Do You Know The True Spiritual Freedom Of Life In Christ?
True Spiritual Freedom
Spiritual freedom began for me twenty-seven years ago, the day I said “Yes” to Jesus. One of my favorite New Testament verses is John 8:32 because it tells my story.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
John 8:32
That’s my story and that is why I love God’s word so much. Before I met Jesus, I lived a life of rebellion, alcoholism, and made destructive decisions that continually led me to regret and shame. By the time I met Jesus at age thirty, I had made a mess of my life. At that time, the three words that best characterized my life were: failure, brokenness, and shame.
A few years into my faith journey with Jesus, after I truly began to understand my spiritual freedom in Christ, God called me to prepare myself to share my testimony.
He gave me a vision of my testimony from a spiritual perspective. He showed me how the devil worked in major points in my life and how he used bad experiences to bind me in spiritual chains. In this vision, each time the devil wrapped me in chains, I saw Jesus knocking. I also saw how the chains held me back.
I believed Jesus could never want someone as messed up as me, so I continued to try to manage the mess of my life on my own. Eventually I came to the end of myself, too weighted down with the chains and bondage of sin and shame to be able to go on without His help. That’s when I said yes to Jesus and He stepped into my life and began to remove the chains, one chain at a time.
Jesus Used My Children To Draw Me Back To Himself
Just before my 30th birthday, I felt the need to take my two daughters to church. My parents raised me in church and it seemed right to give my children the same upbringing. So, I decided to go to church for my children. Or so I thought.
It wasn’t long before I realized how much I needed to be in church. About six months into going to church every Sunday, for the first time in years, I encountered Jesus and the truth of my own sin and depravity. We attended a weekly Sunday School class and our teacher led us through a study on the book of Revelation. There, I met Jesus, accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, and began a journey getting to know Him.
Walking in this new life Jesus gave me was hard in the beginning. However, little by little I discovered and accepted what I once did not understand through the truth of His word. I learned that Jesus’ mercy, goodness, and grace was enough to cover my lifetime of sin. And one spiritual chain at a time fell off my life. My true spiritual freedom happened slowly in a process of growing in my relationship with Jesus through His Word.
It took several years for me to find true freedom from alcoholism and even longer to find freedom from the shame of my past sins, mistakes, and failures. In reality, lasting transformation and true spiritual freedom takes time. It is a process that happens in a slow steady walk with Jesus.
Deliverance And Freedom From The Bondage Of Alcohol
I remember one night after I accepted Jesus as my Savior still struggling with alcohol. I wanted to be free, but alcohol really had its grip on me. This particular night, my husband and I drove past a bar we frequented in our partying days, only a few months prior to that night. I told my husband, I could not imagine a day I would not want to go in that bar or ever be at a place where I would be free of drinking.
It’s been almost 20 years since I had a drink of alcohol. I don’t want to drink. I don’t think about drinking, and the last place I want to go is a bar. There are many other areas He transformed, but this one was a major battle.
Even though I wanted to experience change, my freedom from the bondage of alcohol came slowly because this was such a struggle for me. I wanted to be and do good, and act like I thought I should, but when you lived one way for a long time, sometimes change takes a while.
In the beginning not only does our life need to change, but our heart, and our mind has to change. This reminds me of an old hymn, Just As I Am, that I sang in church as a little girl. Just as I am was a real life picture of how I came to Jesus and how He accepted me, Just as I was – not cleaned up at all.
The Practicality of My Transformation
The way transformation happened for me is really practical and simplistic. So much practical and simplistic that I think many tend to dismiss it as not legitimate. We so often tend to opt for difficulties when an easier way stands soundly before us. The practical way I experienced transformation was, first and foremost, I genuinely wanted to change. And second, I did what I knew to do, I went to church and read my Bible, seeking to know Jesus. That’s it. Nothing else.
And slowly Jesus changed me. He changed me on the inside and it reflected on the outside. Just as John 8:32 is my freedom story. Romans 12:2 is my transformation story.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:2
Jesus renewed my mind that I could prove His good, acceptable, and perfect will. He did it in a transformation process of learning and knowing truth and experiencing freedom. As we learn and know more truth, we experience more freedom. This cycle repeats over and over again until we realize true spiritual freedom from the bondage of our sin, failures, brokenness, and shame. That is my testimony!
Once free from the bondage of alcohol and my old ways of living, I discovered another major chain I needed broken from my life. I needed freedom from the shame of my past that haunted me day after day. My all to vivid memory of my past kept me from fully serving Jesus. Every time I ventured out, I heard the enemy say, “Who do you think you are? Remember your past. God doesn’t want to use someone like you.”
BUT NOW
Now I realize the enemy used my past to hinder work I could do for Christ’s kingdom. No wonder the devil worked to keep me from realizing my true freedom in Christ. He wanted to shut me up and shut me down, and for a while, he was successful. But no longer. I know my true spiritual freedom!
I have been made free by the Truth of God’s Word and I am free indeed!
Do you know that true freedom? Is there any area of your life that you have not discovered the freedom Christ died for you to have? Think about your worst sin..
This morning I was thinking about a verse that was very important to me in my early walk towards freedom from the sin of my past.
“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”
1 John 3:20
Early in my journey with Jesus, my heart condemned me. I had a bad enough past life that it was very easy for me to see the bad in me, the bad I didn’t think I could overcome. I believed I had been too bad for God. But the truth of God’s word showed me that even when my heart condemned me and God knew the ugly details of my life, that He is greater. Condemnation doesn’t have the last word. Jesus does!
If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, He meant for you to experience true freedom. It’s His desire and plan for you and I to live free from sin, both past and present.
John 8:36 - “Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
Prayer for Spiritual Freedom
Take a moment to pray this prayer for yourself or for someone you know who needs to experience freedom.
Dear Heavenly Daddy,
Since Your Word is the practical way to experience true freedom in my life, stir up a desire within me to know You more and more through Your word. Help me to dwell on Your word allowing Your truth to trump the devil’s lies who wants to steal freedom from me. I want to live in the fullness of Your freedom. Thank You for giving Your life for me to be free from sin and have everlasting life. I need Your help to overcome and live victoriously, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Much Love and Blessings,
