Free Indeed

My Utmost For His Highest

“[…] if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty— the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.” CHAMBERS

While talking with a good friend and Brother in Christ last night I was reminded of something that I heard when I was with Promise Keepers.  “You can’t lead where you won’t go, you can’t teach what you don’t know and you can only recreate what you are.”  Chambers stresses the same point by saying ‘IF’ we ourselves are free.  Before we can lead someone to freedom, we ourselves must be free.  Sound like a no brainer?  Sure, but people give advice all that time that they themselves are not willing to follow.  They know what they are telling others is the right thing to do and want to encourage others to do it for their good, but if you should examine their lives, you would find that they, themselves, are struggling.

Now let’s talk about the paradox … liberty found in absolute the control and authority of Christ.  Liberty under authority.

God created us in His image.  People marvel at the beauty of nature and at the detail and interconnectedness.  But nature displays its beauty and harmony under the authority of the Creator.

‘In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.’ (John 1:1-4)

Like the rest of His creation, our lives are fulfilled as we live in under His authority.  Living in Harmony with our Creator.  A bird has no choice … each one builds its nest exactly the same way the birds of their kind build nests.  But God has given man volition, the ability to choose.

‘Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:26-28)

God has placed man over the earth.  People struggle over the way that we have not fulfilled our duty as stewards of God’s creation .. of course they don’t describe it that way.  Rather than cultivate the earth and nurture it, we have striped the earth of its resources, polluting the air, contaminating the water sources.  So we make laws, raise awareness, protest, as if those things will change the heart of man.   What those same people don’t understand is the true source of the problem.  The source of the problem is that human race is not living under the authority of the Creator. There is ‘liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.’

Give your life to Jesus, surrender all, follow Him, love God with all your heart … there are so many ways that the same point has been made … It is only when we live under the absolute control and authority of Jesus do we find peace .. hope … joy … are we in harmony with God and others ... and then we find true freedom.

‘[…] if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.’ (John 8:36)