Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Isaiah 52:2.
And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. Acts 12:7.
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. Acts 16:25-26.
O Lord, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds. Psalm 116:16.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Shake yourself from the dust, rise up and loose yourself from the chains that are holding you down. Many of you are holding yourselves down. You feel old, tired, sick, are in pain, or you have decided you do not have enough money to do the things you dream of doing or that you do not have the education, that you lack opportunities, that people have discriminated against you or have just blocked your advancement. Well, whatever the reason, the result is that you see yourself as unable to go forward in joy and strength to accomplish great things for My Kingdom. You drop down and give up.
It is time to shake yourself from the dust, rise up and loose yourself from the chains that are holding you down. No one else will be able to do that for you. It is a decision you must make. It starts in your heart, how you see yourself. You can be pitiful or you can be powerful. The power is there for you, if you are born again, the power is in you by the Holy Spirit, but you have to rise up and take hold of what I have given you. If you want to stay sick, broke and weak you can, but isn’t it time you took possession of your possessions? I have loosed your bonds, why go back under them a second time? It is time to take your captors captive. As Paul sang My praises chained in the inner prison, his praise and worship in the midst of a situation where it looked as if his freedom was gone and he was bound in his hands and feet, suddenly all the prison gates opened and all chains were loosed. And he was escorted out of that prison having taken his captors captive. He shook off the dust, rose up in praise and song in his heart, and suddenly the physical bind he was in had to match where he was in the spirit. Where My Spirit is there is liberty.
And this same Paul prayed you would know the riches of My inheritance in you. He prayed you would know the hope of My calling. He prayed that you would know the greatness of the power working in you that I have put there, My power towards you.
You have an inheritance and it is My inheritance and it is in you who believe. And what is that inheritance? The Kingdom. And in the Kingdom is healing, provision, prosperity, wisdom, answers, light, forgiveness, redemption, love, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. But like any inheritance, you have to receive it and take it. Even in the legal world of trusts and estates, you can disclaim an inheritance and receive none of its benefits. But why would you want to do that when you could have it all? My inheritance that you My heirs have in you already is everything in Heaven and on earth. Rise up out of the dust, shake it off, and shake off your chains. Some of you have stayed chained so long that your chains are rusty.
I would like to share with you when I called Moses. He is a good example of someone who tried to stay bound when I had come to set him and all My people free. He preferred to keep himself in chains, but I would not let him do that. And he finally followed and he never regretted it. He got loosed of his chains and lived one of the most extraordinary lives anyone has lived. He devastated a great worldly empire and took about two million people out of slavery to go to the Promised Land. He made it possible for Me to deliver My people and travel with them in the tabernacle.
Pharaoh had made a decree that all the Hebrew baby boys were to be killed on birth. Moses was born at that time. His mother saw what a beautiful baby he was and hid him for as long as she could, but finally she could no longer hide him so she put him in a basket and floated him on the Nile. I made sure Pharaoh’s daughter found him and that sweet baby moved her heart. She drew him out of the water and named him Moses. I arranged things to save that baby and Pharaoh’s daughter cooperated. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh, he would have been in a position of power to help the Hebrews but he murdered an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew and then ran away to escape Pharaoh’s anger. For the next forty years he lived on the back side of the desert watching a flock of sheep that belonged to the man that had become his father in law and who was a pagan priest. He was not living his destiny but I was not done with him yet. I knew what was in him and I was determined to bring it out.
I appeared to Moses in a burning bush and he responded to Me. But when I told him that I was going to redeem Israel from slavery and lead them out of Egypt to the Promised Land under his direction and leadership he discounted himself and explained to Me why he could not do the assignment I had just given him. Many of you are like him. You have a deficit mentality. You look harder at what you think you don’t have than what you do have. You discount yourself and decide you are incapable of rising above where you are. But I told Moses the solution, I would be with him and give him the words to say, I finally even had to tell him I would give him back-up and fill out in Aaron, his brother.
Moses had gone too long discounting himself and living in regret at what he had lost in his life. This made him unable to shake off the dust, rise up, and loose his chains. He had to get a new vision of himself in Me. He had to stop saying he could not do things and say that he could do all things with Me. And I told him I could make him mighty if he would merely use what he had in his hand, which was merely a shepherd’s staff. And with that staff and My power on him, he parted the Red Sea.
What have you got in your hand? I can work with that. You have greatness in your hand when I am with you. If you are willing and obey you will have the best of the land. But you have to get up and shake off the dust of defeat and loose yourself from your chains.
You have boxed yourself in and bound yourself but I am the God of the breakthrough. And you know what breaks the chains and looses your bounds? Knowing and believing in the love that I have for you. When you know My love, there is nothing impossible for you. When you know what I can do, and that I love you, all things become possible to you, there are no more chains that can hold you.
I love you. Know that with Me you have more than enough. Until you know what I am able to do, you will not know what you are able to do. Nothing is impossible for Me, and all things are possible for those who believe that. That will remove the limits that you have imposed on your life. Stop seeing deficits in yourself and look at Jesus. Then you will see the abundant life Jesus came to give you.