Hope in Christ-Prisoner of HOPE

Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles. Zechariah 9:12

Zechariah 9, Christians, being ‘prisoners of hope’.

This concept had never really crossed my mind before. Many of us have read that Jesus came as part of His mission to ‘set captives free’, so what then does it mean to become a prisoner again? Surely this makes no sense? But instead of this being an illogical statement, this call to become prisoners of hope instead reveals something very beautiful in the character of God.

Do you feel sometimes as though you are hopeless? Well, you are not without hope, you are not hopeless, but helpless. (Repeat) God has put you in a position of helplessness or complete dependency on Him and you are helpless to help yourself. You struggle to gain back some measure of control over your life, but your pride (that you did not even know that you had) is being crushed, and the only thing for you to do is to surrender. You may feel hopeless, but really it is the condition of helplessness that is causing you pain. God wants you completely dependent on Him, and He will keep you a prisoner of hope until you are.

There are times during the development of your dream, purpose or calling when your hope seems to have turned into a prison. You cannot make your dreams come true, and you find it impossible to stop believing in them. You cannot go forward any faster than God will let you, and you cannot return to where you once were before you became pregnant with the promise from God. God will not let you give up! you will not miscarry on any promise that the lord has given you His word. During this time you might feel like saying, "Okay God, this is enough! I don't want to hope anymore! I am tired of being pregnant with this promise! I want out of this prison of hope!"

It is during this time that your dream feels so real to you, yet to others it does not. The conflict between what you feel in the Spirit and what is evident in the natural grates at your soul. You feel much like you are on a Ferris wheel. You have your up times when you can see your dream's fulfillment far into the future, but you also have your down time when you cannot see anything. You think to yourself, "Am I crazy to think that God could use me?" The enemy comes in like a flood and you begin to doubt, causing anguish to your soul. This is the time when God is doing His greatest work in you.

You feel as though you are ready for your destiny, but once again God directs you back to the refinery for more tweaking. Oh, how weary you are of the awful refinery and that seemingly endless tweaking. "Okay, God, you can stop now!" you scream. But He does not stop. You are caught in a prison of hope and He will not let you out until He is finished with what He began in you. Remember this He who began a good work in you will see it to completion.

This is when the refining process REALLY hurts, because He is getting down to the very core of your soul, to the deep regions of your heart. He is developing things in you that you did not even know that you lacked; things you did not even know that you needed. You think, "Okay, God, this is deep enough." But every builder knows you must dig down deep to lay a proper foundation first, before you start to build upward. And the greater the height of the structure, the deeper the foundation must be.

It is because God loves us that He will not allow us to enter our destiny until our foundation is secure. If He has held you back and you feel like a prisoner, He has done it out of love for you. He does not want to see all that He has worked to build in you crumble, because He did not take the time to develop a sure foundation. He loves you that much! He who God prepares He repairs.

Even though it hurts you, He needs to hold you in the prison cell of hope until it is safe for you to come out. Even though you are sick and tired of hoping, of believing, of waiting . . . He will still make you hope, believe and wait even longer. And this can be the hardest thing He has asked you to do yet. But when you feel like giving up, you continue to carry on, you begin to sense a strength rising in you that you did not know you possessed. And really you did not possess it previously, because it was your reward for enduring this painful process. It is a gift from God that the enemy cannot take away from you, because you have earned it.

God says, "Even now I announce to you that not only will I restore to you all that has been taken from you, but I will give you double for all the trouble you have endured." He says, "Don't stop now . . . keep trusting me, because I can see your future and it is very blessed. Keep walking with me and keep trusting in me and I will give you rest."Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). When we have learned to "rest" in God in the midst of our storm, God is mightily blessed. Because it proves to Him that we trust in His goodness no matter what our circumstances are.

It pleases Him very much when we trust in Him, and when He is pleased, He will burst forth blessings from heaven. He just cannot help Himself - He loves to bless those who trust in His goodness. Trust the process God has laid it all out for you. Praise your way out beloved, don't give the devil a foothold, He who lives inside of you is greater than the one whose in the world. We no longer fight for victory but we fight from a place of victory 

He, as He did for Israel in Zechariah 9:12, will stand up and announce to all that He is proud of you and intends to restore double to you for your continued trust in Him, through all you have endured. And this is the beginning of your dreams coming true. Enjoy it, friend, because you have waded through the river of adversity and your heavenly Father is proud of you.

Return to your fortress O prisoners of hope.

I leave you with this verse, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13)

worship songs
- Maranda Curtis- You're my strength
-Junita Bynum- In the Silence
-Juanita bynum - psalm 23
Juanita bynum- I dont mind waiting
-Tasha cobbs- Gracefully broken
-bethel music- goodness of God