Freedom. Full freedom, in Christ. Freedom to rest in His protection, to be released from your old self that has passed away, to live as who you are called to be.
Freedom isn’t a side effect of the gospel of grace. Freedom is what we receive when eternity is secured in Christ. It still takes a level of personal accountability, we must guard our freedom. False prophets and partial truths from the enemy have been trying to lead believers astray since the dawn of Christ’s good work. We must be careful to acknowledge that the freedom we receive in Christ, isn’t some sort of permission to sin freely access. Instead, we have the permission to freely worship and serve one another. Freely giving of our time, money and talents – because at the end of the day, they all belong to God anyway. We have the freedom to trust that God will use all of these for His glory and we can follow His lead as the vessels through which He chooses to work. What beautiful responsibility to be entrusted with. His grace says that you are enough, you no longer have to strive to attain perfection to be worthy of the Kingdom of God. Even a child knows, none of us could ever earn that on our own. Paul reveals that there is an ongoing battle of the flesh and the Spirit. But flesh could never inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh strives for earthly glory, greed, immorality, gluttony and temporary pleasures. While the Spirit seeks God first and produces a good fruit. Others should be able to see by our lives that we are feeding off of God, in the same way that a plant grows fuller and brighter when given the correct nourishment. Do you see the fruits in your own life? Do others? Is there no doubt that you are producing:
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love
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joy
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peace
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patience
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kindness
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goodness
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faithfulness
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gentleness
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self-control
Let you love for Jesus and your true freedom in Him leave no doubt that you are actively choosing to live for something greater than yourself. Our victory against sin flows from our identity in Christ, it’s not something we can achieve on our own. The Spirit is alive in you and wants to move. Are you so desperately leaning in to God’s teaching that your desire is to allow the Spirit to move you?