The Holy Spirit Brings Freedom

One of two "tamed" cheetahs at Chaminuka Game Park
This week I got to see an amazing sight. I got to see two full grown cheetahs. They were big, majestic, and muscular. There was only one unfortunate thing. They were shut into a fenced-in enclosure. Now, that was probably a good thing for me and my family, but the reality is, a cheetah was not created to be fenced in. A cheetah was created to run free, to use its speed to take down prey in the open grassland.

God also created us to be free. But when we live to please our flesh, our sinful nature, we make ourselves slaves to sin. Romans 6:16 poses the question: Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 

Jesus says in John 8:34 Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Everyone. Jesus didn’t offer qualifications. He demonstrates that we’ve all offered ourselves as slaves to sin. This is not God’s will for our lives. Galatians 5:1 tells us 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.

We were not made to be slaves, but we were slaves to sin. No question about it. So Jesus came to set us free. Listen to his words from John 8:31-32. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Most of us have heard this before. Most of us know that the truth isn’t just a concept or a right thought. Here are Jesus’ words from John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We know that Jesus himself is the Truth, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. If we have accepted Jesus and hold to his teaching, then we know the truth, and that is the truth which will set us free.

But the fact is, we can be like the cheetahs I mentioned earlier. But as we know Jesus, he has opened the gate for us to go free. Indeed, 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So the gate stands open, and we all celebrate it, but then we stay inside the enclosure! You haven’t walked in freedom. This is sometimes a side effect of Christian evangelists and preachers who lead people to the altar and leave them there.

The big question, then, is how to walk out of the enclosure of sin. The Bible tells us that those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:14). It is the Holy Spirit who leads us out of the enclosure of sin. One of the concepts throughout the New Testament is death to self. By the Spirit, put to death the misdeeds of the body, and you will live. (Romans 8:13).  In baptism, we can see a picture of our lives being buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, dead to sin, and being brought out of the water alive in the Spirit.

Living this out is not simple. It’s not automatic. Some people think that when they become a Christian, they will automatically be sin-free. That doesn’t happen instantaneously. When I was a boy, I was taught that the steps to being a Christian were confess your sins, repent, get baptized, then “live the Christian life.” That was said as if it was simple. I thought Christian adults had no problems living like a Christian. So I must be strange because for me, living the Christian life was hard. And is hard. But I take consolation that the Apostle Paul found it hard as well, as he recounts in Romans 7.

It is only by the Spirit that we can put to death the misdeeds of the body. We are called to put aside everything that is not godly. So when we return to sinful behavior patterns, we are going back into the cage of sin. But the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Romans 8:26

Walking by the Spirit, out of the cage of sin, takes spiritual discernment. It takes knowing what the best thing is; what is that good work that God prepared in advance for you to do? It takes vigilance. Is this of God, or not? So traditional spiritual beliefs and practices have no place outside the cage. They do not lead to freedom, nor do they help you maintain freedom. They are simply another form of slavery. Walking by the Spirit takes practice. It doesn’t come naturally. A Christian walk is similar to an athlete, who works hard and conditions his body. We do our exercises which make us stronger. What kind of exercises do we do? We call them spiritual disciplines.


Reading the Bible. Studying and meditating on the Bible. By the way, if you are interested and available, we are doing a Bible Study at Mavies’ house on Wednesday afternoons at 15 hours sharp. Our own Youth initiated this Bible study, but it is open to anyone. Fasting and praying. Serving the poor. Visiting the sick. Feeding the hungry. Spending your time with the Spirit, listening to his voice, obeying him. And when you exercise like this, you’ll find yourself more and more drawn to the freedom that only he can give!

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