Do you see prison as a place or an experience? Regardless of the context to which you perceive it, kindly sit back and enjoy this piece.

Historically, prison is known to be a place where individuals or criminals are held hostage and sometimes punished for varying degrees of offence committed. Looking past it being a place, it could also be a life experience or a mind-set. However, regardless of the context, both situations come with the same element of limitation, confinement, restriction, loneliness and the inability to live freely.

The Bible is littered with several examples of individuals who had prison experiences in different context. The major difference from the character stories in the Bible is how they chose to respond to the season of imprisonment and what they chose to produce or birth through their prison experiences. However, the outcome of their imprisonment or what they made out of their experiences of imprisonment are great lessons worth gleaning from.

It is quite interesting to discover that some individuals made the most out of their imprisonment, such that despite the confinement, hard labour, threatening, injustice, and physical harm, they didn’t allow those experiences squelch them out from who God has called and made them to be. An amazing example was Paul the Apostle. In the case of Paul, He was physically held bound in prison, but his mind was not. Yet, he birthed within the prison walls great epistles that was relevant to the early church and to generations to come. Another example were the three Hebrew children who refused to bow to the image of gold idol set up by Nebuchadnezzar. They were bound and thrown into a burning fiery furnace because they took a stand for God. God honoured their faith by showing up to deliver them even in the fire such that their bodies, hair or clothes were not burnt, neither did they smell as if they had been near fire. Like the three Hebrew boys, you may have been subjected to an undeserving situation or experience hotter than the burning fiery furnace, but I’m glad to let you know that God is showing up for you even in the midst of the fire.

However, for others who found themselves in similar prison experiences, it is unfortunate they allowed the experiences accompanied in the prison hinder them from being who God has called them to be. The case of the children of Israel, theirs was two sided. It was more of physical prison as well as psychological prison. They found themselves in Egypt referred to as the house of bondage and were faced with all manner of humiliation, God showed up at different times to encourage, assure and exempt them from the evil that came upon their oppressors. However, they had a plague of unbelief unsettling their hearts. They saw God showed up today and believed Him, they did not see Him the next day; they complained and murmur. But God in His mercy and by the strength of His right Hand still brought them out of the house of bondage (Exodus 13:14) to the place He already ordained for them (the land of milk and honey).

This piece is an encouragement to you;

Regardless of the context of imprisonment you find yourself or you think you are currently experiencing; God desires to bring you out so you can be who God called has called you to be. In fact, even the chains of hell and death had no power to hold the Son of God hostage. By the power of our Great God, He was raised to live forevermore. That same power is still at work today and right now to bring you out the cave, grave, or prison you find yourself in.

I wouldn’t know what kind of prison you are in at the moment. You may not even be in a physical prison but may be held down in the prison of your own mind as a result of self-doubt, unworthiness, feelings of inadequacies, guilt, rejection, discouragement, hopelessness, resentment, unworthiness, negative experiences of the past or what have you. Today, God is not willing for you to be held down, bound or incapacitated by all that. He desires for you to be all and more of who He made you to be. He is mighty in strength, and able to bring you out of any form of imprisonment to where you He desires for you to be.