During these days when the Lord is proclaiming such liberty to believers, the last thing we want to do is sit in a prison cell with the door open. Why are we so conditioned to bondages that we accept them, even when the Lord has proclaimed our freedom? He declared through Isaiah that the year of jubilee was to bring liberty to the captives (Isaiah 61:1). Those who sit in darkness are to be brought out of the prison house (Isaiah 42:7). The hand of the Lord is to come and bring light to a dark land (Isaiah 9:2).
These days of restoration which we are in are very difficult to understand because we have carried with us out of the darkness many of the restrictions and limitations of yesterday. But we are already seeing the beginning of a new day; a new generation is coming on the scene. When I look at those who are moving so earnestly, when I see their intense intercession, I realize how desperately they are trying to believe to rise out of the cell they are in—where the door is already open. We realize only too well that we are not yet completely free.
When the healing touch of the Lord is upon a sick person and He says, “Rise, take up your bed and walk” (John 5:8), it seems impossible to obey. It is difficult for us to grasp how frustrating that would be. When the Lord commands someone with a withered limb, “Stretch forth your hand” (Matthew 12:10–13), he may think, “How can I obey?” How can he appropriate at that very moment the healing power of the Lord?
How can we appropriate instantly the Lord’s healing power that will loose us from everything that is crippling our spirit? We know that the day has come for the lame, the halt, and the blind to enter in with joy (Luke 14:12–13, 16–21). These crippled ones must not always be conscious that they are the lame, the halt, and the blind. Above everything else, they must be conscious that they have received an invitation to His supper, and everything is ready.
I have watched how it has seemed that God had crippled the ones He is using or those He has said He will use. This gives me a new appreciation for what God is doing. I look around at these crippled ones, and I sense, “They must be destined for great things if the Shepherd of the sheep is breaking their legs (Psalm 51:8). He has brought them to the place where they do not know what to do or how to function.” In their desperation, their faith reaches up, and the Shepherd says, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:18–19; 9:9). It seems that you have to be someone who is not highly esteemed-like a publican or a fisherman-in order to be called to be a disciple. If you have a lot of natural ability, it seems often true that the Lord cannot use you (I Corinthians 1:26–27). But these ones that the Lord has crippled and put in a prison house have had to reach out beyond their limitations and declare, like Paul, “I may suffer imprisonment as an evildoer, but the Word of God is not bound” (II Timothy 2:9). They move on into God’s will for them as Paul did, when he wrote a third of the New Testament and sent it out to bless the nations.
Many things are happening now that we may not understand. However, the understanding is not that important. God is trying to help us overcome our conditionings, the responses that have been built into our spirit. No longer can we sit in the cell with the door open, fearful to move out. A boldness is beginning to come to us, a boldness that says, “Yes, there will be a generation that will rise and walk in the greater works (John 14:12). There will be those who will follow on to know the Lord; they will press into the latter rain” (Hosea 6:3).
God is constantly urging and pleading, “Come on out of the cell. Come on! You are not as bound as you think you are.” The circumstances which the Lord has imposed upon you are designed to teach you that your liberty does not come from circumstances. It comes from the Word that He speaks to you. You are clean through the Word (John 15:3). You are free because He speaks a Word to you (John 8:31–32). The year of jubilee, as Isaiah proclaimed, brings good news for the afflicted. The Lord binds up the brokenhearted; He proclaims liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1). We must hear what the Word is saying and become conditioned to something else besides the restrictions and limitations we have carried with us.
Visualize how difficult it must have been in ancient times to be a prisoner in a crude jail. Imagine the joy of the prisoners when they heard the sounding of Shofar which proclaimed a new year for them—the year of jubilee, the acceptable year, the year that the captives could go back home, the year that the slaves were set free (Isaiah 61:1–2). Imagine how the prisoners must have reacted when the jailer opened the door and walked away. It was the time appointed for them to walk out (Leviticus 25:9–13). But no doubt they continued sitting in their cells for a moment, stunned, before they realized that the door was actually open and they were free to leave.
What must it have been like for the Jews of Christ’s day—with a common heritage and history through the generations—to have the Lord enter the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath day and stand to read from the scroll of Isaiah? He read the passage from Isaiah 61 about proclaiming “release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and the favorable year of the Lord.” Then He sat down and said to them, “This day this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:16–21). At first they marveled and wondered at His gracious words, but later they rose up and cast Him out of the city. Filled with rage, they led Him to the brow of a hill in order to throw Him down over the precipice (Luke 4:28–30). They did not realize how hopelessly snared they were by their emotions, their own opinions, and the decisions they had formed in their mind.
What are we doing today as we hear the trumpets of prophecy blow, as we hear about the manifestation of the sons of God, as we hear about coming into what God has for us? We are still sitting in the cell! We hear the trumpet blast and we do not know that it is time to get up and walk out of that cell. It is time to get out of any bondage we are in. It is time for us to accept the liberty that God gives us. How many of us will grasp the truth that the glorious liberty of the sons of God can be ours? (Romans 8:19–21.) How many of us will actually walk in it? Are we so conditioned to our cell that we accept it? Do we rejoice in a good song service, singing words that were given by prophecy, words that tell of a whole new release coming forth, and yet never make a move to get out of that cell?
I am beginning to realize myself that I do not want to be like an old lion in a cage, pacing back and forth, back and forth. People come to see the lion and remark, “Look, we have a lion.” In the same manner, people could say, “Look, we have an apostle. We have a prophet.” But it is another thing when they become aware that they must pray for that apostle to get him out of his cage. Then as they intercede for him to be free, he too must realize that he is in a cage, and strive to move into the liberty and freedom they are praying for. There must be an awareness in his own spirit that rises up in the midst of any bondage and says, “Yes, the cell door is open. I will walk out.” He must feel it in his own heart and declare, “The Lord says that I am free. I refuse to accept this bondage any longer.” Even if you do not fully understand all of this, let it grip your hearts.
How many times has the Lord brought a truth to your spirit, and yet later you woke up to the fact that you had not moved on it? You received a Word, but you did not listen to it. This was true of the exiles who were preparing to keep the Feast of Tabernacles upon their return from captivity in Babylon. The first few verses of the eighth chapter of Nehemiah record how they gathered together to hear the reading of the book of the Law. This prelude opened the door for them to move into a fantastic Feast of Tabernacles.
Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. (The Word was the trumpet that called them out.) And he read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. Nehemiah 8:2–4a.
Verse 4 ends by recording the names of all the men who stood beside Ezra that day. As he read the words of the Law, other ministries were standing with him. This was similar to the time when Peter stood up in the midst of the eleven and spoke the Word on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14). The Word is always more effective when ministries are standing together as it comes forth.
And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. (Out of a reverence, they rose and listened.) Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Nehemiah 8:5–6. Notice that the people lifted their hands. Perhaps Paul was referring back to this time when he said, “I would that men everywhere lift up holy hands in prayer without wrath and doubting” (I Timothy 2:8). There is a spiritual significance when people assemble and lift their hands in worship.
And they read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy, do not be grieved.” And all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them. Nehemiah 8:8–12.
Amazingly, this Word teaches us something beyond what is seen on the surface. When the people heard the Word, they realized that they had fallen short in obeying that Word. Therefore they wanted to go into an old routine of mourning. However, the Word had not come so that they should grieve over having fallen short; it came so that they would obey.
In hearing that Word, they were hearing the trumpet of jubilee saying, “Come on out.” The people wept because they understood the bondage they were in. But the Lord was saying, “I want you to eat and rejoice because the Word is going to liberate you.” Whenever the Word comes, it illuminates you so that you recognize your great need. But if you focus only on that need, you will weep and mourn over it; and that which produces only a mourning in your heart is not of God. When the Word is like a mirror to you, and you see only your limitations and where you have failed, it can create a great heaviness on your spirit. No one comes away from a revelation of himself without being shattered (Isaiah 6:5; Luke 5:8). But the purpose of a revelation of yourself through the Word is not just to shatter you. That Word comes to reveal the Lord’s fullness and to show you the way out of your limitations. Then you can rejoice as you say, “Praise the Lord, my heart is searched. I see where I am. I see what I am (Psalm 51; 139:1–6). But I also see that the Word sets me free.” You may be aware of what a great bondage you are in, but the same Word which reveals that you are in a cell also opens the door and says, “Come on out.”
This message should be a breaking-out point for those of you who have prepared your hearts. You have not come thus far, only to languish in a cell. God is not revealing your inadequacies—even the little bondages, burdens, and oppressions that you are not aware of—to tell you that you still have a long way to go before you are liberated. Your restrictions are not being revealed so that you can continue to live under them. He reveals your bondage with a promise that you will be able to walk away from it! In an incredible way, the Word humbles your heart before the Lord (II Chronicles 34:27). It not only turns the light on in your cell; it is also the key that unlocks the door of the cell.
Then on the second day the heads of the fathers’ households of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law. And they found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month (the Feast of Tabernacles). Nehemiah 8:13–14.
The Feast of Tabernacles was also called the Feast of Booths. During the time when the people observed the feast, they dwelt in booths. You must perceive the spiritual significance of this. The Feast of Booths is for a people who are aggressive to move out of bondage and into the promises. They will not stay in the cell when the door is open.
The Feast of Passover commemorates how God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. The Feast of Pentecost represents the time of the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. But the Feast of Tabernacles is a reminder that though the people had once been in slavery, they had come out of that slavery and they stood ready to move. Their spirits and hearts were ready to make an advance, and so they dwelt in booths. They knew that they were going to be in that place only temporarily (Leviticus 23:42–43). After leaving the bondages and the restrictions which had been imposed upon them, they were moving out toward a new destination. They were like Abraham who knew that God had called him, but he did not know where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). They were ready to move, even though they did not fully understand where they were going.
We keep hearing a Word of release that is like the sounding of Shofar. It declares, “Look, your cell door is open. Come out, and in your spirit build a booth. You will only stay here a little while.” The booth symbolizes that you are out of slavery and ready to move on. Sensing the release, you can then respond, “Have booth, will travel. I do not need a permanent dwelling because this is only temporary. I will not be restricted here long. I left the bondage; I’m here, but I’m still moving on.”
You can get so hopelessly wrapped up in your present circumstance that you are unable to break out of it. But when you hear a Word that proclaims your release, you move; you do something. By faith, you obey that Word. Wasn’t that principle illustrated many times in the miracles that Jesus performed? It would be very difficult for anyone to explain why Christ commanded people to do certain things. When He saw the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, He told him, “Take up your bed and walk” (John 5:2–9). Another time when a paralytic was let down through the roof in front of Jesus, He said, “Take up your bed and walk” (Mark 2:3–12). He never did tell those standing near, “He will be all right now. Just pamper him and baby him and help him along.” Something had to jar that man out of his sense of affliction. Something had to loose his mind from the fact that he was in bondage, and tell him that the jail door was open and he could walk out. Otherwise, he would respond, “Oh, I cannot walk; I am crippled. What do you mean by asking a crippled man to get up and walk?”
You can be so tied into your own situation that you fail to grasp what the Lord is trying to do. He is shocking you into taking the step of faith. God forbid that you sit in the cell any longer when the door is open. How long have you been doing that? You know that the Lord has proclaimed much more “liberty to the captives” than you are walking in (Isaiah 61:1). Then why are you still sitting there in the cell? You have heard a Word from the Lord: “The door is open! Walk out!” Take the step of faith that says, “I am going to move out of this place!” Even in your intercession, you can concentrate on how intense and violent it is without realizing that you are still in a cell. Instead, you should say, “I am willing to yell loud and long; but I do not intend to keep yelling in this same position very long. I am moving out, and I will keep shouting as I go.”
Sometimes a person may feel, “I am just sitting here. I am in bondage. I need to break out.” In order to accomplish this, he thinks that he should move to another locality. This may be difficult to do when his local church is moving in divine order and his decision requires confirmation. The ministries of his church may tell him, “Just calm down. You will be all right tomorrow. Don’t get too upset.” But this is not the complete answer for him. The ministries will have to help him. The shepherds must be aware that sometimes a person can be so wrapped up in a response to bondage that he cannot walk out, even when the door is open. He has to do something in faith to break out of his own conditioning.
There is a way that you can walk out of your cell while you are standing still: you do it with your mind. In your mind and in your spirit, you determine that your circumstances will change. You say in your heart, “I am a new person. No longer will I sit in the cell with the door open. I am moving out.”
The Lord had commanded the Israelites to live in booths during the Feast of Tabernacles. This helped them to break out of their conditioning. So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches, and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof (they put the booths on the roof), and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate, and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. And the entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. Nehemiah 8:15–17a.
The people lived in the booths for seven days. It actually made no sense to live in a booth on the roof when they had a comfortable bed in the house where they could sleep more restfully. Also, there were gnats and other insects to contend with up there on the roof, as well as birds and noisy animals to disturb them in the morning. It was more comfortable downstairs, but there was something symbolic about getting up there on the roof and building a booth to live in. They were declaring, “Look, I am breaking out. I refuse to sit in the cell with the door open. I am a pilgrim. I am moving out of bondage.”
This same determination rested upon Abraham. He had no fixed abode; he lived in a tent, as did Isaac and Jacob (Hebrews 11:9). I wonder how many times the people of Canaan invited Abraham to move into the city and build a house. They may have invited him, “Come on into the city and be civilized like the rest of us. Let somebody else take care of your herds and flocks.” But Abraham would not do it; he chose to dwell in his tent, in a place of reproach (Genesis 13:2–5, 18). Symbolically, we too live in a tent. We are ready to move quickly when the Lord tells us, “Come out from among them and be ye separate” (II Corinthians 6:17).
God had promised Abraham that he and his seed would inherit the land as far as he could see (Genesis 13:14–15), but he recognized that he would never inherit any of it if he settled down to possess a place of bondage in Canaan. Neither will you inherit God’s full provision as long as you continue accepting your limitations, saying, “Well, I will make the best of my situation.” If you have accepted limitations, you will be sitting in a cell even though the door is open.
What should you do? Receive the Word of release with anticipation and joy as they did in Nehemiah’s day. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so (they had not celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles) from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance. Nehemiah 8:17b–18.
The Feast was always a festive time of rejoicing. Why was this? Because of the Word they had received. The same Word that had broken their hearts also taught them that they were to eat the fat and drink the sweet. By the Word which they had heard, they prepared themselves to make an advance into its fulfillment. It was this anticipation and joy in their spirit that helped them do whatever was appropriate. Their situation did not limit them.
When you look at the way of the cross in your life, do you sometimes think, “I do not want to go forward. It will be painful.” You need to look upon your life with the eye of faith. Those Israelites who saw with faith did not look at the branches covering their booth and think, “What a miserable way to live. We would be better off in Egypt’s bondage” (Exodus 16:3). If you look at a mountain with the eye of faith, in some strange way you can see what is on the other side of it. The eye of faith follows a curve rather than a straight line. It sees over the present situation. It looks right at the present circumstance and sees beyond it (Hebrews 11:1, 23–27). It sees what is to come and moves toward that joyfully (Hebrews 12:2–3).
When you look with the eye of faith, as Jesus did, you will see what is really happening. The book of Hebrews tells us this: Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. Hebrews 12:2a. With faith, Jesus was able to go through the baptism of fire. He said, “How straitened I am until this baptism is accomplished” (Luke 12:49–50). “I have a cup that I must drink” (John 18:11). He was able to endure the cross that was just ahead of Him—though despising the shame of it—because He saw beyond the cross to the joy that was set before Him.
We too must have in our spirit that which says, “I have to go through these circumstances in my life, but in my spirit there will be a rejoicing. I will not focus on where I am or what I am facing at the moment. Instead I will see everything on the horizon that is set before me. I’m going to be free! I will possess my possessions. I will not sit in an open cell. I am moving out” The year of jubilee proclaimed “recovering of sight to the blind and the opening of the prison doors.” The captives were to go free in the acceptable year of the Lord (Isaiah 61:1–2; Luke 4:18–19).
You can move out of your cell without physically moving to a new location. You position yourself as a person who is believing, “I am breaking out of my ruts. From now on, I live in a booth, because my present state is just temporary. I can kick the booth down in a minute and move on. I will not allow even my many blessings from the Lord to create a cell for me.” We have many wonderful songs, but we must always be ready to throw them all away and receive more songs. We must not pray to be loosed from one situation only to sit down with no more anticipation, unaware that we are still surrounded by limitations. We do not want to be a little bit free; we want to be totally free!
I find this same fault with myself that I see in others who are in this walk with God. With tremendous intercession and striving, I have consistently reached into God from step to step and from glory to glory. I have literally demanded that the clouds which hide His face blow away so that I can behold Him and be changed into the same image from glory unto glory (II Corinthians 3:18). Yet, like others, I find that when I settle down in one stage of glory, that becomes the problem. Then I must break through again in order to move on to the next level.
How sad it is to read the Old Testament stories of the lives of the kings of Israel. After seeking God and receiving a little deliverance, they would build themselves a palace, settle down, and quit seeking the Lord. God was not pleased with them, and before long they ran into trouble. He had to goad them with circumstances because the anticipation was gone from their spirit. Do you feel that God is doing the same thing to you? Is He goading you? He may deal with you very drastically. If He does, it is probably because you need to be stirred to seek the Lord. But learn a lesson from it: The next time, do not wait for Him to stir you, goad you, and deal with you. Keep pressing in. Be ready to move.
At the dedication of Solomon’s Temple, the glory of the Lord filled the Temple in an awesome exhibit of God’s power and glory (I Kings 8). King Solomon and all Israel offered sacrifices without number. As they pressed in, the glory was so great that when the priests came out of the holy place, they could not even stand to minister because of the cloud that filled the whole Temple. But after a time, the Temple worship became a set pattern. Solomon may have thought, “Everything is in its place; we have God right where we want Him. He is over there with His glory. Now let us build our religion around it.” Though the Temple had this wonderful, overpowering glory resting upon it, I think the tabernacle in the wilderness had a glory that was even greater. The glory in the wilderness was a better glory because it was a moving glory. The Israelites were subject to God and God was and is always on the move.
The Feast of Tabernacles essentially means “I am ready to move. I will not sit in the cell with the door open. I can look through that little opening in my booth of palm branches and see that cloud or pillar of fire. When it moves, I move. I will kick the booth down and my family and I will start moving down the road.”
“Where are you going? It is the middle of the night!”
“I am moving!”
“Why are you moving?”
“I am moving on because God is moving on.”
“But wasn’t your little booth comfortable?”
“Yes, we just got it all fixed up. We had a nice little booth. But I have to move with God, or I will be left sitting in a wilderness without God’s guiding presence.”
Solomon’s Temple made no provision for God to move. I used to wonder, as I read the Scriptures, why God protested when His people wanted to build a temple for Him (Isaiah 66:1). He asked Nathan, the prophet, “Why would you build Me a temple when I have been moving about in a tent?” (II Samuel 7:1–7.) God finally consented for Solomon to build Him a temple, but He really preferred a tent. From the very beginning, a tent was a symbol—as the booth is during the Feast of Tabernacles—that you are prepared to leave the place where you are. It signifies that the minute the Lord moves, you will also move; the minute the Word comes, you will hear it and move out.
Perhaps this message has helped you to become aware of your bondage. Do you realize that you may have been sitting in a cold cell? Do you feel, “I need to move. I have to get out! I have to move on.” Then receive this Word and break out.
Isn’t it amazing how tranquil we can be even though we know that there are prophecies and promises yet unfulfilled? We assume that we are being submissive when it is not really submission at all. Submission to circumstances which God has proclaimed should be overcome is not true submission to God. That is passivity and passivity is not submission. A passive person can sit with the cell door open. But a man of faith is constantly insisting, “I have to break out! The promises of God are speaking of freedom. This is the accepted time. The doors are open and the captives go free!”
From the very beginning, Tabernacles was meant to be a time when the captives were freed and every prisoner was released. That freedom may be progressive, however, because we may not be fully aware of how much freedom we really need. When Peter was imprisoned by King Herod, all the saints interceded for him. Herod had already killed James, and they feared that he would kill Peter also. When prayer was made, an angel of the Lord came to Peter as he slept. The angel woke him and told him to arise and follow him. Immediately, Peter’s chains fell off, but he was not yet out of the prison. He and the angel had to go through three different gates before he was completely free (Acts 12:1–11). He could not stop at the first gate or the second gate and say, “I am free.”
Neither is there a place for us to stop! We will not be completely free until we have reached the freedom of the sons of God (Romans 8:19–21). We will be coming out of our prisons for a while—the prisons that we are not even aware of. We will break out of one bondage, only to contend with another subtle conditioning we did not realize we had. Then we will have to break that shackle too. There is nothing that we need to break out of as much as our unbelief. It is so deadly! God has set so much before us. Why do we appropriate so little of it?