The devil’s prison house is filled with people he is holding captive in soul, mind and body. The Bible says, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). The devil roams the Earth arresting people and putting them into his prison. Jesus came to set Satan’s captives free. 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 (Acts 10:38). Jesus said, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36).

During His ministry on Earth, Jesus delivered the devil possessed, healed the sick and afflicted, and set people completely free from the bondages of sin. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8). Today, Jesus is still the salvation and deliverance for people from all the works and bondages of Satan. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

Divine, blood power sets people free, and Holy Ghost power working within them keeps them free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (II Corinthians 3:17). Holy Ghost-filled children of God are to live in total freedom, not just in their soul but also in their mind and body. Unfortunately, many are still held captive in the devil’s prison house because they live beneath their privilege as children of God when it is not God’s will for His children to be bound in any way.

The devil is a bluffer and a deceiver, and he makes people believe they are bound and have no way out. They think they must bow to his fear and oppression and give in to his doubts. They think they can’t stay free from his thoughts. The devil has made the minds of so many people to be his prison house; and he binds them with battles of the mind, despair, depression and anxiety. That is not God’s will.

Paul and Silas Did God’s Will

The Word of God gives examples of what God’s will is for people, and one of those examples is found in Acts 16. Paul and Silas were at Philippi, and Paul cast a fortunetelling devil out of a slave girl. She could no longer tell fortunes, and her owners lost money; so they had Paul and Silas arrested. They were beaten and put into the innermost part of the prison, and their hands and feet were bound in stocks.

The devil was mad, and he was determined to keep Paul and Silas captive; but God had a different plan. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). In order to do that, God needed to have Paul and Silas’ cooperation; and that is where many children of God miss it. When you are living in God’s divine will, you will cooperate with Him even in the midst of great trouble.

I’m sure Paul and Silas’ backs were stinging from their beating; yet at midnight, they were singing and worshipping the Lord. Then God sent an earthquake of power to deliver them; and suddenly, their bonds fell off, and the jail door swung wide open.

That testimony proves that no bond or imprisonment of man or devil can keep a child of God captive when it isn’t God’s will. Your mind is not to be the devil’s prison house; it is to be a Garden of Eden, a place of daily communion and fellowship between you and the Lord. It is to be a garden of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

Use What God Has Given You

Paul tells us, And he [the Lord] said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (II Corinthians 12:9). That is exactly what brought deliverance to Paul and Silas when they were in prison. In the midst of all their troubles, they chose to glorify God instead of whining and complaining and living in a state of confusion. Then they were set free by the power of God.

In that last scripture reading, Paul had sought the Lord three times for deliverance from Satan’s angel. It followed him everywhere he went and stirred up trouble and persecution. Then God gave Paul His answer: “My grace is sufficient for you. Use what is in my grace, and you will find all the power and help you need.”

There will be situations you face in life, whether it’s sickness, a trial or a tribulation; and there will be times when it will take more than just prayer to be set free. Stop continually praying for a certain deliverance when it doesn’t arrive and start using what God has made available to you through His grace.

The Word tells you what God has made available, so start studying it more thoroughly. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (II Timothy 2:15). A minister can only feed you so much. You are the one who will have to cultivate and develop a relationship with God to a place where you have living reality with Him.

Take Your Stand

The strength of God and the power of Christ spoken of in II Corinthians 12:9 come through God’s grace, and it will work to give you victory; but you have to do your part. You can’t just pray and pray and expect changes every time. Sometimes it works that way but not always.

James said, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). That does not say to pray the devil away; it says to submit and resist. Submit the whole you to God, and resist the devil.

You must put on the whole armor of God every day. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:13). Stand on the promises of God. Stand with the shield of divine faith in your hand which quenches the fiery darts of the devil. Stand using the divine blood of Jesus and resist the devil, and he will flee.

Never listen to the devil and let him manipulate your thinking because he will deceive you and try to convince you that you can never be free, so don’t give more recognition to the devil than you do to God. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians who do that, and they are not even aware of it. It is no wonder they are bound like they are and sitting in the devil’s prison house, and they can’t seem to get free.

People will say, “The devil told me this,” or “The devil is afflicting me with that.” Their minds are completely preoccupied with the devil and his work instead of the Lord and His work, and that is no good. When the devil starts working against you in any way, glorify God by recognizing all of His promises for you. Then use those promises and praise the Lord for your deliverance to come. Remember what God has done for you in the past and let those blessings build your faith for the deliverance you need right now.

Get Rid of Wrong Thoughts

Paul said, Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). That takes great discipline, so the Lord has provided the Holy Spirit to live in your temple of flesh and give you His knowledge in His Word for you to hide in your heart. As you yield to the Holy Spirit within, He will help you keep your thoughts in check with the Word of God.

Now, you can’t cast down imaginations and thoughts until you know what the knowledge of God is and hide it in your heart. Then when thoughts come that do not agree with the Word of God, you will immediately recognize them; and you can get rid of them with the help of the Holy Spirit.

It takes effort and discipline to have a mind of freedom like Jesus had. Some of you can be so disciplined with your physical body, and some can be disciplined with your mind when it comes to work and certain situations; but you lack discipline with your mind in the spiritual realm. Why be ashamed before God or make your God ashamed of you because of the way you are bound when you ought not to be? That is not your heritage as a child of God.

Freedom Can Be Yours

How much effort do you put into caring for your mind on a daily basis? How much do you work on making it a place of fellowship between you and the Lord without interruption? Are you acting on all God has made available? The more you invest in caring for your mind, the more benefits you will receive.

The more you feed your mind the Word and keep the bad thoughts out, the better off you will be and the greater witness you will become for the Lord. You can’t be a witness for the Lord when you are in the devil’s prison house. There you are sitting behind prison bars while trying to tell other people about the Lord’s freedom and liberty. That doesn’t work.

Child of God, it is not God’s will for your mind to be bound with fear, trouble and depression. The Bible says your heritage is joy unspeakable and full of glory (I Peter 1:8) and peace that passes all understanding. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). The Lord has put His peace and joy on the table for you, but how aggressively are you pursuing them?

Freedom and liberty are yours through the divine blood of Jesus. It has broken the locks on all your prison doors, so realize it. Then by divine faith, stand up and walk out of that prison house in total freedom.

Jesus Brought Physical Healing

Jesus spent the vast majority of His ministry on Earth bringing healing and deliverance to the sick and afflicted. He said about a woman with arthritis, And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day (Luke 13:16)? Jesus called this woman’s affliction devil bondage; and in fact, all sickness and disease are bondages of the devil. They do not come from God.

The devil hates the body, and he wants to make it his prison house. The Lord loves the body; and it is so valuable and precious to Him that it is to be the temple of the Holy Ghost here on Earth. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own (I Corinthians 6:19)?

Nowhere in the four Gospels do we ever find Jesus being sick or diseased. Divine blood kept His body free, and He went forth in that freedom to serve others the power of divine blood and to bring deliverance to those who were bound in Satan’s prison house of sickness and affliction. Then at Calvary, Jesus took upon Himself all the sins and sicknesses of the human race. It was a two-fold atonement—salvation for the soul and healing for the body. But he [Jesus] was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

Claim the Healing Promise

Jesus brought divine blood to give life to the soul and the body. In Matthew 15:26, Jesus declared healing is the children’s bread. That means it should be just an ordinary thing, like having bread at the dinner table. Bread is not something uncommon or extraordinary, and healing should not be either.

Healing is available all the time through divine blood and the power of God, but you will never receive what you need when you are bound in the devil’s prison house. Jesus went to the whipping post, and His back was beaten into a bloody mess so you could be healed; so never think you can’t be healed. Jesus paid the price for healing to be yours.

The Lord spreads a table through the promises of God, and He calls for His children to come and dine. Anyone who will reach out and claim what is rightfully theirs through divine faith can be set free. Look to the promises in the Word of God that declare, I am the LORD that healeth thee (Exodus 15:26). The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up (James 5:15). And these signs shall follow them that believe...they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16:17,18).

God Is Never Late

Unfortunately, some people think their situation or condition is too hard for God. We believe in good doctors, good hospitals and good medicine; but there comes a point for some people when man and medicine do not have a cure. However, God has the cure for every affliction.

Some people think it is too late for them to be healed, but it is never too late for God no matter what the doctors say. Remember that Lazarus was dead for four days, but Jesus called him forth from the prison house of death; and he came to life.

The Bible says seven times, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith (Revelation 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22). By the Holy Spirit, you must hear the call of Jesus through the Word of God and the power of His divine blood. Hear Him say, “My Child, come forth from the prison house because my sacrifice at Calvary has already broken off the locks and unhinged the prison doors of your bondage. Rise up in faith and come forth.”

If you are a person who constantly struggles with sickness, or your mind is a continual battlefield of torment and fear, learn your heritage in Christ and act upon it. Jesus said, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).

Believe to See

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13). If you are sitting in a prison house, do you have to see that door open up before you will make an effort to walk out; or will you believe to see God’s promises go into action for you and by faith rise up and walk out of that door?

Jonah believed to see when he was in the belly of the whale. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head (Jonah 2:5). Jonah was a prisoner of disobedience to God because he had refused to do God’s will; but in those dire circumstances, he humbled himself before the Lord. Then Jonah declared from his prison house, They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee [God] with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed (Jonah 2:8,9).

Jonah praised the Lord for his deliverance even before God provided it, and he was suddenly free. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land (Jonah 2:10). You too must decide, “Lord, I will pay my vows to you and do your whole will in this final hour. I will praise and worship you for deliverance from this prison house, and I do not have to see to believe. No matter how things look or how I feel, I will not acknowledge lying vanities or false symptoms. They will never imprison me again.”

Freedom for soul, mind and body is yours through the divine blood of Jesus. He said, Only believe (Mark 5:36). All things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9:23). You must believe upon Jesus, upon the promises and upon the sacrifice of the divine blood at Calvary.