There’s an inmate who is very young who was just sentenced to life in prison. The inmate committed the crime when just out of high school. He has been located in the highest security area in the Jail.
Monday of this week, I was so blessed to have been able to talk to him for an hour. This was a significant meeting, because I had talked to the inmate for years, but this would be the last time we talked while he was in our Kalamazoo County Jail, because he is imminently being moved to prison for the rest of his life.
I know this inmate very well from many wonderful talks over the past few years inside the jail. He has been a very strong believer in Jesus. I didn’t know what to expect when seeing him. This was the second time seeing him after he was sentenced. The first time I saw him, he seemed ok, but in a daze. So, like I said, I did not know what to expect.
I got to his cell on Monday; he was in the medical wing. When he saw me he got up off his bed to go near the glass door so we could talk through the crack in the door. He had the exact same sort of Jesus-filled smile he had every other time I talked to him. And just like when talking to him before, he plunged right into theological discussion.
“Chaplain Jeff,” he said, before we were hardly finished saying hello to each other, “I hear you talking to the inmates about how GOD speaks to us. John 10:3…” Then he paused, and then finished: “But Chap Jeff, do you hear a voice?“
Wow! I thought to myself. Of all the things that this inmate can be preoccupied with, at this moment, face-to-face with life in prison, with no future in society, all that and all he cares about is hearing GOD’s voice. It was almost as if he was not even thinking about his predicament, and he was, instead, only obsessed with knowing Jesus, directly—now, today. He had heard me tell other inmates, who received life in prison:
“You can literally, no exaggeration, live every day in prison in overflowing BIG JOY brothers! By loving Jesus completely every moment, living in poverty, being a sacrifice to others every day [John 15:13], and living in constant repentance (what Martin Luther referred to as a life of repentance). Elated at how hooked by Jesus this inmate was, I responded:
“Brother, yes, it’s your thoughts. His voice sounds like thought, a still small voice (1 Kings 19:12). We have all been told that we are doing our thinking, but nobody ever sits and thinks: ‘now I am going to think about a polar bear’ and then do it. So we are not doing it–and rather, something, someone, who has the capacity to put thought into our minds, is doing it, so that we can hear it…”
The inmate seemed to be loving this. He seemed excited by this, by how close GOD-Jesus is to us.
I continued:
“And the Scripture says it is GOD who is doing that implanting of thought into us. Luke 11:39-40 says GOD creates our inner minds, which only makes sense, since GOD is the Creator of all things (Rev 4:11). So, He is the one making our minds, and thus which voices we hear are up to Him. We confuse thinking that our thoughts are us talking to ourselves, where many of those thoughts of GOD speaking to us. We can hear Him, right in our heads. Where does everyone think all these thoughts are coming from?! The world has taught us that the voice of GOD, heard every minute of our lives, inside our minds (inside our true selves, which are our inner minds), which the Bible refers to, the still small voice, is not GOD!”
The inmate and I went on a 45 minute discussion about prayer, hearing from GOD. We talked about all sorts of techniques for centering in prayer to focus on Jesus, and building the strongest possible relationship with Him to hear Him speak. We talked the verses that talk about how we know when it is GOD’s voice. And at one point we discussed how the world has this concept of how it is crazy to have voices in your head, when every single person on earth that has a mind does in fact hear voices (thoughts) in their head, every minute of their lives. We commented on how backward and strange that was, and how the world was deluded on that matter. I made a point to refer to 2 Cor 4:4, where it talks about how the enemy is the king of the world of man by ruling via lies, and surely GOD’s still small voice being believed to be self-thought, was one that he spoon-fed the world through the eons. It was an amazing, deep, powerful, profound philosophical – theological discussion. I talked to the inmate about getting to prison and joining the prison church right away, becoming a servant in that setting, becoming part of prayer the groups, and loving Jesus with all his heart all the time.
“You can have the fullest joy [Ps 16:11] every day in prison,” I told him. “You just have to imitate Christ. If he came to serve, then you do too [Matt 20:28]. If He came to die for others, you do also. If He came to carry the cross, so do you, all the time [Mark 8:34]. The love of Christ will so overtake you, that it can even make prison joyful.”
The inmate told me he wanted to learn things, become deep, intelligent, study things of grate fulfillment. And he said he was praying that someday he could somehow go home.
When we were done, I told him I would miss him.
“See you in the afterlife, brother,” I said to him. He was sad; so was I. But I was so excited, too. GOD put an assurance in me that this inmate would never fall away, and would lead thousands to salvation in Jesus while in prison.
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