Demand Their Release

In the spiritual realms we are dealing with a hostage situation here.

Children have been groomed, lured away, lied to, falsely promised things that only Jesus can give them... and, following their own sinful choices, have been suddenly taken at gunpoint into captivity. Many of these children are now adults and have been in bondage for years.

As a parent of such a child I have found hope in the early chapters of Exodus where God delivers the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Like Israel’s children, my child is also held captive. He has suffered many years of slavery to drug and alcohol abuse. These slave drivers have been cruel, mercilessly beating his mind and body, leaving him penniless, uneducated, sick, scarred, and incarcerated. They have forced him to live in isolation, far from true connection with family and God.

 Maybe you have a child in slavery also? God cares.

Exodus 6:5-11 says “… I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’ ” Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the LORD said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”

These people were hurting so badly that they had no hope in God. They could not believe God cared about them. But God pursued them anyway. Isn’t that beautiful, amazing grace!? He still sent them a Deliverer. He still set them free. He cared. He understood their pain and He did it all… full salvation for a sinful people who could not even reach for Him.

When the people didn’t believe… when they refused to listen to God’s words of love and hope, God basically told Moses “Go deliver them anyway. You speak to Pharaoh on their behalf and demand their release.”

So as a parent of a child in harsh slavery, that is what I will do. I will not be discouraged by his unbelief. I will not be silent in the heavenly realms. I am not his Deliverer, but because Jesus is, I will speak to the enemy of my child’s soul and demand his release in the name of Jesus. And there is all the power and authority in heaven and on earth behind that Name.