the death of liberty.

I want to pose a probable truth concerning ‘freedom’ as we know it.  Too often when I write out my thoughts, I’m overly quick to make excuses for my point, attempting to preemptively disarm the thought that I might be a heretic.  I will make a concerted effort to prevent myself from such insecurity in this post.  You are welcome to decide I am a heretic if it suits you.  I would still like to be your friend, regardless.

I believe that freedom for humanity is the gift and reality of God, not a reward.  I am convinced, after a number of years pursuing it in every other venture, including supposed ideas about God, that freedom is a human satisfied in God…discovering Him in every facet of life; in blessing and in trial.
It was the obvious heart cry of Paul in scripture:

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
– Philippians 3:8

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
– Philippians 4:11-13

Paul, the apostle given the privilege of welcoming the gentile world into the family of God (a.k.a – the reason most of us know Jesus) not only called the knowledge of Jesus the highest pursuit of his life, but the only true life in itself.  He was not simply running after an ideal, or a means to an end, He was responding to unmitigated love.  From Eden to present day, the heart of heaven has been declaring the same message: Love the Lord your God.  I’ve heard sermon after sermon concerning this commandment, and seen so many different expressions of the pursuit of it.  It is my personal belief that it’s within that very endeavor that we’ve gone wrong; better said, that we’ve gone missing.
In Galatians 5:16-17 it says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”  It has been fed to me since I can remember, that we are sinners; that our inability to love God is because of our submission to the flesh, as it could seem this passage from Galatians is saying.  WE have to crucify our flesh, that we might walk in the spirit, because they are contrary to one another.  Language like “The Lord has already done enough, He’s just waiting for you to respond.”  We take stories from scripture like the story of the epileptic boy with a demon (Matthew 17:14-21), and the famous verses from them (“…this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”) and create formulas that elevate the admonition of scripture until it becomes the mandate that is going to save the world.  It becomes about the amount or degree to which we pray and fast, unto the end of power or anointing, rather than the truth that the high purpose of such disciplines is intimacy with the Father.  Jesus was pointing to a reality that prayer and fasting were an expression of a longing to draw near to God, which is the ONLY place we are endowed with anointing and have power over darkness.  In the same way that we might misread this scripture from Matthew 17, I want to suggest we’ve looked at freedom from sin the same way.  We’ve taught that freedom is the absence of sin, but I would like to suggest that it is rather the presence of God (Francis Frangipane; Holiness, Truth, and the Presence of God.)  This verse from Galatians 5 advises us clearly in freedom from fulfilling the lust of the flesh: walk in the spirit.

The context of innocence (the garden of Eden) was man unadulterated by the knowledge of good and evil.  Adam and Eve, responding to the love of their Father, and enjoying being with Him in the garden of their pleasure.  Nothing more; nothing less.  They were living in ‘righteousness’, or right relationship with God.  So, if Jesus came to restore us to that very garden and quality of life, what causes us to think that the intent of God has changed?  Our freedom died when we came to know the differentiation between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, and gave ourselves to serving its oppressive reality.  Our liberty died when life became about anything other than God.  So where do we get the idea that ‘freedom from sin’ is only attained if we live in direct opposition to it at all times?  As far as I can break it down, that is basic, grade A, knowledge of good and evil.  To live in constant consciousness of our sin in an effort to run from it will only lead us back to it.  We become that which we behold. The war-strategy, then, is simple: BECOME FASCINATED.  The demon called religion has not sought primarily to bind us in routine, or divide us with denomination, although those are very real expressions of the enslavement wrought by it.  It has primarily sought to keep us fascinated with our SIN and BROKENESS, so that we would never discover the beauty of God.  The guise of the “process of sanctification” (by the way, that phrase is NOWHERE in scripture) has been a plight of the army of hell to make the christian life more about how little we can do that how much He has done.  If you look at scripture, it is GLARINGLY OBVIOUS that humanity was never able to save itself from sin.  Hebrews says that the blood of bulls and goats could never satisfy.  Jesus was the goal of the law; the only hope for a humanity that had fallen short of glory.  The law was given to prove our need for a messiah.  In His resurrection, we have been raised to the newness of life.  Romans 8:11 says “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  The wages of sin are death, and we know that the spirit of God was given to us to lead us into truth; He lives in you to lead you into all truth, the knowledge of Jesus, the only eternal life (John 17:3).  The only problem it would seem, is that most of the body has read these scriptures, but has never lived them.

Galatians 3:2-7 says “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?  Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?  Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.”   It’s the good news of every protestant and evangelical denomination in America: you’re a sinner, but you’ve been saved by grace.  While the best intentions were always in the heart, it has left most of the church a groveling mess of self-loathing and spiritual dullness that has looked a whole lot more like the death and carnality in the world around them then Jesus.  But I would like to suggest it isn’t because we haven’t “tried”, but rather because we’ve tried so hard.  This passage from Galatians 3 speaks to the heart of the issue in most of us.  We began in the spirit, and then began to lean on the flesh to overcome.  However, in scripture the only method explained for ‘overcoming’ is the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, both of which witness to the power of Jesus.  Our good efforts to turn from our sin, to consciously live in ‘freedom’, have time and time again led us to the same bondage.  Recurrent sin is nothing more than spending more time with your failure than your beloved.  He will finish the good work He started in us, so why do we not give our lives to be enveloped in Him? (Phil. 1:6)

Here is my point:  It was for freedom that Christ set us free, so lets BE FREE.  He’s after your heart, and He cleansed your hands.  He has done it; it is finished.  This is liberty.  The magnification of sin will wear down your soul, and steal the throne He was always meant to sit on.  If He isn’t there, you’re bound in religion.  It’s the master plan of hell masquerading as holiness.  But I tell you that HE is holiness, and you are in Him.  End of story.

Life, and life abundant.  Pleasure forever more.  The spirit of truth who leads us.
Bless the Lord. I’m free at last.