We may be free (saved by Grace) but are we free indeed (living a victorious life at peace within)? That is a question only answered by cutting to the core of who we are in our human experiences. It requires honesty and strength to assess our thinking, feelings and motivations.
"Cutting Questions"..... Are we dressed in designer clothes, driving a fancy car, and living in a nice house but steep in debt because we want to impress people? Are we educated, full of knowledge/know how with resources available to us but afraid to take the necessary steps to pursue our dreams/ideas/purpose? Do we walk away from a relationship (family or partner)but take with us bitterness, anger, insecurity, the inability to freely love or be loved again? Do we serve in church, faithful to church folk but our home is in turmoil...we can't seem to transfer the love and service we provide in church to our family? Are we about to wreck our future, running from our past? I may not have described your prison in my previous questions but I hit mine.
What is your prison (fear, anger, bitterness, insecurity, unforgiveness, shame, pride, judgement...)? Are you drinking out of the contaminated cup of what your parents an ex did to you...slowly dying and becoming weak from its poison? We often trade one prison for another. Free but a bad temper or sensitive when a situation/experience triggers a bad memory (feels/sounds like something he/she did).
There is a difference between a runaway slave and a freed slave. The runaway is free but always looking over his shoulder...hiding,.. never trusting...free but can't forgive.., can't love again...afraid yesterday will catch up with today...running from the draw/craving of a drug....running from past mistakes. The freed slave is constantly reminded that wisdom is born out of mistakes. It is our mistakes that inform us. If we cannot admit what we did wrong than we will never grow to freedom that makes us "free indeed". "....The truth shall make us free..." - John 8:31-32.
When we write the books we read, our truth is twisted...history books often reveal that. Sometimes in our effort and fight for freedom we bind someone else. We don't talk about what our freedom costs the people around us. We can't admit that our efforts for freedom causes us to manifest behaviors against others that have caused adverse results in us. We want freedom at any cost.
There are often innocent casualties in our fight for freedom. We have to be willing to acknowledge the casualties we leave behind to truly be free indeed. We can't walk in truth if we are not willing to tell the truth. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit" - Romans 8:1.
When we reach a place where we can walk past/experience something/someone that used to trigger negative behaviors/feelings and it no longer controls our actions, we know that we are no longer conditionally free but now positionally free (free indeed)!
Resources - "Freedom Costs", TD Jakes sermon & The Holy Spirit
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