FREEDOM!!

In service today Auntie Elsie preached about having the spirit of God in you. She gave example from the Creation, to Isaiah, to Jesus of the necessity of having the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit brings revelation where problems seem to overwhelm you. He gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding when even the wisest and smartest people on earth are confused. It's interesting, because I have several issues that I'm facing right now that I need a revelation that is beyond the natural. I know that the solutions to these deep problems no one can give me but the Lord. It will take spending time in His presence, and walking in the Spirit to give me these answers.

I also remembered today that the way I will live righteously and in purity is not through my own power. It is by the spirit of God. I cannot forget that HE is the One who strengthens me.

After the message Uncle Olu began to speak freedom to the congregation, and we spent some time in prayer asking that the Spirit of God take control of our lives, and that He would manifest Himself in us. We also prayed for freedom to walk in His spirit and to do the things that He has called us to do. There was a time of deep worship and prayer, and by the end of the service, the Lord had completed some things in me that He had started from the time I woke up. I know that He is calling me to a deeper place in Him, and with each call I must leap. I know that I can no longer walk in fear. Everything that I do must be in Him and Him alone.

Several verses are sticking out to me as I've been typing, and I am going to put these references here.

2 Corinthians 3:¹²Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. ¹³We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. ¹⁴But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect^a]">[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Woo! Very intense...

Looking at the last two verses, it all hits me hard. When we turn to the Lord, "the veil," that blindness, that hindrance, that thing that keeps us from understanding, wisdom, and knowledge; that thing that keeps us from advancing into what God has called us to--it is removed!! Where God's Spirit resides, there is freedom. Now what does this freedom provide? What does it entail?

Reading Galatians 5 you can conclude that:

One, Christ made us free from the bondage of the law of sin and death, meaning, that we have life in Him and in His Spirit. The law of sin and death bound us to this world and to our flesh. Accepting Christ made it so that we are no longer bound to our flesh, but are made free to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

Two, though we are free, we are not free to do whatever we want. This freedom goes as far as righteousness and righteousness alone. Anything outside of righteousness binds us once again to this world and its lusts.

God keeps opening my eyes more and more to what life is without Him. I am so blessed to have turned to the Lord when I did. I could be in so much bondage right now, but He has made me free!!! I have a new confidence in Him that I didn't have before, and I believe that this new-found freedom will allow me to focus on Him and His mission: to show the world His love and to draw men to Him.