Freedom of Christ

"God wants the very best years of your life, not the leftovers"

Last week our topic was forgiveness and freedom in christ. Our speakers were Faith and Andrew Dutton who lead the Kona base here. It was such an awesome week and they were such great speakers, very approachable and understanding people with a desire to see us set free and walk in the light. We read through Colossians and Philippians looking at the different commands and dos and donts as well as looking at Paul and the role model he is to us and the different things he did.
The week started off with reading these passages and talking about how we need to know what we have been saved from in order to see what we've been saved to. We also talked about how you need to put on Love daily and make sure we are producing good fruit. We then talked about the Law and how if we don't understand the law of God then we dont understand what we have been saved to. If we don't understand the penalty of our sin and the way that is separates us from the Lord then we cant fully appreciate the cross and what he did for us. The fear of the Lord..the falling in love with the lord..is the hatred of evil.
Also, do we settle from secondhand revelation?? Listen to what others say and take that as truth..or do we dig into the word and have God speak directly to you. I know this is something i personally struggle with. I love reading books by other christian authors more than I read my own bible, and I often find myself asking others opinions on things and views on things wether than wrestling with them myself and taking them to the Lord. I think it comes from the fear of not really being able to hear his voice on such things..I want fast answers.
We also looked through the commandments and spent some time on the Honor or Father and Mother... SO THAT YOUR LIFE MAY BE LONG.. this is the only commandment with a promise attached. It is so important to not speak negative about them and to always honor them with our speach as well as our actions. No matter what they may have done or said that hurt you they still are the ones who gave you life. Our parents have value in the eyes of God..as does everyone..when we really start looking at people as children of God we begin to realize how much is hurts him when we judge them, disrespect them, and dishonor them. and just in general how much is hurts our heavenly fathers heart when we sin. I'm blessed to have a good relationship with both my parents..but no relationship comes without its challenges.
Our Conscience is a born sense of right and wrong. Picture is as a heart with a triangle in it.. the triangle "pricks" you and your conscience tells you what you just did was wrong. The more you ignore it the more filed down it gets and becomes round..it no longer pricks you and the sins start gettign larger because you have become numb to this little feeling telling you what your did was wrong. There is also no grade of sin...sin is sin, some just have greater social consequences. We need to find people who will help us out of our struggles not walk in them with you.
We are made up three parts..our spirit/conscience...our feelings emotions and heart and thirdly our body. We need to make sure we follow that from the top down. Are you being led by the flesh or by the spirit. When you find yourself struggling with the flesh, feed your spirit. example: if your find yourself struggling with lust or addiction or judging, feed your spirit. Begin praying and seeing the Lord. Find a verse that takes your mind off of it and begin speaking that out...dont let the devil play with your mind. The more we entertain the thoughts and fears from the devil the more he will play with us. We are also 100% responsible for our own hearts. Picture two kids on the playground..one girl hits the other and the other girl fights back. The sins doesnt get divided up..its 20% the one girls fault and 80% the other girls fault because she started it. No, we are each 100% responsible for our own hears. Each sin is equal in Gods eyes.
Thursday we talked about WALKING IN THE LIGHT! :D and what exactly that means..
it means: a turn around, transparency, break the dark, walking in christ and HIS truth, being open and honest, having humble hearts. When we walk in the light we can have FREEDOM from shame, guilt, and fear. There is power in confessing out and bringing things to the light and repenting them over to the LORD. The biggest lie of your sin is that you are the only one who does it/struggles with it. So much freedom can be found in him. The speakers gave us this sort of spiritual checklist..different things people struggle with. I was shocked how many things i ended up checking off, the Lord was convicting me of all the crap in my life and the little day to day sins I do and don't realize. Once we realize how much that really effects the Lord and hurts him..it makes me feel awful! I want to walk in the light and live free of this because of him.
Friday then we had a time of taking these things to the cross. We had some worship and then placed a cross in the center of the room and we all sat on the floor around it. They places a microphone by the cross and one by one people began coming up and laying these sins down at the cross..confessing them out to us and then asking for forgivness from the Lord. After each person would go a few people woulg go up and pray for them and while they were praying another person would go up and confess and it was just this awesome time of confession and ministering to each other and seeing each other be set free from these things. It took alot of nerve to go up and share but it felt so great to get these things off your chest and begining walking in the light...as Jesus is in the light :) it was such a bonding time for us as a group :) we finished the morning off the with some more worship which is AWESOME as always :D

praise God..for he is good. Who the son sets free is free indeed!

Go here to listen to the lectures on podcast..they can say it much better than I!