APRIL 17

TURNING OF THE CAPTIVITY

“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.” Psalm 126:1-2

The very thought of captivity brings to mind a going into exile, confinement, certain forms of bondage. Universally, “the creation was subjected to frailty – to futility, condemned to frustration – not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him who so subjected it. Yet with the hope that nature itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children,” (Romans 8:20-21). We are keenly aware of this captivity – the wheel of nature which works in our members, under the influence of the vast cosmic wheel of astral influences, and is a part of the “law of sin and death: even as Paul writes “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members,” (Romans 7:23).

The desires of the flesh, influences by the spirit of the world, and dark cosmic forces without, war against the higher realm of the Spirit of God, and cause us to miss the mark. Indeed, the minding of the flesh is death. Yet, thank God, for this captivity there is deliverance, for it is also written, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Yet, thank God, for this captivity there is deliverance, for it is also written, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death,” (Romans 8:2). In Christ there is complete victory. Salvation is not just something that can be relegated to our first initial experience of receiving the seed of the life of Christ; it is a process which continues until we are fully born of God, spirit, soul, and changed body – fully loosed from every negative force that would bring us into bondage to corruption.

For body, soul, and spirit, now we see redemption planned,
What God allowed He used withal, and love the ages spanned,
Till when captivity is turned, the past will seem a dream,
Forgetting all the long travail, when glories reign supreme.

Ray Prinzing

Sister Doris Prinzing
1130 Allumbaugh St. Apt 257
Boise, Id 83704-8700

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