Freedom is NOW!

In the world we live, freedom is not a guarantee. In the United States, freedom has come at a cost, and usually a deadly cost through war and conflict.

However, in the spiritual realm, freedom is available, it's real, and it is powerful. Yet, too many of us are living our lives in a spiritually, emotionally,and psychologically self-imposed prison. We fail to see, because of our spiritual blindness, the level of freedom Jesus 0ffers us right now. There is no cost to us, except our willingness to be like a child and display a level of simpleness required to understand the ways of the Spirit.

The word simple used to conjure up negative feelings inside of me because, that must mean we are simple people with simple minds and simple ideas. And, that just won't do in this world of complexity, intellectualism, and individuality! However, I know today that response and view by me was the result of my pride and arrogance. I know today that you can still be intelligent and have a relationship with God and Jesus. I know from my own experience that you cannot combine intelligence with arrogance and false pride and expect a warm response by God.

I keep going back to Luke 19 and Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. I do, because the seed was planted by Andy Sikora, an associate pastor at Cuyahoga Valley Church during a sermon a couple of weeks ago. In that scene, Jesus rides into the city on a colt to fanfare and praise. However, Jesus weeps! Why? Because he, Jesus, knew that the people did not get the real meaning of his life and ministry. And, they were not going to get it before his crucifixion. "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?" This is what Jesus asked of his own disciple in John 14. If his own disciples were ignorant of who he was, then we must be careful to express spiritual pride in thinking we know him. Yet, we can know him through an attitude of unknowing. How? Through a childlike attitude that says the following, "Lord I yearn to know you, I thirst to know your ways every day, and that you will look favorably upon your wretched servant." The key is that we must never lose that passion and yearning to know Jesus, while at the same time admitting to ourselves we really don't know him. Because it's the ones who don't know that know and, well, the ones that know.......they really are clueless. This gets to the heart of humility and open-mindedness and honesty. In our natural lives we always put up a facade that gives an impression that is not congruent with what is really going on in our lives. We should be careful in doing that with God and Jesus because they already know.....they know us better than we know ourselves. We can act the saint in front of others, but we had better run home and cry out in utter ignorance that we know him completely.

Oswald Chambers writes the following in his book, 'My Utmost for His Highest.' "The mystery of God is not in what is going to be- it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event." This is why Jesus wept. We live our lives expecting some huge upheaval to take place that will liberate us from this sinful world. That is what the people of Jesus' day expected from him. Yet, God tells us that the freedom is here and it is now and it is not contingent upon Him doing miraculous things to be viewed in the natural world. The freedom comes when we become an empty vessel so that the Holy Spirit can take up shop. Freedom comes when we allow God the ability to perform miraculous things in the spiritual realm of our lives, miraculous things that can only be explained via the concept of numinous, not anything that can be detected by our physical senses.

He goes on to say, "We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children." There again, we must become childlike and display a level of simplicity that is a prerequisite for God to come in and give us the gift of the Spirit. And, we will be the last to know that we have become a spiritual person. That is the real acid test for whether or not you are spiritual! People will see it in you and define you as spiritual, not the other way around. We can never proclaim ourselves spiritual, for that precludes humility. And, humility is at the heart of spirituality.

May you all find the freedom that is available to you NOW!