Ephesians 3:1

1 FOR THIS reason [because I preached that you are thus built up together], I, Paul, [am] the prisoner of Jesus the Christ for the sake and on behalf of you Gentiles--

    

Paul writes to us that he was the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Jesus arrested Paul on the road to Damascus and forced him to serve the Kingdom of Heaven. Don’t think so, go and read Acts 9 and see what actually happened to Paul. 

But the Lord said to him, Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the descendants of Israel; For I will make clear to him how much he will be afflicted and must endure and suffer for My name's sake. So Ananias left and went into the house. And he laid his hands on Saul and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you along the way by which you came here, has sent me that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And instantly something like scales fell from [Saul's] eyes, and he recovered his sight. Then he arose and was baptized, Acts 9:15-18

Jesus told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel of God and Paul wrote to the Ephesians that He was a prisoner of God. Paul also wrote to the Galatians that he was chosen by God to serve before he was ever born and he told the Corinthians that he was Jesus’ slave.

But when He, Who had chosen and set me apart [even] before I was born and had called me by His grace (His undeserved favor and blessing), saw fit and was pleased To reveal (unveil, disclose) His Son within me so that I might proclaim Him among the Gentiles (the non-Jewish world) as the glad tidings (Gospel), immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood [did not consult or counsel with any frail human being or communicate with anyone]. Galatians 1:15-16

These sayings of Paul do not sound like a man who believed in free will. They do sound like a man who had known the Truth and was set free by it. They sound like a man who knew that our Father was in control and the driving force in our lives. They sound like a man that was convinced that because our Father was in control that all things now worked out for his good, Romans 8:28. They sound like a man who knew the love of our Father and freely accepted the Truth that He is in complete control. The love of our Father and the love that He gives to His children allows us to accept and actually rejoice in the Truth that He is in complete control of our lives. We cherish the Truth that we are the prisoners of Jesus. It means that the battle is His and the victory is ours. 

There was a little girl who was friends with my daughters and to say the least she was a pistol. Her mother and Father always said that she must make her own mistakes and they gave her a very long leash, even though she was still in elementary school. When she would come to our house Beth wouldn’t tolerate her actions. Beth would lay the law down and the child loved it, she could see the love in it and the compassion in it. 

Jesus told us that those who come to Him as a little child would inherit the Kingdom, not those who came to Him from their own free will, Matthew 18:3. To this day my kids talk about how mean and wild that girl is. She was being raised as an adult even when she was a little child and the results show it. In Christ we are raised as little children, which means that our Father has to be in complete control of us, this is what brings us peace, power, joy, hope, love, and faith. Our Father is in complete control of Jesus and no one freaks out over that, because we believe and accept that the Two of Them are One. Well the Truth that sets us free is that we are now one in Them, Jesus is one with the Father and we are one with Jesus, John 17:21-23.  So we are able to have perfect peace that our Father controls us just as He controls Jesus.