I Was Craving For Freedom From The Shackles of The World!

Spiritually speaking no one is free. We are either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. If we are enslaved by habitual sin, we cannot free ourselves from it by our own efforts. It’s only done through surrendering ourselves to God. True freedom is found only through Christ, believing that the blood he shed on the cross has paid the high price for our sins. Some may say that they don’t habitually sin and therefore aren’t enslaved by sin. That is a great thought but in reality, we all seek freedom. We might be a slave to things that we don’t consider to be sin. For instance, maybe we don’t let go of our fears, past hurts, negative self-image, or obsessions with things or people, all which enslave us and rob us of peace. We can’t fight sin by focusing on it. The only way we can fight it is to let God change our way of thinking, replacing the world’s lies with the truth found in the loving word of God. That’s when we become slaves to righteousness. It’s a life filled with peace, joy, and harmony with our Creator.

“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” (Galatians 5:17)

imageAlthough I have felt the tug of war inside, here’s what I have come to realize; I must muster the courage to stop bowing to desires of my flesh and let the Spirit of righteousness free me from slavery to sin, leading and guiding me to peace and freedom.   I wanted to release myself from the desires of the world. But I couldn’t do it by my own effort, I needed a bigger power, the Almighty God to strengthen me.

While I was craving for freedom from the chains of the world and the flesh, heaven was calling me again, with new visions to consider. I dreamt I was sitting at the foot of a mountain for quite a long time. I meditated, prayed, and pondered whether or not I should take the journey it offered.

image I asked myself, “Do I want to stay here in this land of pain, in a land filled with empty promises, selfishness, fear, pretentiousness, and deception, or should I take this journey – a walk up a path with signs pointing to hidden treasures along the way?” The treasures were love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I had no doubt that this path was filled with truth! I was eager to know God, I wanted to know how to live a life filled with enduring peace. Also if you remember in my previous vision, I was standing at the bottom of a mountain when I saw, what from a distance, appeared to be a small, white bright house. I wanted to find out who owned this house, located at the end of the road that I had been called to take on my journey.

I awoke and it was back to reality again!!! My crawling on this steep road in the dream mirrored the struggles that I was having in real life. I wanted to release myself from the shackles of the world’s distractions and bondage. imageTo be free from the need to always please others or the desire of my own flesh. To live my life concerned only with pleasing God. For I knew that then everything else would fall into place. Spiritual freedom sounds so incredibly sweet – sweet as honey and precious as a jewel. I was craving it! So I finally took a step of faith and began the journey. There were many turns, twists and even a few setbacks. But it was in the detours that I learned the biggest lessons! I was slowly getting to know myself and others, and most importantly, I was beginning to know my God.

(Psalm 119:45) “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.”

During this journey I was completely aware of the visible world. But I needed to put all my trust into what I could not see with my eyes. How could I trust and keep going forward toward the heavenly treasures promised? Praise God! I had an army of godly people who were praying and supporting me. This army included my dear husband and children who were each on their own unique journey. But they all were witnessing God’s miraculous work in my life. I was getting fixed from the inside out. The changes were happening as the Lord unveiling His mystery. I could hear that the “deep” was calling to the depths of my soul.

Stay tuned for “Deep Calls to Deep”.

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight!

God was using His word in my life, unfolding it little by little to grow my faith. Oh, how I desperately wanted to walk by faith, and not by sight.
Lorraine Day, M.D. is quoted as saying, “Faith is more than positive thinking. Positive thinking will not produce faith. Faith is trust in God, and the only way to develop faith is to learn to know God.”
How can we walk by faith and not by sight? I have learned from my study of God’s word that just as He lovingly blesses us with free will, He also gives us both sight and faith. Our sight navigates our daily decisions but it sometimes can fool us and cause us to make wrong decisions, because what we see is not always truth.

This is what apostle Paul’s 2nd letter to Corinthians says, “For we walk by faith not by sight”. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
As a believer we must not fix our eyes on things that are seen, but rather on those that are unseen, things that will last for eternity. Walking by faith and not by sight is to trust God with all our hearts. To have such a faith is to live in God’s light, to fear Him, to obey His commands, and to choose righteousness over sin.

The road ahead of me looked steep and treacherous. It was causing me not to see imagethings clearly, but I trusted that God had already prepared wonderful things for me so I started gearing up for the climb. It was hard for some people to understand my journey. They thought that I was insane and doubted my faith, just as people doubted Noah’s faith in his era. I didn’t expect them to understand my walk and therefore took no offense. They probably thought that I had thrown my life away, when in fact, I found my life with the Lord.

Don’t you think that just like Noah, God has given you instructions to build your own boat and sail it to a safe place, blown by the breeze of His will? Or perhaps He has already built one for you, and all you need to do is faithfully get on board with Him and sail along. Oh my dear, I promise you, you will sail like you never before dreamed possible.

(Hebrews 11:6) gets right to the point: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Clearly, God doesn’t want us to rely on our sight alone. He provides something better to guide us than our eyes, a truth that we can only see through faith. By faith we can see reality. By faith we can see the work of God’s hand.

“According to your faith let it be done to you” (Matthew 9:29b NIV).

Walking by faith means to trust God in every circumstance and believe that God rewards those who seek Him. Therefore, as I began to put my trust in God on this journey, faith started to take root.

Let us both pray this prayer this week, “May God bless us all with the gift of faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed. May He help us to walk by faith and not by sight all the days of our lives. Amen!

image