walking

The word of God is living and powerful, and this word came to life for us when God was made manifest in the flesh as Jesus.  Christ revealed the perfect love of the Father, who is personal and deeply involved in each of our lives.  In His patience and mercy, He compassionately led His followers and modeled the perfect relationship that should be held between mankind and the Father.  He showed us how to faultlessly experience emotions, relate to believers and non-believers, show forgiveness, submit to authority, and respond to and flee from temptation.  Christ revealed His final and infinite power over all creation and even death by conquering the cross and the grave.  When we receive the spirit of God given to every believer as the Holy Spirit, we too have this same power to perfectly relate to others and to God, as well as the same power over Satan and his servants.  We share in the same identity, inheritance, and blessings that have been bestowed upon our Savior who has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth.  Bold and fearless freedom in Christ is found when we realize the power that we have been given through Jesus’ victory won on the cross. 

Before we can walk in freedom, we have to step into the realization of our freedom and put on the armor of God to protect our minds and this stance of freedom that we have been given in Christ.  However, realizing our freedom and walking in freedom are two separate facets of the freedom posture.  God wants us to maintain this freedom in Christ and actively walk alongside Him in faith.  The maintenance of our freedom is sustained by maturing in Christ, which comes with time as we daily fellowship with the Father.  To do this, we must take personal responsibility for our relationship with Christ and submit our lives to His will and to His purification. 

Under the influence of this world, our flesh has a tendency to revert to old patterns or be guided by deception, if we neglect the renewal of our minds.  We have an inclination to gradually deviate from our path of freedom and spiritually regress.  If we begin to fixate on either the past or the future, we become paralyzed.  If we live in the unchangeable past, we cause ourselves to be filled with anger and guilt, which feed a stronghold of bitterness, cynicism, and unforgiveness.  If we live in the unreachable future, we cause ourselves to live in fear and take on a general state of anxiety.  These spiritually hazardous ways of life affect how we relate to others and how we relate to God.  We are unable to connect with others and be a light for Him if we are bogged down by anger, guilt, fear, and anxiety.  So, to keep ourselves focused and active in the present, we have the responsibility to renew our minds by subjecting ourselves to His refining of our thought patterns, motives, and desires.  As we submit to God’s will, He will be able to divinely intervene and bring glory to Himself out of our past and also direct our present steps.  Because of this, we are better able to follow Christ as He uses our past and present for us to be spiritually successful in the future, walk boldly in Christ, and fully thrive within the parameters that He has preordained for our lives.

Jesus modeled this full submission to God by completely relying on Him for direction.  He only did the will of the Father, and He understood this will by continually submitting in prayer.  The more we grow to know God and spiritually mature, the more we realize that we need God.  Apart from Him, we are hopelessly lost in our futile self-efforts.  God is not obligated to remove our struggles nor change our will; however, through daily submission in prayer and meditation upon His word, we permit the mind of Christ to reveal lies along with their effects and replace them with His truth, which we can verbally announce and prayerfully cling to for the destruction of strongholds.  We must empty ourselves and allow Him to fill us with His Spirit.  The power to walk free and to maintain this freedom dwells within our daily trust, submission, and renewal of our minds through the transformative perspective and power of Christ.