How to Walk Free

The life of a Christian is one of faith that works by love.  But maintaining our freedom does require a walk and living by faith.  

Colossians 2:6 says the simplest way to walk free.  “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

This is HOW we got started and its how we maintain our freedom. I am living life to the fullest and renewing my mind constantly to the fact that I am a new creation.  “Old things are passed away and behold all things are become new.”  I am in rightstanding with God and through His grace I can live by His ability that works from the heart. 

When I say,  “walk by faith” I am referring to  a daily walk choosing to believe what God has said about me already.  When it seems like everything including my own actions aren’t lining up with the process,  I begin daily acknowledging every good thing that is in me in Christ Jesus. Not everything I see in the natural realm would get me a gold star.  There are some things that are not good about me on the outside….but God isn’t finished with me yet!  I am not excusing my shortcomings.  I am realistically trusting in God to enable me to change. 

Our life was not to be focused to be on right or wrong or about good or evil.  The devil is the ultimate legalist.  He will nitpik us all to death.  God gives us His directive on how to overcome in  Galatians 5:16 “ So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  Or to paraphrase it, if we are walking by the Spirit we won’t fulfill the desires or lust of the flesh.  Am I yielding to Gods ability that made me righteous? Am I living free in my heart following what the Spirit says daily? 

Here’s kind of  how it works with me. I wake up sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit  trying to recognize my first emotions of my heart.  Are they thoughts of fear or guilt or pressure?  If so, bringing them in captivity or trying to determine the root or origin.  If I’m feeling guilty because I haven’t accomplished what I set out to do this week or if I have a problem with some bad thoughts or a bad dream, then I look to the Spirit of God who helps my infirmities and prays and makes intercession for me.  I pray in the Spirit with peace that is already there because the Spirit lives in me and His solutions  surface and I release that emotion that is trying to keep me bound up all day.   I sometimes have to go much further in dealing with the beliefs of my heart.  But I have a commitment to allow the Holy Spirit permission to work in my life and heart.  I am not smarter than God.  I know He has the best plan.

You see everything in your life is determined by belief of your heart. Proverbs says, “As a man thinketh, in his heart so is he”  I must get real and deal with the beliefs in my heart.  When I think on a promise in Gods Word, what are the emotions in my heart saying.  What do I really believe about that?  You might say we’re not to be led by our emotions and that is true.  But to deny them altogether is another mistake. Our emotions can really be an indicator to us of what is going on inside and what I believe at heart level.
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We were designed from creation to live in God’s presence and to live in the peace that rules in our heart.  I often ask myself, “Is my heart in peace?”   What are the beliefs that are ruling in my heart?  
God through His Spirit is there to show you the hidden motivations of the heart so you can rewrite on your heart God’s truths until peace rules in that area. In the Amplified translation it reads, “And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ's] one body you were also called [to live].”
 
For example, most recently I felt our church growth was an an impasse.
I tried to figure it out.  Was it the worship service, my preaching or the people?  I went to God to get wisdom and he showed me a belief I had that was limiting the growth.  One was the way that I saw myself.  The other was about not believing that I had the systems and structure in place to facilitate the growth numerically.  Every time I thought about growth my heart would feel inadequate.  This contradicted that fact that I knew it was Gods will for  us to grow.  I was more in tune with my feelings of inadequacy rather than what God’s Spirit was saying.  So I decided to deal with the beliefs.  God has raised up some systems people to help organize our ministry departments.  After dealing with these aspects we have seen an immediate and progressive growth. 

We cannot deny how we feel in our heart if we want lasting change.  We all have pain in the past to some degree.  We often anticipate future pain.  We don’t reflect and consult with God in our heart.  That’s where He has told us to have a guard.  God said out of it flow the issues of life.  God lives in the heart.
 
So are you going to do whatever it takes to rewrite on  your heart?  New beliefs are yours for the living out. These new beliefs replace old ones that have only kept you in the pain and limited you.
 
In Philippians Paul says: 4:9, “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.  We can learn also from Paul’s ways.
 
The Berkeley Version of the New Testament translates a verse out of Timothy with the phrase by saying Timothy “will remind you of my principles of BEHAVIOR IN CHRIST JESUS,” or as the KJV states, “shall bring you into remembrance of MY WAYS WHICH BE IN CHRIST.”
 
Paul does not send the new covenant believer back to the Law of Moses for New Covenant ethics; rather he argues and reasons Christian ethics from the truth of the believer’s identification with Christ in his death and resurrection.
  
God’s belief system is that ALL things are possible to him who believes.  First, you must believe that Jesus has made you righteous and qualified you for all the promises.  Paul tells us in Colossians 1:12  “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light”.
 
Our time investment now is renewing our minds to this and persuading our hearts to be settled in it.  When that happens the transformation we desire is effortless.  Instead of focusing on making the outside look good—lets work on the inside. Our labor is to rest in what God says is true – is exactly that.
 
When I feel like I am walking free of sins dominion is when I understood that I had the freedom to choose.  I am no longer a slave to sin.  I am not under law, but under grace.  What do I really want?  I get the choice. I can live by  what I was designed for, the Spirit life of abundance. If I sow to the flesh I will reap corruption.  (Gal 6 )
 
God picks us up when we fall.  Or as it says in His Word in Proverbs 24, “for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again…”  He is such a good Father and He guides me into truth.  It is my decision to follow His leading.  The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.  He doesn’t operate by force in our relationship.  He is leading his children into His best.  If you feel like the description in my book, you may have read,  as a ‘dung beetle’ caught up in a performance trap.  Freedom is yours already.  It’s a choice to believe you are free.  It’s a choice to persuade my heart that I am holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight.  Paul told us that very thing in the letter to the Ephesians in chapter one, verse 4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[3] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”  Its amazing to think that is how God really sees us.
  
Paul trusted God to reveal to him anything that needed to be changed.  He sought God with all his heart. He was not INTROSPECTIVE.  He depended on GOD to keep him walking the straight and narrow.
Being self-analytical can be a big inroad of Satan into our lives.  Those who are not seeking God have no other choicel.  They have to evaluate themselves.  For those who are seeking God, He will take responsibility for pointing out the things that need to be dealt with in our lives.  We can leave it up to Him. Allow him to bring about the change.  As you have this sense of acceptance, He can work the transformation from the inside out.  --Phil 3:15 says, “Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
 
Will you be real with God and understand He knows what you believe in your heart anyway?  Do you have such a value for God’s view and opinion that you are willing to give up your own? Then you are free to live your dreams.  Dreams to help Gods people know the truth about His goodness will manifest in reality.
 
 We must have a revelation of Gods passionate love for us not based on what we do but based on what He’s done.   If my identity is established on what God says about me and not what others may think.   I do not have to perform well for acceptance by God.  I do not have to be right to be justified that I am ok.  I don’t have to have a quota of production on a daily basis to feel worthy or valuable.  I am now walking in the simple knowledge and revelation of being pleasing to God because I am His son.  Sons are accepted because of our inheritance in the family and not our performance.  I pray you’ll live in this freedom too.