WALKING IN GOD’S TOTAL FREEDOM

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: WALKING IN GOD’S TOTAL FREEDOM

COMPILED/EDITED BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

• 2 Corinthians 3:17

LIBERTY is the birthright of every man. He may be born a pauper; he may be a foundling; his parentage may be altogether unknown; but liberty is his inalienable birthright. Black may be his skin; he may live uneducated and untaught; he may be poor as poverty itself; he may never have a foot of land to call his own; he may scarce have a particle of clothing, save a few rags to cover him; but, poor as he is, nature has fashioned him for freedom-he has a right to be free, and if he has not liberty, it is his birthright, and he ought not to be content until he wins it.

The quest for freedom is a theme found throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Just three chapters into the story of God’s creation, humanity gave up its freedom by choosing to rebel against God. From that time forward, the perfect freedom God created in the Garden of Eden was gone, and the long-term effects were both physical and spiritual.

When Jesus began his short period of ministry on the earth, He announced He was the One that God’s people had been waiting for since the fall of humanity. He did this by reading a particular passage from the book of Isaiah—a passage his listeners knew was referring to the Messiah, or the Savior of the world.
The words had been written hundreds of years earlier and spoke of a new freedom that was coming in the future. When Jesus stood up to read, He was saying the future had arrived. Liberty would come through Him.

“And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’”
(Luke 4:17-21

True it is that all men have a right to liberty, but it is equally true that you do not meet it in any country save where you find the Spirit of the Lord. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

“Jesus said, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever”.
As a slave, you have no worth, no right and you cannot inherit anything from your master. You are invaluable( not important when it comes to family concerns) and can be disposed at any time, which they usually do not intend to but you have no worth. Usually the masters “Love” their slaves not because they care for them but because they need them to continue to be bond( they need them to be indebted to them forever). They need them to stay around to clean, cook, take care of those chores and activities that the master is too good enough to do.

The children of Israel were great examples in modeling the activities and lifestyle of a slave. They were bond to their masters for so many years. They craved freedom, but yet feared the ability to take a step towards it, walk in it and experience it to the fullest. God had to intervene for them by sending Moses to get them out of Egypt. And even after God intervened they still craved to go back by complaining and yearning for their comfort zone(what they are used to and what they were complacent within their lives).
In Exodus 14:12- “Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Are you shocked when you read this text?
Do you think they are stupid to yearn eagerly to go back in bondage all of the sudden?

It was all of a sudden because this was a few hours after they had left the Egyptians (their slave master). Their journey had just begun when they started to complain just because they encountered an obstacle. Many of us like, their obstacles threaten our freedom and cause us to look back. Pharaoh and his men( their slave masters after releasing them had a regret), they were like what did we just allow our slaves to go free. No, they are ours and belong to us to serve, so let’s pursue them immediately. The Israelites encountering the red sea(their obstacle) quickly looked back but ( most of the times what we left behind also may be pursuing us via the enemy but through family, friends, etc… that’s why when you going forward keep going and do not turn behind. They looked behind and quickly jump to conclusions and started to complain! I have done this so many times, and we are all guilty.
Moses had to encourage them and direct them to the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. He had to help them recognize their freedom, their deliverance -which he was fully aware that God can do, which is their new Master except you do not become a slave in his kingdom but a son(both male & female)!

“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Exodus 14:13-14

You are free with your debt paid(Christ death on the cross and his resurrection from the cross) yet you walk not in freedom!
Knowing you are free is one thing, but walking in his freedom and victory is another thing!

You are free but for you to walk in it, you need to know and understand what freedom means; delivered, rescued, set apart, breaking forth, no longer a slave, no longer a captive, you are free of guilt, condemnation, you are free from the lies of the enemy, you are free from the doom of the devil, you are free from his barriers, you are free from the debt that you owe, you are free from all his tricks, chores, etc….

There is nothing as saddening as living hindered when freedom has been given. Christ has set us free, so we ought no longer to live in bondage. However, we cannot appropriate this freedom except we first believe that we have indeed been set free; that the conditions that once held us bound no longer exist. Sin no longer has dominion over us. Sickness cannot hold us down. Fear no longer has a grip over our minds. We have to believe in the reality of our freedom in Christ to walk in its benefits. This requires unlearning the old habits of slavery. It requires, as Paul aptly puts it, presenting our bodies, by the help of the Spirit, to God as instruments of righteousness.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
Galatians 5:1

A slave has nothing of his own; he labours for others and toils in vain. When you are bound in any way, you are grossly limited. Until you are free, life is a misery. Joseph’s dream could not be actualized until he got out of prison. God who brought him out and promoted him is about to deliver and promote you. The very place where the devil plans to humiliate you is the place where God will honour you. God elevated Joseph in the very land of Egypt where he suffered as a slave and prisoner. God will honour you in this very land.

“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free.”
Psalm 146:5-7

Christ sets us free from the devil. Humans, by birth, are slaves to the devil. The writer of Hebrews states, “that the devil through the fear of death holds humans captive to him” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
But “Up from the grave He arose” and in His resurrection, Jesus sets us free from the devil.

Next, Christ sets us free from sin. Paul writing to the Romans, “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6). Friends, we don’t have to languish in defeat. Christ has released us from the reigning power of sin. Learn to walk with Him in this new found freedom.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!!!”

Finally, Christ sets us free from our greatest foe – self. Again from the Apostle Paul we read, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised”
(2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

Our greatest joy in life and spiritual freedom is found in dying to self, not living for self. And Christ has wonderfully delivered us from the ugliness of selfishness.

We will never master a life of freedom if we do not make conscious, determined efforts to. Our spirits have been reborn in freedom, but our flesh is still accustomed to its old ways. What do we do? We bring our body in subjection to the Spirit through repeated acts of obedience to the Word, and we renew our minds with the same. So the question today is, what does freedom in Christ really entail? And are you enjoying it? This appraisal is important. We cannot afford to remain in a default mode of slavery. We have been set free, so we must live free. The Lord will guide you along the path of freedom today, and always, in Jesus’ name.

SHALOM!

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