14. THE POWER OF JOY IN THE PRISON OF PAIN IN PHIL. (part13)

PRAYER AND OUR PROVISION V.19-20

   THE PRIVILEGE OF DELIVERANCE V.19 For I know that this

                                                                              shall turn to my salvation

Freedom is a privilege we can take for granted.  There was very little freedom in the first century for Christians.  Rome in the first century had a population of an estimated 1,300,000 of which half were slaves.

The majority of those who were believers in Christ were slaves.  This was a prisoner’s kind of existence but they turned from their slavery to their Savior.

Paul was in prison yet he said, “For I know”.  To know is to have a certainty, a firm confidence and a grip on the inevitable.  It would be huge to exercise this level of faith to be able to predict the end result of our prayer relationship with the Lord.

The salvation that is anticipated in v.19, that’s going to turn out, is not eternal salvation.  Paul may be referring to release from prison as his expected salvation, but I think that he’s referring to a common need that we all share, which is salvation from our negative environments and deliverance from the pain of damaging experiences in our emotions.

We can become preoccupied with our immediate circumstances.  Our situations nag away at our comfort zone. But these problems are only temporary in view of eternity.  The basis of our freedom is centered on who we are in Christ our Savior not on the circumstances that appear to imprison us here.

To know how things are going to work out is the only solution to worry, fear, uneasiness and panic attacks.  Things work out as we relax in trust that all things work together for good to all who love God.  Fear leads us the wrong direction.  Panic makes us back away from the Promised Land and can cause us to turn back into the graveyard of the wilderness.

But by work out I’m not referring to interpreting things on an earth bound grid of feel good sensations.  We need to have a renewed perspective constantly, a rehab of the mind to allow a frame of reference that sees from spiritual structure.

This renewal is salvation; a rescue in the practical outworking of Christ in us.  We experience this deliverance as we take each circumstance, which feels like a prison of pain, that as 2 Cor. 5:4 says “unclothes us” and by faith exchange our exposure of our weakness to be clothed upon by Christ.  He is our life and we are as Eph. 3:17 says “let Christ live in our heart by faith.”

Our union with Christ is His intimate interconnection to us through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. It is through the Spirit that we become one with Christ, and through the Spirit that Christ lives in our hearts.

Through God’s Spirit we operate in a different dimension. He makes us alive to the spiritual realm. We commune with Christ. We move and participate in the life of the Spirit. We have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2:16.  Everything now is new in Christ, old things are past away and all things take on a spiritual perspective of God’s purposes, plan and character maturing in us.  This is salvation worked out.

   THE POWER OF DELIVERANCE             through your prayer,

THE PERSON OF DELIVERANCE            and the supply of the

                                                                                   Spirit of Jesus Christ,

THE PROBABILITY OF DELIVERANCE V.20  According to my

earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall  be ashamed,

THE POISE OF DELIVERANCE                but that with all boldness,

                                                                                   as always,

THE PURPOSE OF DELIVERANCE             so now also Christ shall

                       be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.