OPEN HEAVEN DAILY DEVOTIONAL
THE KEYS TO FREEDOM, PART 2
MESSAGE BY: Pastor E. A. Adeboye
MEMORISE: “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;” — Deuteronomy 30:15
I. THE PARADOX OF ATTACHMENT: WHEN CAPTIVES LOVE THEIR CHAINS
In yesterday’s study, we established the foundational key to unlocking divine freedom: a person under the oppressive yoke of Satan must first abandon all human pride, admit their true spiritual or physical condition, and acknowledge their desperate need for the Almighty God’s help. However, admitting that a burden exists is only the starting point of the journey.
Today, we move to the second non-negotiable key to total liberation: a genuine, active, and uncompromised willingness to be made whole.
At first glance, it sounds completely absurd to suggest that someone bound by sickness, poverty, addiction, or demonic oppression might not actually want to be delivered. We naturally assume that every suffering person is desperately searching for an exit door. But spiritual experience and the clear testimony of Scripture reveal a tragic paradox: many individuals have grown comfortably attached to their yokes.
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They love the sympathy, attention, and lack of responsibility that comes with chronic illness.
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They enjoy the temporary, fleeting pleasures associated with secret, sinful addictions.
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They prefer the familiar comfort of their spiritual prisons over the discipline, holiness, and responsibility required to walk in divine freedom.
This solemn truth is vividly highlighted in our Old Testament passage today (Exodus 21:1-6). Under the Mosaic Law, a Hebrew servant was required to serve his master for six years, but on the seventh year, he was legally entitled to walk out as a completely free man without paying a single penny. The door to freedom was thrown wide open by divine decree.
Yet, the Law made a startling provision: if the servant plainly declared, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,” his master was instructed to bring him before the judges, lean his ear against a doorpost, and pierce it through with an awl. From that moment on, the man was permanently branded as a slave for life!
He became a slave not because his master was too powerful or because the law was weak, but because he voluntarily chose servitude over liberty.
Beloved, God will never force freedom upon a person who is in love with their chains. If you choose to compromise with the devil, pamper your sinful habits, and defend your spiritual oppressors, heaven will respect your choice, leaving you to bear the painful consequences of your voluntary bondage.
II. THE QUESTION AT THE POOL: WILLINGNESS VS. EXCUSES
In John 5:2-9, we see a striking New Testament illustration of this principle when Jesus visited the Pool of Bethesda.
Lying around the pool was a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed individuals waiting for the miraculous stirring of the water. Among them was a man who had suffered under an agonizing infirmity for thirty-eight long years—nearly four decades of physical helplessness!
When Jesus walked up to this man, He did not immediately lay hands on him or command him to jump up. Instead, the Master asked him a surprisingly direct, pointed question:
“Wilt thou be made whole?” (Do you really want to get well?)
To the natural mind, asking a man who has been crippled for thirty-eight years if he wants to be healed seems almost insensitive. Why would Jesus ask such a question?
Because Jesus knew the human heart! He knew that after thirty-eight years, this man had integrated his sickness into his identity. Being sick had become his full-time profession, his social circle, and his excuse for doing nothing with his life. He had become comfortable in his invalid state.
Look at the man’s immediate response. Instead of shouting a joyful “Yes, Lord! I want to be healed right now!” he immediately began to reel off a list of helpless excuses: “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” He was focused on his limitations, his lack of human connections, and the failures of the past.
Jesus had to cut through his web of excuses and demand a radical decision of the will. He commanded him: “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” The moment the man chose to align his willingness with Christ’s command, supernatural power surged through his withered limbs, and he was instantly made whole!
III. THE BREAKTHROUGH OF THE DETERMINED WOMAN
No matter how long a spiritual or physical yoke has been strapped onto your back, the exact day you decide in your heart that you have had enough is the day your deliverance begins!
Consider the inspiring case of the woman with the issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22). For twelve long, agonizing years, her life was systematically drained by a relentless hemorrhage. She had spent all her money on doctors, suffered terrible treatments, and only grew worse. By Jewish law, her condition rendered her ceremonially unclean, cutting her off from temple worship and social life.
She had every reason to give up, lie down, and wait for death. But the moment she heard that Jesus was passing through her neighborhood, an unshakeable, fiery willingness ignited inside her spirit.
She did not wait for an invitation; she did not allow the massive, pressing crowd to intimidate her. She said within herself, “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”
Her internal willingness drove her to press through the heavy throng of people, ignoring her physical weakness and social risk, until her fingers brushed the hem of Christ’s garment.
Instantly, the fountain of her blood was dried up! Jesus stopped, looked around, and declared, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Her twelve-year nightmare vanished in a single second because her willingness was translated into radical, uncompromising action.
IV. ALIGNING YOUR ACTIONS WITH YOUR DESIRE FOR FREEDOM
It is crucial to understand that genuine willingness to be free is not demonstrated by mere lip service or emotional tears at an altar call. Your willingness must be backed by decisive, holy action.
[ MERE DESIRE ] ===> Talks about freedom, but tolerates sin & bad company.
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[ TRUE WILLINGNESS ] ===> Cuts off sinful ties + Embraces holiness & prayer.
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[ UNSTOPPABLE DIVINE DELIVERANCE ]
If you claim you want to be delivered from sexual immorality, addiction, or spiritual weakness, yet you consciously keep company with worldly friends who lure you into sin, you are deceiving yourself! You are like the Hebrew slave offering his ear to be pierced at the doorpost.
You cannot maintain a covenant with the devil and expect God to fight your battles. To experience the breaking of Satan’s yoke, you must radically align your life with divine standards:
1: Cut Off Unholy Alliances: Sever relationships, online platforms, and environments that trigger sinful compromises in your life (2 Corinthians 6:17).
2: Embrace Personal Holiness: Live a clean, consecrated life that denies the legal rights Satan uses to bind people.
3: Establish Spiritual Discipline: Be committed to fervent, daily prayer, deep study of the Word of God, and consistent fellowship with fire-branded believers.
Even if you are a “lawful captive”—someone whose ancestral background, past mistakes, or personal sins gave the devil a legal right to bind you—the Word of God guarantees in Isaiah 49:24-26 that the lawful captive shall be delivered, and the prey of the terrible shall be rescued! The Lord Himself will contend with those who contend with you, provided you choose to stand firmly on His side.
V. REFLECTION
Look closely at your life today: Are you secretly submitting to the devil in any area through excuses, compromise, or unholy attachments? Make a quality, uncompromising decision to be totally free today!
VI. BIBLE TEXT SUMMARY: EXODUS 21:1-6
This passage outlines God’s civil laws regarding Hebrew servants. A bought Hebrew servant is required to serve for six years, but in the seventh year, he must be granted complete, free release. If he arrived unmarried, he leaves alone; if he was married upon arrival, his wife leaves with him. However, if his master provided him with a wife who bore him children, the wife and children remain the master’s property, and the man leaves alone. If the servant explicitly states that he loves his master, wife, and children, and refuses to go free, his master must bring him before the judges and to a doorpost, where his ear is pierced with an awl, sealing his status as a lifelong servant.
VII. BIBLE IN ONE YEAR SUMMARY: ISAIAH 25–28
Isaiah 25: A glorious hymn of praise exalting God for His miraculous acts and faithful counsel. The prophet celebrates God making fortified cities into ruins and serving as a secure refuge for the poor and needy in times of storm. He envisions a future where God prepares a magnificent feast for all nations on Mount Zion, swallows up death forever, wipes away every tear from all faces, and removes the reproach of His people from the entire earth.
Isaiah 26: A song of trust and salvation to be sung in the land of Judah. It contains the famous promise: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” The chapter highlights the righteousness of God’s judgments, contrasts the temporary power of earthly lords with God’s eternal governance, and concludes with a call for God’s people to hide in their chambers for a brief moment until His righteous indignation passes over the earth.
Isaiah 27: God’s judgment upon “Leviathan,” the fleeing and twisting serpent, signaling the defeat of cosmic evil. Israel is depicted as a fruitful, well-guarded vineyard that God waters and protects day and night. The prophet foretells a day when God will thresh His grain from the Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt, gathering His scattered children one by one, until those who were lost in Assyria and Egypt return to worship the Lord on the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Isaiah 28: A heavy warning issued against the “drunkards of Ephraim,” whose proud crown will be trampled underfoot like a fading flower. The chapter rebukes corrupt priests and prophets who stagger with wine, scoff at God’s simple teachings, and claim to have made a “covenant with death.” God declares that He will lay a tested, precious cornerstone in Zion as a sure foundation. He warns that His judgment will act as a measuring line to sweep away their refuge of lies, contrasting this severity with the wise, measured methods a farmer uses to plow, sow, and thresh his crops.
VIII. HYMN 23: ALL TO JESUS I SURRENDER
1. All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
Chorus:
I surrender all,
I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Saviour,
I surrender all.
2. All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow;
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
Chorus
3. All to Jesus I surrender,
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power,
Let Thy blessing fall on me.
Chorus
4. All to Jesus I surrender,
Now I feel the sacred flame;
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory to His name!
IX. PROPHETIC DECREE
I decree and declare that on this Tuesday, July 21, 2026, every spirit of spiritual complacency, secret compromise, and attachment to sinful habits holding your life hostage is completely destroyed by the fire of the Holy Ghost! I command the spirit of holy indignation and radical willingness to be made whole to possess your mind right now!
You will no longer make excuses for sickness, failure, or demonic oppression!
I decree that every ancestral brand, spiritual ear-piercing, or legal claim of slavery operating against your family line is erased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
As you choose to walk in holiness, cut off ungodly associations, and surrender your life entirely to Christ, the Almighty God will step into your arena, shatter your stubborn yokes, silence your pursuers, and establish you in absolute, unhindered, and permanent freedom, in the all-powerful and victorious Name of Jesus Christ! Amen! Hallelujah!
