Freedom (Part 1): Speaking Freedom to Others

The Lord has recently been teaching me about freedom. It is so amazing when Daddy gets you excited to learn about something so foundational to who He is that you get all giddy inside. This message of freedom I pray is not a reflection of my life but a reflection of God being seen in my life.

Freedom can come in many different ways, and sometimes more ways than one lead to freedom. I was recently brought to Ephesians 5:18-21 where it talks about singing praises, hymns, and spiritual songs to each other. It got my curiosity going because I never quite saw this passage from the angle God brought me in. From where I stood, fasting and praying for Bethel with the Holy Spirit leading me to pray for freedom at Bethel, I saw the importance and need of each other, within a community, speaking life into each other. And in by doing it the way the passage was saying, we are speaking not with the tongues of man but with the tongues of the Spirit. In my own personal life I know how low a few negative words spoken towards you can bring you, but I also know the releasing from all of the negative that can come when good, Godly friends speak the truth to you about who you are because they see you with the eyes of God.

This kind of freedom is almost tangible because it comes straight from other persons in a language that you can understand but yet they speak with the power of God over you! I really understood in that moment as to why God said this to the early Church, through the apostle Paul. It was because as a Body of Christ every part needs to work together correctly but when one part becomes "cancerous" that "cancer" can spread to the other parts of the body. I know this may sound extreme, but the extreme of being Christian (and I'm talking in a negative way)can come as judgmental and just a few words not spoken with the love of God can tear a person down and can feel as if they just went through a physical beating that left them bloodied and trying to grasp consciousness. The persons emotional well-being has been wounded and they're left sitting there trying to wrap their mind around the situation as their perception of God becomes clouded.

But instead, if we truly learned how to speak with the Holy Spirit, if we spoke with the love of God to other members of our body, all the parts become lubricated and they begin to work correctly. Easier said than done though. So many things can happen in life that we must choose how to react to each situation. Sometimes we are left in a sour mood and because we're human we let that sourness come out in the way we treat, speak, and act towards others as if they were somehow the issue. And sometimes because we get wounded by what others say we can turn around and take that hurt out on others. See what I mean about being cancerous?

In my own life I'm learning to love people with the love of God in all occasions because I personally know the freedom that comes with a few words, full of God's love, spoken directly into my wounded heart and I walked away with my burdens lifted from my shoulder. But in order for me to be able to do this I must learn how to live in accordance with the Spirit (Romans 8) because my flesh is prone to sin and if I don't walk in accordance with the Spirit I will turn around to those around me and most likely speak something that will tear them down.

(Stay tuned for more!)

Learning to Die to Self

It has recently come to my realization how important it is to learn to die to self on a daily basis. This last weekend I went with my dad, his 2 sisters, and my grandmother to a meeting with Andrew Wommack at the Hilton in Minneapolis. While tornadoes ripped through the Twin Cities I was sitting in an air conditioned ballroom as goose bumps went through me at hearing the words Andrew was saying. He was talking about "Body, Mind, and Spirit". I never quite understood those scriptures about my spirit, but Andrew helped clarify things so much! He said that we are not JUST human, but we are 1/3 spirit as well and that when we become "born again" in Christ it is our spirit that comes to life - filling a void that all of us face from the day we are born. Later in my personal time with God, it came to me that when a baby is born, it's body is brought into life, but there is something so central to us humans that is dead since the moment we are conceived. But because of Jesus, we become complete because all three parts of us, body, mind (soul), and spirit are now alive. And when our spirits become alive it is made perfect because our spirits are like Jesus. So why do we constantly face a lot of strife and fear and anger and depression on an almost daily basis? It's because we are living in our flesh.

Andrew said something so radical to me that it shattered so many things I thought about God. He said that because our spirits are made alive in Christ and that they are made perfect in Him our Spirit can never be separated from God. This means that even though we in the flesh may be filled with fear and anxiety and anger our Spirit is, even now, dancing at the feet of Jesus and filled to the brim with love, joy, peace, and all the other fruits of the Spirit. It was so cool to hear that because it brought me a bunch of excitement to know that even now my perfect Spirit (never quite realized that now my Spirit is perfect) is fully immersed in God.

So why is it important to learn to die to self, to let the flesh die? Well, as Andrew said, the only way for this life and joy and peace that God has already given me to flow over into my natural life I need to stop living in the flesh. I need to make my soul (mind, emotions, and personality) to be in agreement with my Spirit (2 verses 1) in order to allow all the promises and blessings God has already given me to flow over into the natural.

It is hard to live according to the spirit because you can't use any of your senses to experience it. But you can be sure that if you walk by the Spirit you will live the God-filled, abundant life, that the Bible talks so much about. I don't know about you but this is exciting because I'm tired of letting the things of this world tear me down. I'm tired of allowing my emotions and thoughts to get the better of me. I want to live the life God wants for me, but the only way I can do that is if I live according to the Spirit (which leads to life and peace - Romans 8). Imagine, living every day dancing before the Lord. It's like living in heaven here on earth but with all the stuff of the world going on around you. I don't know about you but I want that. I want to never hunger or thirst again, but I want to live every day completely satisfied and it is my goal in life to bring others into that life.

God bless!!