The Freedom Process - Choosing to Believe the Truth - Purity 1453

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of tropical plants firmly rooted in the sands of an unknown beach comes to us from a similarly unknown Facebook friend. Who shared this view on social media back on November 28th, 2022. This memory is yours. Give us a heads up and we will photo credit you on the blog after the fact. Well, it's— it is Tuesday, and as I prepare for another session of the Freedom in Christ course this evening, I know the importance of being firmly rooted in our identity in Christ. And as tonight's session focuses on Choosing to believe the truth. It is my hope that the guys in tonight's group who were taught or reminded of who they are in Christ last week will make the decision to not only believe it, but to live by it. To do this is to live out our freedom in Christ, and it means that we reject the lies of our former ways of living and believe the truth that we have already been set free when we put our faith in Christ and can walk away from our quote-unquote besetting sins, or those things you will quote-unquote always struggle with. But, um, let's say, well, no buts about it. When you are free in Christ, you are free indeed. But to experience it, we must choose to believe it and demonstrate our beliefs with the actions of how we will live our lives. For example, if I want to overcome an addiction to, let's say, soda or pop, I have to not only believe the truth that soda or pop is not good for me, I have to renounce the lies that it's, it's okay to drink it, or it's not that bad, or that everybody drinks soda. Uh, those little mantras will prevent us from being free because they will give us an excuse to give into the temptation to drink soda. So this is the renewing the mind portion of the repentance process that leads to freedom. We have to change our relationship with soda by changing our thoughts about soda. But beyond the mental gymnastics of changing how we think, we also ask the Lord for strength. We, to not give into temptation and to break whatever permissions we may have given the enemy to keep us in bondage to this quote-unquote one thing we can't be free of. We go to the Lord in prayer to cast out any spiritual forces of darkness that may be driving this addiction and to commit ourselves to living in freedom in this area of our lives by surrendering it to the Lord. With these two instructions, we engage our intellectual and our spiritual capacities to break away, uh, from the bondage we are in. However, we must also take actions and make volitional choices to complete the freedom process. We must choose to not buy soda anymore, and we must choose to say no to anyone offering us soda. Instead, we must, and this is important, choose a behavior to replace our former addictive response. For instance, instead of soda, I now drink water. Uh, with this process and the Lord's help, any bondage can be broken in order for us to, um, yeah, oops.

My goodness, I—

yeah, but in order for us to have success, we must do the following. Believe. First, we have to believe it's possible. If you don't believe you can be set free, you can't be set free, you know. Um, that's, that's the first part, you know. It's a mental thing. Um, we have to actually believe the Lord has set us free from, you know, sin and death, and this bondage is, is sinful, and so I can get free of it. We have to believe it's possible.

You know, that's one of the biggest stumbling blocks is that, you know, that you will always struggle with this.

That's a lie. The Lord sets you free. So if you believe it's possible, you can be set free. That's the first thing. Then we change our thoughts and relationship with the thing we want to stop. You know, if it's drugs, alcohol, sexual addiction, those things, we have to start thinking about what we're thinking about and change the way we think. And you know, realize these things aren't good for us and sort of make a commitment to follow the Lord in this area of our life. Like, I'm a Christian, I don't do this anymore. And I don't want anything to get in the way of me and my relationship with the Lord in this area to disrupt our harmony and keep me in bondage, keeping from living free. So we got to change those thoughts and our relationship with, you know, say goodbye, say goodbye to the thing you want to, you know, say goodbye to. Um, that's part of the trauma process, you know.

Basically, we get over our trauma by saying goodbye to the thing we want to say goodbye to.

Um, then we go to God in prayer to break spiritual bonds, demonic strongholds, and receive— to receive strength and a new heart regarding the thing in question. You know, as Christians, we're supposed to be in prayer all the time, and you may need a prayer minister to help you through the process, But the Steps to Freedom in Christ, uh, is a prayerful repentance process you can walk yourself through to break all the, uh, the permissions of the enemy in your life.

Uh, you know, so check out the Steps of Freedom in Christ, or just say a prayer, you know.

Uh, it doesn't have to be complicated. And then we have to choose an end date, the date you will actually quit and when your freedom begins, you know. But, but, you know, what's the, what's the best day to I'm going to quit an addiction, you know, tomorrow, right?

Because I ain't doing it today. Well, we got to choose a day and we got to, you know, commit ourselves to it.

And then we stop doing— we actually choose that day and we stop doing X and we start doing Y. And Y is your plan for a life without X. So you put in place those alternatives and you start living according to that. And then it's very important. You want to make yourself accountable to God. You want to go to him every day in prayer and say you're, you're working on this thing and you're walking in freedom in it. And, and, and didn't want to blow up your spot, but you got to be accountable to the people in your life. You know, we don't get free in secret, we have to tell people, I ain't doing this no more.

That's not who, you know, that's it. And that's it, you know, we can't get free in the shadows.

And the next thing is lean on God daily through a daily spiritual practice and a conversational relationship with him.

You know, if we're going to live free in Christ, we got to have a We have to have some evidence. We have to have a relationship with, with God that goes more than beyond just a Sunday service. Um, we're going to have to lean on him if we want to get free and we want to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. So daily spiritual practice of prayer and Bible study is highly recommended, and just every day walking and talking with God. So that's the process.

You know, that may seem like a lot, but really this is just a matter of repenting, where we change. We're changing our old way that doesn't work for God, God's way that does. God has already given us the victory, but if we want to experience it, we need to surrender fully to the truth, the way, and the life that Jesus calls us to live. And to Jesus, uh, transformation is not a one-and-done experience. It is something that God blesses us with when we choose to pick up our cross and follow him. Today's Bible verses come from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation come from the section on the forgiveness of sins. Today's verses come from 6, uh, 1 Kings 8:33-36. In the NLT, the word of God says, if your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave their ancestors. If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you. And if they pray towards this temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession. You know, today's verses come from the 27th section— 27th point of our Counseling Reference Guide resource section on the forgiveness of sins. And And the 27th point is the prayer for forgiveness must be accompanied by repentance. And, uh, you know, today's Bible verses teach us that the negative consequences we face in life may very well be a result of our choice to not follow the Lord. Here, scripture shows us that suffering a defeat to an enemy and natural phenomenon such as a drought could be a judgment from the Lord for our unfaithfulness. It could be a test of our faith, or it could be something that he will use for our growth. You know, God calls us to faithfulness, repentance, and maturity, and trials are often, uh, you know, where we grow the most. The good news is though that if the calamities we are facing are a chastisement for our sin, we can be forgiven and reestablish our our, our harmonious relationship with the Lord by going to him in prayerful repentance. Um, he wants us to repent, and today's verses indicate that if we humble ourselves to do so, we will be delivered from the turmoil we are in. Of course, how long it takes to be restored and delivered will be up to God, but as long as we ask for his forgiveness and choose to follow him in repentance, we can rest in the peace of knowing that he is with us and will, will help to see us through. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, uh, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Um, today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. In Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture And today's chapter is Hebrews 8. And from Hebrews 8, he shares a portion of verse 5, which says, make all things according to the pattern. And Stephen Alford writes, these words were spoken to Moses. He had been alone in the mountain with God. He had seen the pattern of the tabernacle. He was now to reproduce, reproduce it in the wilderness. Its reproduction In the wilderness became a means of infinite blessing to those Canaan-bound pilgrims. The true tabernacle is Christ. Real visions of him are such, as such, are only seen away in, seen away in the mount of holy communion with God. But when the great pattern is seen, the message comes to the believer.

Make all things, the light in the wilderness journey, according to the pattern.

Oh, and Alfred ends by praying, oh, that I might conform to the pattern of Christ. Amen. Amen. And that's our example. That's our, that's our Lord. That's our Savior. That's the pattern we're supposed to follow. Live like Jesus lived. What did Jesus do? Well, he got away from everybody on occasion. He went to the Father in prayer. You know, what did he also, you know, so did he just go away into the desert and pray?

No, he, he, he He sought to do the Father's will, and he did a lot of good works, and he spoke the word of God, and he helped people, and he taught people to become disciples of the Lord and to do good works for the kingdom of God.

That's our pattern.

Jesus, we are to follow him and, uh, to do the will of the Lord only. And that is why we ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? Are you living the life that God has for you, or are you living your own life?

Um, you know, usually they're not one and the same, unfortunately. Um, we tend to go our own way and we live according to the flesh, but God calls us to live according to the Spirit because we can't get no satisfaction when we try to live by our own means.

Um, and that's why God called— that's why God sent Jesus to tell us we were doing it wrong and to save us. And when we come to him, when we, when we hear the truth of God's word, we have to believe it and choose to believe the truth. And we also have to do something about it by living according to the truth. And when we do that, he will call us to repentance, to turn from all the sin. We don't just say, oh good, I'm forgiven and now I'll continue in my sin. The Lord wants us to be holy as he is holy, and he calls us to repent and turn from our evil ways. Um, when we do that, you know, we receive the promises of the, uh, the Lord, which, which are worth the fruit of the Spirit: peace, love, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, patience, gentleness, and self-control. And that's the pathway of peace that, that Christ showed us to follow. And when we follow that, he'll lead us into good works like Uh, for me, I was blessed by the, the opportunity to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park.

We meet on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM.

So anybody in Upstate New York who can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night, you're welcome to join us for Christian recovery and discipleship. And basically what we teach is walking in the Spirit, and we invite you to, you know, to try a new way, to live through this, this community where we give you a space to, to speak the truth, to be accountable, and to, uh, to grow, um, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of course.

And for those who can't make it to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night, we do, uh, believe that you can find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube.

Um, we have playlists for the Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course, among other things, um, basically available on our YouTube channel. You can find our YouTube, uh, channel which is MT for Christ 247, or, uh, you can go to mtforchrist.com and go to the page where our YouTube channel, uh, uh, playlists are listed. So you can find them very easily by going to mtforchrist.com. Uh, we do all this, um, to increase your freedom because you might believe in God, you might believe in Jesus, but if you're not living in the fruit of the Spirit, you're not free. And, uh, he, he calls you to live an abundant life, so let's go get it. And so we ask the question, you know, are you empty for Christ too?

You know, if so, keep walking and talking with God.

You found the path of freedom. And, uh, we're, we're space— we're supposed to stay on that and you grow with it. However, if you're not, it's just a matter of turning to the Lord and asking for his help, making Jesus your Lord and Savior and following him into the good life that he wants you to lead. A life that may not be easy, but it will be good and it will, uh, and you will find peace, uh, even in the midst of the storm. When you're walking and talking with God.

Well, uh, that's it for today. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for this freedom process that you've given us, Lord. And this process is just a building a relationship with you, Lord. It's not scientific, it's spiritual, and, um, it's good.

You've led us to freedom because you told us who we are. According to your word. And you've encouraged us to follow our example, Jesus, to discover the, the life that you have for us, Lord. We thank you for that. And we pray for anyone listening or reading today's message, that they— that you would, uh, come alongside them, their prayer request and their walk of faith, Lord, to guide them in the way they should go.

We all, uh, need your help, Lord, and we want to represent your kingdom.

So we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go.

Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you.

And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.