No Longer a Slave [Part 1]

Many times, people live in bondage. They may have been set free from whatever seemingly holds them bound, but a lack of understanding of their freedom makes them captives in their minds, which ends up becoming what they experience in their lives.

For instance, certain prisoners were given a presidential pardon by the President of a nation. This pardon covered any and every offence committed. It also covered any and every kind of sentence meted out. On hearing the news, many received it with joy.

The President didn’t only pardon them, he went ahead to grant them immediate employment into his personal staff.

Now I know you are wondering who does that! Who pardons hardened criminals and employs them immediately? But just stay with me for a little while, and you would see clearly that this ought to be the experience of every Christian regardless of denomination (I wonder how that word slipped into Christianity because I am yet to see it in scriptures). But that isn’t our focus today.

After being moved and liberated from the shackles of imprisonment and the putrid stench they had to face daily in the gallows to the presidential residence, many of the prisoners found out that the “world” out there still related with them as ex-convicts and not as members of the president’s staff.

This brief analogy is the experience of many Christians who still live as slaves instead of as royalty  ( Romans 5:17 AMP, 1 Peter 2:9).

Our Lord Jesus while speaking to the Pharisees in John 8 made a categorical statement in verse 36 when he said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

This statement from Jesus was not him trying to crack a joke but him showing us the TOTAL liberty that we have in Him.

If we have been liberated, why on earth do many Christians still live as though they are still landlords of a prison cell?

Many reasons could be alluded to this, but I would highlight just two:

1} Wrong thinking, and;

2) Wrong teaching

We would begin today with how thinking wrongly has kept freedmen as slaves.

Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Majority of Christians are living in the “good” and “acceptable” will of God for their lives. But the utmost desire of our Daddy God is for ALL Christians to live in His “perfect” will for their lives.

Our adversary the devil is a master of mind games. This was the weapon he used to tempt Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and his strategy has NOT changed. He is a master at suggestions and at half-truths (which in many cases is worse than an outright lie).

Proverbs 23:7b says, “For as a man thinks in his heart so is he.” This scripture clearly shows that the outcome of our lives is a reflection of our thoughts.

Let's end today with the words of Mahatma Gandhi who once said, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, and your values become your destiny.”

Selah!

We continue later on “Wrong Thinking.”

Remain blessed.