-9

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels went forth to battle with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.

8 But they were defeated, and there was no room found for them in heaven any longer.

9 And the huge dragon was cast down and out—that age-old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, he who is the seducer (deceiver) of all humanity the world over; he was forced out and down to the earth, and his angels were flung out along with him.

The enemy is a defeated foe! We already have the victory! If you take the time to read Revelations 12 in it's entirety you will find that God was giving the enemy a glimpse of his future. The enemy's job has been taken. he knows that his time is short and that is why he is after the God in you. He will try to take advantage of you while you are in dark seasons of life that are not under your control but you got to do what the angel of the Lord told Peter to do ARISE!

Matthew 12:29

29 Or how can a person go into a strong man’s house and carry off his goods (the entire equipment of his house) without first binding the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.

Arise for the Light has come and the angel of God is ready to be dispatched but you have to do something! ARISE!

Get up! Stand! Be Firm! Be awake be vigilant be watchful! Be well balanced! Be alert! Be mobile, have faith, don't waver, Stand in Faith. Don't be tossed by the winds and waves of doctrine but believe and trust God's word. Make sure you have a solid foundation of faith so that when the winds come and the waves come you will be able to travail by standing firm on the word of God! There is no time for sleep. No time for lethargy, complacency, being comfortable. There is no time to rest, Be Ready Be diligent.

If you know how to hear God's voice like Peter heard the angel, the wolf referenced in St. John the tenth chapter can't kill, steal or destroy you.

If you hear the voice of God you won't be distracted by the voice of a serpent that speaks half truths because you will compare every voice or argument you hear to the word of God.

If you simply know God's voice you will not be murdered or destroyed but you will resist the enemy and he will flee. 

The weapons are our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. That word strongholds means opposing arguments. So any opposing voices, arguments, thoughts, lies, untruths, fears, doubts that the enemy brings can be pulled down through reading, speaking, and applying the word of God. If we are rooted in hearing the voice of God the enemy can't come in and destroy our minds and the power to use the weapons mentioned in Ephesians 6!

So BE ENCOURAGED the enemy is fighting against the Body of Christ but we must STAND! Whatever prison you are in today your deliverance starts when you ARISE! Your time to ARISE is NOW! 

11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Romans 13:11-14


Next Month We go more in Depth with putting on the whole armor for the Angel of the Lord gives Peter some specific instructions as he is delivered from his prison. #YEAR of RELEASE!

May your day Be Filled with the Love of Christ!

Rhapsody Monthly Post!

Be Blessed!