No hold on me: Part one
Freedom reigns in my world, just as it does in Heaven, for Christ is the Lord of both. As it is in Heaven, the manacles that once held me no longer hold me. I am most certain of this, for God’s Word says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1)
I have been set free – for freedom. And I have been set free – in so many ways.
I am free from restraining curses.
I have been separated from everything dangerous and oppressive that would harm or restrict me in any way. I now live in open spaces where God has removed all nuisances, curses and/or hindrances in my life. There remains nothing to hold me back from fulfilling God’s perfect will.
- Things declared to me, over me and on my behalf by significant people in my life no longer ensnare me.
- Curses brought about by the unholy vows that I have made have been broken.
- Scourges produced by the unbridled doubts that I have fostered have been annulled.
I am free from imagined and actual danger.
So many of my inhibitions have been caused by empty imaginations: mental or emotional images of something that was not actually real. While they have had no substance, they have had such a stronghold on me. They appear as walls, but are revealed as facades that crumble as I learn to walk in the freedom I now have in Christ.
I am set free also from many actual real dangers. The crippling effects of anxiety, for example, lose their hold on me as I learn to declare the faithful provision of God in the face of financial stress. Or the instinct to accelerate out of an intersection that I had skidded into on a slippery wintery night meant that my wife and I were spared from being t-boned by an oncoming vehicle, even though it was by mere inches.
I am free from binding oppression.
The crush of Satan is gone and the burdens of abuse have departed. I am becoming free from the untrue impressions of what God my Heavenly Father is like and what he expects. Gone also is the oppression brought on by the sense of failure I have carried, along with the intolerable guilt I carted around.
I am free from wearisome limitations.
I am moved from the restraints and miseries of earthly frailty into a place where my actions are becoming a manifestation of my glorious condition. When I am wronged, I return justice. When I am hurt, I release healing. When I am weak, I am truly strong.
I am not limited by what appears to be limitations. This is so because a) the limitations may be only imagined limitations or, b) if they are real, these limitations actually become opportunities for God to manifest himself as … unlimited. In other words, my limit becomes the starting line of his limitlessness.
I am free from things forbidden or denied.
As God’s kingdom governs my world, I am moved from oppression into liberty, and enabled to do things which my religiously legalistic community, in its false piety and counterfeit humility, may have once censored. Now I am free to be what was previously forbidden or denied, either because a) I believed the “if-only” doctrine that says, “If only I had this … ,” or “If only they would do this … ,” or “If only we were like this … ,” etc., “then we could really fulfill God’s intention for us,” or b) many things censured were actually not; they were merely dos and don’ts created by those who did not fully understand Christian liberty.
I am free from old thought patterns.
I used to believe what I felt, without question. I used to believe what I was led to believe, without question. If I felt depressed, I believed depression was part of my make-up. No question, there was something wrong with me. If I felt discouraged, I believed I had good reason to be discouraged. No question, if my plan did not work out as I had expected, I had a right to be disheartened. If I was anxious, I had good reason to be. No question, if my economy was unstable, I had good reason to worry. Or, if I have had a family history of heart disease and cancer, I had good reason to expect to suffer from the same illnesses.
Now, under God’s rule, I do not need to be encumbered by what I feel or what I am led to believe. Now I am free to question what I feel, and I am free to bring the truth of God’s Word to bear on all things communicated to me, be they sentiments, opinions or whatever. I am free now to trust his Word alone to determine the outcome of my life. I am free to let his truth define who I am and to let his promises determine where I end up. I need only align my patterns of thought with his patterns of thought, so that the messages I nurture agree with the messages he alone is conveying. I do not have to foster a single thought about myself that God does not have about me.