In all our travels and connections, in all the meetings I have attended, I am thrilled to see how God is moving so many lives are transformed, thinking is being re wired and whole persons are being healed, we truly are in transformational times.    People  are maturing in every place, admittedly at different stages but maturing, little by little, big leaps towards growing up into God.

We find ourselves sitting with people from all walks of life, from lowly settings, from bush huts in small clearings, to large meetings with 1000’s of believers celebrating, to business men and women, giving advice and counsel to organizational heads, to CEO’s of huge companies as well as sitting with high level offices in world governments and royal palaces.    This gospel is amazing it reaches to all people in all spheres of life and breaks in with freedom.

Through the variety of places we visit we find that the large issues of life we find ourselves peeking into are quite similar, even when cultures are so different, people at heart level are the same, the same never mind where it is, or who it is with.   One of these issues, that can appear to be fleeting and sometimes even elusive to people is the issue of LIBERTY/ FREEDOM.    The desire for this freedom is high, we all know that freedom  belongs to us, it just a matter of where, how and  when, do we encounter it.     At every level and with every person we find the deep conviction that they should be free.

We often find that as we join churches, congregations, organizations and events that should be liberating that we are put into a straitjacket, and liberty and freedom is again curtailed.

A clear and recurring theme of Apostle Paul, spoken of in many ways is the cry or the shout of “Freedom“, Romans 8:14-19, 21, 28-39 Reminding us that all of creation is waiting for this liberty, the liberty of the sons of God to fill the world completely.

It is not only Pau that speaks of freedom but it is also in the red stuff, the red ink that is, it is a recurring theme in Jesus vocabulary John 8:31-32, 36.    It is there for it to become the recurring theme of our life as well

We are promised freedom, socially, politically and in our in attitudes.     Our world continually presses fantasies of freedom upon us:

Buy this….

Have this….

Use this….

Belong here….

Our experience however even with all the products available, is a world lacking in freedom, with all its promise it’s freedom it is fleeting and most people give in to living in lack, slavery, bondage and or boredom.

We have freedom of religion but it has not made us free – cults and other religions pressing enslaving superstitions continue to proliferate.    We meet only to be regularly inhibited, defensive, subjected, enough the world around us can say you are like this or that, they stereo type us and freedom passes by again.

In the middle of all this there are realities of freedom around us that are there to enable us to enjoy this freedom.   “God is free”.    He created the world in freedom and the people in it freely not out of need but in his own freedom, putting his freedom into all he created, all creation is an extension of him.    Creation came from within him, from that other place that is Him, from the unseen into the seen realm.     This creation has in its fabric freedom and liberty just like the creator.   I see it as the reason that creation Is waiting the reveling of the sons of God as they long for that very freedom given to us.    At the center of all is Jesus the free-est person that you would ever come across.     He was so free that he was able to declare “…I have overcome the world…” (John 16:33; 18) a chapter or two later we read how he stood chained during his arrest and yet was clearly able to clearly recreate for us what it looks like to be free, a overcomer, to the eye these chains certainly did not give the outward appearance of freedom!  But he was FREE!

The Holy Spirit is free, he is like “…the wind that blows where ever it wills…” this Holy Spirit produces freedom, liberty as once again the Spirit reproduces His nature.   When the Spirit leads me, when I live in faith, I live FREE – our testimony is this, when Christ is the center of my life vast FREEDOMS and surprising spontaneities begin to be seen.

When life becomes centered in my will, my freedom is diminished.

Our lives are to grow into the FREEDOM of the Kings Rule, of the Kingdom of Christ, as we pray your Kingdom, come freedom, come so I can be me!

How can I awaken your appetite, hunger and thirst for a free life?  This freedom found in Christ is a gift we can offer the world. Slogans, dogmas, great sayings and quotations don’t really do anything.

Discover freedom and receive it, as Paul “…took hold of that which had taken hold of him…” has this freedom taken hold of you?   Freedom is a gift; it is also a skill; a gift provided for us in Christ.   A skill that must be experienced and walked out by each person

Paul a specialist in the matters of freedom 28 times he talks about it and brings it to our attention in his writing, there are only 8 other mentions in the NT remainder books.   The book of Galatians brings us face to face with the freedom Paul has found and wants the whole community of God to participate with and be filled with.  A book aimed at restoring vigor and passion to a life of faith to confront the world with the free life of Christ.

I have heard it said that the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen was filled with treasure, and people said “Wow that’s living”, contrast that with the empty tomb filled of the Christ of God filled with freedom – Jesus out of emptiness poured out a freedom to live, rather than leaving us lifeless gems that will disintegrate.

In the creation story of Genesis 1, God creates Freedom that is LIFE, the new testament tells us he gave us “…life and this life MORE ABUNDANTLY…” the story in Genesis 3 tells us that humanity chose death, which by its nature is bondage, but we have been delivered from this death to a new life of liberty, freedom. Romans 7:24 “who will deliver us from this death”

In order for the story of FREEDOM to be told we must begin with God (Genesis 1) we have been brought unto a FREEDOM TO LIVE.   Therefore LIVE.

We are to show men and women today the beginnings of the pathway that leads to freedom, that moves credibly and concretely into the freedom of God.   Have no doubt the goal of God is to unite such as heaven and earth, man and God in union Christ in us is the expression of the united life and this life is fully expressed by Freedom, becoming a measurement of a restored, redeemed world, the church of God producing that very freedom, in all people and creation.      Union with God is freedom for this is true liberty.

Leonardo Da Vinci when he sculptured great forms from large block of marble or stone would say he saw the from, the shape, the body, the person in each stone or marble his goal was to simple liberate the shape/person from that block, to bring form to the unshaped rough stone, bringing liberty to what he saw inside.   God did the same to you and me and we are to continue in the same vein, through our words, actions and sayings liberate and bring freedom to ALL that we touch every day.

Da Vinci showed again in the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, the painting of the creation, in which humanity and God sits in the exactly same position, depicting that mankind is created in the image and likeness of God.   Looking behind the depiction of God he painted a shape that is somewhat like a human brain, in that mind are other faces, the first of a woman and many others, showing that God had humanity in his mind from the beginning.        The picture is there to display the liberation of a freedom group called mankind that would be his church bringing freedom to whom ever and where ever they go

Let me shout Freedom, Liberty into YOU!

Feel it, let it break you out; let your inner person arise…Freedom!

So what should I do?

Feel it.

Dream it.

Ask yourself what does your freedom look like?

Take pen write what it looks like, and then add a strategy to bring it about.

Ask yourself, what needs adding to you in order that you can experience this?

What needs removing in your life form around your life to launch it?

Start your life with it Now.

What will you notice if you begin to walk in Freedom, and liberty?

YOU ARE FREE DO NOT SUCCUMB TO SLAVERY AGAIN IT IS NOT THE HOLY SPIRITS WAY NEVER MIND HOW GOOD IT SOUNDS.