I’m a sucker for a good war movie. The 2000 blockbuster “The Patriot” starring Mel Gibson is one of my favorites.
There is a scene in the movie that shows an exchange between a white militia soldier and a slave who has been serving in the militia after being signed up by his master. The slave is looking at a poster on a sign post in the town where they are gathering supplies which states that “any slave who serves the Confederate Army for a period of one year will be granted freedom at the end of his service.” He stares out into the sky with a look of wonder and says “Only six more months…” The white soldier looks at him and says, condescendingly “Boy, what are you gonna do… with freedom?”
Our Pastor, Bishop Tony Miller, has been sharing a series on Freedom for the past few weeks. In this series, he is teaching the differences between deliverance and freedom. This series is radically changing lives in our church.
One of the major downfalls of many “deliverance” ministries is that people do not understand what to do after they experience or receive deliverance. They do not understand that there are two different aspects to this concept of being free from the things that come to bind and distract from Gods purposes in their lives. Because of this misunderstanding, many people receive deliverance and enjoy it for a short time, but then end up back in the same place of bondage because they did not know how to walk into freedom.
Deliverance is an event which places a person in a position to move forward in their life. Freedom is the process by which we walk out what was done for us in the deliverance.
In Galations chapter 5, verse 1, Paul encourages us to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
Bishop Tony points out that deliverance is done for me by removing me from the “environment of the oppressor” but Freedom is an experience which requires my willingness to be responsible for my own life and becomes a reality through the knowledge of God invading my life. Paul tells us in Philipians chapter 2, verse 12 to “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…”
I encourage you, today, to consider the areas of your life where you need to exercise the freedom that Jesus has provided for you and begin to “walk out” that freedom!
God has provided everything you need to be free from anything that binds you or hinders you from being everything He created you to be. You can begin today, right now, to experience the freedom of God in every area of your life!!!