Principalities & Powers
October 18, 2022
At our recent Bridge of Hope National Conference, keynote speaker Pastor Osheta Moore highlighted the story of Paul and Silas. She reminded us of the reason they were imprisoned. They had healed an enslaved girl who was known to have a spirit of divination that some considered to be demonic.
The big problem, as Moore pointed out, was that this marginalized girl was bound up within a system that was happily to exploiting her. But Paul and Silas saw this and step into a healing relationship with her. The resulting freedom made them a threat to the system that enslaved her, and so they were jailed. There are so many systems at play in this story, but God intervened through connection.
Moore pointed out that this is also the work of Bridge of Hope. We connect with vulnerable families oppressed by systemic issues such as lack of affordable housing, lack of a living wage, domestic violence, generational poverty, racism and debt and we say “yes” to families and “no” to the systems that bind them. We believe that God invites them to live in healing, wholeness and restoration!
What systems are we bound up in and how does God invite us to be free? Where are our points of connection?
For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.
Ephesians 6:12