“Set Me Free”
Allan H. Kircher
17 August 2008
www.planttheseedministries.org
Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty I’m free at last
We’ve heard this said before and we heard this in song.
But what does it actually mean?
We hear it, but do we truly believe its meaning and its lasting effect on our life?
When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are free.
The bible says in 2 Cor 3:17, “the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Freedom from the bondage of sin, from the bondage slavery….
The slavery that you have been bound too.
Now this slavery can be idleness in your faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrecting power, or you may be bonded in slavery to your witnessing to the lost around you…….either way you have a bond of slavery at your door.
Think back this week and tell God how many you have told about His glory? About the freedom you experience today.
If you feel weary trying to remember to whom you spoke prophetic words too this week, Satan has you bound in the slavery of witnessing.
Most of us have had the absurd thought that we can hide from God.
That we can get away with some secret sin if we just don’t let him in on it.
But Scripture makes it clear that there is nowhere we go that is outside his reach, he will follow us even to the depths of our self-made will (Ps 139:7-8)ref.
You see, your deepest darkest is completely illuminated to him; we cannot hide in it. (Ps 139:11-12)Ref
Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares the Lord. (Jer 23:24)
This would be bad news indeed if our God dealt with us only according to our sin; none of us could survive his perfect justice.
But we serve a God of mercy, who sent his only Son to atone for everything we’ve tried to get away with in secret.
We have nothing to hide!
And nothing to fear if we sincerely repent!
Set me free from the baggage I carry…..
When my mother came to visit last month to visit I picked her up at the airport. She had a black suitcase that looked like everybody else’s suitcase. I kept picking up a suitcase from the beltway and having to open it up to see if her contents were in it.
After 3-4 tries we finally got the right suitcase.
Our baggage, hidden sins, habits are the same way.
We can’t see them sometimes unless they are revealed to us.
Other people have to open up our baggage to expose us of our weaknesses.
We sometimes do it so often, we can’t recognize it anymore.
My mother could not recognize her bag unless the property inside revealed it.
You see our baggage can be disguised.
Complaining is one of the pieces of luggage we need to recognize.
The bible tells us not to complain or argue about anything. Some of us complain so much it becomes our being.
So let us unload anything we’re trying to keep to ourselves and embrace the joyful relief that will surely come with divine forgiveness (Ps 32:3-5)
Take off the chains of sin…..some of us have those little chains that hang the chandelier in our house where one link is the size of a quarter and some of us have those massive heavy chains that anchor the cruise ships were one link is the size of a car…
But I assure you today….we all have chains of bondage. We all have a thorn in our side.
Jesus tells us in John that we will have trouble in this world. But take heart because in Jesus you have peace…..because Jesus had overcome all the trouble. (Jn 16:33)
When you get rid of one trouble there always seems to be one right behind it.
Perseverance is your freedom from that bondage.
But as Jesus overcomes the world and its sufferings and sin, so believers in him will stand firm spiritually no matter what the circumstances.
Did you hear that, believers in him will stand firm spiritually, no matter what the circumstances.
That means when someone hurts you you stand firm spiritually. Is it difficult...Absolutely but Jesus did. Jesus is in you.
We may have many problems, but our deepest sense of well being and spiritual security can never be threatened.
We are set free by the power of God’s grace and love. Soar like an eagle and enjoy the flight the Lord has given you.
Our emotions in response to sufferings may, like Job’s, run the gamut; but our abiding faith will glorify God and be remembered by those who watch us overcome.
We will always have those emotions of the world. Were human. But our faith will endure all understanding if we stand in the presence of the Lord.
Now as believers, people will look upon us to see how we react to situations.
The way we react is a reflection of the presence of God in our life.
It is essentially Jesus witnessing to those around you.
How do you think Jesus uses his Spirit on Earth?
The world says, “Practice makes perfect” Jesus says “practice shows faith in his name above all things”
Faith that you are free from bondage
Faith that you are free from guilt, from anger, from fear of witnessing.
Faith that you are free from death and delivered to eternal rest with the Father.
Faith that the power of God is in your life.
Faith in the name of Jesus Christ….the name above all names…..
Why are we some of us anxiety strickened about death?
When you have true saving faith you are set free….and the power of God is so heavy upon your soul that you soar like an eagle in flight.
No matter how long we have been believers or how mature we are as believers, we will continue to have problems arise in our life.
We can be set free from those problems instantaneously.
When we are set free…we will soar like an eagle.
To be set free from folly and sin is to have the shackles removed from our limbs and the heavy burden lifted from our hearts.
If we want to run unencumbered toward the “prize” of our heavenly crown (1 Cor 9:24-25), we must throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. (Heb 12:1)
The black suitcase must be identified and tagged so you recognize that bag in front of you in your life.
WE ARE SET FREE WHEN WE Experience that our neediness drives us to God.
A sincere follower of the Lord is willing to be taught wisdom and to look for the lessons in affliction.
When we hit that road in afflicttion that will come we can express to God to guide us in the right path or we can simply say “what am I going to do about it?”
The believer asks God in all things, the carnal Christian tries to accomplish the task on their own will.
When we’re open to the hidden gifts of coming to the end of our rope, we can actually be grateful for our trails. (Rom 5:3-5) Ref.
We don’t have to waste our time to open up black suitcases if it is already identified.
You see as Christians, we are not to be slaves in bondage, but to loose the chains that bind us.
We are not to be an instrument of oppression but of liberation.
Men are bound, not with steel chains or iron fetters, but with the invisible shackles of evils.
They fight oppression which is not social but spiritual, even satanic.
In these days when the Spirit of God is moving and the power of God is being released, evil forces that have lain dormant in human breasts for years are being compelled to throw off their camouflage and manifest themselves for what they are.
The discerning spirit can recognize that many whom we meet in the path of life are oppressed by the devil, vexed by demons, bound by forces that they do not understand and from which they cannot break free.
If your still doing the same things over and over again, gossip, complaining, idleness, meanness, Satan has a strong hold on your mind.
In many cases Christians loathe themselves for their actions, weep with sheer frustration at their own impotence to break the chains, and pray as best they know how for deliverance.
Worse still, there are Christians bound by fear, resentment, jealousy and uncleanness, who know full well that they are in themselves a complete contradiction to the liberating gospel they profess----but how to get free?
Many today try hard to pray, to believe, to claim, yet still they are bound.
You see, so often the Christian who is in the grip of Satan is incapable of responding to such a message.
At the confession of our sin and accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord, we are saved at that moment, but we still have the shackles of a sinful nature.
Do you remember Simon of Samaria? He wished to procure with money the power to lay hands on people for the impartation of the Holy Spirit (Act 8:9-24).
Just because Simon wanted this, can we assert that he was never truly born again? The facts are all against this…..and it obscures the lesson that the incident is designed to teach.
But the Holy Spirit tells us that he “believed,” was “baptized,” and “continued with Philip” (Acts 8:13).
Here are the same credentials of conversions—faith, baptism, and continuance—which marked those first converts on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:41,42).
When Peter told Simon, “You have neither part nor lot in this matter,” he was not referring to his salvation, nor even to the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit, but to the power to lay hands on believers for the impartation of the Holy Spirit.
It was “in this matter” of the gift he desired, the motive of desiring it, and the means by which he sought to acquire it, that his heart was not right before God.
Peter did not exhort him to repent of his sins in general, but to repent of this wickedness in his life and pray to the Lord.”
Simon perhaps was not humbling himself to the Lord to rid him of this bondage.
How did Simon come to be in this “bond of slavery”?
Before his conversion, Simon was a Sorcerer and he amazed people with his black magic.
He had the powers of darkness in his previous life.
Anyone who has dabbled with such a destructive lifestyle in the past can only hope to extricate himself easily from the clutches of Satan.
With Simon there was this “carry-over” from his past life from which he needed to be loosed.
How many professing Christians today are like Simon?
They are saved—or believe they are saved---yet continue in the ways of their previous life.
These are called carnal Christians.
We are saved…..and the Holy Spirit can and will do mighty things to release us from the bondage of the previous life but we must repent of the wickedness of that life and enable God to continue to work in our present life.
Now you have to deal with the human side of the past. The emotions of the destructive life or the emotions of pain, guilt, remorse, denial….
That’s why the bible says that we need to examine ourselves daily. If you examine yourselves daily, you get rejuvenated with the Holy Spirit.
You overcome the same things you were doing in your past life. The emotional side.
Some of us try and feed of that initial explosion of the filling of the Holy Spirit continually in our walk with the Lord.
It may take some time, but you should not be were your at now as the same place you were six months ago.
Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then you will be able to test and approve of God’s will, his good and pleasing and perfect will.
You need to be set free daily from the old self of yesterday and grow in the admonition of the Lord in your new self today.
Jesus said, “He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).
Those words were uttered at the commencement of His ministry.
Jesus has provided that power to each and every one of us.
We can look at examples of Jesus and his mighty power to deliver us from our oppressions.
When the Lord came face to face with a demon possessed man longing for deliverance He did not say, “Your sins be forgiven you.”
He cast out the demons with a word.
When He met a woman in the synagogue who had been bound by Satan for eighteen years and could not straighten her body, He did not say, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.”
He laid His hands on her and said, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity” (Luke 13:12)
Eighteen years she was bound by Satan.
I was bound by Satan for twenty-two years. I was crippled up and could not straighten up my body from the things of my previous life.
Jesus laid his hands on me through other people in my life and I was freed from those particular infirmities.
Jesus set me free from that bondage. Each one of us has multiple things that we are set free from in bondage.
Today we send the man to the psychiatrist and the woman to the Physiotherapist!
When the root of their trouble is satanic how can they be cured by the treatment of mental or physical symptoms?
Christ commissioned His disciples not only to preach the good news, but to heal the sick and to cast out demons (Luke 9:1,2)
The seventy reported, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (Luke 10:17).
Now let’s put it in the context of us. “Lord, even the demons are subject to me in your name.”
There are demons that try and bind us to alcohol, divorce, enabling, having an unkind heart, timidity, having a bad attitude, idleness, but we can drive them out in the name of Jesus.
And be set free to experience the liberating effects of the gospel.
Releasing of the impurities of your life is subjected to the Lord’s name also.
In worldly society the devil has been laughed out of court.
Among professing Christians demon-possession is looked upon as particular only to Bible times and extremely rare in our modern society.
The devil rubs his hands with glee at our blindness.
How great is the need today for the gift of discerning these spirits, and for the faith and authority to cast them out.
Undoubtedly many Christian’s today languish in mental turmoil and do not experience the power of God in their lives.
If you look at all the kings from the Old Testament (all 38) the ones that experience the power of God are the ones who humbled themselves before the throne of God and they were set free from their bondage.
The ones who seeked guidance from their own power were the kings who were oppressed, chained , binded, and held captive to the society and God’s wrath came down upon them.
And it came down upon them in the form of destruction, suicide, murder and pestilence.
Today as Christians we are under that same wrath of judgment as they were 3000 years ago.
The Lord our God said in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
God will heal you and deliver you and set you free and take that veil of bondage away.
God says to you today. , “ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
He will heal us and set us free.
When you do experience the prevailing power of the Lord Jesus you are set free…and you feel like an eagle in flight….spread out your wings in excitement God’s work in your life.
Many in our churches today are cruelly oppressed and tormented by the devil and need to be ministered to by those who know how to set the captives free.
Many outside the churches, in the highways and byways of life, driven by the devil, are waiting for those who will come to them with a message and ministry of deliverance.
One who has the Spirit of God can achieve peace with his fellow man, and if a problem arises he or she will be able to overcome it.
It is God’s desire that we achieve the harmony and accord that comes with practicing Christianity rather than just professing it.
While we cannot change the thinking and attitude of others, we can change ourselves. If we do our part, we can expect positive results.
We need to remove the veil of our person to experience the Beauty of God.
How can the veil be lifted from our minds so that we can see not only the fading glory of the old covenant but also the surpassing Beauty of God in the new covenant?
When a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”
That veil maybe nicotine, it may be sarcasm, it may be envy, it may be rudeness.
When a man turns to the Lord, whatever the veil is it shall be lifted..
And you will be set free to experience the beauty of God.
And then we will be set free so we might see the presence of God.
And when we do, our chains, whether heavy or light will vaporize into the wind like dust.
You see, it is only through Christ that the veil is lifted.
When you turn to the Lord, you turn to the spirit, to open up to the spirit, to seek to the spirit and its fullness.
For where the Spirit is, there is freedom.
If you want freedom from our hardness and blindness to the Beauty of God, we must have the Spirit.
So what is the result if we are freed by the spirit?
“and we , who with unveiled faces, all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”2 Cor 3:18
When a person turns to Jesus Christ as Lord and opens himself up to the liberating rule of the Spirit of the Lord the eyes of his heart sees the captivating and satisfying divine Beauty of the Spirit.
And you are set free like an eagle in flight.
And you begin to be changed by it. And you finally see the riches of His glory.
You finally are set free from oppression and bondage and sin and slavery.
You finally elate in joy in all situations and trials.
You finally become like him.
You finally are set free.
Will you bow your head and close your eyes.
