The Freedom of Jesus

(Be sure to read “The Wounds of Man” before reading this article. Like that article, the lessons provided below came primarily out of my own experiences. Much of this article is directed to those who have already found freedom.)

 

1. Don’t Waste Your Wound - You, Christian, exist for the glory of God! That is an awesome reality! It gives you meaning and purpose for the rest of your life! It points you to the road of a daily self denying, cross bearing, Jesus following lifestyle that seeks to glorify God and exalt Jesus through every action you take, every word you speak, every thought you consider, every relationship you have, and every opportunity you encounter. Yes, everything. Don’t waste your wound on yourself. My favorite writer and preacher, John Piper, writes, “All of life for the Christian is meant to magnify Christ. This can happen through pleasure, and it can happen through pain.” God wants, no, He longs to use your painful, ugly, secretive wound for His glory. There are other hurting people that need you to find His freedom so that YOU can help lead them out of bondage, into the joyous pleasure of a free life! Because of your wound, once you have found freedom, you will then be equipped to point the way to others who are lost in similar wounds. If you do not do this, then you have wasted your wound. And a wound is a terrible thing to waste! Other people finding healing and wholeness may depend upon you. DO NOT waste your wound and what you have learned on yourself.

 

2. The Risk of Authenticity - The fear of being truly known can keep a person in prison for many years; maybe even a lifetime. Sometimes, we may fear revealing our struggles more than we actually desire freedom from them. Hurting people learn how to hide their pain and their hearts, and conceal their wounds, for fear of being exposed, and hurt even deeper. This trauma leads to insecurities, which lead to more pain and hiding. For the prisoner, their silence steals any hope for healing the person may have had. Fear of other's opinions keeps their prison doors closed and locked, with them inside looking out, longing for what lies on the other side, and wondering what life outside the prison walls is like. There is no shame for the wounded soldier to say, “I am wounded.” In fact, he likely will never get any help unless he is able to say that. Fear of other’s opinions of us, are in themselves, their own little prisons, keeping us from the freedom that Christ has called us to. Only when the fear of being exposed takes second place to the fear of never finding healing, will the wounded prisoner begin his or her journey of recovery, and process of deliverance. Getting real with ourselves and others is a huge step on the road to freedom. Take the risk of authenticity and step outside of your prison.

 

3. Be Sure to Share the Love - Wounded people never fully become who God designed them to be, until God heals that wound. God did not intend for us to carry our unhealed wounds with us through our lives. Healed wounds can become a source of strength, rejoicing, testimony, and even future ministry. We often hide our wounds because we fear what others will think of us. However, this fear keeps us from living life as God intended. 1 Corinthians 1:4 speaks of God saying, He “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” This is God’s plan. Hurt people get healed. And healed people then comfort and minister to other hurting people, with the same comfort they received from God, so they can touch more lives down the road. If your wound has been healed by God, then God is sending you to touch other hurting lives around you. It’s in the Book! It is His plan! It is your calling! So get busy and share the love! Help someone else find freedom!

 

4. The First Step to Freedom - The very first step for a prisoner to take to find freedom is for the prisoner to realize and envision the actual call and purpose of God upon his or her life. The most powerful motivator in one's life is understanding the actual life that God calls that person to, and the purpose for which he or she was created, and that living that life is far better than living a life of sin, slavery, imitations, false temporary pleasures, sordid selfishness, and constant defeat, guilt, and shame. Like the prodigal son, the prisoner must come "to his senses" (Lk. 15:17 NAS) and realize that what God has for him or her is far, far better than the enslaved, wounded, broken life he or she is living. This realization is what lights the fire under the prisoner to search for a way of escape. It is the beginning of the end of his or her prison sentence. This realization is what gives the prisoner hope that there is life outside the walls of his or her bondage. Jesus offers something better, but it is always outside the prison walls. He calls you to life, and you will find life (the abundant life of Jn. 10:10) when you live life as He designed it to be lived. The first step to that is seeing that He has called you to something far better!

 

5. The Pursuit of Something Better - If the first step towards freedom is the realization of what life outside the prison walls can be like, then the second step is beginning the pursuit of life outside those walls. It is deciding to take the first step. It is moving forward with action that propels you toward your goal. In one's process of deliverance, the will of the person plays a huge role. While God can open prison doors and set a prisoner free at any moment, He will often use the person's will as a primary motivator and source of strength, and action, in their life. The key here is that the person in bondage to sin, or to their wounds, see something better (Heb. 11:39-40) in the life that God offers, which they can have, IF they will make different choices demonstrated by their different actions. This provides the motivation for change, and takes the ability to think through their situation, and for them to earnestly desire something better than what they are currently experiencing. The desire and realization that there is something better is what motivates them to make different choices, and move further away from the chains of sin, or the chain of the wound, as God shows them more and more of the life that He has for them, but without specific steps of action, nothing changes. I say it elsewhere like this, “The life that I so desperately crave, is found only in the life that Jesus so freely gives.” Jesus offers us the life that we truly want; we just have to live it His way. Nothing changes until you take the first step.

 

6. The Process of Deliverance - God's healing is typically more of a process than an event. He leads people through struggles, valleys, trials, tests, and temptations to develop their character, focus, heart, will, and strength. The opportunities God provides through the process of deliverance are one means that God may use to emancipate a wounded, enslaved heart. Therefore, while Jesus is the one who liberates and sets "truly" free (Jn. 8:31-32), God often expects the individual to play a part in that deliverance by walking in "tested" faithfulness. Prisoners who want to be set free must take deliberate, regular, actionable, steps towards freedom, and in faith, and away from bondage. You are not to be passive in your process of deliverance! However, gaining freedom is not all about one's own efforts, though God does honor one's efforts. We want freedom and we want it instantly, but God has proven that that is not His typical way of providing freedom to wounded individuals. And while God may, at times, deliver someone without the individual's efforts, and do so instantaneously, more often than not, He uses one's efforts in their own process of deliverance. Thus, strength and character are developed, and God is honored in the journey, and the individual is trained for righteousness.

 

7. Symptoms Are Not the Problem - The real issue for the prisoner, or wounded person, is never the behavior on the outside of one's life. It is the hurt and the wound on the inside of a person. The behavior is only the symptom signaling further damage and turmoil within. It is the outward expression of the internal wound. The "bleeding" is not the issue of a physical wound. It is the wound itself that is the issue. The bleeding is simply the evidence that there is a wound. We often spend our time and efforts addressing the symptoms (problems with drugs, sexuality, emotional disorders, anxiety, anger, power struggles, risky behavior…) of the wounds, which is useless. We may do this because it is easier to identify the symptoms than it is to identify the wound. Symptoms are external; wounds are internal. Dealing with symptoms never helps the wound. Dealing with the wound always helps with the bleeding. People's behavior always flows out of their wholeness or their brokenness. For healing to occur, the wound must be identified, and dealt with appropriately, and completely. Genuine healing and therapy addresses the wound. That in turn changes the symptomatic behavior. Focus on the problem, not the symptom. Deal with the real issue.

 

8. Not All Help is Good Help - Prisoners usually, but not always, need other people's help and support to walk into freedom. If they could have done it on their own, they would most likely have already been free. Not every Christian, or even every minister, or every counselor is capable of helping someone come to freedom. It can take a specific set of Christian maturity, skills, knowledge, insight, and experience to help some prisoners find their path to freedom. Just as one doctor may refer a patient to another doctor because the specific problem or issue is not in his or her area of expertise, so one counselor, therapist, or pastor may need to refer a person to someone else also. Walking prisoners away from the enemy's battles toward freedom takes more than a good heart and an “I’m praying for you” attitude, and a phone call once a month. Some prisoners may even give up searching for help because they have, unknowingly, sought help from someone who was not qualified to help them with their issue. We all must be encouraging to anyone who is seeking help, but we must also recognize that there are some issues that are over our heads and beyond our capabilities when it comes to providing serious help and counseling for hurting, or wounded people. Likewise, the person who needs help must recognize that he or she must seek help from a person qualified to deal with his or her wound or issue, and not just someone with good intentions, or a friend who means well. Seeking help from someone who is incapable of providing it will likely do more harm than good, and lead them nowhere, except into more hopelessness and desperation. Seek appropriate help from someone who is qualified to counsel and advise people with issues like yours.

 

9. Temptations Are Still Possible - Prisoners who are set free can still be tempted to want to retreat to their old prison cell again. The Israelites are a perfect example of this. When things got hard in the desert, they desired the safety of bondage in Egypt (Num. 14:3-4) over the struggles of freedom in the promised land. The security and safety of their past, called to them over the difficulties, trials, testings, and uncertainties of their future. Strangely enough, there is a certain security in sin and bondage that provides a warped safety to the person who fears the uncertainty of the unknown, which the future provides. Fear, isolation, loneliness, discouragement, rejection, failure, anxiety, sadness, grief, and hopelessness are all triggers that can prompt one to retreat to the false comfort of the old way of life when faced with a temptation or struggle. These elements trigger an insecurity in us, and invite us to revert to old ways of thinking and living where we gave ourselves a dose of the false medication that we used to run to for temporary relief from our wound. But remember, we found out that the false medication is no medication at all. We find freedom by standing up to our temptations and wounds, and by standing up to our temptations and wounds, we find freedom

 

10. Stand Back and Be Ready - If your wound affected other people, it may take them some time to get over the wound, or the wound's effect upon them. You cannot expect them to be over the wound simply because you are over the wound. God works in different lives differently, and on different time tables than what we would often prefer. I heard a young preacher say, "Don't rush God." We must allow God the time to help people around us recover, either from our wound, or from the wound we may have inflicted upon them, possibly as a result of our wound (“friendly fire”). Give them time and space. Pray for them. Understand that they have a process to go through, just like you do or did. Be patient. Be prayerful. Be sympathetic. Be understanding. Be encouraging. Be loving. Don't rush God.

 

11. Go Tell Somebody - There is an old ballad written in 1979, by Don Francisco called, “Got to Tell Somebody.” It is about the raising of Jairus’ daughter, written from Jarius’ point of view. It follows the story from death and hopelessness to resurrection, and extreme joy and jubilation! I hope you will listen to it. 

 

When God does a work in your life, you WANT to tell somebody; maybe everybody, what Jesus did for you! I once thought I could never share my story because of its shame, embarrassment, and darkness. Even after Jesus set me free, I just knew that I could never tell it. But I wanted to. I wanted to tell others that Jesus had set me free like the man walking away from death row, because the judge forgave his sentence. God brought about circumstances in my life where He has now let me be open about my story, because He gets the glory! His glory is way more powerful than my sin, shame, and bondage, and He loves to be glorified by redeeming, freeing, and restoring enslaved, wounded sinners like me, who never thought freedom and wholeness were possible! When Jesus does a real work in your heart, and sets you free, you just “got to tell somebody!” Tell somebody what Jesus did for you! Maybe they will be next…