Freedom Frees
During my quiet time with the Lord, I was praying about what my next blog post should be, and the Lord gave me the title “Freedom Frees.” At first I didn’t understand what this title meant, but the Lord later revealed to me that “Freedom in Christ Jesus has the power to free people.”
When you think of freedom, what comes to mind? For me, it’s chains breaking, flying, and taking a huge, unrestricted deep breath. If asked to define freedom, I would say that it means being unbound by any oppression or oppressive force. In Christ however, I’m learning that true freedom is marked by a life fully surrendered and yielded to the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is freedom.
How is the Holy Spirit freedom? Well, this is a fact that I’m still working out for myself, but I’ll share with you what I know so far.
The Holy Spirit makes us better. Where sin and iniquity would keep us constantly fallen to poor choices and poor decision-making, the Holy Spirit raises us up to a greater standard and brings forth the best version of ourselves in every situation.
The Holy Spirit gives us insight and wisdom through our obedience. I can’t tell you how many times following the directions of the Holy Spirit without questioning Him, resulted in incredible blessings. I’ll give you an example.
There was a time, shortly after my mother passed, that the Holy Spirit told me to call my grandmother. Now I love my grandmother, but I was at a point in my grieving process where I didn’t feel like talking or engaging with anyone. Despite this however, I was obedient and yielded to the nudging of the Holy Spirit to call her. The result was an enriching conversation that included memories of my mother in her youth that I had no idea about, but blessed me upon hearing them. Listening to the Holy Spirit allowed my soul to be fed in the way that Jesus knew I needed.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to tell the truth and shame the devil. It is this freedom from shame and regret that allows us to set other people free. Letting the Holy Spirit work in us and on our behalf, transforms us from the broken people we all start off as. When we are no longer bound by the oppression of our sins/vices/shortcomings or whatever it is that was holding us down, we can share openly how we arrived at our healing. In fact, we have the desire to!
I’d like to encourage anyone reading this who is in search of freedom. True freedom comes from a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit. When you relinquish control over your life to the One who knows you best, you find that you always have access to the best version of yourself, your needs (known and unknown) are met, you lead with love, and that you’re always in peace.
Til’ next time adieu!