You know, freedom is a wonderful, glorious thing. The Bible refers to a believer's freedom as "glorious liberty of the children of God", and that it is! Just thinking of all the things we are free from ought to be enough to turn everyone into a shouting, dancing, radical Pentecostal. Free from the law of sin and death, the curse of the law, the power of sin, death, hell, the wrath of God, rejection, the devil and demons. You could write a library listing what we are, (or could be), free from when we come to the Lord and then you could write another one about all the freedom we have to do, and to be. What a list that would make! The Apostle Paul enjoyed a remarkable level of freedom. He once said all things were lawful to him, but not expedient. That statement alone speaks of freedom beyond the power of words to explain. He was not only free from his past, He also had the freedom to know God, to be filled with the Spirit, to talk and sing to God in tongues, to experience the glory of God, to hear the voice of the Spirit, to be used mightily of the Spirit in so many ways, including writing most of what we call the New Testament. And,that same freedom is ours as well.
For a believer there are two things I am mindful of concerning freedom. One, is to avoid religion. That is that form of Christianity void of the life, power and presence of the Holy Ghost. Religion and religious people will steal your liberty. The Bible speaks of religious men, perhaps unknowingly, but used of the devil, who will come upon us, steal our liberty and bring us back into bondage, (Gal. 2:4). The Galatians were warned of this and encouraged to stand fast in their liberty and not be brought back into bondage, (Gal. 5:1). The second thing to be mindful of, in order to enjoy ever increasing liberty, is to be totally committed to the Holy Ghost. Where He rules, where He is Lord, where He is fully embraced, there is "liberty". Where He does not rule, there is bondage. This Holy Ghost liberty is not only liberty from things but liberty to see and experience the glory of God and even be changed by that glory (2nd Cor. 3:13-18). The true presence of the Holy Spirit often comes with such an amazing sense of liberty. Once you know it, you recognize it. You know it when it is present and you know it is not present. When it is present, everything takes on such a fluidity. The River flows! The anointing flows and the ease with which people present receive from God, or sense God, or have a worship experience with God is remarkable. Miracles happen so much easier where there is the liberty.
In my opinion, church leaders often don't put the premium on liberty that they should. Often churches and their services are structured so as to not allow freedom. Oh, they might talk about freedom from something but after that, they put up a fence preventing future freedom. The corral the sheep, I guess. They often ignore the Spirit of Liberty when it comes into their church and shut it down, turn it off, always controlling. Liberty tends to frighten people who are used to be totally in control. Sometimes leaders, and believers as well, reject freedom because they have never known freedom and it scares them. Liberty breaking out in a service will sometimes scare a congregation used to their pastor and deacons being in total control. Oh, if they only they knew, where the Spirit is allowed to be Lord, freedom reigns. There is liberty. And where there is liberty, glory comes. And, where glory comes, people are touched and changed and God is pleased.
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