Chapter 9, Part 12

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
2 Corinthians 3:17

Freedom from fornication and all forms of sin comes in the Spirit of the Lord. God gives us freedom from all sin; sin has been defeated. So why do we live such defeated lives? Maybe it is because we do not stay in the freedom that God gives us. We may be more comfortable in bondage than freedom. If there is freedom from God the only reason I am still in bondage is because I choose to stay in bondage. Who in their right mind would choose bondage over freedom. Let us look at human bondage, there were slaves who did not want freedom when emancipation came. For some reason they preferred the lack of responsibility of bondage. When we are in bondage (human) the master provides for the slave, all the slave has to do is follow the orders of the master. However with freedom comes responsibility. We have to make changes when freedom comes, we become responsible for ourselves and our own behavior.

We must find our freedom in the Lord and not in ourselves. Freedom in ourselves without God is only sin, for we are born in to our sin natures. It is only by living in the Spirit that we can find life. The Word says, “that we may have life and have it more abundantly.”[1] Before the freedom of living in the Spirit, I was only existing. I was living like an animal, just going through the motions of living. If you were like me you did not think about what you were doing, you just did it. We spend so much of our lives on automatic pilot, never realizing how are choices will effect our eternal consequences or not caring. “The consequences of sin is death.”[2]

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.”
John 6:63

Following the flesh brings us nothing but problems as well as both a spiritual and physical death. The Bible speaks over and over how God communicates with men through His Spirit. The Scriptures tells us that the Spirit gives us life. So we see that the Spirit gives us guidance, freedom, and life. All the things we need to overcome our fleshly desires. There is no magic formula to resolving this epidemic of fornication and lawlessness that we find ourselves in, it requires using the solutions that God has already given us. We first change our own behavior and then through us the world. It is going to require a complete change from all of us. It is the Spirit that brings about our change of heart and change of mind. It is time to stop relying on our own selfish desires and “common sense” wisdom. Let the Spirit live in you and it will unleash the power of God to overcome the world and all of its passions.

“The spirit of Egypt will fail in it’s midst”
Isaiah 19:3

Just as we have individual spirits we also as a people have a collective spirit. Right now our spirit as a people is not good. It is weighed down by our rebelliousness against God. Our deliberate disregard for Him and His statues has caused our spirits to fail. The spirit of our people was a beacon to people in our early times here in America. It inspired many other people not only in this country, but also in other nations. Despite our circumstances of slavery and prejudice, we stood together and we stood strong. We relied on the Father and He delivered us. We should once again bring together our collective spirit and uplift it to the Lord. The spirit of our people can only be elevated by our individually choosing to follow God. Through the process of individual choice, we reconcile our people back to God. There is a remnant that God has left among all of His people. Those of us that are left among the black people of America[3] The Christ says, “that there is no greater love than to die for ones friends.”[4] This people requires some of us to die to our flesh to save them. Are you willing? Just as some of us were willing to die for our equality, some of us must die for our reconciliation. Not a physical death, but a death to ourselves and our own selfish desires. We as a people made sacrifices for worldly causes (voting, integration). Are there any of us willing to sacrifice for our spiritual cause? We should begin the process of redemption through our faith. The redemption has already been done, we just need to accept it through our faith. Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for a people, for your people? The apostle Paul said that, “scarcely would anyone die for a righteous man, yet for a good man one might dare to die.” ”[5] The Christ says, “that there is no greater love than to die for ones friends.”[6] This people requires some of us to die to our flesh to save them. Are you willing? Just as some of us were willing to die for our equality, some of us must die for our reconciliation. Not a physical death, but a death to ourselves and our own selfish desires. We as a people made sacrifices for worldly causes (voting, integration). Are there any of us willing to sacrifice for our spiritual cause?

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[1] John 10:10

[2] Romans 6:23

[3] Romans 5:7

[4] John 15:3

[5] Romans 5:7

[6] John 15:3