Living in Freedom

Are you free?

Are you actually really living free?

Free to be who you were created to be and maxing out the unique divine design that is at work in you every day? Listen, if you're like me, you can want freedom, you can know freedom, but holding onto it, man, you have to be intentional about that. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Hi there. My name is Chrystal Hurst Evans.

And you're either watching me right now on YouTube or Facebook.

My hope is that you're subscribed to YouTube or Facebook. So whenever I share a video, you'll be sure to be aware of that. But today what I want to do is share a message with you that I actually delivered inside of the Inner Circle. The Inner Circle is a membership where women who, uh, women of faith who want to come to practically get tools and tips for living life well, where they join me to do the work. So I'm encouraging you here and I'm inspiring you here and hopefully giving you help here. But if you want to engage with the material a little more, then that's what the membership is for. But that's neither here nor there. The main thing that I want to tell you is a little bit ago I delivered a message about freedom in one of our Inner Circle meetups, evening meetups. And, um, I've been hearing that that was extremely helpful and life-changing for some. And so because it's my word of the year, I wanted to bring that message of freedom to you. How you can be free, what it means to be free, why you have to fight for your freedom. I believe that you're going to be encouraged and inspired by this word. I believe that the, uh, the illustrations that I share will help you to see yourself in this situation. And what I believe and I hope for is that you will understand the value of your freedom so much that you will do what it takes to live, uh, unapologetically as the unique, divinely created person that you were put here to be. All right, that's enough of that. I hope you enjoy. Here we go.

Living free means that you refuse to let anyone else define who God said you should be, what God says that you can do, who he is calling you to be in the depths of your soul.

When you can't shake it, when you can't lose it, when you keep dreaming about it and you keep thinking about it and you still have the desire for it.

He's calling you. Listen, I understand that you and I have had unique experiences that have brought us to this point right here.

I know that some of you were raised in church. I know that some of you didn't even see a church until you went to college. I know some of you were raised in church and then you left the church and then you came back. I know that some of you, when you were younger, had a very good relationship with God when he wasn't competing with you with that man or with those kids or with the job or with that friend group, and then you left him, and then you had to figure out, as Revelation says, what it means to return to your first love. I understand that in the season where we don't know Jesus, or where we left Jesus, or we pretended that Jesus didn't exist, I understand that there are scenarios by which— and even sometimes when we know him, because people are a fallen people, and there are people in life that maybe did things to us that caused us to walk in slavery. We were bound. Bound and didn't know it, or we were bound and totally knew it, but we didn't know how to break free. And then we get it. We get it because we get saved when we're young. We get it because we get saved when we're old. We get it because we got saved and we left and then we came back. We get it because we actually believe what God says, and we realize he died to set us free. He died to set us free from sin and the grave. He died so that you would not have to have broken fellowship with him. Uh, the, the Bible talks about the fact that none of us are righteous, no, not one. All have sinned, Romans tells us, and fall short of the glory of God. We are— none of us are perfect, not one. But when we walk in sin, we walk without fellowship from God the Father. So Jesus came so that we might enjoy fellowship with God the Father, which means that we had to be free from sin. Sin was a dead weight tied to your ankle that you would not have the capacity to unlock yourself, and it was designed to drag you to the bottom of the ocean where you would die a long death and be separate— separated from life ever after more. And because Jesus knew, God the Father knew, God the Spirit knew that you did not have the capacity to free yourself from impending death, he came. He dove into the water with you, into the pool of death. He had the key. He had been given the key by the Father, and he unlocked the chain. And here's the problem right here. You are no longer chained to that ball of metal that would have dragged you down to your forever death from God the Father, forevermore into eternity. You have the gift of salvation. That's why we say that you were saved. You were saved so that you could actually live an abundant life. You were saved so that you didn't have to live under the level of the water. You were saved so that you would not have to be separated from life indeed by your connection with Jesus, God the Father, and life with the Holy Spirit living in you. But here's what happened when you had the ball and the chain tied around your legs, and when you were sinking, you started to think that that water was where you were supposed to live. That's the problem. You were given the gift of freedom, and then you have to swim. That's the problem. So the problem is, if you've been under the water for a while, you start to think this is a— where I'm supposed to live my life. I'm so used to being wet, I must be a fish. I'm so used to being out of breath that this must be how it is to live, holding my breath all the time. I'm so used to being alone and not being able to hear clearly that I forget that I actually can hear clearly if I would get out of that situation. You forget that the fish swimming around you are not your people. You forget that you're supposed to actually live free because you've been set free. There's a difference. There is a difference.

You have been given the gift of freedom, but he's not going to swim for you.

He's not going to swim for you.

So what I know is that living free, when you have been accustomed to living in an environment that is not for you, I realize that shifting seasons—

mental seasons, emotional seasons, physical seasons— I realize that shifting the season takes energy for some of us. Some of us don't have that story. We found out about the greatness of God and the gift of salvation, and we were like, what? Are you telling me I don't have to sit in here anymore? Are you serious? And we started freestyling our way to the surface, raised our hands, said, 'Get me out of here, put me on dry land,' and we have been running ever since. I do understand that that's, that's some of your story.

I do understand that.

I do understand that.

But there are a lot of us that when we break the water and we feel the atmosphere You know, it's like if you've been swimming in a pool on a hot summer's day, you jump into the water, and, uh, when it's time to get out and the sun is setting and it's still warm outside, but you've been in the water, and so you start feeling cold, the temptation is Let me get back into the water. The water, the water felt good. The water, the water had gotten comfortable, right? And your body is telling you you're not designed to live here. You're, you're, you're, you're, your fingers are getting wrinkly, you know. I mean, all these things are happening, but you want to get back in when you get out and it doesn't feel comfortable and you're wrapped in your towel and you're shivering and it starts to feel familiar. You were set free. You were given the gift of freedom, but then you have to choose to live free.

That's the choice that you have to make. And I know that that choice is not always simple because when you're living underneath the surface, even if you get comfortable, you develop habits for living underneath the surface. You develop ways of thinking when you're living underneath the surface.

You develop ways of operating. You develop relationships.

You develop rhythms.

You, you lose yourself under the surface.

You forget who you are. We all remember in The Lion King, and Simba of course watches his daddy die, and he thinks it's his fault, and he runs away to be by himself, and he meets friends, and he gets comfortable. And then there's a call: we need you, Simba. And then he has to have the monkey come and tell him Remember who you are. I know you've forgotten, but that has nothing to do with the fact that you have a job to do, that you are who your daddy said you are. He said it, you stopped believing it, it doesn't mean it's not true. And he had to, despite his own insecurity, despite his own questions, and despite his own guilt and shame, he had to decide to get uncomfortable. What is required for you, what is required for me to walk in freedom, will require our lack of comfort. Your comfort is not the deciding factor of whether or not you're living free. He says that you were supposed to be called above your comfort level to walk in the definition that he gives you.

Let me tell you what the enemy wants to keep you from doing.

He wants to keep you from soaring.

So he wants you to be totally rattled by the energy and the g-force required to get in the air. He wants you to totally be rattled by what this particular trip does on its landing, to make you think about that the next time that you go into the air. His job is to keep your mind off of the altitude, off of the soaring, off of the journey, and off of the destination. And he wants you to be totally consumed by the takeoff and the landing. Stay in the water. Be comfortable. That water temperature that you've gotten used to, stay in here. Stay on the ground. Don't soar. Don't you know what's required to get up in the air? Don't you know how much g-force is going to occur in your life for you to allow this shift in your situation?

Let me tell you something.

When Jesus came, Herod, first 2 years of his life, concerned about what would happen if the Son of Man got off the ground, said, kill all the babies, kill them all.

That takeoff was rough.

Do you know what happened when Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, died to unlock the key for your salvation. There was major tremors happening. The veil in, in the temple, it split in two because the takeoff and the landing were rough. You know why he got to his altitude and soared even though the takeoff and landing were rough?

Is because he had somewhere to go— actually! As He has someone going was carrying you; He's been caring about your freedom...

God carried out His dreams for us all this week while we were at home through John Henry Newman prayer meetings on Facebook Live or YouTube live during COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 . Jesus Christ was carrying our future up there before that door opened by faith so I can come here today but not only Him now when my life began again after death from sin until then even though Satan tried his best against me every day till finally one night did succeed yet still sometimes Paul says "I'm ashamed." Why?

Because what happened between time passed away quickly enough that people forgot who they really served inside their heart cuz Peter said 'No Lord.' But listen carefully if anything came back into memory remember how much joy Joseph conceived within himself seeing Mary gave birth unto him looking down upon them both saying HaShem Yahuwah Elohim Yahweh Shammayim ha'elohi hamikdash harashon hanukkah lachin hamanu alamot kadosha Hashem yahuwahi elochaiyinu Yuhiyevichaneka manashekhemet hashivat kol hakodeshafaradom sefiram kelev tamid v'al kamishmaa shimshooshekhmiym avod ahavata shalom aleluia amen?!

It's cause He had Somewhere To Go—and Actually—as He Had Somewhere To Go Was Carrying You—he was carrying Your Freedom-he was carrying Your Dreams.He was caressing Your Future.—He was carring Your Purpose. And why does David say Amen!? That means yes!!!

Yes!! Hallelujah!!!!

Praise be Untold One Who Lives Forever, Eloi Adoni Elhuwaiah Jehovah Jirebbaqarah Malachi 4 verse 2 He was carrying your neighborhood. He was carrying your health. He was carrying your relationships with your sister. He was carrying all of that. And he said, for her to be able to live free is worth this rough takeoff and landing. Let me tell you something about Jesus. He was comfortable where he was, and he said, it's time for me to rise to the surface so that these people can see me, so that I can get out of this atmosphere and walk around on earth in an environment that was not built for me. But I, Son of God, am going to put on the skin of man. And why am I doing that? Because my lack of comfort is worth the journey for her freedom. So what in the world— what kind of business do you have staying underneath the level? What business do you have staying where you've been comfortable? What business do you have being okay with the darkness? What business do you have saying, I'll do it tomorrow? What business do you have saying, well, this just must be the way that I am? What business do you have continuing to talk yourself out of the things that God has put in you? What business do you have with living underneath your potential? What business Do you have a— not actually living surrendered and committed to the person who died to save you, to set you free so that you could live free. You have no business doing that. None. And anything that God wants you to do, anything that you feel that the Holy Spirit will not let you loose of mentally, spiritually, physically. That is your call to the service.

Releasing the chains that have bound you first starts with deciding that you believe that Jesus Christ came to unlock you from the chains. Then your freedom means that you agree with God about what it means for you to live in the place he designed you to live. You got to live by the rules. He has given you to live by.

And then when you are walking in that place above the surface and you're thinking, I don't belong here, this isn't comfortable, the sun is too hot, the temperature is too cold, these people don't fit me, I don't know how to dress, I don't know how to act, I don't know how to walk on this street, I don't know how to walk up this hill, I don't know how to operate in this atmosphere, I don't know how to sit in this meeting, I don't know how to fix myself in this marriage, I've never been in this parenting situation before, oh my goodness, I've never had to pass this test before. Oh my goodness, I never thought I could understand God in this way before. When you realize that what God is calling you to is not what you know, that's where the faith comes in. Because everything that God wants to do in your life is going to require him taking you from glory to glory, from one set of clouds to another set of clouds, from 10,000 feet to 25,000 feet to 35,000 feet. It's going to require him taking you to new heights, to places that you have never been, nor could you ever achieve being at without the power of the Holy Spirit undergirding you as you fly with your seat belt on. It's going to require you agreeing with him about what he is saying in your life. And here's what I can tell you: you want to experience freedom, you attach yourself to the word of God, you attach yourself to obedience, you attach yourself to righteous living, you attach yourself to putting your brain on the thing that God is putting before you, to do it well, to do everything in word or deed the best you can to the glory of God, and then you trust that he shifts the gears.

You want to live free?

You start by believing what he says.

And here's the problem: we—

and I talked about this in my book She's Still There—

we are our own worst enemies because we look at where we came from, we look at what other people said, we look at our experience, we look at the shame and the guilt that we carry, and we stop agreeing with God.

We start reminding God of who we were. We stop— we start reminding God of what we did. We, we may not even keep talking to God. We'll start talking to ourselves. How do you know?

How do you know that you're still living chained? Because what he's asking you to do, you won't do.

You're just flat out rebellious, you're flat out disobedient, or you are walking in sabotage because you, even though you say you believe what God says, you are not agreeing with God. So there's a part of you that will sabotage your efforts to agree with God. Your soul has to be informed by your spirit. The Spirit of God says, soul, Listen up, things are changing. The soul is supposed to inform the flesh of what the flesh is going to do, but the soul had a mind that agreed with the flesh before Jesus. And so when you say you agree with God but you are not— you, the soul of you is not allowing the Spirit of God in you to inform the soul about the reality that God is giving— then your soul is still wreaking havoc on your flesh. Your soul will not agree with the spirit unless you just say, I don't understand it, I don't believe it, but Spirit of God, I'll believe. Soul says, I agree, I will agree, and I will allow this agreement to inform what I do with my flesh. That's why the soul has to say, Word of God, what do you say? I don't believe it, I don't feel it, but I'm going to agree with it in my action today. I'm going to say what you say about me. I'm going to ask you, Lord, help my unbelief. I'm going to ask you to help my doubt. I'm going to ask you to help me make different decisions, because if I believed, Holy Spirit, what you were telling me, soul, about me, soul, then my flesh would be doing something different. So the problem is that you either don't agree with God and you're not walking in obedience, you don't agree with God and you're not walking righteous, or you're saying you agree with God but then your soul rules when you come home.

And so your soul says, you not no different, girl.

Your soul says, I'm so attached to your flesh, let me remind you of who you were before.

Let me remind you of what people don't know about you, and if they knew, they might agree with your soul. That the Spirit of God could not redeem, restore, refresh you. So because you're afraid that maybe the Spirit of God is not right about you, it's safer and more comfortable to agree with your soul, uninformed by the Spirit of God. Here's what I know because I've tasted it. I don't have it down. But there's this zone where you live when the only voice that matters is the Father who created you, and you start believing what he said about you and agreeing with him. So this year, my word is freedom. What that means for me is that I want to pay attention to the places where I'm hesitating.

Or I'm second-guessing, or I'm talking to too many people trying to get them to validate what I already know.

For me, freedom looks like asking God before I ask anyone else. Freedom means being quiet and living within the boundaries of stillness and rest. For me, freedom means the things that I have not been able to shake in 20 years— doing them. Not talking about them, not getting permission, but doing them. What freedom looks like for me is being willing to be alone, because when you're on a plane up in the air, lots of people are not with you. Everybody's not supposed to be on the same flight I'm on, and that's okay. Christ set you free so that you could live free. So I agree with God about what he said about me.

How do I know?

Because there are themes in my life that have repeated themselves over and over again. People that love me have spoken into my life. There are things that I have read in books that all of a sudden it just Yeah, that, that's me. The Holy Spirit in me agreed with what I read. Studying the Bible, memorizing scripture, it's in my head, it's in my heart.

I know where I've been obedient, disobedient, and I got to get my act together.

I know where the boundaries are that I've crossed, so I can write down, this is my boundary. And it's pleasant for me when I live within my boundaries. And do everything God designed for my flight through life. I'm not going to do it all at the same time, but I am going to be very mindful about what he's telling me mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically, professionally, in my family. My challenge to you tonight is for you to write down what freedom means to you and to notice where you're not living free, and then to ask God where does he want you to agree with him so that you can experience freedom. You have to cover all the areas at the same time, but write them down. I'm not free because if I were free, flying would look like this.

I'd be debt-free. I would not always be dating somebody I know I have no business being with because I'm lonely. I would not be, uh, working on a job that I know is not my calling without also working on working toward my calling. I would not, uh, be living above my means. I would stay out of the malls buying things that I don't need. I would be taking care of my body. I would be pursuing that dream, starting that business, writing that book, uh, caring for someone in my family, and I've been too selfish and too busy to give them my time. I know what freedom looks like because here's why you know what freedom is: when you are chained and you try to walk past the distance that freedom is calling you to, it jerks you back and you feel it. You feel it. Sometimes it hurts, but you feel it. Sometimes it stings, but you feel it. There's something in you that wants to move forward and it jerks you back and says you can't go. Where you feel a no, if it's not the Holy Spirit, if it's not the word, if it's not conviction, if it's any other no than the word of God and then the Holy Spirit in your life That is a chain. Where do you feel jerked back every time you try to move forward? Where do you feel like you're stuck every time you want to do something different? That's a chain.

You're not supposed to live like that. You're not supposed— to be a prisoner in your own skin. You were designed to live and not to live chained. You were designed to live free.

Hey!