CELEBRATE FREEDOM

It’s a celebration of freedom across North America this week. Dear friends, Happy Canada Day and Happy Independence Day!

FREEDOM!

While the festivities revolve around national freedom in two countries where individuals are empowered with choice, the liberty we enjoy in our relative countries is a meager and deficient expression of the divine reality in the much greater Kingdom of God! In Jesus, the Kingdom of God is my first and foremost country. The longer I live on this earth, the more aware I am of this truth. It’s all too easy for me to get distracted by politics, policies, and candidates.  The trajectory of the United States can be a source of worry and discouragement for me. But God reminds me that I’m a foreigner here. My citizenship is in heaven. My responsibility is not to build an earthly kingdom but to establish God’s kingdom in people. I am God’s ambassador. I represent Him whether I’m sent to the USA, Canada, or any other location on earth.

You have LIBERTY NOW because you have the SPIRIT OF GOD inside you NOW!

REAL FREEDOM starts with Jesus!

The sin-enslaved soul is not capable of enjoying or fully experiencing true liberty (though he may walk in a place free from human oppression). A person can be physically free and spiritually bound. This person is not experiencing the peace of true liberty. People of God’s Kingdom across the globe are willing to suffer physical enslavement, tyranny, and persecution in exchange for the FREEDOM found in Jesus.

Only Jesus can deliver from spiritual slavery. The human condition of sin is an unbreakable chain imprisoning the soul in the eternal torture of enmity with God and alienation from His family. The wages of sin is death.

Jesus broke the chains of sin, overcame inevitable death, and made a Way to freedom from the sin condition adopting us into the FAMILY of God.

“Therefore if the Son [Jesus] makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” ~ John 8:36

In Jesus is unquestionable and real FREEDOM. Jesus’ words in John 8:36 are in the context of family relations. Jesus is referring to Himself as a son. Jesus is delineating between slaves and children in a household. He is clarifying the distinction between biological forefathers and the Heavenly Father. In Jesus, the Heavenly Father becomes your Abba (intimate daddy). Herein is genuine freedom.

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” ~ Romans 6:20, 22-23, 8:2, 14-17

FREEDOM comes at great cost!

Jesus gave His life for your freedom. His sacrifice for you proves your value to God.

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” ~ Colossians 1:14-15

FREEDOM requires personal responsibility!

Jesus broke the lock on your cell. He released the bonds chaining you to your sin. He canceled the legal document condemning you to death. You have been set free to run into the arms of the Heavenly Father. You are free to sit at His family table. You are free to truly live in His kingdom being:

Chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, entrusted, God’s inheritance, existing for the praise of His glory, made alive with Christ, raised up with Him, and seated with Him in Heavenly places! We are saved by grace through faith, sealed by the Holy Spirit, God’s workmanship, God’s worker, brought near to God as family, a member of one body, a dwelling place of God, having bold confident access to God!

In Jesus, that’s the truth.

So, why do we often remain in the dank prison cell, depressed, bitter, despairing, and defeated? The truth of the matter is nothing is holding us there. We are free and empowered by the Spirit of God to walk out of that place and never return.

The devil seeks to trick you. He uses fear, intimidation, and condemnation. He exploits personal failure by connecting it to the idea that you’re still a sinner. If we keep believing that we are still a sinner, then our failures work to prove it. We continue in our frustrated state of enslavement despairing of deliverance. This dichotomy becomes an excuse to justify the continuance of sin. This lie becomes a deceptive and dangerous version of “your” truth. I say “your” truth because if human experience is allowed to be the final authority, then it can manipulate sound doctrine. This creates a pseudo-truth, religious in nature, and a diminishing relationship. Truth is found in a relationship with God through Jesus.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” ~ John 8:32

Jesus measured up to God’s standard. You don’t have to. You must simply be in Him. Failure does not make you a slave. You can choose to act like a slave, but in Jesus you are free.

If you are in Jesus, YOU ARE FREE! So, walk like it! It sounds simple, and it is. I didn’t say easy. The hard part is the 8 inches between the ears. When the brain comes into alignment with the truth, our actions change. Our habits change. We become imitators of God as His dear children – not slaves to the old nature.

Gratitude and fireworks go only so far. If we really want to celebrate freedom, then we need to walk in it.

“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

Don’t doubt your FREEDOM.

You have LIBERTY NOW because you have the SPIRIT OF GOD inside you NOW!

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” ~ 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Celebrate our two countries this week! We are. But most importantly, celebrate the FREEDOM that’s ours in the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and King!

“Celebrate Freedom”