“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
Christ came to set us free from the curse of sin and death. It has always been a passion of mine to see people step into the freedom that Christ has for them. Yes, when one accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior, I believe that the blood of Jesus breaks all chains and strongholds once and for all and they receive freedom. But often times I have found that by one’s own choice, they have rejected freedom and returned to slavery. Does this sound familiar? The Israelites set free from bondage and slavery in Egypt only by their actions of disobedience indicated that they had forgotten God’s liberating work. We can by our own choosing, return to slavery. But there is another option however. We could not even realize the freedom that is there. This takes willingness to go deeper.
During training camp in one of the teaching sessions, we had a time dedicated to inner healing. Rob, the speaker, had been telling testimony after testimony of people being healed by having them go to a distinct memory that happened in their past. This memory was usually something distinct like when they were sexually abused, raped, attempted suicide, or their parent’s divorce. Usually this person had not processed it or never told anyone about it. Rob went on to say to tell them, “Now find Jesus.” Testimony after testimony of Jesus showing up in that memory but instead of that person being abused, Jesus would rescue them and embrace them. At training camp, we had a time dedicated to this. Half the room broke out in tears. The Spirit came, healed wounds, and released freedom. Now were these people free in Christ before experiencing this? Absolutely. Did Jesus want more for them? He always does. To go after the healing and freedom that God has for us is not putting Jesus back on the cross and telling Him it wasn’t good enough, but instead, it is believing in the power of the blood that runs deeper and wider than we even realize.
This is the number one thing I realized myself during and after training camp. I thought I was walking in freedom, but God wanted more for me. Holy Spirit unpacked the layers of my heart and showed me the more that He has for me. For example, fear of man has always in certain ways crippled my walk with Him. This manifested itself in certain ways like always acting in the way that was similar to the person I was hanging out with. No matter if they were non-Christian, Christian, theologically different, black, white, I was always acting out of fear of being liked and what they thought of me. In many ways, I had adopted the verse when Paul says, “I have become all things to all men.” Except I wasn’t doing this in order to spread the gospel and even worse, “I had become all things besides myself.” May seem like a small thing, but what God showed me is that when I am not acting according to who He created me to be, the people I am with are actually loving a different Cody, therefore, not really loving me at all. Through this freeing revelation, God affirmed me in my spiritual giftings and just loved the crap out of me. He also reminded me of the truth that He has created me uniquely different than any other person. Because of this, He enjoys connecting with me differently. The staff at training camp spoke about worship pathways. These pathways are intellectual, relational, serving, worship/experiential, activist, contemplative, and naturalist. Realizing my pathways (intellectual, worship, contemplative) gave me great freedom in how I will now interact with God.
This depth of freedom rocked me. There is always more. In the past, I always pictured the “more” of God as something we pursue. This is true. Intimacy and depth with God is a choice. It is always there for us. But what I pictured of God was that when I asked for more of Him, He was always willing to give more. There is nothing wrong with this picture. But what I now picture is that plus knowing God WANTS more for us. When we ask for more, He wants to give us more than we ask. It is not a one way desire. He wants more OF me and more FOR me than I could ever ask. My call to action to you is to live in the freedom God has for you. Walk in the fullness of your identity in Christ. By simply walking in the freedom Christ has for you, you can free prisoners. Don’t forget the same power that raised Christ from the dead, lives inside of you!
Stay tuned for my next blog post coming soon, I will tell you about my team!
UPDATE: ROUTE CHANGE in this order
Guatemala Panama
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Honduras
Japan Malaysia
Thailand
Laos
Cambodia
Swaziland
Botswana
South Africa
