I am a prisoner

“Return to the stronghold [of security and prosperity], you prisoners of hope; even today do
I declare that I will restore double your former prosperity to you.” (Zec9:12)

The word prison sends a shiver down ones spine; it is not a place anyone wants to be or be
found. Generally speaking, the prison signifies involuntary confinement and restraint due
mainly to punishment. It is either a correctional facility or a place where punishment is
meted out to offending people in a community. But in a broader sense, anytime you are
confined or restrained you are actually imprisoned.

For example, in our country there are many prisons which are without any physical
boundaries but are nonetheless limiting. One of the prisons we are is the government. Our
economy is structured in such a way that both the private and the public sector depends
entirely on the government to survive. That is a prison, because the whole national
economy is restrained by the people in government majorly. There is no succeeding
business conglomerate that does not have ties with the government in this nation.

Another prison is the electric generation source in Nigeria. Both individuals and companies
are constraint by the epileptic supply of electricity. With a good supply of electricity in this
nation, many shall be delivered from poverty and bondage. For one, many unnecessary
expenses shall be avoided both by the individual and the companies who passed the
expenses to the individuals again. The day this nation is delivered from the prison of just
one source of epileptic electricity is the beginning of liberty from poverty. But for now, we
remain limited by the epileptic power supply.

Another prison in our nation is insecurity. Insecurity has limited our joy, enjoyment, liberty
and peace of mind. Both outside and inside of our homes, we are constrained and
restrained. In the home, we lock ourselves up, we cannot stay out to enjoy the fresh breeze
nor even play outside at home without the fears of the night marauders, and too much
securities apparatus in our homes have made the homes hazardous such that in case of
emergencies we get entangled just because of insecurity. Our fences have become our
prison, now we pride ourselves in beautiful gates, bulletproof doors and beautiful burglary
proofs. These my friends are just beautiful prisons, which is what our homes are now. How
sad! Outside your home you don’t feel free to move around, to enjoy the fruit of your
labour is setting yourself up for a kill, you can’t stay long out and recreation now is risky.
Many of us grew up with recreations and sports, but now for the fear of kidnappers and
stray bullets our children grow up with toys and televisions alone. Are we not imprisoned?

In its real sense, originally, a prison was a place of safe custody. That is, a prison can be a
voluntary; you can intentionally imprison a thing or someone for its own good. One of such
facility is a sanatorium where people who are a danger to themselves or to their
environment are kept.
A prison also can be called a place of personal confinement. Such personal confinements are
many and I shall try to bring some to your remembrance. For example, when you have a
vision you are confined in your alternatives. Vision therefore imprison your choices, you
limit yourself within the confines of that for which God had birthed in your heart, for to
consider other options is to say you have di-vision. Which will ultimately distract or even kill
your dreams, so for the benefit of achieving your desired goal, it is advisable for one to
voluntarily confine or imprison himself to the vision at hand.

Another wonderful prison which you ought to voluntarily put yourself is marriage. We marry
also to limit our options, to avoid distractions and to face a specific direction in life. Two
people get married to align their individual dreams into each other in other to produce a
vision. It will be a disaster for anybody to be married and to still hold on to his/her vision to
the exclusion of the spouse. It will be dangerous also for you to be married and have the
vision for your future tied with another, you must be confused. Marriage also limits your
option for even sexual partner, it limits your option for companionship and it limits your
option to just one person. This is a prison God ordained for mankind. Don’t toy with it,
rather flow with it.

Another voluntary prison of safe keeping and constraints is salvation. When you give your
life to Christ, you have willingly abdicated your independence. The Bible say you have been
bought with a price and your life is no longer your own. Notice that you chose to make
yourself to be bought and you made yourself a bond servant of God. The Bible say narrow is
the gate and strait is the way to eternal life. You cannot be born again and live as you so
please any longer. You can only live to please your master, because you can no longer go
where you wish, do what you feel, say what you want, do what you think, allow whatever
dominate your thought, behave as you wish and be what you want. Even though, it is a
constraint, it is indeed a beautiful and wonderful one. If you have not allowed yourself to be
in the prison of salvation, then you are not safe. You can die anytime and anyhow, you can
do what you like but anything can happen to you, you are unprotected. So I am proud to tell
you I am a prisoner of salvation.

Our base scripture also shows us some other prisoners; it calls them prisoners of hope. I
believe these are some set of voluntary prisoners again. They are men and women who
have constrained and restrained themselves to hope. Hopelessness to such people is not an
option, defeat is not in their vocabulary, in every situation, and they have chosen to see light
at the end of every tunnel. To them the scripture, “surely there is an end and the
expectations (hope) of the righteous will not be cut short” is their watch word. Who are
these set of voluntary prisoners and what makes them thick?

The Bible described God in Rom15:13 as the God of hope. For better understanding of the
word hope, let me give you the Webster Dictionary explanation: A desire of some good,
accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is
obtainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of
obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives
pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and
anxiety.

Hope comes with an expectation for a positive outcome; it is an optimistic outlook, and
anticipation for a better result. Notice, it is not just a dream or a wish, even hope is not just
an expectation, because you can expect things to go wrong. But for a man of hope, wrong is
an alternative forgone.

According to the base scripture, there is an injunction to return to the stronghold (fortress).
The fortress is a place of safety, protection and assurance. In this life, there is no absolute
fortress; anything one depends on is only relative. There is no absolute protection against
danger, economic downturn, and risk free marriage, children and business anywhere. The
only absolute security is God. As the scripture say, “He that dwells in the secret place of the
most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty,” God is the only stronghold that
can never be broken, all others have either been broken or will be broken, it is only a matter
of time.

So returning to the stronghold is returning to where safety and assurance is guaranteed in

this uncertain world. It is taking refuge in God. It is the only place where you can be a
prisoner of hope. For the hope that God gives is eternal, unshaken by circumstances and
unbroken, because He never fails, the scripture is saying therefore, that if God is your trust
and your hope, then you should not allow yourself to be shaken by the affairs of this
unsecured world rather in every situation you can still find your assurance in your God. With
you secured in His fortress your hope can still be alive, and as long as you remain hopeful so
will your joy remain.

Your joy remains and it is full because you are a prisoner of positive expectation of good.
The only change you expect is for the better not for the worse. There is a constant assurance
within you for change. For you the scripture, “hope deferred makes the heart sick” cannot
work, because you are a prisoner of hope which cannot be differed because you are in the
fortress, saved and secured in God. Your heart cannot be sick if you are a prisoner of hope,
because you remain believing, you are like Job, who says, “all the days of my appointed time
will I wait till my change comes.” Halleluiah!

In the fortress of hope also is the guarantee of restoration. There is nothing you lose in the
uncertain world that cannot be replaced in the prison of hope. As long as you remain fixated
in the fortress of the prison of hope allowing nothing to take you out, it is only a matter of
time thing will fall back in place, in actual fact, God even promised double for your troubles.
That is only assured in the prison of hope. My brethren, it does not matter what you have
lost, what had been stolen from you, or what you have been denied, instead of getting bitter
return to the stronghold and bigger and better shall ultimately be your final outcome.
So, the prisoners of hope are men and women who are not moved by what they see on
don’t see they are not moved by what they feel or don’t feel. They are not moved by what
they have or don’t have, neither are they moved by who they know or don’t know. They are
people who have made the Lord their refuge and who confidently holds on to God’s word
and promises and believe it to be the only truth. As the scripture says, “[Most] blessed is the
man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the
Lord is.” (Jer17AMP)

I am glad to inform you that I have chosen to limit and constrain myself to hope. Not just
hope in hope, but hope in God. I have chosen to be like my father Abraham to against hope
in this hopeless world believe in hope of the God of hope, so nothing is able to steal my joy
rather I remain strong in faith giving glory to God in spite of the many uncertainties staring
me in the face. Ladies and gentlemen, I AM A PRISONER OF HOPE! WHAT ABOUT YOU?