Where the Holy Spirit is, there is freedom.
Freedom; this is such a common word I hear, but I’ve barely even begun to comprehend the true nature of the reality of freedom. I hear it in the political election; all the politicians ranting in their campaigns and parties about the freedom we have and the freedom we need to protect and preserve. We live in a culture that is saturated with this idea of freedom, and also with this idea that we need to protect freedom. All my life I’ve found myself fighting alongside with my environment to provide freedom; this freedom fighter mentality locked inside myself to protect my freedom to do whatever free things I wanted to do like buy a H&M shirt or watch whatever type of movie I’d like or say what I want to say. But it’s only been a few moments in time where I’ve truly begun to know what freedom is and live in freedom.
Even right now as I type this blog up, trying to define freedom seems so hard. And in doing so, I won’t try and define freedom with a dictionary definition or perspectives of others, but what freedom has been for me. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Ultimately freedom only comes from the Spirit and His presence being there. I’ve placed the Spirit in a box on so many levels and in doing so caused enslavement. If the opposite of freedom is enslavement, and the Spirit brings freedom by His presence, then enslavement is not allowing His presence to be in certain places of my heart and life.
And this is scary. You and I can live in “freedom” and not truly be free. We can live and fight for this freedom of buying what we want to buy, live how we want to live, do what we want to do, and still be completely enslaved. So many people in this world fight for their rights to do whatever it is they want to do, be whoever they want to be, marry whoever they want to marry, say whatever they want to say, and yet be so enslaved because they haven’t allowed the presence of the Holy Spirit to penetrate these areas of life and bring true freedom to their lives. And I’ve done that so many times.
I am free. No matter what people think of me, what they say about me, what they do to me, what they take away from me, no matter what, I am free because in these recent months on the field I’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to bring freedom to the places where, because of the enslavement of insecurities or comparison or fear, I’ve locked myself in a cage. I have a voice, a calling, an identity, and locked inside the entanglements of my heart was this man bursting at the seams of desperation for liberation. And the Spirit, like the fall leaves that cover the ground with color of the season, covered my fears, my insecurities, and released me from my chains of brokenness and guilt and brought freedom to the man inside the cage.
This is freedom:
- I am free from guilt of loosing my virginity to a woman that is not my wife.
- I am free from the insecurity that I’m not a man because I’m emotional and not as strong as others because of my slim figure.
- I am free from the shame of once finding myself in deep sexual immorality with multiple women.
- I am free from the fear of the Church; that I am just as righteous as any other person that hasn’t committed such sins despite their judgment towards me because my righteousness is not my own but is Christ’ righteousness graciously and freely given to me.
- I am free from the fear of man; that I don’t have to fear how they see me because all that matters is how God sees me; holy, blameless, and above reproach.
- I am free from guilt in thinking I was the cause of others falling out of faith; I am not responsible for the actions of others.
- I am free from the hatred I once held deeply and passionately inside myself; to authority, to my dad, to the Church, to God Himself.
- I am free from the pain of my past.
This is an incredible freedom we have in the Spirit. But this is not simply it. The Holy Spirit does not merely free us from things, but frees us for things.
This is freedom:
- I am free for the cause of Christ; to fulfill my calling to make disciples among all nations.
- I am free to step into my gifts, specifically my calling to preach and teach the Gospel without any guilt or shame of the past, but with passion and truth through displaying the supremacy of this transforming power and freedom of the Spirit.
- I am free to become a church elder, caring, loving, and guiding a congregation as one of her leaders, with full assurance that God has called me into His ministry of His people.
- I am free to finish college and attend seminary; that by being called to preach and teach, I can steward well this divine ordinance through educating myself through a biblical educational institution that God has providently raised up to equip, encourage, and challenge me to grow deeper in my thinking and knowledge of the Lord.
- I am free for the purposes of my calling here on the World Race; that I can be the missionary that God wants me to be to the nations God has called me to go to do the wondrous works He has tasked me to do.
- I am free for my future calling of being a husband and father; that I can love one woman; my precious, beautiful, God-fearing wife, and lead her well as the Spirit leads me; and also my children; that I show them the grace and love of the Father through my life so that they might know Him and fall in love with Him too.
- I am free for the enslavement of righteousness; that I wholeheartedly die to myself every day to display Christ as Lord in my life and that those who do not know Him may know Him through me, for it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.
- I am free for freedom. That I no longer fall into the allusion that the things of this earth have any value, but that Christ is my most valued possession, and by doing so I continue to turn my eyes upon Him as the things of the earth grow strangely dim, and as a result I continue to live in freedom.
Freedom is one of the vast gifts of having the Holy Spirit present in every inch of my life. This is freedom. As I continue to step into this freedom and as the Spirit reveals to me more and more about what it means to live a life led by Him, my hope and prayer is that I may display this unimaginable freedom to you, and by doing so you may ask this simple question that I asked myself and the Spirit:
Where am I not allowing the Holy Spirit to be present in my heart and in my life?
Those areas are where you and I are locked up in a cage, entangled with fears, insecurities, and anxieties, chained up and enslaved. This is where the Holy Spirit wants to be present. It’s not easy. It’s not a smooth ride. But the Spirit of God is with you every single step of the way, and there is a world of freedom that is right around the corner. I’m praying for you, and my hope is you would take that first step towards freedom. It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Walk in that freedom.
Holy Spirit, reign supreme in every inch of the reader’s life. Be present with them. As they’ve read what You have done in my life and how You’ve brought me freedom, I pray that You would reveal to them where they’ve kept You out and in doing so entangled themselves in slavery, and like how You’ve brought me freedom, would you bring them freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom. Spirit come and bring freedom, to me, to them, to us all. I ask and believe, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
