Notes from a New Wine Seminar with Danielle Strickland…
“If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed”
Jesus came to set people free.
You were born to be free.
It is not just about getting people free, it’s about people staying free.
Hudson Taylor talks of each of us being stuck in a deep pit full of excrement, too deep to climb out of, everyone watching, pointing and condemning, and Jesus came and climbed down into the pit with her… she said “this is crazy, now you are stuck in here with me” -Jesus said “true, but I know e way out”.
How can we be free? 4 Keys.
Not just set free, but walk in freedom.
1) Believe.
You have to believe it is possible, slavery starts within our hearts and minds…
You have to believe God rather than the oppressor, don’t let the demonic tell us things cannot ever change and that things are impossible.
Bad experience wears us down, and erodes hope and vision.
Hopelessness causes paralysis.
We need a vision of hope, a brighter tomorrow, a preferred future, let’s have the boldness, bravery and audacity to believe the truth that “all things are possible through Christ who strengthens me”.
The Spirit of oppression causes us to become cynical and jaded.
Don’t let it.
The Spirit of God gives us faith, faith to choose to live by faith and not by sight.
We have to believe that with God the impossible is possible.
Paul calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, this means seeing things not from a worldly point of view but from a Kingdom view-point,
2) Banish Our Fears.
Participation in fear risks turning you either into the oppressed or the oppressor, we need to be liberated from our fearful mindset.
Jesus says “Perfect Love casts out all fear”, doesn’t mean you won’t ever feel anxious but it is saying that Christ’s presence transforms us and gives us courage and boldness.
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ “Peace that passes (or better transition is “transcends”) all understanding” -the peace is bigger than our heads and our hearts and our circumstances.
Our God is ABLE.
3) NOW…
To be free and keep free…
“I’d do anything for the perfect body except diet and excersize” Jay Leno.
Freedom from smoking does not come at the end of the pack, salvation is present tense, we need to do it now.
Freedom always starts now. It always starts with you.
Justice delayed is justice denied, the same is true of freedom.
Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat said she was “tired of giving in to oppression”, she realised there is never a better time to fight oppression.
The more we let sin reign the more it becomes entrenched.
4) And Don’t Give UP.
-When I was Street Pastoring someone said “Smoking isn’t that addictive I’ve given up 100s of times”.
Winston Churchill once gave a speech at Oxford University which was simply “Never, Never, Never Give Up”…
To live in freedom requires perseverance and a Godly tenacity to keep on going.
As the old anti smoking campaign used to say: “Don’t give up giving up”
Let freedom reign in our lives, it is a daily choice we need to constantly respond too.i
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