#265: Free at Last

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

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We always have a theme for each day of the retreat. And, cj, you want to share the theme for today?

Yeah. Today's theme is free.

And so we just wanted to start off and have you asked the Lord, what does that word free mean for you today? What could that theme mean for you? And as you're writing or working, you know, some of you, I believe, came into this retreat with expectations of what you needed to get done or what you wanted to get done. Or you may have expectations of what, like, the world says is a real writer or expectations of what you should be or shouldn't be. You may have voices from your past or even your present still haunting you that say you're not a good writer, you'll never amount to anything, or your voice doesn't matter that you're insignificant. All of these things can come and weigh us down, right?

Yeah. And, you know, yesterday we talked about brave, and we mentioned the Israelites and how 10 of those 12 scouts were fearful, they didn't want to go back. Two were ready to conquer that promised land and see what God had in store, knowing that God was the one that was going to.

Ultimately clear the way for them. But today.

You know, I want to refer to those same Israelites. You know, it took one day for God to get Israel out of Egypt, but as you recall, it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel.

Yeah.

And, you know, when you've been enslaved for 400 years, I want you just to think about that 400 years. Years. When you've been enslaved that long and slavery is all you've known, it just becomes ingrained. It's the lifestyle. You really lose hope because you think, man, we've been praying to God for how many years and still we're still subjected to Pharaoh.

Yeah. I was just thinking about this because I'm listening to the audio version of the Bible, like reading through the Bible through audio, and I'm at this section where. Where, you know, they're now coming out of Egypt and they have these mindsets, and it's like, man, you know, it's so true. You know, there's some things that are just feel like they're locked in. Right?

Yeah. And, you know, you'll recall that there was this point in Joshua, and It's Joshua, chapter 5, verse 9, where the Israelites did cross the Jordan River. The Lord dried up the Jordan and allowed them to cross on the dry riverbed to get across into where they would take the promised land and head in there. And it was only Joshua and Caleb that were the survivors from those who had been freed originally from Egypt. All the others had died because they, they didn't believe. And, and it made. Made the Lord mad, quite honestly, that, that they didn't want to trust him to get them to the promised land after freeing them in just one day from Egypt. And so I want to read this to you. It says, then the Lord said to Joshua, this is after they had gotten across and they'd even circumcised all the sons of those who had passed away from the previous generation. It says, today, and I believe he says this to all of us here today. Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt. So that place has been called Gilgal to this day. And that word, Gilgal really translates to the word roll. It's almost as if God was saying, all right, boys, let's roll. You know, let's roll ahead because that's in the past. The slavery is behind you and it's time to move forward. And so God was burying their enslavement of yesterday and beginning a new chapter with his people. And we can either see ourselves as slaves, things, you know, slaves to fear, slaves to our past, our addictions, etc. Or we can see ourselves as God's chosen people.

Amen.

And live from the freedom that we've got in Christ. And Coach Johnny mentioned that verse, he who the son sets free is free indeed. And I love that word, indeed.

I know, it's like an exclamation point.

It's like, you know what? When Jesus frees people, he doesn't do a half rate job. He frees people to be set free for good. And so this is why, and I think we'd all agree here, as Kingdom writers, this is why reading scripture daily is so important. Getting something in our minds, both for us personally and for us as kingdom writers that are sharing words with others, you guys are going to be writing words today that most likely will be shared with a broader audience. And scripture reminds us of what God thinks of us while exposing the Father of lies. That's why it's important to keep our noses in scripture because we've got it flowing through us. And we know that we can spot the lies of the enemy a mile away. And you know those 10 scouts that didn't believe, they bought in lies. They bought the lies of the enemy. We thought we were grasshoppers next to them, and they did, too. And it was as if they were saying, we just bought into, you know.

What they think of us. And it seeped into our mindset. And then those 10 scouts, they shared all that, that spread throughout the camp, and people started getting fearful. Pretty soon, they wanted to go back to Egypt. They actually wanted to go back to the slavery that God set them free from in just one day. And this is why it took 40 years for God to essentially work Egypt out of Israel. It was a painful process. Do you realize some of you know this, that that stretch to get to that promised land should have only taken them 11 days, and instead they spent 40 years wandering around aimlessly. How many of you are tired of wandering around? You're ready to get to the promised land that God has for you, and you're just ready to put the slavery behind you.

Amen.

Ready to put the fear behind you. You know, 2020 is behind us. They do say hindsight is 2020.

But we're moving forward now. It's 2021. We're not guaranteed that 2021 is going to be better than 2020. All we can say is, for us and the Lord, it can be better for the trust that we have in the Lord, it can be better for the things that he wants to do through us. It can be better. So that's our message this morning, is to say.

Let'S take on this freedom mindset. To say, you know what? Just like he said to Joshua today, I've rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt. And he wants to roll away the gunk in our lives as well, the stuff that's held us back from the past. It's time to move forward with our writing, the messages God's put on our hearts to share. And I'm excited because I know you guys represent people that not only enter your own promised land of writing, but then you get to lead others who read your writings into sort of a promised land. The promised land of what. What God has for them, what Christ has for them. So it's a. It's. It's a. It's an awesome thing to be in the places that you're in right now. You've got an awesome responsibility. I call ourselves. You've heard me say it before. We're priestly pens in the hands of the author of life.

Yeah.

He's the author. He's writing something through each of us.

Yeah, this is so good. And just always a great reminder. Audrey says, you know, I didn't write my free definition, you know, when we asked all of you what you sensed God saying to you today, but she said this was in my notes, free from shame of the past, allowing me to share what treasure was hidden in those difficult times. What Satan meant for evil, God will use for good. Amen. And that's probably a reference that you're meaning from, like, Joseph. We were talking about Joshua, Joseph, how God, what. What his brothers meant for evil, God used for good. And I've often quoted that in my life as well, with all the things that I've gone through. But, yeah, so, so good. And you know, what does God want to roll away from your life today in order to begin writing a new chapter? I'm going to give you just a minute of silence. We're just going to have some silence, because I want you to ask God. This is important stuff. I want you to ask him what. What does God need to roll away from your life in order to bring. To begin writing a new chapter?

Yeah.

All right. So as I. As we were preparing for today and for the theme for today, I just got a picture of, you know, each of you, like, standing in this big field, and you have, like, this big bunch of balloons. You know, have you seen, like, stock images like that or the, you know, the ladies holding all these balloons, all different colors, but in this instance, they're not balloons you want in your life. They're the balloons of these expectations or these voices or, you know, the shame or, you know, fear or whatever it is that. That you've been holding onto. So you're holding onto these. They're helium balloons. And I just saw, like. Like, for. For some of you, today is a turning point. It's going to be a marker in the sand because you're going to let go of those helium balloons. You're going to let them go to God. You're going to let all of these things that have been holding you back in your writing and your marketing and pressing publish and taking that next step, you're going to let it go, and you're going to allow God to take care of all of those things. So it's time to be free from. From them. It's time to let it all go and trust God with your writing and the marketing and trust him alone. Not strive, not try to figure out in your own strength, you know, I'm Constantly having to come back, you know, to the Lord. It's like, okay, I don't want to strive. I don't want to try to figure this out on my own. Show me what to do. So, cj, why don't you close us in prayer and just.

Yeah. You know, one of the things I wanted to mention as well is that.

You know, God specializes in rolling things away. He also rolled that stone away.

Yeah.

And that stone that he rolled away that allowed Jesus to. To be resurrected and to walk right out of that.

That represented him rolling away our shame.

Yeah.

That. Rolling away the past, Rolling away dead things and allowing life to come forth. And so we. We have God that as. What was the. The artist that said, roll with it, baby? Steve something. I can't remember, but that was a popular song. And I just want to say that, you know what? You and I can roll with it, baby. And God is doing new things in each of us. He's rolling away. So I want to just pray. And we thank you so much.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Thank you for the work that you're doing in our lives. Thank you for rolling away.

Shame, Rolling away past regrets. Rolling away.

Woulda, coulda, should have.

Rolling away broken dreams.

You'Re rolling away all that stuff in order to bring forth new life.

Yes.

And I pray that each one of us would be able to walk free without being loaded down by anything that the enemy tries to heap on us. I pray we'd be able to walk freely into that promised land and know that you've already prepared the way for us. It's just a matter of taking it. It's just a matter of moving forward. Yes, we do have to fight on our knees. We fight from victory and we fight with the word of God as Jesus taught us, you know, when he was tempted for 40 days and fasted. And, you know, there are weapons that we have that aren't worldly weapons, but we. We thank you, Father, that you are bringing us forth into our writing promised land. And we just pray that you. Each person here today would just feel that that load fall off of them.

Yeah.

That they truly would be free. And we're excited to see what happens when an army of Kingdom writers are set free. And we. We just thank you and we give you this day knowing that you're our guide and we just dabble. Ask that you bless our time in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Kingdom writers, go do what God has called you to do. So excited for you.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.

Sam.