The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me, because he as anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he
has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those
who are bound. Isaiah 61:1
I finally went to a prison for the first time. We were told
we were going to sing and share a “word” with the people there. I had no idea
what to expect or what or if I was going to say anything. Before we left for
the prison I laid down to take a nap. I started to feel my heart beat fast and
felt the Lord telling me I was going to speak to them. I ignored it and hoped
that someone else would do it; I wasn’t “in the mood”. But sure enough, God
doesn’t take my excuses when he needs me; therefore, Julia and I got sent to
the women’s side to speak to them. We were on our own and I was for sure going
to have to talk to them. When the women in the prison came into the room to
greet us they had huge smiles and were so happy and welcoming. I felt so much
love. Then they started out by dancing and singing worship songs. It was so
beautiful and there was so much joy on their faces. I came to encourage them
and I was being encouraged.
We started out by telling them that instead of a prison, we
felt like we walked into the most powerful church in Uganda. They got so excited and we
for sure had their attention.
Then we asked them to share their testimonies. The stories
of how they came to know Jesus. Most of them shared about their awful past and
that they realized now, that the only way God was going to get their attention
was to bring them to this prison where they now are experiencing more freedom
then ever before. Their testimonies were so powerful.
We then told them that the devil is going to try and tell
them lies and make them feel guilty about their past. We encouraged them as
sisters in Christ to encourage each other and fight for each other by not
letting the devil get to their “sisters” minds or hearts. They seemed to really
understand and want to take it seriously.
We than told them how the devil thinks he can claim this
prison as his own and get into the minds of the people here. We activated them
to go into each corner of every building and claim it as the Lord Jesus
Christ’s. We told them that this prison can be owned by Jesus and not the
devil. They shouted and praised and wanted more.
We then felt the call for some action. We told them we
wanted to anoint them with a fresh anointing and purpose on their lives. We had
them stand in a line and sing a song. Each woman took their turn while we
prayed and prophesied over each of them individually and anointed them with
more Holy Spirit. It was a beautiful moment. One woman said she felt a fresh
rushing and tingling run through her body. Can we say HOLY SPIRIT?
Afterwards we told them how the kingdom of God
is here now and we aren’t here just to wait to go to heaven. We told them that
God wants to use them in the kingdom. Then we felt the Lord leading us to
prophesy over them. It went like so…
God to come to this prison.
you.
you.
the same and your story will change lives.
They are ready.
Those 20 or so women are anointed and I have never seen such
a passionate group of women in my life. And they were in prison.
We told them that even though they are in prison, they are
free because of Jesus. We told them that they are much more free in prison
knowing Jesus than the people on the streets that don’t know Jesus. They
clapped and cheered because they knew it. They knew it was true and they were
never going to be the same again.
We told them we had to go. We then empowered them to come up
with creative ways to continue inviting the holy spirit in the prison (or can
we say church) and ways to encourage each other without us their. They were so
excited.
Then we danced and sang with them. When we left they were
still dancing and singing and praying out loud with all their hearts.
Needless to say. Prison ministry wasn’t quite as I expected.
As Paul says, the joy of the Lord is inexpressible and there is no other way to
explain why there was that much joy in a prison other than the saving grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
