Focus: You Ought To Be Free!

Text: Lk.13:16

"And OUGHT not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?"

There's life as it is, and there's life as it's meant to be. Life, as it is, is an aberration, and life, as it ought to be, is indeed life as God designed it. The reason Christ came down to the earth is to restore life as God meant it to be. 

Jesus Christ says, "The thief cometh not, but for to STEAL, and to KILL, and to DESTROY: I am come that they might have LIFE, and that they might have IT more ABUNDANTLY" (Jh.10:10). In life as it is, we are exposed to thievery and robbery, abundant killings and wanton destructions of lives and properties, skills and hopes. Life, as it is, is a life in which we are faced with an invisible enemy known as the thief. Peter says that, like a lion, he goes everywhere seeking for who he will devour. Jesus says that, as a thief, he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Life, as it is, is actually awful; life, as it's meant to be, is really awesome. Life, as it ought to be, is a superlative and a superabundant one. It is life devoid of lack and pain. It is the kind of life that is free of evil and the devil.

Our text deals with the case of a woman who was bent over. It could be arthritis or something more serious or severe. Luke reports, "And, behold, there was a woman which had the spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself" (Lk.13:11). A bad spirit was in her life - an evil spirit committed to weakening her health and making her life miserable. Doctors had no solution for her. She was so bent over that she couldn't lift herself up. She couldn't look up to see the stars in the sky. Her life was not normal; it was not life as God intended it originally life as it should be.

Christ asked, "And OUGHT not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath BOUND, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this BOND…?"

Christ wants to move you from the actual to the possible, and from life as it is to life as it should be.

You ought to be free from bondage. You ought to be happy and joyful. You ought to live long, and not die young. You ought to succeed and excel in life, not to fail. You ought to be up there in life, not to be down there. You ought to be the head, not the tail. You ought to be a lender, not a borrower. You ought to be rich, not poor.

Divine love necessitates you to be free and fruitful in your life. Living in any form of bondage is not the life as God intended it originally.

The word 'ought' is also translated as 'must, should, behoved, meet, or necessary.' It implies that which is proper, right or required. It is proper for Christ to set you free, because it is improper for you to be in a Satanic bondage.

See divine love in action! Christ met her in a church service and was moved with love and compassion for her. This woman was a daughter of Abraham. God's covenant with Abraham covered her. She was indeed a covenant child of God. As Abraham's daughter, she was graciously entitled to the covenant mercy of God, and indeed to all the covenant privileges and blessings. Christ sighted her in church, called her out, spoke powerfully to her, laid His hand on her, and activated her freedom. Instantly, she was liberated and glorified her covenant God. The spirit of infirmity left her, Satan lost the battle in her life, and God collected the whole glory.

No child of Abraham should suffer any form of bondage, especially Satanic bondage. Child of God, you are God's covenant child. You ought to be free from the spirit of infirmity and from every kind of Satanic bondage. The Son of God has set you free, and you ought to be free indeed.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter