We are free people. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Here in Romans 8:1-4 (The Message) we read how God has freed us through the work of his son Jesus.
The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms
8 1-2 With
the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved.
Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live
under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation.
The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently
cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at
the hands of sin and death.
3-4 God
went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the
problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he
personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of
struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law
code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never
have done that.The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
This is so amazing. Here in this place of justification we partner with God in the area of sanctification. We have been Justified...now we walk in the throwing off of the old and putting on the new.
Think of an orphan, who grew up with no influential people to help care for him/her. This orphan received no support structures, in any area of his/her life. Then along came a healthy enough family who finally adopted the orphan and said, "you belong!". Here they showed love, grace, mercy, guidance, forgiveness, loving discipline, this child, no longer an orphan is put in the families will, and has a bed, food and now belongs. The adopted child needs to throw off abandonment, rejection, fear, isolation, coping strategies, and embrace and put on a new identity of belonging, security, safety, inheritance, etc.
Will this be an easy process? Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. Often the child will have to wrestle and work through emotional, relational and spiritual wounds, that affect his/her thinking, especially about themselves.(Am I really worth something? What if I'm abandoned again?) They can also reject the families affections and health they want to give. So wounded, the child may live behind a self protective wall, unable to receive any good the family has to offer.
In essence that is us. We have been adopted by a Father whose son the King of Kings (Jesus) has not only accepted us but seeks to minister to us every day. We have access to the Father because of this great King, not by what we do or not do, but because of our belief in the King. He clothes us in righteousness for his name sake and gives us a new identity and inheritance.
Even as we are free, we can still enslave ourselves with the old ways of thinking. These are often well trained patterns of thought which enslaves us in emotional, spiritual and even physical poverty. We can be enslaved to ideas, thoughts, and the ways we self identify.
This journey to FREEDOM is in essence a call I feel the Lord drawing me into and I welcome you on the journey. I sense the Lord drawing my heart to expectancy, rather than poverty.
I was reminded this week of a prophetic word given to me years ago. The person saw me sitting in a prison cell, it was like I had resigned myself to live in the cell, but the door or the cell was unlocked and Jesus was calling me to walk out! I have walked out, but I know how easily I can succumb to lies that the enemy uses to draw me away from living free, or better still, when I create a panic room of safety, which is not into the trusting and safe arms of Jesus. I'm declaring that I will demolish the panic rooms of self preservation and coping strategies and run toward Jesus, no matter how I feel, or think and ask Him to minister to me. Would you join me?
Today, think of your freedom. How has God set you free? Do you know you are free? Do you feel condemnation? If you do, where is it coming from?
Take time to reflect and ask Jesus today, to minister to you His Truth.
Read Isaiah 61 & Romans 8
Prayer:
Jesus, I think you for your ministry. I'm so grateful that you have set me free by the work you did on the cross. You have released me from the power of death and condemnation and given me eternal life. Thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit to be my counselor, fill me anew with your spirit. Empower me Jesus to know your truth not just in my head but in my heart. Jesus, I confess my unbelief that you aren't able to meet all my needs, help me in my unbelief. Father God, thank you for adopting me. For your love that cannot be measured because it is never ending. Thank you for the ways you knit me together in my mother's womb and formed me to be your image bearer. Help me God to submit all the lies that I believe about myself and others and help me to believe the truth that is living and active in the very nature of Jesus. Amen
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