TIPS FOR FREEDOM 2
1 STAND FAST THEREFORE IN THE LIBERTY BY WHICH CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE, AND DO NOT BE ENTANGLED AGAIN WITH A YOKE OF BONDAGE.
13 FOR YOU, BRETHREN, HAVE BEEN CALLED TO LIBERTY; ONLY DO NOT USE LIBERTY AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FLESH, but through love serve one another."
Galatians 5:1,13 (NKJV)
• Some important things to note in order to keep walking in Freedom:
I. Do not compromise your faith, that is, your stand in God.
• Without holiness no one would see God, thus, you should not lower the standard with which God wants you to live your life as an individual believer (Hebrews 12:14).
• You should not compromise because of ephemeral things (Hebrews 12:16).
• Your faith refers to your salvation, your stand in God, your fellowship with God, your belief and convictions, your experiences in God, that is, things God has taught you practically in your walk with Him, and things you have learnt through other godly leaders.
10 BUT YOU HAVE CAREFULLY FOLLOWED MY DOCTRINE, MANNER OF LIFE, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance,
11 persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 YES, AND ALL WHO DESIRE TO LIVE GODLY IN CHRIST JESUS WILL SUFFER PERSECUTION.
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 BUT YOU MUST CONTINUE IN THE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE LEARNED AND BEEN ASSURED OF, KNOWING FROM WHOM YOU HAVE LEARNED THEM."
2 Timothy 3:10-14 (NKJV)
II. Your prayer life should not nosedive.
Your prayer life determines the level of control you have, both in the physical realm and the spiritual realm.
You live in freedom when you are in control. And a believer is said to be in control when he or she could take authority over things, challenges and circumstances, through prayer (Luke 10:19).
A believer who is lazy in prayer may not experience an enduring or lasting freedom.
III. Your focus on God or total dependency on God (Psalm 121:1).
• Some believers experienced freedom in one area of their lives but do not in other areas because their trust in God is not absolute.
• Some have freedom in finances but not in their health.
• Some experienced freedom in their careers, but not in their marriages.
• Some are yet to be free from the lust of the flesh; lying and many other besetting or ensnaring sins (Hebrews 12:1).
If your attention on God is not total, you still have other things or people as your focus apart from God, your freedom might not be total.
Thus, you should have total dependence on God, and your gaze should not be shifted from Him:
17 NOW THE LORD IS THE SPIRIT; AND WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY. 18 BUT WE ALL, WITH UNVEILED FACE, BEHOLDING AS IN A MIRROR THE GLORY OF THE LORD, ARE BEING TRANSFORMED INTO THE SAME IMAGE FROM GLORY TO GLORY, JUST AS BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD" (2 Corinthians 3:17,18).
You should remain constant in God (Philippians 3:13,14). Remember, If you looked unto Him, you will not be ashamed: "THEY LOOKED TO HIM AND WERE RADIANT, AND THEIR FACES WERE NOT ASHAMED" (Psalm 34:5).
IV. Do not be weary in doing good (Galatians 6:7-10).
Giving is a means of freedom. It is an agent of deliverance.
However, your conviction on it must be strong otherwise you may get wearied on the way (Galatians 6:9,10).
There are things which the devil would lay in your mind, or things you hear from the people, that may dissuade or discourage you in Giving; thus, you should sieve whatever you allow into your mind (Proverbs 4:23).
The devil knows that if you Give, your freedom would be secured; thus, he would want you to fight against the principle—Giving.
Whoever hates the principle of Giving, according to the Scripture—arguing or shying away from it—cannot experience total freedom.
V. Be at your appointed place
If you are in a wrong place where God has not planted you, you may not enjoy total freedom.
If you failed to know or recognize your appointed place, you may stay long in your predicament.
God does plant, when you move from or leave where God wanted you to be, you go into oblivion.
If you are not in your place, the place where God wanted you to be, you may perpetuate your predicament and captivity.
Thus, do not rebel against God's delegated authority over your life (Romans 13:1,2; 1 Thessalonians 5:12,13; Hebrews 13:7,17). Stay and be under the grace or the anointing that God wanted you to be!
VI. Mercy and favour
When God's hands of mercy and favour rest on you, you are shielded and preserved from whatever calamity or evil.
Through favour you do not struggle to get things done in your life (1 Samuel 2:9).
Although, you will need to be diligent in prayer and the study of the Word, yet it is God's favour and mercy that keep the enemy at bay—ward the enemy off.
VII. Live a praise life
Cultivate the habit of praising God.
God is enthroned in praises: "BUT YOU ARE HOLY, ENTHRONED IN THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL" (Psalm 22:3).
Praise keeps the enemy, the devil, off in your life.
The devil cannot withstand the atmosphere of praise and worship, and cannot be where God is enthroned.
If praises enthroned God in your life, then, wisdom demands that you should keep at it, keep praising God, for His presence to be constant in your life.
You will not fail in Jesus' name. Peace.