I sat in a class of mothers one evening and asked this question: “What is your rope? What is that thing in your life that keeps you close to the post and keeps you from following the call of God? What is it that pulls you back every time you try to move forward to Christ?”
Tears flowed down every cheek as all began to recognize the bondage that they had carried for far too long. Fear, insecurity, addictions, abuse and anxiety were all ropes we identified that night.
We are sometimes satisfied just to manage bondage or try to ignore it and hope no one else sees our ropes. We so often are satisfied to live in our own compromise, and we refuse to take the time to focus on our own needs until we look down by our side one day and realize our children are adopting our bondage, our mind-sets, our fears, our insecurities and our addictions. They are following us to the same confinement we were taught.
The enemy doesn’t even have to work hard to capture our children; we do the work for him by modeling our own ropes before them. We model bondage; and therefore, they follow bondage.
Don’t be disheartened. In this story, we see hope. That hope is Christ, and His voice is calling for us. When He has need of you, no rope and no taskmaster can stand in the way. It didn’t matter how many days or years that mother and baby donkey had lived in bondage; Jesus saw them that day and had need of them. This fact shifted everything. He sent for them and gave the authority to His disciples to loose them and bring them to the place of destiny.
Similarly, Jesus needs you and your babies. The post you are tied to is not your final destination, and the enemy is no longer your master. I stand in the authority of Jesus Christ today, woman of God, and I declare that every rope over your life be removed in Jesus’ name. He needs you. The kingdom needs you. You were called to a greater purpose than to be the slave to the enemy, and your child has a greater purpose than to repeat the cycles that have held you bound. He is calling for both of you, and it is time to sever the rope once and for all.
It’s time to lead your child to Him. When the mother was loosed, she had to be willing to be led, but not by her former master. She had to be willing to be led by those who were following the voice of Christ. She was led to Him, and her child followed.
For the first time, the son or daughter saw the mother under new leadership and without the post. This was a new path they were walking, and it would lead to a new future. The mother pursued Christ, and the baby was set up for a divine appointment and prophetic fulfillment. When the mother found freedom, the baby found destiny. The mother’s ceiling became her child’s floor, and that colt became the vehicle of the Messiah for all Jerusalem to see. The donkey and the colt were both selected in bondage to be set free for a great purpose that was written before either of them were born. The Word found them, the Word freed them, and the Word will never return void, not in this story and not in your story (Isa. 55:11).
You don’t have to stay confined to that post one day longer, Mom. Right now, you can be free. You can begin a new story for your children and your grandchildren to inherit freedom and not slavery, to follow the path of life and not bondage to sin. You have been loosed so that you can lead.
Where are you leading your child, Mom?
Deven Wallace and her husband, Bishop Kevin Wallace, copastor Redemption Point Church, based in Ooltewah, Tennessee. Wallace is a regular speaker at conferences in the United States as well as Latin America. She is a licensed minister in the Church of God and a graduate of Lee University with a bachelor of arts in psychology. This is an excerpt from her new book The Warrior We Call Mom.
