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Thank you, MalkyEL....

Ought Not This Woman Be Loosed?
by Chip Brogden

"Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from her bond on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 13:16)

Permit me to paint a picture for you.

Jesus is speaking to a packed assembly in one of the local synagogues. The people are listening closely as He talks to them about the Kingdom of Heaven and His Father's plan for them.

In the middle of His teaching, Jesus notices a woman there in the group. She cannot stand upright, but is bent over at the waist, face down to the ground. Without anyone telling Him so, Jesus perceived that she had been this way for eighteen years.

Jesus senses His Father moving, stirring within Him. His words trail off and He lapses into silence, appearing to be lost in thought as He fixes His eyes on her.

The people are waiting. What is He looking at? They all look at one another and then follow Jesus' gaze towards the back of the long hall.

There is the woman, hunched over and face down to the ground, oblivious to the attention she has generated, but wondering why it has grown so quiet.

Now Jesus calls her to come to Him! What? Yes, dear woman, you are the one. Follow the sound of My Voice and come here to Me.

Slowly and with great difficulty she walks towards the source of this gentle but powerful Voice, still bent over at the waist, trembling with fear.

What is He going to do?

"Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity!"

Cradling her face in His hands, He gently begins to raise her up so He can look her in the eye. And, for the first time in eighteen years, she stands up straight!

"I am healed!" she whispers. Then, as the reality of the moment sinks in, she finds within herself a voice she never knew she had, and begins to cry out, hesitatingly at first, then louder and louder:

"G-G-Glory to... the God of Israel! Hosanna... to the S-S-Son of David! Blessed be the Name of the Lord!! Praise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!!!!"

But the celebration is short-lived.

The ruler of the synagogue (the man who invited Jesus to speak) gets up from his seat, glares at Jesus, and then looks at the people. "There are six days for working," he hisses to the crowd. "Come back some other day to be healed. No work is to be done on the Sabbath day, not even a miraculous work!"

There is an uncomfortable silence. The woman who was healed begins to bow herself down again in shame, as if she has been punched in the stomach. But Jesus catches her, shakes His head "No," and with a smile encourages her to stand up straight and tall, which she does. He puts an arm around her to indicate that she should remain there with Him.

Then He turns to face the ruler of the synagogue.

The look on Jesus' face is indescribable, but I will try to describe it: He has the appearance of a Good Shepherd Who discovers a wolf in the act of devouring one of His little sheep. His eyes are passionate, penetrating, piercing, and determined, "like a flame of fire".

"You hypocrite!" Jesus says to the man in charge. "Don't each of you loose your ox or your donkey and lead them away to be watered on the Sabbath day? Then ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom satan has bound for eighteen years, be loosed from her bond on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 13:15,16).

The leader opens his mouth to protest, but he can't utter a sound. The blood rushes to his face and he clenches his fists in frustration, yet he can't make a move. He can only take his seat again, silently hating himself for ever allowing Jesus to speak to his congregation, and vowing never to have Him back again.

"And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him" (Luke 13:17).
* * * *
This is not just a miracle. It is a sign, and it is present truth for this day, this time, and this season.

We see that the Lord Jesus is on the side of liberty, freedom, deliverance, healing, setting free, releasing, and restoring that which is bound.

Religion, on the other hand, is on the side of bondage, tradition, conformity, uniformity, control, and manipulation.

This woman was indeed a "daughter of Abraham", a child of the covenant, and entitled to a rich spiritual inheritance in Christ! But eighteen years of "Sabbath day religion" had left her unchanged. She attended the services, she sang, she gave, she listened to the sermons, but she left out of there each week the same way she came in - hunched over.

What kept her bound? What exactly was this "spirit of infirmity"?

Some would automatically say she had a demon that needed to be cast out, and THAT was the spirit of infirmity.

Perhaps...

But things aren't always as they appear.

In most cases Jesus rebukes the demon and then sets the captive free. In this case, He sets the captive free and then rebukes the demon. Why?

I submit to you that though the woman was indeed bound by satan for eighteen years, the spirit that kept her bound was not living in HER, but was living in the religious ruler who wanted to keep her in her place.

It was the ruler of the synagogue who had the demon - not the woman.

All the people rejoiced - but their spiritual leader was indignant! The spirit behind him is clearly revealed in his attempt to regain control of the people, dampen their newly discovered joy, make the healed woman feel guilty for being healed, and even rebuke the Lord Himself - all the while hiding behind something religious, "the Sabbath", as his excuse.

Only satan enjoys keeping people in bondage. Only an evil spirit resents it when they are set free. Only a religious demon hates to see someone stand upright and look them square in the eye. So it resists and fears anything that it cannot control, working feverishly to maintain its own preeminence in the eyes of the people.

At work here is something more than just a physical healing. There is a spiritual confrontation taking place also.

So when the demon within the religious ruler protested that she should not be set free, Jesus spoke to its willing host directly:

"You hypocrite! Ought not this woman be loosed?"

Not only loosed from the thing that controlled her body, but the thing that controlled her spirit and her soul with its religious hypocrisy, demonic manipulation, and desire that she be kept "down".

"Ought not this woman be loosed?" To Jesus, anything less was unacceptable. She must not be bound! She must not be oppressed any longer! She must not be hunched over! Eighteen years of bondage is long enough! Loose her, and let her go free!

And in ten seconds, Jesus did something that eighteen years of religion had been unable and unwilling to do.

As I travel about I see many in the Body of Christ who are "bent over" with this same malady, held captive by that "spirit of infirmity" which prevents them from being able to stand upright, all because they are bound by religion and kept in place by the traditions of men, by their own "spiritual leadership".

But I also see Jesus calling to multitudes of hunched over people, calling them to Himself (just as He called that woman), that they may be set free from the things which have had them bound for so long.

How difficult it must have been to hear the voice of the Lord and then defy the leadership and go directly to Jesus, knowing that it would bring instant condemnation and criticism from that spirit of Antichrist. Had she "checked with the leadership" first, she would still be hunched over, because they would have told her it's illegal for Jesus to heal people on the Sabbath day.

Her first act of rebellion was to take those baby steps towards Jesus and away from religion and man-worship. But in taking that first step, she threw off the shackles that had bound her for nearly two decades. When she responded to the call of the Lord, He set her free from her bondage - spiritually as well as physically.

But SHE had to take that first step, however halting, however painful, and however uncomfortable it must have been.

I am glad she found freedom in Christ. I am sad that the religious ruler went home still bound.

This is the word of the Lord to us individually, and it is also the word of the Lord to the Bride of Christ. We hear Him saying to us:

"Ought not this woman - My Bride - be loosed?"

And we say, "YES!"

May it be so, and may all His adversaries be ashamed. Amen.

 
Copyright ©1997-2004 Watchman.Net.
Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears.

what an awesome and powerful message, thank you!

 :-*

A dear friend and I have been discussing things along this line. It was a timely message for me.  :D

By the way, awesome message here:
Your faith must be a first-hand discovery, not a second-hand story.  :D

It`s been a week of timely messages! As I was reflecting  this morning the words "waters to swim in" came to me and I wasnt sure where I had read those words so I looked it up, and came across another wonderful message!
 
Eze 47:5  Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
"Every thing shall live whither the river cometh" (Ezekiel 47:9).

When Ezekiel returned to the riverbank, he stood astonished. As he looked back, he saw "very many trees" on both sides of the river. These trees had been given life from the flowing waters. They bore leaves that never faded, and their fruit brought wonderful healing. Life had sprung up everywhere in these towering, fruit-bearing trees.

Yes, this river of God will bring life wherever it goes. Yet, in these last days, we're also going to see a corresponding flood of death:

* AIDS has become an ocean of destruction in our time, a modern-day Dead Sea. Multitudes are dying of this horrible disease.

* The love of many will also die. According to Jesus, "The love of many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24:12).

* Paul adds that scoffers will come, mocking the message of Christ's soon return. They'll put to death other saints' hopeful expectancy of his appearing. Their mockery will cause morals to die and sin to abound.

* False prophets will spread doctrines of death."Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13). Even now, spiritual death has spread throughout the apostate church.

Yet, in the midst of all the death and destruction we see happening, I hear the Lord's prophecy thundering in my soul: "My river is going to rise. And everything will live where my river flows."

Until just a few years ago, the church in China looked as if it might be dying. They enemy had driven believers underground, and for years no word came out of that country mentioning God's moving. Western Christians had no idea whether the church in China had survived at all.

But, thank God, the river could not be stopped. It was rising the whole time we westerners wondered about the fate of our Chinese brothers and sisters. Today, we know that millions of believers there are swimming in God's river of life. As the Lord has declared, "Everything will live where my river goes."

That river flows at flood-tide levels throughout Eastern Europe. Just fifteen years ago, who could have imagined it would ever flow freely and openly through Romania, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, even the stronghold of Russia. Life in Christ is springing up in all these nations, and all in others over the world.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many New Yorkers considered moving out of this city. But the Holy Ghost has dug a deep well of flowing water here, and the river is rising higher and higher. Jesus is revealing his holiness from one end of this massive city to the other.

The theater district can't keep God's river out of its territory. Wall Street can't hold back its rising tide. Radical homosexuals can't keep it out of Greenwich Village. Pro-abortionists can't stop it from flowing in distraught pregnant women's hearts. City Hall can't slow its rise. Rabbis and mullahs can't keep the river out of their synagogues and temples. The river is rising, rising, and everything comes to life where it flows.

Let me ask you: what about your household? Does confusion reside in your family? Are you watching death rampage among your loved ones? Does everything seem hopeless to you? Cling to this promise from our blessed Lord: "They shall be healed, and every thing shall live whither the river cometh."

I don't know how the Lord will accomplish all this. But if he says the river will rise and bring life to all it touches, I believe him. After all, if overnight God can wipe out Communism - the most overwhelming global movement of the past century - as he did in Russia, Eastern Europe and East Germany, can he not do this as well?

...cont`d

Those who are left out of this wondrous river revival will be "given to salt.""But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt" (Ezekiel 47:11).

Ezekiel is describing mud puddles, full of dirt and mire. As the river flows over these marshes, they're not healed. Eventually, the river will pass them by completely, leaving them so dry they'll turn to salt.

In the Old Testament, salt is a symbol of rebellion and barrenness. The salt marshes Ezekiel describes here represent those of God's people who feel deeply but don't change. These people may weep over sin and death, but they don't obey God's Word to seek his life. They may make promises and resolutions to change, but they don't follow through on them. Isaiah echoes this when he writes, "The wicked are like the toubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt" (Isaiah 57:20).

Make no mistake: such people openly profess to be Christians. And they've been inundated with godly reproof. The Holy Spirit has plumbed the depths of their souls and wooed them. But they remain unchanged. They've stood in his river of life, but they haven't allowed it to water and touch their innermost being.

As a result, the life of Jesus doesn't spring forth from them. Instead, out of their bellies flows a steady stream of filthy gossip, insincere flatteries, lies and distortions. Such people aren't life-givers. On the contrary, everything around them is touched with strife and bitterness. They wallow in self-pity. They continually complain and question God's work in others. They profess life, but they're mired in dirt. They're spiritual phonies, spreading death to all around them.

In Peter's words, they have become "wells without water" (2 Peter 2:17). And, according to Ezekiel, a sentence of death has been passed on them: "They shall be given to salt." This is a curse of barrenness, relegating them to a life of no fruit, of being totally useless. Yet still they stand resolute in their rebellion, full of destructive pride.

Tragically, God will bend his river of life to flow completely around them. Eventually, they'll go blind, becoming insensitive to the danger they've put themselves in. And, as the Holy Ghost withdraws from them, they'll be left deceived, crying, "Peace, peace," as destruction falls all around them.

Ezekiel must have been incredulous at such pockets of death. He saw life springing up on all sides wherever the river flowed, but those pockets of death remained barren and white with dryness.

I ask you, how could any follower of Christ come to such a condition? How could any servant get so empty, dry and cut off from his life-giving river? Peter explains:

"They walk after the flesh. They're presumptuous and self-willed. They resist all God-ordained authority, and they speak evil of things they know nothing about. They've become entangled in worldly things and are overcome by them. And they've turned away from the holy commandments that were once delivered to them" (see 2 Peter 2:10-21).

To me, the saddest part of this tragedy is that most of these dry wells were once fountains of living water. Their lives once issued forth healing and blessing. But now they spew out bitterness, hatred and death.

Dear saint, I urge you: if you're caught up in stubborn bitterness while the river flows all around you, don't allow yourself to continue. Let God fill your belly instead with his living water. You don't realize it, but a flood of revelation of our Lord is on its way. And it won't stop to cater to any flesh.

So, do you comprehend the magnitude of the vision given to Ezekiel? The Old Testament prophets couldn't see it. But through his Holy Spirit, God has given us eyes to behold his exceeding greatness. Here ye therefore: a river of life is coming!

To read the whole message:
http://www.worldchallenge.org/dwmessages/tscps/2000-2004/ps03_0113.html
Copyright © 2003, World Challenge, Inc.

AWESOME post sincereheart!!

I had just wished you had posted it under Apologetics. This is worth posting there. Thanks again for posting it.....

Go in peace with God.
Bob

Thank you both!  :D

"Religion, on the other hand, is on the side of bondage, tradition, conformity, uniformity, control, and manipulation."
So sad and so true.... :'(

For she said within herself,
If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said,
Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Matthew 9:21-22

(http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0SADRAqEVAQv1J9Wx*d5pMUhB8FkklvOu3SQ1h0ewrItc4xG9No9Yj69LoJ6fOI6iZwIc0l8RVQ*hqOuIM8bgO*BTiLZnG0OBkiAT3rQk2Pg*AAAAynJNAg/3843.jpg?dc=4675507121615211983)

The Savior's Words

If you never felt pain,
Then how would you know that I'm a Healer?

If you never went through the darkness,
How would you know that I'm a Deliverer?

If you never had a trial,
How could you call yourself an overcomer?

If you never felt sadness,
How would you know that I'm a Comforter?

If you never made a mistake,
How would you know that I'm forgiving?

If you knew all,
How would you know that I will answer your questions?

If you never were in trouble,
How would you know that I will come to your rescue?

If you never were broken,
Then how would you know that I can make you whole?

If you never had a problem,
How would you know that I can solve them?

If you never had any suffering,
Then how would you know what I went through?

If you never went through the fire,
Then how would you become pure?

If I gave you all things,
How would you appreciate them?

If I never corrected you,
How would you know that I love you?

If you had all power,
Then how would you learn to depend on me?

If your life was perfect,
Then what would you need Me for?

~Unknown

AMEN sister