The running crowd all carried weights, like shackles or large unlocked key pads on their bodies. Some only a few, many carried multiple weights. They were as rod iron looking, heavy padlocks. The runners were hindered by these weights. But they ran so close together like a crowd in a marathon that soon I noticed as they ran they were actually unlocking one another's shackles as they ran. In fact, the closer they ran one to another, the more and more pad locks fell off.
Why?
Because community matters.
Intimacy matters.
Vulnerability and honesty and truth and grace matter.
And a willingness to "run alongside" matters. To be willing to not "run ahead" and willing to stop "lagging behind" and instead a willingness to partner, to support, to be one with each other.
IT WILL SET YOU FREE! IT WILL SET US FREE!
Then I saw devils. They were grasping tightly around the feet of those trying to run, weighed down by many shackles. And each demon had their finger up to their lips "shushing" and quieting the truth tellers. Some were blinding the crowd. The blindfolds could very well say any "good" thing because the demons were using "good" to darken the eyes of those in bondage and captivity.
Then I saw some of the runners in the crowd holding on the weights and padlocks too, like the demons were... But they were proud and were inciting the pride of those they were keeping in bondage by glorifying the locks and chains. As if they were something glorious to be boastful in.
My heart began to cry out NO! Set them free! Why would we keep them in their captivity? And a heaviness and burden for those in captivity swelled within me.
WE ARE CALLED TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE!
WE ARE CALLED TO BREAK CHAINS TO LIBERTY!
WE ARE CALLED TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE!
And this passage rang through my ears like bells of freedom, like a trumpet call!
Malachi 4:2New Living Translation (NLT)
2 “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.[a] And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.
GO FREE! Do not any longer hold fast to the chains weighing you down.
GO FREE! Do not any longer look back to the things of old that held you back.
GO FREE! Do not any longer be distracted by the worries and lies.
GO FREE! Do not hold onto anything of this world, not your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your son, your daughter, your wife, your husband, your home, your land, your sexuality, your gender identity, your gifts, your friends, your wealth, your possesians, your future, your past, your present... More than you hold on to HIM!
LET not lies, distractions, lesser loves, an illusion of good, an illusion of love, enslave and capture us into lofty and worldly thinking that keeps us enslaved to the sneaking demons grasping at our feet to hinder our run! Let us not partner with them in their devious scheming but let us go and...
SET CAPTIVES FREE!
~blessings
Abi J. D.
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