Be free!

“Welcome William, you are free here”!

The time we spent in the Maasai land taught me a lot about freedom…
freedom from entitlement. “You are entitled to your own opinion”. How often
have we heard that before? Turns out, that isn’t true when you’re following
Jesus. He says that if we want to find our life (our life in eternity with
Him), we have to lose it (our life here on earth). That means die to ourselves,
our desires, our wants, and our needs. The Father knows what we need, and
promises to provide for us. But how often do we allow Him to do that? How often
do we say “God, I will trust you to provide for my next meal” or “God, I will
trust you to let me sleep when you provide time for me to rest”? Not often. We
usually eat when we’re hungry, and sleep when we’re tired.  We provide for ourselves and feel entitled to
be able to do so. But our time in the Maasai land gave me freedom to see how
little I truly trusted God in those areas. Our team began sleep fasting which
means to spend the evening with God and then going to bed later than normal,
wake up after a couple hours to spend time with the Lord again for some hours,
and then waking up earlier than normal after that to spend time with Him once again.
At first it was terrifying because I love to sleep. But He showed me that I
felt entitled to sleep, and wasn’t surrendering it to Him. He knows that I need
sleep, but I was telling Him how much I need and when I was going to have it… which
is not exactly trusting Him to provide… at all.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Freedom from
sin.  Freedom from slavery. Paul writes
in the Bible that we are to make our bodies slaves to ourselves, not
vice-versa. So many of us (yours truly included) are slaves to our bodies. We
eat when we’re hungry, drink when we’re thirsty, find warmth when we’re cold,
and rest when we’re tired. Meaning, we are enslaved. God provides for the
sparrows when they need food, and He provides for the lilies when they need
clothing. But we as mankind choose to provide for ourselves when we want
something or grow uncomfortable. We are more alive to listening to our fleshly
desires than we are to living for His glory alone. How often do we skip
sleeping or skip eating just for the sake of spending time worshiping Him and
praying instead?

“Welcome William, you are free here”! Those were the words
of Pastor David, the man my team stayed with our whole time in Maasai land. He
drops what he’s doing and worships and dances for hours if Holy Spirit is
leading him to. He wakes up at 1am to pray for hours for peace over his land
and his family when Holy Spirit leads him to. He stops cooking in the kitchen
and comes outside to talk with me when Holy Spirit leads him to. Just by living
with this man for a little over one week, I see slavery the way it is intended.
We are to be slaves (bondservants) to Christ and Holy Spirit and the Father.
Not to our bodies. When Holy Spirit says “pray”, we say “absolutely… what would
you like me to pray for?”…. not, “it’s 1am and I’m too tired”. When Holy Spirit
says “Go outside and talk with him”, we put our desire for food aside and place
our desire to serve the Lord higher.

Very often when I asked Pastor David a question, he
responded, “William, you are free my brother, just as I am free. We both love
Jesus, we both listen to the Holy Spirit, we are both sons of God… which means
we are free”! That is so true, but it is so hard for me to live daily. Freedom
is being alive to Jesus, and dead to the flesh. And freedom is beautiful, it is
a gift our Father desires us to have, it is a gift Jesus was willing to die
for, and it is a gift Holy Spirit wants to lead us in every day. The cost to
beautiful freedom is dying to the flesh. Taking up our cross daily. Following
the voice of the Lord no matter how loud our circumstances are screaming at us.
That is freedom, and that is why Christ set us free.