Discover Your Freedom

The greatest freedom is the freedom from one's own self.

Freedom to exist as you are, with the same Freedom to change who you are.

The Lord has demonstrated throughout history, that They only have imperfect people to partner with.

Thus, they have to (will) meet you where you are in life; often within your capacity to comprehend them.

It is different for each and every one of us. But He helps us by giving us examples of these variations of people and interactions for us to broaden our comprehension. Examples we see both in the Bible, around us now (books and testimonies), and throughout history.

We each dwell in our own limited "freedoms"... yet the Lord's Freedom has not limits.

So, though we are (in our own perceptions) free, we are actually entombed and encrusted in our strongholds.

This is why the Lord will always meet us where we are. Remember though:

That just because He meets us there, does not mean He wants us there.

And just because we see Him there, does not mean He put us there.

The Lord Loves and Desires so much for us to be free from that which so deceptively binds us.

How do we become free then if He wants us to change?

He always gives us a choice to want to change. That "still small voice" that contradicts our instinctive ways to do things is our opportunity to change.

The freedom He has granted us is that ability to choose His way or my way.

But what if I don't know how to do it His way, even when I hear His voice instructing me?

It's not up to you to figure out how. It's up to you to say yes, and Him to do the figuring out.

But what if I still choose not to (even if I don't mean to not want to do what the aloud instructs)?

He will continue at each and every variety of opportunities to give you again a choice.

Remember, His choice brings all those feelings of anxiety and hardship... not because He is bringing the anxiety and hardships, but that it is your own flesh (old self) resisting God by itself manifesting the anxiety and hardship. It does NOT want to change.

And this is so extremely frustrating to me. I always feel that, because God dwells fully in me, that anxiety and hardship should never even have to exist. Like: He is God and should just override my flesh and its debilitating response to change.

For me, life should be "smooth, peaceful, and easy" because the Almightly Father is in me! But that's not what He promised. And thus, I am learning what my responsibility is with Him dwelling in me.

Because freedom is not that things go smoothly, peacefully, or easy... it is that when we are without those, that we are Free to exist in spite of anything that comes our way.

My flesh will NEVER go away in this lifetime. The Lord knows this too. Jesus had it too.

I fully dislike discomfort, yet am learning more intimately (deeply / thoroughly) about what that discomfort is about.

It is about change (stemming from choice and obedience).

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If Jesus was perfect in every way (as God on earth), why did He need to learn obedience?

Hebrews 5:7-9

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.

Was it that Jesus didn't know how to be obedient?

No, it's that Jesus came to understand in its absolute fullness what it looks like to be obedient to the Lord when everything around you is trying to get you to "do it your own way" or someone else's way.

What is obedience without the choice to be obedient?

What is believing in the Lord if there is no choice to believe?

Sometimes it's the Lord Himself presenting the choice to us (to turn to Him in reliance). Sometimes it is the world presenting us with the choice to turn to our own ability or understanding (to not stay turned to the Lord).

God presents the choice to follow (obey) Him when we are currently following our own way.

The world presents the choice to follow (obey) it when we are currently following the Lord's way.

In both cases, the flesh presents itself to tempt (persuade you) as to be the one you obey instead of the Lord.

We reap from those choices then--of the flesh unto destruction; or of the Spirit unto Life.

And sometimes, it is from that realm of destruction (from the flesh) that we in-turn can become more discerning of the "spirit of the flesh" vs the "Spirit of the Lord". Even learning to respect obedience more through what has been lost from when the Lord speaks the opportunity for obedience.

Remember though, no matter how many times failure comes your way (your own choices or those choices made by others), the Lord will always be with you. That, in whatever choice we do make, the Lord stays with us... whether choosing the world or choosing Him.

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To repeat (from above):

This is why He will always meet us where we are. But just because He meets us there, does not mean He wants us there. And just because we see Him there, does not mean He put us there.

So yes, He meets us where we are right now and every now.

So why does He not want us there if He meets us there?

Because He already has been giving you and everyone the same choices to do as He shares for us to do (for a Life more abundant).

And where we are has less "abundance" than where He can lead us to.

The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

That is not a place (reality) I like living in.

But you can say, "well, that is where I feel I am at... and if I see the Lord here where I am at, that must mean He put me here (wants me there)."

NOPE!

So then, who put us there (where we are)?

The culmination of your choices, other people's choices, and all the aspects of living in this current world (no thank you Adam).

{Yet as much as we want to blame Adam, we would have made the same choice they did.}

In essence, where we are is the reaping of what has been sown... whether your own actions, plus (or) those of other people, plus (or) that of a corrupted decaying world.

Oh how that all sucks.

But remember, He will never abandon nor forsake you.

Take My yoke, its easy... being yoked to Jesus means He has to go where I go (good or bad, pain or pleasure, joy or sadness, loss or gain, war or peace, feeling alone or feeling connected).

So, here comes our part again... change. Changing me. Changing my response to what the Lord shares (i.e., making the choice to do what He says). And changing what my response is to other people (in responding to the Lord's guidance).

Not because all our troubles will go away (you may be obedient to a word, but not everyone else will around that word).

So then, He gives another word for us to navigate through the next part.

We live in a world of landmines.
The Lord wants to guide us from stepping on one.
But that doesn't mean we won't get hit by the shrapnel
of someone else's mine that got stepped on.

There is freedom, both in where you are and where you are being led to.

And the greatest freedom in the now is to allow yourself to exist in the now with the desire to have the Freedom to respond as the Lord responds to each and every situation... Free from the limits of your flesh.

The Freedom to live with your mistakes and the Freedom to live with other peoples mistakes.

How?

Because we actually do trust the Lord that He can bring Good (better) from it all.

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2 Thessalonians 3:1-4

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that you may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which He command you.

"For all men have not faith" is not referring to a non-believer. It is that (whether a believer or not) that not everyone does everything the way the Lord does (you, me, anyone at any given moment--not all moments--but moments).

Faith simply is the manifestation of God in your life. Those everyday things, that when a decision comes on how to do it, it is done from the Holy Spirit in us in the way the Lord wants it done.

We all have a choice to act / react / behave in and from our our Spirit (Life) or flesh (bringing destruction).

As a believer, we fail at this every day; our strongholds make sure of that.

The more we expose, recognise, and break down those strongholds, the more freedom we have in doing from the Spirit.

Concurrently, the more we expose, recognise, and enforce the Spirit, the more freedom we will have from those strongholds.

This struggle to put aside the flesh (what we have been programmed to live in) is the hardest challenge in our life, for the entire course of our lives.

The freedom to do outside of your programming.

The freedom from not only having to do it the way I was programmed to do it.

The same freedom to do, with the same freedom to not do.

And overcoming the fear that keeps us trapped in only that one programmed way.

Never quit the Change.

Push into the Fear.

Discern why the Anxiety.

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Anxiety reveals an area inside me that needs healing.

When I heal that area, the anxiety associated with it goes away.

For me, the anxiety is often rooted in my past and my programming.

The anxiety I experience in so many life-situations, aren't because of the now situation, but because of what was programmed in me from in the womb.

This programming is so intertwined into my being, that it is not just one thing that needs healing, but countless things.

Pull on one thread, and the other threads pull taught to resist even more.

But the healing is necessary for the anxiety to go rescind.

Sometimes we get to that healing by addressing the past in compassionate insight and understanding (to heal that wounded child); unravelling those threads.

In a way, we the healing we gain is the freedom to do something (or do life) a new or different way.

Other times, those threads get dissolved, not by healing the past, but by overriding the programming.

By pushing into the fear to make the choice the anxiety is resisting you to make, we find the freedom from the anxiety on the other side of it.

Biblically... removing a stronghold that is keeping me from being free in that area of my life.

This either, the freedom to do something, or the freedom to not be controlled by something.

Once free (whatever that freedom is), I then get to experience the righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit--the Kingdom of God in that area of my life.

Because, that healing aligned that part of my life with how the Lord wants it for me.

That I wasn't aligned with the Lord before being healed was simply my stronghold ("sin") in that area.

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The Lord doesn't promise us freedom from others,

the Lord promises us freedom from ourself.

Luke 11:21-22

When an armed strongman (our flesh) protects his palace (stronghold), his goods are in peace: But when someone stronger than him (Christ) shall come upon and overcome him, he takes from him all his armour wherein he trusted (our programming), and divides his spoils (setting him free from the stronghold captivity).

John 8:31-32

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:36

If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

John 16:33

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Philippians 2:12-13

Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation (healing) that comes with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

1 Peter 1:9

Receiving the end of your faith: the salvation of your soul (emotional realm).

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So how do we know when we are free?

You'll know it's the Truth, the moment you feel Free (John 8:32).

Freedom is the witness of coming to deeply (intimately / sexually) know the truth about anything in your life.

In this life journey, sometimes I think I've come to understand something; but it hasn't truly set me free. Yet, that deception of "thinking I'm free" only keeps me trapped.

But if I don't stop pushing into the fear of facing my stronghold, I can get to a point where, ah-ha!, that freedom truly does manifest in that area of my life.

I have also found that there can be different levels of (steps into) freedom in an area of healing (some entangled with other areas needing healing); but there are those moments when the healing (intimate truth) manifests forth a Freedom that feels: lighter (less burdening), unhindered, palpable, clear (mentally, emotionally, physically), without the fears (laughable at what kept me bound), and just FREE.

For me, this TRUTH is chased after. This knowing is not just a matter of mental knowledge, but a KNOWING that entails desire, sensuality, intimacy, want, pleasure, joy, detail, exposure, openness, vulnerability, engagement, touch, feel, exploration, and satisfaction. All of which resonates and connects to your heart, soul, mind, and body. 

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DISCOVER YOUR FREEDOM!

(What is free to/for you)