In truth, if you are in Christ, it means you have already been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. This is the part of the battle that Jesus has already won for you at redemption, that is, at the Cross.

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Colossians 1:13

“And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6

But just as God’s greatest challenge to the people of Israel was not to get them out of Egypt, but to get Egypt out of them, today, God’s greatest challenge to us is not to deliver us from the power of darkness, but to remove the culture or habits of the kingdom of darkness from us. Indeed, since Jesus has already delivered us from the power of darkness, this deliverance is already accomplished in the invisible realm. So the hardest part isn’t getting you out of prison, but getting the prison out of you.

This is especially true when the prison is the only place you’ve known since childhood. Many have only known rejection, fear of abandonment, fear of failure, fear of death, hatred, sexual abuse, mistreatment, humiliation, contempt, insults, criticism, polygamy, lack, poverty, total destitution, pride, debauchery, or rebellion as educators in their childhood. In other words, they grew up in a family and cultural environment where they were mostly exposed to such a climate. It is in such an atmosphere that the devil takes advantage to build these prisons in the heart very early in childhood since psychologists say that 90% of a child’s personality is formed before the age of seven.

Even if you are already delivered from the power of darkness (darkness representing the world), the purpose of inner prisons is to make you wander, go round in circles in life, so that you never enter your Canaan, your promised land, your destiny.

See for yourself: Israel came out of Egypt in one day, but the voices of the Egyptian jailers who held the Hebrews slaves for 400 years took 40 years to come out of their hearts. Why? Because persistent thoughts of nostalgia, bitterness, rebellion, fear, unbelief, doubt, impurity, ingratitude, etc., polluted and controlled their way of thinking up to 40 years after their exodus from Egypt!

Why did they keep going in circles like that? Their problem was their inability to follow God, to walk in the Spirit, to let God lead them to the promised land. God asked them to obey His voice despite the trials they encountered in the desert. He asked them to give thanks to Him in all circumstances no matter what trials they were going through; however, at every trial, at every difficulty in life, the people chose to listen to these inner voices rising within them (bitterness, nostalgia, self-pity/sadness, covetousness, debauchery) and giving them all sorts of reasons not to do what God commanded.

God would have led them to the promised land if they had obeyed His instructions, but other inner voices arose within them telling them not to obey those instructions. These voices came from the strong men who had dominated them before they came out of Egypt; these voices had imprisoned, mistreated, and oppressed them. They had reduced them to slavery for 400 years (ten generations); these voices had educated them, cradled them, they were the only voices they had known for ten generations from father to son: they were the fortresses!

It is the same for us today. We have believed and received Jesus Christ in our hearts for years, but most believers are still slaves, hostages of systems of thoughts, feelings, and emotions of fear, rejection, lies, manipulation, impurity, criticism, poverty, shame, sadness, failure, discouragement, rebellion, lies, manipulation, feelings of failure, etc., that they already had in them before coming to Christ.

If you are born again (you came out of Egypt), the devil will take note of your decision to believe in Jesus, but he will do everything to prevent you from ever reaching Canaan. And obedience to the voice of God is essential to be led by Him to Canaan. In the natural world, it is known in advance that anyone who has been held hostage for many years necessarily suffers (whether they admit it or not) from post-traumatic syndrome. It is impossible to have been a hostage for many years, to have been…

This text is an excerpt from the book “GETTING OUT OF INNER PRISONS” written by Apostle Yvan CASTANOU.

We invite you to read the following article “Being a Head of State in Power Without Having Power?“

Getting the prison out of you.