What It Means To Be A Genuine Prisoner Of The Lord

nEveryone has a chance to live in a Paradise of eternal life after leaving this present world in death. God makes no respect of persons. He calls “everyone” to repentance. However, there are just a select “few” who actually answer this call and receive a borne again spirit from God. These are the chosen ones scripture speaks about. After receiving the borne again spirit, life is still no gravy train, and it does not mean a person will then be forever blessed with all kinds of prosperity, good health and so on. It only means you have received “the initial ticket,” that leads to the gates of heaven and a Paradise of eternal life. This initial ticket is mainly a spirit of instructions from the Holy Ghost. If those instructions are followed, a person is then known to God as being obedient and one who Loves God. nnObedience is better than any other kind of sacrifice a person can offer up to God. Obedience is the proof of a person’s true love for God. If a person maintains proper obedience day in and day out, minute after minute of each 24 hour period, they abide as God’s True Elect, which is a very few number of people world wide. Those few true elect are all walking on a straight and narrow pathway holding their ticket of instructions close to their hearts as a fine treasure on their way to a Paradise of eternal life……..but still not there until the last breath leaves our body, perfect and pure in heart is all that will actually see God. I call the perfect and pure in heart as being “the actual key” that will unlock the gate of heaven and on into eternal life of Paradise.nnAnother name we can call the perfect and pure in heart, the true elect of God, is “a Prisoner of the Lord.”nnNow, Paul, the Apostle, is a true example of a Prisoner of the Lord, to all generations and all races of this world that came after him. In the book of Ephesians, Chapter 3, verse 1, Paul the Apostle writes: “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. What Paul the Apostle is telling us here is: Read what I have written for you, all that come after me, for I am a genuine example of what a Prisoner of the Lord actually is.nnNow Paul was a man who did not actually want to serve God. He was called several times before he finally answered the call. After he answered, his life was not made much better than it was before he answered. He asked God three times to remove a thorn that was in his side, and God never did remove the thorn. He suffered many things to be able to preach the gospel of Christ. He was not a man who was all that well thought of, and who was greeted in the markets and the streets with “Hello, there Brother Paul, the Great Apostle, so nice to have run into you today.” “See you in Church Sunday morning.”nnPaul was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to him by the effectual working of his power. He was not a man who placed a Bible in his arm after graduating from Minister College, and settling into some nice parish with a nice house to live in sitting beside it. A Prisoner is one who goes and comes at the command of his master. Most likely, Paul had no certain dwelling place and often did not know where he would be from week to week. His teaching, his instructions, his education came straight from the Grace of God and the Holy Ghost which he received once he finally answered the call of repentance. Paul was to make all men see what the true fellowship of the mystery of Christ really was and is still today. This is sort of something even from the beginning that is hidden to the eyes and the hearts of most men and women, and something that can only be learned and revealed only through receiving the Holy Ghost. You do not learn this in Bible Colleges!nnFellowship with Christ is not a perfect bed of roses and does not guarantee a better life in this life in any shape, form or fashion. Fellowship with Christ means just simply to be one of his genuine Prisoners. As a Prisoner of Christ, we cannot faint when tribulations come our way, but we must bow our knees unto the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, so that he can grant you according to the riches of his glory (which eventually is Paradise in eternal life), and to strengthen by the mighty power of God the inner man. nnForget about what that outer appearance looks like for the moment. Howbeit, at all times we are commanded to be descent, there just is no other type of outer costume or traditional dress that must be worn in order to show the world a light of any kind. Decency in our style of outer garments is all the Lord requires. But that inner man is what the Lord hopes to strengthen, and has to be strengthened, if he or she will obtain the key to unlock heaven’s gates. And to know the love of Christ, which passes the earthly knowledge of man and woman so that we might be filled with all the fullness of God instead. nnOur outer garments should be the whole armour of God so that we will be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Believe me; a tattoo on the shoulder or a T-shirt saying I am a Christian or any such thing as this, or outfits of all matching colors is not going to defend us in any way against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rules of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. This is why it is important to have a strong inner heart with God and an outer appearance not of a certain type of clothing or tattoo or any such thing as this, but that our outer garments are actually our “obedience” to the instructions we receive from the Holy Ghost in the beginning of our walks with Christ and every minute that we live as a Prisoner to Christ. nnThe outer garment that is our light to the world is having the whole armour of God upon us, so that we can stand strong against the enemy, which is the devil and all his evil spirits, having our loins girded with the truth, our breastplate should be covered with righteousness (again this is our obedience) and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace (this meaning we should carry ourselves on foot through this land spreading the gospel with “peace” and not with vain glory attempts or contentions about the word, but with peace. Take the shield of faith so we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked when they come at us. Put on our heads not a pink hat that matches the dress and shoes we are wearing, but a “helmet of salvation,” which is again our behaviors and obedience that leads to that salvation, and last of all the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We must wear a shield of faith. Without faith none of us can know God and his instructions for us. Pray always, so that utterances can be given and we can open our mouths boldly, not being afraid of the adversary, to make known the true mystery of the gospel.nnNow for those who are able to do more and to do exceedingly abundantly above all that is asked or is thought of, and always according to the power of God that works within that person, let him be “Glory” in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all time and generations in this world and with no end. A genuine prisoner of God becomes an extremely “hard worker” for the church. Does this mean the church that is down on 5th Street? It means the World Wide Church in all four corners of the earth is what the church is. It has no certain name of Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Pentecost or Jew. Hard worker does not mean painting, remodeling, decorating, cleaning the church, yard sales and throwing huge banquets; it means in the spiritual things of God, a genuine prisoner of the Lord actually performs some hard work for the church. You might say, oh, well I thought it meant being a Sunday school teacher for the little kids on Sunday morning…..nnAlso as a prisoner of the Lord means to walk worthy of the vocation in which we are called. Now here we go again with “obedience.” Obedience means a lot to the Lord; and obedience of what? The Ten Commandments, but the first two is the mightiest of all of them and in which all the other laws hang upon. Obey the first two commandments and you are on your way to Paradise.nnPaul said he suffered shipwreck, he suffered perils, he suffered nakedness and he was cast into prison for being a Prisoner of the Lord, and for delivering the gospel as it was given him of the Holy Ghost. I wonder just why he suffered nakedness. Don’t you think it was probably the people he preached to that would not receive him; they probably tore his clothes off of him in anger at him for his words of instructions from the Holy Ghost. A genuine prisoner of God is not always a man or woman who is well liked. When we have to bring hard sayings to rebellious and stubborn people, they might get a little nasty back to us. I imagine this is why Paul suffered nakedness at times, the scripture does not go into great detail as to what this means, and I am just imagining that this may have been the cause. I know he was put into prison for preaching the gospel. nnSo why in this world would anyone want to be a Prisoner of Christ if they might have to suffer because of it? It is not for those things we can see and know of in this present world, but it is for those things promised us after this world has passed away, and that is Paradise in Eternal Life. nnNext time the television preacher tells you to send them $50 to pray for you to become prosperous, don’t believe it. It is just not true, but all lies originate from the father of lies, which is Satan himself. Jesus Christ will not ever tell you to send him money for any of his services. nnMany are called, but few are chosen. It is up to each individual if they want to be chosen, and a lot of people are just not willing to suffer “anything” to be a prisoner of Christ. Most people look for what is in it for them right now, right this very moment (lovers of themselves and of the flesh rather than of God) and if they can’t see or feel something at the present moment, they just keep on walking down that wide pathway with all their buddies, of which, there are many, for hell has enlarged itself because there are so many people “choosing” and therefore destined to go there.nnnnThis article is FREE to publish with the resource box.nn© 2007 Connie Limon. All Rights Reservednnn