Revealing Our Freedom Through God's Word

We have seen from the last post that freedom is clearly a promise. Our old man is dead. We are a new creation in Christ. We know we still sin, but we are no longer called "sinners". We are now "saints". Born again, and given freedom through Jesus' death on the cross. Our new identity "in Christ' will begin to propel us forward on our journey. That is what life is to me; a journey. A path to a new destination. Not only "eternity in Heaven" as a destination, but to me the journey is about conforming to the image of Christ. That is my goal.

Today I want to share with you some scripture about "freedom" and hearing from God through His Word. Spending time reading and studying and meditating on scripture is one of the key elements to begin applying the Truth to your life. Seeing change in our lives, starts with our relationship with Jesus Christ. Salvation is just the start of the journey. He wants to transform and renew our minds and life. Jesus wants to break the chains that have held us captive.

Version: NAS

Luke 4:18-12 (Isaiah 61)
18. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, 19. To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." 20. And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. 21. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

To bring freedom to the captives; that was part of Jesus anointing, not only while He walked here on earth, but as He resides with the Father, it is still His ministry; to bring freedom to all who are slaves to sin.

Version: NAS

John 8:32-36
32. and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 33. They answered Him, "We are Abraham's offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You shall become free '?" 34. Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35. "And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36. "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

Knowing the Truth is the key element in finding freedom, Jesus is the embodiment of the "truth". So we must not only know Him, but learn to walk in the truth He reveals to us.

Romans 6:17-18
17. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18. and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Galatians 5:1

1. It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Talking about "Freedom", and Isaiah 61, I want to share a little part of my testimony with you. You may have noticed a time-line in my life; a series of revelations the Lord started giving to me back in the late 90's. Drawing me close to Him and revealing Himself to me through His Word, the Scripture, and then even more definitively for me through experiences.

God started making several passages of scripture "jump off the page" at me. I imagine most of us have had that experience. We will be reading the Bible and all the sudden a passage seems just as if it has our name attached to it. It becomes embedded in our minds and hearts. It becomes a "sign", direction giver, "calling", and road map.

Isaiah 61 was one such passage for me. It seemed that everything I read, heard, and thought about went back to that one chapter in scripture. (books, Christian articles, music, sermons, Christian TV) This was when God was first revealing Himself to me with a call to ministry. I was continually amazed at what God was doing and shared each time when this scripture would "become real"  for me with my husband. We, at that time, started growing in the Lord together. We became "one" in mind, spirit, and heart for the first time in 29 years of marriage. We did Kingdom work together, prayed together, and read God's Word together.

When I had the heart attacks in October of 2002, it was a total surprise. No symptoms, no advance warning. We were totally taken off guard. In fact I thought I had a pinched nerve in my right arm. After a weekend of three "attacks" we finally made it to the ER on a Monday morning at 6 a.m. All I could think about was that my husband would need to be at work shortly and I was going to cause him to be delayed.

When we arrived I was in big trouble, in the middle of another massive heart attack. Bad bad news. They rushed me into the heart cath lab to see what was going on. I don't think they gave my husband much hope, and of course, you have to sign a waiver that they are not responsible if you die while you are in the test. So here he is sitting in the waiting room, completely alone. We had not called family, until we knew what we were looking at. My poor husband sat by himself; confused, shocked, in great fear, and alone. The only one in the waiting room was a young woman doing housekeeping. She was cleaning and dusting and trying not to be obtrusive. She finished her job and laid the Bible back down on the table where she had just dusted. She opened it randomly and quietly left the room. My husband stood up and went to pick up the Bible, needing God's direction and help. There in front of his eyes, as if in letters blazing with God's message, lay Isaiah 61. He knew I would come through this. God spoke to my husband through His Word.

Isaiah 61:1-3
1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners; 2. To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3. To grant those who mourn [in] Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.

If you desire to hear the Lord speak to your heart and have not experienced His revelation in this way, start, by asking God for it. He is more than willing and wants to communicate with you.

Dear Heavenly Father, I know I am your child, and I so desire to know you better. I want to hear from you in a personal way. Please speak to me from your Word, the Bible. I'll be reading and waiting to hear from you.
Thank you,
In Jesus Name,
Amen

Our freedom and transformation begins with accepting Jesus as our Savior. Then we embrace the Bible as God's Word to us. If you don't have a desire to read or study, please include that in your prayer. Ask God to also give you a desire to read and study the Bible. He will gladly do that for you.

I'd love for you to share times and scripture when God has "spoken" to you from His Word. It encourages all of us, when we learn of other peoples experiences in this. Please leave a comment if you feel God is leading you to share.

love in Jesus,

Debra