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THE OPENING OF THE PRISON
A message to the sick
by F. F. Bosworth
(1877-1958)
Taken From: The Ambassador Journal (http://catchlife.org/bosworth.htm)
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of
the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that
mourn." Isaiah 61:1-2
Moffatt's translation reads, "To tell prisoners they are free and to
tell the captive that they are released."
Our Release From Bondage
"The opening of the prison" is God's own figurative illustration of our
release from bondage or imprisonment to sin, sickness and everything
else that reached us through the fall. It covers every phase of our
redemption and salvation. It's instruction is for all seekers for the
blessings of redemption.
What I have to say applies equally to every bondage known to man But to
help the sick and afflicted I am, at this time, thinking of the physical
phase of the Gospel. But, if you are physically well, and your problem
is one of the many others covered by redemption, then think of your
problem as an open prison, and follow these same instructions. You can
thus keep God busy fulfilling His promise to you and live in the
experience and enjoyment of your freedom.
Opening Of The Prison
What is meant by "The opening of the prison? It means that the prisoners
are free accordingly. Moffatt so translates it, "To tell prisoners they
are free, to tell captives they are released."
Jesus opened the prison for us by bearing our punishment. "Jehovah hath
caused to meet on him the punishment of us all" (Isaiah 53:6 Dr. Young's
translation). In Deuteronomy 2 all sickness is listed among the
punishment of God for rebellion. However in Galatians 3:13 Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. This tells us
that Christ redeemed us from sickness. In Rotherham's translation of
Isaiah. 53:10 We read, "He hath laid on him sickness." Matthew 8:17 says
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet,
saying, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."
Jesus paid our debt and since it does not have to be paid twice, we are
free.
How are the sick to get out of their prison?
First, they must know that the prison door is open. Faith must have a
divine act to rest upon. They must know the "joyful news." Accordingly
Jesus said, "The Lord hath sent me to proclaim good tidings...to
announce release to the prisoners" (Wesmouth's translation). Jesus said,
He came "To proclaim the opening of the prison to them that are bound."
Jesus used this word "bound" when he said, "Ought not this woman whom
Satan hath bound be loosed...?" Sickness is a bondage from which we have
been redeemed. Jesus also said, "He hath sent me to set free the
oppressed" (Moffatt).
All sickness is called "oppression of the devil" in Acts 10:38. "How God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went
about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for
God was with him."
The sick must have the WORD in their mouth and in their heart. Romans
10:8, "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and
in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach."
Right Priorities Essential
It is important to say here that, connected with "the word of faith," in
each of God's promises, is the provision, "If thou shalt confess with
thy mouth Jesus AS LORD" (Romans 10:8-10). When coming to God for
salvation in it's initial form, and then in every successive form
afterwards, our confession and acceptance of His Lordship over us is the
condition. Christ does not save those whom He cannot govern. "For to
this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be LORD,
both of the dead and living" (Romans 14:9).
Until we gladly acknowledge His Lordship over us our priorities are
wrong. It is always a principle in the Christian life that you "make
God's Kingdom and righteousness your chief aim" (Matthew 6:33). Then,
"no good thing will he withhold" from us.
We are not to seek our redemptive blessings selfishly that we may waste
them on our pleasures. Because of this selfish motive James says to
some, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss" (James 4:3).
Right Thinking and Right Believing
After knowing that the prison is open, the first thing God requires of
man is to accept God's requirements of man and that he forsake his way
and thoughts and accept God's way and thoughts (Isaiah 55:7). One reason
why so many fail to obtain and enjoy the things which God has provided
and given to them is they try to discern them by one or more of the five
physical senses instead of by faith.
Since the fall the natural man is bound and imprisoned by his physical
senses. They keep him looking at his symptoms instead of being occupied
with the Word of God. The opening of the prison frees him from this
bondage, making it possible to see and know beyond what the physical
senses register. Man's way has been to judge by the walls of the prison
instead of by the open door. True, the walls are there, but the prison
is open.
Faith requires no evidence but the Word
It is blind to all but the Word of God. Paul says, "We look not at the
things that are seen." When we rely upon physical evidence we repudiate
the Word and faith has no opportunity to exercise itself. "Let him
forsake his thoughts."
Right thinking and right believing must replace wrong thinking and wrong
believing before we can intelligently act on the freedom which is
already ours through redemption, Man's thoughts have been that the
prison is locked and that he is not free. He must forsake such thoughts
and think the truth, the truth that the prison is open, and therefore he
is free to walk out.
One man thinks that his disease will kill him. While the enlightened man
knows that he can be healed. Both of these men have faith. But one has
faith that his disease will kill him, while the other has faith in God's
promise to heal him. The sick man must "forsake" his way of judging
according to the walls of the prison, by his symptoms, and he must
accept God's way of reckoning according to the open door. A man can be
in a prison without being locked in; in that case he is free. This is a
"joyful message."
In the next place, this is a "joyful message"- "good news" - "Glad
tidings of great joy to all people." As soon as it is believed it
produces joy. Jesus says in this text, Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance
to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
Time For Jubilee
The Gospel age was typified by the Old Testament year of Jubilee. The
Hebrew word, translated jubilee means, "A time of shouting." It was a
happy year because God said on the day of atonement, in this 50th year,
"Ye shall return every man to his possessions." Just as the Gospel Age
is a "Time of rejoicing" over the restoration of all our lost
possessions through the fall; Health for soul and body and every other
blessing included in our redemption. God's promises themselves, when
truly believed, become the rejoicing of our heart before they are
fulfilled (Jeremiah 15: 16).
A pardon from the governor read to a man sitting in an electric chair
that to be electrocuted would make him happier before he got out of the
chair that he would be in a month later. David said, " I rejoice in thy
word as one that findeth great spoil."
A Future Act
Believing and rejoicing that we are free precedes our first step out of
our prison or bondage to sickness. The absence of rejoicing would prove
that you do not really believe the proclamation that you are free. Faith
is believing that you are already free before walking out. The sick
person must forsake the thought that his freedom is a future act. It is
not a future act, it is a past act. Your use of your freedom may be a
future act on our part, but it should not be - you should walk in the
light now. The door to your prison has been open a long time. "By His
stripes ye were healed."
"Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses (Matthew 8:17).
Christ's announcement, "They are free" is what you are to believe now
before you walk out, just as a man believes he has money in the bank and
is free from poverty before he draws a check, Calvary was your
"Emancipation Proclamation" from everything outside the will of God.
The "Emancipation Proclamation" by Abraham Lincoln made the slaves of
the South free before they knew it; but they did not use their freedom
until they were informed of it. Then they did not judge according to
their surroundings, but by the proclamation.
Your Part in Receiving Healing
The sick person must believe he is free because of the open prison door
and then act accordingly. Unless faith has corresponding actions God's
Word says that it is as dead as a body without a spirit (James 2:26).
"The opening of the prison" has made you free, but you will be in prison
until you rejoice and walk out. No one else can do your part for you. No
one else can forsake your way and thoughts for you. I cannot pray you
out of prison without your co-operation. Jesus said, "He that heareth my
word and believeth (acts accordingly). Jesus required action on the part
of the sick He healed. He commanded the raised man himself, not the four
that brought him to take up his bed and go home. He commanded the ten
lepers to go and show themselves to the priest before their healing was
manifested, and as they went they were healed. Jesus commanded the blind
man before his healing was manifested to go and wash in the pool of
Siloam, He commanded the man with the withered hand to stretch it forth,
etc.
Even in the Old Testament times Jonah sacrificed with a voice of
thanksgiving, calling his prison walls "lying vanities," not after, but
before, he got out. Naaman was required to dip in the Jordan seven times
before his leprosy was cleansed. Even Christ himself, after preaching
the message of our text, "could do no miracle in Nazareth" because of
their unbelief. Though He was divine, he could not heal them because
they refused to do their part.
The greatly out-numbered Israelites under Jehoshaphat, because of the
Word of God spoken through human lips, praised God with a loud voice,
and then sang praises on their way to battle (2 Chronicles 20).
Christ's "joyful message" to the prisoners that "they are free" is the
"word of faith" which is not only in the Bible, but is to be, as the
scriptures say, "in thy mouth and in thy heart" before its benefits are
manifested (Romans 10: 8-10).
Now suppose you were in prison, longing to get out, and the warden,
pointing to an open door should say to you, "Look, that door is open for
you!" Would you rejoice? Would you lay on your bunk and wait for the
warden to carry you out? Would you ask your friends to pray you out
after they have already paid the court for your pardon and release? Your
friends could come in and walk out with you, but not for you.
Fix your eyes on the open door and keep on rejoicing and walking, and
the walls of your prison will soon be behind you, the manifestation of
your healing will become history. Not only is, "The opening of the
prison" release from every bondage, it is freedom to all the blessings
revealed by the "exceeding great and precious" promises of God. "Christ
is able to save to the uttermost." Not only from the lowest depth of sin
and misery, but into all the positive enjoyments of divine favor. "To
the uttermost" extent of personal need, external life.
His salvation is eternal, including an "eternal inheritance," an
"eternal crown," an "eternal kingdom," and "pleasures forevermore."
On the positive side of Christ's salvation is matter for a thousand
sermons.
F. F. Bosworth
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