Five Freedoms: Let Go Of!

1. Don’t worry

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. – Philippians 4:6 NASB2020

At Jesus’ first public teaching, Matthew records,

Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.- Matthew 6:31-32 NASB2020

Worry leads to doubt and doubt to unbelief and then the cares of this world spring up in us as weeds and thorns, choking out the word of God. As in the parable of the sower, the cares of this world.

And the one sown with seed among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, and the anxiety of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. – Matthew 13:22 NASB2020

Worry and anxiety are a constant pricking of thorns. They immobilize you and keep you from moving on, causing you to turn to the god of mammon, the deceitfulness of riches, the god of this world. Uproot the thorns of worry and anxiety in our mind in the name of Jesus!

2. Don’t live in the past

Do not call to mind the former things, Or consider things of the past. “Behold, I am going to do something new, Now it will spring up; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.” – Isaiah 43:18-19 NASB2020

Seeing we are a new creation by being reconciled to God, old things have passed away: BEHOLD, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW. The old man has been put to death, our sin nature canceled, he has been buried, never again to live. We are not only raised to a new life, but we are now in Him, Jesus Christ, righteous, holy, living eternally now and forevermore. Father, cast off the chains of my past, who I was, I renounce in Jesus’ Name!

3. Don’t please man

For am I now seeking the favor of people, or of God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. – Galatians 1:10 NASB2020

Paul’s letter to the Galatians concerning our relationship with the Holy Ghost for our times is all the more vital. When the disciples asked Jesus what the sign, not signs, of His coming would be, His response was, “Let no man deceive you.” He did not refer to the devil, as before, but to man. Man-pleasing and living one’s life to do so is detestable to God.

And He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God.” – Luke 16:15 NASB2020

Trust the Lord with all your heart, and love the Lord with all your heart and strength. Pleasing man is impossible to attain, Jesus proved this every day during His time on earth. How many times have we thought, “There is no pleasing him or her.”

Some years ago, the Holy Ghost spoke to my heart, “Go get your heart back.” Our hearts are made to belong completely to Him and Him alone. If that is not so, Jesus would have not commanded us to do so. Love God with all your heart! Besides, He never intended for anyone to get man’s love, but His love, Agape. He will love through us as shed about in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

…equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. – Hebrews 13:21 NASB 2020

Father, I take back my heart from any man or woman who I gave it to by trying to be a pleaser of them. In Jesus Name!

4. Don’t blame others

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much. – James 5:16 NASB2020

Blaming others is one of the clearest signs of immaturity, childish and adolescent. This was the first reaction of Adam and Eve’s fallen state in the garden. The denial of our accountability for our behavior and actions in our lives keeps us from maturing spiritually as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. We are His children, yes, but His intention in sending Jesus was to take many sons and daughters into glory.

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the originator of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for this reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,” – Hebrews 2:10-11 NASB2020

Blaming is shaming someone else for your shame; hiding from our own shame. How this age-old spirit has continued in generation after generation. It was not me, but the……. Ultimately we are blaming God, which, as in the beginning, keeps us from Him and grieves the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of truth. Father, make me a lover of truth and when I am convicted help me quickly confess my sin. I renounce the spirits of blame and shame in Jesus’ Name.

5. Don’t try to be perfect

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB202

There is a vast difference between perfection and maturation. Even when a man came to Jesus and called Him Good Master, He deflected the praise,

But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” – Mark 10:18 NASB2020

As long as we are in these mortal bodies we are subject to our daily struggle of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him.

For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. – Romans 7:18-19 NASB2020

The true prize is to know God intimately and be His friend.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV

Father deliver me from self-righteousness and my own perfection. I renounce my zeal and works in Jesus’ Name!

May we cast off every encumbrance that so easily besets us and fix, focus, our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

Happiest Heavenly Blessings in the year to come.

-Keith Curlee