Freedom and Liberty, God’s Way—R Fritz
People are talking about their Freedom and Liberty by their definition or their belief thinking about themselves. Man’s definition of freedom is doing what I want when I want it, and nobody is going to tell me I cannot do it. That is the definition of lawlessness. Freedom without rules is lawlessness, this is what the Holy Spirit has told me. When they leave God out of your decisions, they have freedom in their eyes.
Without Jesus Christ, sin rules in our life. This is what we were born into. We are slaves to sin and that is your master. John 8:34 says and “Jesus answer them, Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” In my case, it was 40 + years that I decided to live without Jesus Christ. It was I who believed I was free. Sin eventually causes life to have problems. Sin is the reason our body slowly dies as we get older. These are the consequences of sin and eventually eternal death.
When we choose Jesus Christ, we get the benefit that he took sin to the cross and the price for sin was paid forever. We just need to have a relationship and obey him. God has always had rules. Rules give us what is expected and the boundaries to keep us safe. John 14:21 says “He that have my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” God is love and all we must do is trust God. For some people that might be hard. It is a process of studying God’s word and talking with God and praying.
We went from servants to sin to servants to God. Romans 6:22-23 says “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin was us having no boundaries and doing what we want when we want. We were made to be righteous just like God. Without knowing God had boundaries, we might have tried to be holy or right, but we did not know God. We do not know his nature we only guess what God’s nature is and fail because we use human nature.
God was not done yet with us. God sent his Son Jesus and after his death, the Holy Spirit. Galatians 4:6-7 says “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” If you ask the Holy Spirit to live in you, you become an heir of God “a son.” Being a son gives you all the benefits in a Father-Son relationship except your Eternal Father is God and benefits are eternal life and a father that can and will change your heart and life.
Remember God has always had rules or commandments, starting with Adam. God had Moses bring down tablets for the people. Those tablets were tablets of stone. When the Holy Spirit came after Jesus Christ died, the commandments are written in our hearts and in their mind. Hebrews 10:15-17 says, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
With the Holy Spirit in our heart and mind, this becomes our conscience and if we love God, we will obey the Holy Spirit. This is when we get liberty and freedom, not freedom from God. If all the earth chose Jesus Christ and received the Holy Spirit by choice and decided to obey the Holy Spirit, we would need no other manmade laws. That seems like heaven and impossible. Impossible because evil is in this world.
Satan is here and our enemy is here to take every person down with him. Satan clouds the mind this is the battlefield for us to make every decision in our life. Satan is so subtle that many people believe whatever thought they get is their thought and act on them. They are a mixture of your thoughts and Satan’s ideas. They have made us who we were or are depending on where we are with Jesus Christ. We must know our enemy and study him or choose Jesus Christ and he will teach us righteousness and show us how to overcome Satan and overcome our old sin life (our past). 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” This explains our enemy Satin and his true nature. He is a fallen angel who was thrown to the earth from heaven. He knows what the sentence will be for trying to take over as God. Satan also knows what God has given us if we chose him and ask to receive the Holy Spirit. He is jealous and does not want you to have it.
Let me tell a story that happened this week. I went to a Bible study and we got into a discussion and it got into a deeper discussion. When somebody said something that was off-target of where we needed to go. I wanted to say something, but the Holy Spirit stopped me from saying what I was going to say, I was muzzled by the Holy Spirit. It was not the first time that happened. The next morning the Holy Spirit showed me pictures of things I was right about. The muzzling made me angry. I know why the Holy Spirit muzzles me. It is to keep the discussion going down the path he has set, sometimes my flesh gets involved and he knows what I am thinking and what I am going to say. He stops it by muzzling my speech. It is not that I cannot say what I see in the words the Holy Spirit gives me.
The Holy Spirit said to me “we should not muzzle the ox.” I had heard this before. This was a teaching moment that the Holy Spirit showed me. Deuteronomy 25:4 says “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.” If you have seen cattle, they are going to eat while they are leaving a cornfield and you should let them eat for working. What the Holy Spirit was showing me was I only stop (muzzle) what you say when they could change the direction the discussion is going. He showed me after somebody sent a text message comparing a football player to the second coming of Jesus Christ. I was angry and I felt the freedom or liberty to speak what I really felt and called the person out for mocking God. I was not angry at God.
The Holy Spirit showed me that “fear” muzzled me for over 40 years. That was why I was angry about being muzzled by the Holy Spirit. The muzzling is to keep us from falling in the ditch. You now understand where true freedom and liberty come from. Somehow man thinks they know better than God the meaning of freedom and liberty. It was created by God for us with rules. The rules are to keep us safe and keep us on a righteous path. They are not there so we do not have fun or do not enjoy our life on earth. They are there to make sure we make it to Heaven.
God loves us so much, gives us options for life but we choose the path. He wants you to have liberty within his kingdom. I choose to follow Jesus through the Holy Spirit and he knows what is best for me. If the Holy Spirit says I should not do or say something I will trust him.
Remember when Satan was your “master.” Everything was good for you to do. He lied to you and will keep lying to you if you let him. Choose Jesus and the Holy Spirit and live a life with true “Liberty” the way God meant for it to be!
God Bless.
