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You are created for freedom!

Gal 5:1
1It 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.

Are you longing for more freedom? We all desire freedom and want to find a way to live in freedom. Many believe that if they can decide what they want to do, even if there are rules or demands involved, then they have freedom. But, they soon find out that their choice usually results in bondage. If I feel free to use drugs, this option will not bring me more freedom, but I’ll become bound and addicted to using drugs.
What is it to live in freedom? It is not to just do what you want, following your own desires and lusts. The fullness of freedom can only be found in Jesus and by following Him. I will share with you how you can find the way to freedom.
God has created us for freedom, but because of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, we all arrive in an imperfect world. The world is full of things that will bind us in one way or another.

What brings you into captivity?
People experience much hurt in their life, not only physiological but also psychological and the psychological wounds often take longer to heal. Some wounds take many years to heal if you’ve have been hurt badly, and this hurt binds you.
Fear and sin are common areas that bind us. Even sickness can steal our freedom. How can we be delivered from all of this?
In the Bible the word freedom (Greek: elevtheros) is often used when a slave was released. The devil is a master to many slaves, even many Christians. Many are slaves to sin, fear and condemnation. I have been one of his slaves. When Jesus came, He gave us the ability to be free from our old slave master, and in Christ we can be totally free! God has made it possible through Jesus, but we have to make the choice and fight to live in freedom. The following scripture describes what happens when we are no longer under the lordship of Satan, but under Christ who delivers us. The word salvation (Greek. Sozo) also means deliverance. We don’t have to work for our freedom; we receive it for free. The only condition is that we want to have Jesus as Lord.

Eph 2:1-9
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful natureA and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

To see the truth
To become free, we need to stand firm in the promises that God has given us, and not remain under the old thought patterns that have kept us captive.
In the letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks to the Christians who wanted to go back to the law, or what they lived by in the Old Testament. They believed that you could receive God’s mercy by doing good deeds and not by undeserved grace. This is a trap that the enemy still uses today and it leads to bondage. It is important to see the truth the Bible gives us so that we do not put on burdens, which are not from God. More will be given on this later.
Paul uses the expression “the yoke of slavery” in the first scripture presented (Gal 5:1). The word yoke is not used much today, at least not in the western world. A yoke is a piece of wood that is cut to fit over an animal’s shoulders for carrying heavy loads, or for other work. For instance, it is used on bulls for plowing a field. A yoke is something that guides you in one direction as the master leads you. You do not give the direction, your master does. It is dangerous and harmful to be under the wrong master. The devil wants to be your master and direct your ways. He wants to put his yoke on you. This is a heavy yoke that makes you weary. But Jesus also wants to put a yoke on you, which is the opposite of what the devil wants. His yoke is easy and does not give you heavy burdens, but sets you free!
Matt 11:28-30
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

So, there is a yoke that Jesus wants to put on you, but this yoke will bring you into freedom and out of bondage.
To come into freedom you must take on the yoke of Jesus, in other words, let him be the Lord of your life. It is best that He decide the things in your life; He has created you and knows the best way to freedom. So, the road to freedom starts here.

Different areas of entanglement that could cause you to fall under the yoke of the enemy will be discussed, and then steps will be presented to set you free.

But first, meditate on these scriptures.
Joh 8:31-32
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Joh 8:36
. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Is 61:1-2
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,A 2to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

The Yoke of Lies

The enemy has managed to create many thoughts of lies in our minds, both about ourselves and about God.
God gave us a command in Matt 22:37-39 that sums up the law.
37Jesus replied: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.'C 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

To love God
If you don’t see God as a good God wanting the best for you, you won’t love Him with all of your heart. The devil bombards our minds with thoughts of lies. You must recognize where these thoughts are coming from, because when something bad happens, you may blame God, instead of remembering that God wants the best for you.
So, the first thing you need to do is to tear down the strongholds in your mind, so you can love God more.
2 Cor 10:4-5
. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

It is in our minds that the enemy attacks us and makes strongholds. The best way to tear down these strongholds is to gain knowledge about who God is. The Word is our main source to learn about Him. But, reading the Bible is not enough; you need to apply it too! Knowledge about a person is not sufficient, you also need to have a personal relationship with them. I know a lot about Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway, by reading about him in newspapers and magazines, but I don’t know him as a person. It’s the same way with God. Through the Bible you read about Him, but you don’t know him personally until after you apply the Bible into your life, and then you get to know Him more and more. Let’s look at scripture that talks about God’s character. When we read the Old Testament it often seems like God is an angry God that wants to take revenge. But is that true? No! If you look closely you will find a God that is slow to anger and rich in love (Ps 103:8).

Lets look at a scripture from Isaiah.
Is 49:14-16
14But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."
\5"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
16See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.

The prophet Isaiah wrote this to a people that had repeatedly and continually done many things that were evil in the eyes of God. Read Kings to know about all of the horrible things the Israelites did. God even called His people prostitutes because they fornicated with other gods. (See Ezek 23). Despite this, God says that he will not forget them or leave them. What a God He is! How do you think God looks at you? Has He forgotten you? No! Like a mother that doesn’t forget her child, so is God towards you.

The Psalms convey other things that God said to these same Israelites.

Ps 103:2-13
3who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
4who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
5who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
7He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
8The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
9He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

Again, this shows us something about God’s character. He does not deal with us according to our sins or what we deserve. It doesn’t say that if we sin there will be no consequences (See 1 Samuel 11), but that He will still love us like a father and not reject us, even when we sin.
The more we love God, the more we are able to love others and ourselves. That’s why it is so important to know God and His character. He is not a vengeful God wanting to punish us for every little thing we do.
You might have a negative association when you hear the name father (or mother). Your father may criticize you for all of the things you have done, and he doesn’t forget them either, but continually reminds you when you do a similar act. Or, it could be that your parents have put high demands on you and you feel that you have never reached up to them. Maybe they are very moody, and you never know when they will get angry. One day your parents could be in a good mood, another day they will get irritated over small things. All of these thoughts spoil your understanding of who God is, and bring lies into your mind about His character. Because your parents have placed high demands on you, you feel that God does the same, and you feel you have to do a lot to satisfy His demands.

God is not tolerant
A word of caution: we need to remember that God is a holy God, and He does not tolerate the wrong things we do. Another lie the devil tells us is that God is tolerant, which does not bring us freedom. God is a patient God and He waits for us to repent. After we repent He forgets all the wrongs we have committed and doesn’t hold them against us.
Psalm 103:10
he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

So, the first step toward your true freedom is to see who God is. This helps you to love others and yourself.

To love yourself
When you realize how you are created in God’s image, you will be free to love yourself. To love yourself doesn’t mean to worship yourself, but to accept the person you are, which includes your outward appearance and your personality. Here, the world has fouled many of us up with lies that are told to us by television, films, and magazines. Some believe that you need to have a body like Julia Roberts or to be cool like Leonardo Di Caprio. But what is really cool or pretty? Are the world’s standards different then God’s? Yes!! You are different and unique, created by God. He didn’t make a prototype of a person but he has made you one of a kind. Maybe you are trying to be like these popular people or somebody else, however you will never accomplish this, because you were never meant to be like others. You will never be free until you accept this fact.
I have struggled with this a lot because I was a very shy and quiet person. For many years I had a hard time accepting this, which caused me to become even quieter and more insecure as a person. Slowly God has delivered me from these thoughts, more in the last few years, but some is probably still left. God has really worked in me.
The first thing I had to do to become free was to accept my personality. Before I was always focused on my weaknesses and how I should have been. The turning point was when I started to focus on my good skills, abilities and potential and then developed them.
This was not easy for me, especially in the beginning and it has been a long process, but I can say today that God has delivered me in many ways (read more about this in my teaching “God wants you.”).
I have been throughout the world a lot and it is fun to see what different cultures value as pretty and popular. Some years ago I was in Ethiopia with a mission team. One day our translator thought he was giving a compliment to one of the girls on the team. He said: “You have gained weight.” The girl was extremely offended, but the translator meant it as a compliment. In his culture, it is acceptable to have extra weight; it means that you are wealthy.
Here in the west we do all that we can to get a tan because it is connected to beauty. When I am in an Asian culture I see the opposite. They try to cover themselves up so they won’t get tan. To be white is beauty. In all the films and TV series in Thailand you almost only see very white Asian people. They look like Europeans without a tan, even if they are Asian.
So beauty (or the way we behave) is often connected to culture. Remember that God has created you uniquely; you are beautiful in His eyes. No one can take that away from you! Start to love yourself. God has given this command, and it will set you free. You don’t need to be a copy of anyone else, there are already enough of them, but you can be free to be the one God has created you to be!

Psalm 139:2-18
1O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
5You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths,A you are there.
9If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
12even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.

To love others
When you are free to love yourself, it is also easier to love others. It is difficult to love others if you don’t love yourself. A sin we often commit is to envy others that have more success than we have. We become self-centered, bitter and feel sorry for ourselves. Did you know that to not envy is one of the Ten Commandments? It is the last one: You shall not covet. That’s why Jesus also says that to love God and your neighbor as yourself sums up the whole law. Not only the Ten Commandments, but also the whole Law of Moses, as you can read in Deuteronomy and the other books of Moses. (Deuteronomy sums up what the other books have already said.)
When you start to gain more knowledge about God, get to know Him better, see who you are in God, accept the one He has created you to be, and then you will be free to love yourself and others.
If you are not free, you will have a difficult time setting others free.

The yoke of fear

Is 41:10
10So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

I believe fear is the number one thing that keeps us in bondage - fear of failure, fear of accidents, fear of sickness, fear of not getting well from a sickness, fear of men and so on.
The Bible says, “fear not” at least 84 times. (I have heard that you can find one “fear not” in the Bible for every day.) God knows about this yoke of fear, which is why He has mentioned it so many times, but even still we are so easily fearful.
Fear comes from lies. The enemy loves to put lies about God in our minds. If we really knew God fully we would know that he is trustworthy and we would not fear. He is the truth, and when we see the truth, the truth will set us free (John 8:32). The truth is that God will set you free from fear.

Love drives out all fear
1 Joh 4:18-19
18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us.

Remember that God loved us first, and there is nothing that can make Him love you more or less. This is why we are able to love Him back. Remember that to love is to choose to do an action and not a feeling. If we choose to love God it will help the fear go away. The fear will go away the more we love God. Some may think that this is too difficult, because they fear too much, so they must not love God. But remember that God has a lot of patience, and He does not condemn us, because He has loved us first. If fear has been your master you won’t be free of fear in one minute. God knows this. He wants to give you hope so you can be totally free.
When the devil shoots his condemning arrows some even start to fear the fear itself. If you are thinking: I can’t love God because I fear too much, then you have fallen into condemnation and fear the fear. God’s intention is always to set you free, not put a heavier burden on your shoulders.
What God is saying is: “Look at me and the love I have for you” He is hoping that this will bring you into loving Him more.
In many ways God can be compared to a man that is totally in love with his bride. He wishes to awaken the love to the one He loves. Even though He can meet some resistance and hard times, He doesn’t give up. God will never let go of us, but He is not importunate so he can also draw back. He respects your no, but it also hurts Him.
God showed His great love towards us when He sent his only begotten son, Jesus, down to this earth. Many didn’t, don’t and won’t receive this free gift of love.
To love someone is a choice, it’s not a feeling. We have been raised up to believe that love is all about feelings, but first of all it is a choice. You choose to be a child of God; you may not always feel like one. But, I am glad that God gave us feelings so we can feel our love for God, His love for us and our love for each other.
By the way, the Bible uses a lot of pictures of us as the bride and Him as the bridegroom. (See Songs of Songs and in Revelation).
When we see the great love that God has for us, we will be delivered from fear. When He wishes us the best, what do we then have to fear? If God is for me, who can be against me?

Rom 8:31-39
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul wrote this to the Christians in Rome. They experienced brutal times with persecutions, and had a lot to fear from Nero, the Roman emperor at the time. He was one of the church’s worst persecutors of Christians. For instance, he used the Christians as torches in his private amusement parties. So, they were facing death all day long and were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Many of us don’t experience this kind of persecution today, so we don’t have as much to fear physically as they did. Still, there are Christians today that are persecuted and killed in different countries and for them this scripture and knowledge about God must be a great encouragement.

Fear of men.

Scripture tells us that we don’t have to fear men.

Psalm 118:6
6The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

What is the source of fearing other men? Why do we have it? Fear of men comes from the fear of doing something wrong or unnatural, or we wish to avoid confrontation.
If you are a perfectionist, or being rebuked by a person that is a perfectionist, then I believe you are a person that struggles with the fear of men. You are afraid of making mistakes, because of the consequences.
When it comes to consequences, what will be the cost if I make a mistake in God’s kingdom? Often, it is just our pride that gets hurt.
Whatever fear you are struggling with, the above scripture is for you. What can man do to you? Man can take your life, but the only result is that you get to heaven faster. When God is for you, who can be against you? God is greater than your fear. God is bigger than any power on earth. You are on the side of the Mighty One! God is for you! Do not fear!

I hope the things I have written help you. Remember it is a process, but you can start today! God is there waiting!

The yoke of Sin

Heb 12:1-4
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Sin has the tendency to entangle us. The reason that sin so easily entangles is that we experience sin as pleasurable. If sin just felt bad we would not do it. However, the bad news is that sinning will always bring consequences along with bondage.
The Bible gives us a prescription on how to overcome the yoke of sin. This verse from Hebrews is a key on how to win victory over sin.
Jesus was never under the yoke of sin. He was tempted (Matt 4), but He never gave in. The reason He did not sin was that He saw the victory before Him, and He knew the goal ahead. He saw you and me, and his love towards us made him not sin.
Even though Jesus won over the yoke of sin we still have a battle against it, but because He won over it, we also have the power to overcome it, if we want to, because it is always our choice. The gift of grace is available, but you need to receive it and act on it.
We could not become free without Jesus. His victory enables us to win.
The fight we need to fight is to have our eyes focused on Jesus and see the reward that waits for us in heaven and here on earth.

In situations where we get tired of resisting, the enemy can easily make us faint-hearted, but let us keep the focus on Jesus and what He did for us. Let it be an encouragement for us so that we will resist evil.
Let our eyes be focused on the race marked out for us. Then we can win the battle of freedom for our lives and save many others, even from hell.
Fear, in many ways, is the consequence of sin. The enemy tells you that sinning is good for you, but along with sin comes fear. He tells us that God is far away or that God doesn’t love you any more and so on. Also, there is the fear of others finding out about your sins. If you try to keep a public sin such as adultery hidden, it will definitely bring fear into your life. (Not all sins we commit are public, some are just between you and God)
17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

In the areas of your life that you allow the Holy Spirit to rule over, there is freedom. If you have areas in your life that are in darkness you are still in bondage. Be free by living in the light. Don’t let sin rule over you, but you can rule over it. Don’t misuse your freedom. Don’t think that if you sin today you will get forgiveness tomorrow. This will not bring you into freedom .
Gal 5:13
13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful natureA; rather, serve one another in love.

God is not a tolerant God that allows you to do what you want. If your heart attitude is not right, you misuse grace and risk ending up in the wrong place when you die.

The yoke of sickness

This is also a yoke that Jesus carried for us!
Is53 1-5
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Healing can be a difficult issue. Many claim if someone who is sick is not healed, it is God’s will. God wanted to use the sickness in order to witness to other sick people. They forget that one would be more effective healed, and would also be an example of God’s love and power.
I believe strongly that God’s will is for everyone to be healed. This is consistent with God’s nature, and Jesus died not only for our sins but also for our sicknesses. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Let your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” In Heaven there is no sickness so therefore it must be God’s will that His kingdom, which includes healing, will come to us.
The fact that some receive healing and others don't remains a mystery. Even though there are some answers, it is impossible to fully explain why some are healed and some not.
We should not add to our own and other’s burden by saying we do not have enough faith. If this was the case, our aim should be to encourage faith, instead of condemning it. Jesus never condemned this way. He pointed out the disciples’ lack of faith, but also helped them strengthen their own faith.
Another claim that many make is that it is God’s will for someone to be sick. But if that’s the case it becomes very difficult to believe in God for healing. To believe in healing at least permits hope for recovering, but if sickness is God’s will there is no hope for getting better. If I then pray for healing, I would pray against God’s will. This is a wrong perception of God’s nature because it reveals a God who will not give good gifts to His children.
Over the last year I have struggled with a disease that no doctor has been able to find a cure for, which at times can be very frustrating. Lots of people have prayed for me, with no apparent improvement. But I have decided to trust in God’s goodness, and that He, in time, will completely set me free. If healing is delayed, I will still believe that God is who He says He is and that He will heal me.

Don’t give up

Winning your freedom can be a big battle, but don’t give up. I have tried to give you some keys on how to become free. This is just a start, but I hope it will help you in your process. The most important principle is not to give up. Don’t ever settle down and think that you have to or can live in bondage, live always in the hope of being delivered, even though it can take some time. Don’t let go of your freedom!

The power of forgiveness
Don’t let other people rob you of your freedom either, by words or by acts that have been committed or are being committed against you. Remember too that it is a great power of deliverance in forgiveness. If you won’t forgive others, then it is yourself that binds you, not the person who has hurt you. When you let go of bitterness it will enable God to come with His power so you can overcome your bad memories (you will still remember, but the feelings that bound you will be washed away).

Remeber that you are a conqueror! You will make it! You have the strongest One on your side!

Rom 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.