Monday, September 10, 2012

Acknowledging Ridiculous Freedom Through The General


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

   The more I fight against the enemy alongside The General, the more I learn about my position He has placed me in. He is showing me that I can't attain freedom, no matter how hard I try, through virtuous acts of compassion, obedience, or even attainment of freedom by following the ten commandments, although these things are good, they are not a key to gates of unrelenting freedom The General has in store for us. Freedom comes from surrendering your life to The General. The passage of scripture found in Romans 6 deliberately points us into the direction of eternal freedom.
 "Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living."  -Romans 6:12-18

  The first part that stuck out to me personally was "Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin". Ouch, I'm learning that giving into my habitual sinful nature that my flesh so radically desires, is actually an instrument, tool, and I'd go as far to say a weapon against The General to assist the enemy in his battle. Okay, I get it, if I give in to habitual sin, that is only nature to our human bodies due to the fall of man, I serve the enemy in fulfilling his desire in secretly breaking me away from the enemy and ultimately breaking The General's heart, the question now is, what should I do instead?

  In the second part of verse 13 The General says "Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God." Something I'm learning about The General daily is that He is an extremely jealous General, He wants us, He wants His praise, His obedience, and His devotion from his warriors, He doesn't like it when His warriors serve the other side. The General instructs us to give yourselves completely to Him. That means declining yourself in order to for Him to incline, which can be exhausting, and at times painful, but it is worth it in the end, because later He says "Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead you live under the freedom of God's grace." Hallelujah, we are free! 

  Now, I find myself making mental loopholes with The General that are simply lies from the spies of the enemy. The spies tell me that "If by grace you are saved, you are free to sin" which in turn gives us a mental justification process which in our minds redeems our crimes against The General. The General, being aware of these lies made it clear in His manual that those thoughts are nothing but deceit and tools of the devil to try and slip us up, for He says "Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God!" The General clearly admonishes the enemies lies, and tells us to no longer sin, for we are no longer captive to the enemy, but free from death, and eternal death. Our habitual nature determines who our master is, no matter what we're slaves, but we can choose who our master is. One master guarantees death, and the other master guarantees righteous living, I think the choice is obvious as to which is better. What I just said is repeated again in the next verses "Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living."

  Now that we know how to live in freedom, we must not only acknowledge the fact of what to do and not do it, but to take these weapons The General has given us in his word to fight the enemy and claim victory and freedom in the only one who can promise freedom and righteous living, The General. To wholeheartedly obey his teachings, to no longer be a slave to our habitual nature of sin, and to proclaim victory in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

  God Bless
  
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