THE APOSTLE sat in his prison cell working carefully on the scroll as he penned a letter to his friend Philemon. But this was a special letter, for it was being written under the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and would eventually find its place in the Scriptures as part of God's inspired written Word. The first few words of greeting from this Apostle of God was simply: "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. " But these words, coming from Paul himself, had great significance. For Paul had learned what it was to be a prisoner of Jesus.

He knew what it was to sit on the backside of the Arabian desert for years with the light of this new found Truth burning in his heart like the noon day sun, while a lost world perished in darkness. He learned how to be disciplined under the ministry of a local church in Antioch until the Spirit gave the word through them for him to "Go. " He had felt the harness of the Spirit about him to the extent that he was "forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia" (Acts 16 :6). He had been through the training of being bound to the will of God to the extent that when "they assayed to go into Bithynia: . . the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts 16:7). He had become so disciplined to speaking only the Word of the Lord that when in Acts 16 a young demon-possessed girl followed them day after day for many days crying out after them, that Paul answered not a word until the Spirit moved upon him to speak and deliver the girl. On his way to Jerusalem in Acts 20:23 he tells how prophecy came to him from prophets in every city telling of the bonds and afflictions that awaited him in Jerusalem. But he says, "None of these things move me, " for he was committed to the will of God. He was a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and could no longer make his own decisions or choose his own course, or run his own life. He was disciplined to the will of the Spirit.

"PETER ... ANOTHER SHALL CARRY THEE"

In the last chapter of John, just before His ascension, Jesus spoke these words to Peter: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not."

In our youth and immaturity (spiritually) the Lord permits many things in us that He later strips from us as we become more mature in the Spirit. One of these is the freedom of our own choice. When we were young, like Peter, we girded ourselves with our Armour and went forth to battle, walking wherever we desired, wherever we saw an opportunity to do a good work for God. There was a freedom granted to us, and God graciously blessed and anointed our efforts as we prayed and sought His help. If we pastored, He blessed and gave increase. If we decided to go on the evangelistic field, He blessed and anointed and gave us souls. If we decided to teach, He blessed and gave us revelation of His Word. And though we sought for His guidance and tried to be led of the Spirit, there was not that absolute binding to the perfect will of God and the voice of the Spirit. This was in our strength, our youth and immaturity.

But with growth and maturity there came a discipline of the Spirit, a bringing us into submission to His perfect will. Sometimes because of the strength of our own wills, or the stubbornness and hardness of our own spirits, there had to come affliction and tribulation to weaken our own flesh in order to make us submit to His purposes in us. Paul prayed three times for deliverance from a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, but God would not deliver him, but in effect told Paul that He was doing this to keep him weak. For the Lord said: "My strength is made perfect in weakness."

Peter found that as he grew old in the Lord there was to be no more of the walking "where thou wouldst." But there was to be a binding of his own strength, and his girding would come from another, and he would be carried to destinations determined by someone else. This is a mark of maturity. For there is a work of the Spirit now going on to bring us to a place of absolute imprisonment to the direct guidance and will of the Spirit. What a glorious confinement! Just to know that I am bound up in His divine purposes, regardless of what He chooses to do with me and to me! It is a difficult and torturous path at times, until we recognize who our Jailer really is. We fret and worry when we think that we are bound by our circumstances, or by our associates, or by the devil. But those who are called into the High Calling of God need to come to the realization as to who controls their destiny, so that they can come into a Rest, and submit to His workings and dealings in their lives. For like Paul and Peter and those other heroes of faith. . . we are Prisoners of Jesus Christ the Lord!

"MOSES - MAN OF ACTION - SIDELINED"

"And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds." (Acts 7 :22) This man Moses ordained and predestined to God to deliver His people from Egypt's bondage, was laid in an ark or basket of bulrushes and carried by the current of the river right to Pharaoh's palace. There he was taken in and raised as Pharaoh's own grandson, taught in their finest schools, trained to lead the Armies of Egypt, and his name went abroad throughout the land as a great orator and a great warrior. As far as natural ability was concerned, there was no man in Egypt who was qualified as well to organize the children of Israel to rise up and escape the slavery of Egypt. None of the children of Israel in Goshen had the ability and the background and the knowledge to do the job as well as Moses, as far as their own natural strength was concerned. What was God proving ? He was not allowing any doubt as to how far the ability of natural man could go in bringing the people out of bondage. But Moses tried. Oh, how he tried! In his great ability and strength he made the Supreme Effort. And miserably failed, just as we all have failed to evangelize the world and conquer sin. He found, just as we all do to our utter dismay, that his own strength was pitifully weak in comparison with the task that must be done. But this was all in the plan of God, for after He had proved that the greatest of the great was insufficient for the job, then He sent His Chosen servant into the wilderness to be stripped of his strength and ability. To die out to his own will and knowledge and desires.

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS ... A DELIVERER

In his own efforts Moses had slain one of the enemy and had hidden his body in the sand. But that decaying stinking thing hidden in the earth was a testimony that this was not the deliverance God's people were after and needed. And in their perplexity today many of the ministry seem to feel "Is it not better to at least get rid of one enemy, than to pass the time in the wilderness doing nothing?" But remember, dear ones, that while his own efforts, though called and ordained of God, delivered and temporarily relieved only one Israelite, the need and the purpose of God was that ALL of God's children were to be set free, and the entire strength of Egypt to be crushed. And this could only be done after God had sent His Chosen one into the wilderness and stripped him and made him a vessel that God could use. How often we have seen big evangelistic revivals and healing campaigns, where with many "pressure" tactics men have striven and worn themselves to a frazzle trying to produce miracles or a great ministry or deliverance. Many ministers have cracked up under the strain, and many of God's people have become disillusioned and disgusted at this high pressure type of thing, as men have tried to rise up and slay the enemy before they themselves had come under the wilderness stripping and discipline of the Spirit. With what rest and what ease Moses lilted up his rod and delivered God's people and destroyed the might of Egypt, once God had brought Moses into submission. This is the work God is doing today with His true ministry.

The answer does not lie in the few sheep Moses fed in the wilderness, or how fat and productive he could make them. For the purpose of God during that 40 years was in that man, that ordained and chosen one that was now in the process of God's dealings. Some accuse this Moses company today, "What is the matter, Moses .... don't you know that Israel is suffering under the heel of Egypt? Don't you have any compassion for them? Don't you feel the weight of their burdens, and hear their pitiful cries for deliverance? Why don't you at least wear yourself out trying to break their bondage? Are you satisfied here in this desert place with your few sheep?" Oh yes, Moses hears their cries, and feels their burdens, for he is joined to them by the Spirit and suffers their reproach. But he has tried and found that the answer is not in him, in his strength or ability. He must hear the voice of God, and he will not move until this comes. Forty years of discipline. And all this time the weight of Israel's burdens pressed down Upon his heart, and their cries for deliverance were continually in his ears. And there was a travail in his soul that finally brought him to a face to face meeting with God at the Burning Bush.

When God finally spoke to this man to go forth and bring deliverance to His people, this Moses who had been so mighty in words and deeds confessed his weakness and inability to God, and declared that he could not even speak properly and needed someone to do his talking. What a stripping of his own strength! What a binding of his own freedom! Until at last God had a prisoner who could only move at the word of the Lord. Then he was ready to bring deliverance to the nation. No longer could he come and go as he pleased, or do or say as he wished, but he was bound to the absolute will of God. Now God was ready to give into the hand of His Chosen one the greatest power and authority that had ever been possessed or used by man. He was a prisoner of the Lord.

JOSEPH - FROM CHILDHOOD FREEDOM

- TO BONDAGE, PRISON, THRONE

One of the most notable of God's prisoners in the Old Testament is Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. In his childhood he was beloved of his father, and had freedom to move about as he chose. But he had seen a vision of the Throne, of rulership and authority, and he believed God was going to bring this to him. But this vision was not shared by his brethren, and because of this vision he was brought into a very real confinement by his brethren, into a pit with no way to look but up. Then sold into slavery, he was brought to Potiphar's house in chains of bondage. But God blessed him there in such a way that Potiphar gave him a measure of freedom and authority, and he was the means of feeding and caring for the others who were also in bondage. He may have become a little satisfied with his measure of authority and his measure of freedom and the good work that he was doing. Or perhaps he travailed before God to complete and fulfill the original vision he had seen. At any rate, God began the work of bringing him to the throne. How? By setting him free? Oh no! But by bringing him into a terrible disgrace and the losing of his reputation and the "measure" of freedom and authority. For He brought Joseph into a greater confinement than he had ever known, and for years God kept him confined in a prison cell. Until Joseph was crying for deliverance, and trying to enlist the aid of everyone who could get a word with the King . . "get me out of this place." There was a real travail of his soul. Psalms 105:19 tells us that "The word of the Lord tried him. " But even in the darkest hour, when it looked impossible for the vision to come to pass, when it looked as though he was a complete failure and his life was nothing, Joseph never lost the vision of what God had shown him. He held on to the word of the Lord to him. And when he was completely submitted to the dealings of God, in the fulness of time, God brought forth His Chosen vessel to feed the nation in the time of need. God was not late, neither could He be forced or pressured into moving too soon. He was right on time. And He had Joseph, His Chosen one, ready for this hour. Glory to God!

BRINGING A NATION INTO SUBMISSION

Speaking of Joseph, Psalms 105:20-22 says: "The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom. " Thank God for the day when wisdom and justice and the Law shall flow forth like a river out of Zion. When the great ones of the earth get their instruction from the Church. And thank God for the hour when princes, principalities and powers and rulers of darkness will be bound at the pleasure of the Sons of God. Today we wrestle against these powers, but we have such a small measure of authority and such little success. But on the Throne there is no defeat or resistance, for all the power of the King is behind this One who has been made ruler over all the King's substance.

For seven years there was a plentiful harvest, then came seven years of famine. The first year the people spent their money for bread. Still there was famine. So the next year they sold their cattle to Joseph for corn, and Joseph brought all this money and cattle to pharaoh. Then the people came and told Joseph that rather than die in starvation, their need for the corn that Joseph had was so great that they would sell Pharaoh their land and themselves as slaves if only he would feed them. Thus Joseph bought the people and their land, so that they were in complete submission and slavery to Pharaoh. And they were moved from one end of the land to the other, according to the will of the King, for they no longer had a will. They were slaves to Joseph's King. But as his slaves, he fed and cared for them in the time of famine.

THE LORD MUST FIRST HAVE A PRISONER

Before there can be a bringing of the world into submission to God, He first will perfect and mature the Tool He will work with. You can never be in this company who rule with Him on His Throne until you have become His prisoner, and been brought into absolute submission and obedience to His perfect will. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, but you will never be used to bring others into submission as long as there is the least bit of the rebellious nature within you. But when I realize that I have been struggling with this Adam nature for 25 years since conversion, and still see a lack of submission in the deep recesses of my heart, then I wonder when and how this work will ever be done. But Joseph never knew how close the time was, and when the call of the King went out for him, he was not ready and had to get shaved and change his raiment before he could look upon the face of his King.

Today God has His ministry in a place of close confinement. Many of us would like to be out in big tent revivals, or building big revival centers, or promoting nationwide radio and T. V. broadcasts. But the Spirit has His chains upon us, and we can only move as the Spirit says move. We are learning to be a prisoner of Jesus Christ. God forbid that we take up our own wills again at this stage and have to be processed all over again. God grant that we will let Him bring our stubborn wills into complete obedience and submission. This may seem now like the wrong direction for the delivering of God's people, but this is a necessary part of the training before God will put all His power and authority into our hands.

Even the military knows better than to put dangerous and powerful weapons into the hands of an undisciplined and rebellious group of men. Look at what happened in the Congo when undisciplined savages ran rampant raping, pillaging, murdering because they had the power but not submission. The white man had put dangerous weapons into their hands, but had not brought obedience to their hearts. First the soldier must learn to take orders, to march, to obey every command. . then they train him in the use of the weapons. After he is obedient and trained, then they place the weapons in his hands. And God is not weak. He has always had the power necessary to defeat the enemy of mankind. But He has not had a people ready for this power. But in this end of the age when the consummation of all things is upon us, God, in His great mercy, is doing a work with an ordained and predestined people. . . bringing them into complete submission, digging out every bit of rebellion, every spirit that opposes God and every spirit that exalts itself. He is making us Prisoners of Jesus Christ! Let us stop fretting about the confinement, the wilderness testing, and let us submit to the dealings of God for this hour!

Chapter 9