Onwards and Upwards

Life is like climbing a mountain. We often go through seasons of healing or trials, and it feels like it took everything in us to climb up the peak. But, once we get there, we realize there is still a whole other peak to climb, just to get to the top. It is usually not easy and sometimes God asks us to bring people along for the journey; but "freedom is not about feeling better every day, but about you learning to walk in fullness and to help others break free of strongholds." Despite the difficulties of our various climbs, Jesus promises to climb with us and even carry us through because He is more committed to us than we are to Him. He is just that good, that is who He is. He wants us to experience the fullness of life with Him, and bring us into His freedom.

This week was just another trek in the climb of life, where unfortunately, the climb was not nearly as small as I had hoped. But, oh beautiful Jesus, what grace He has me. When I am ready to give up on my journey of freedom, He provides people to walk with me and to get me to the place He wants me to go. Even when I get it wrong, He is faithful to forgive and He allows me to try again.

Throughout this past week, we discussed the topic of freedom. Freedom has typically been a topic that I often wouldn't even try to understand. It always felt like there were so many steps that it would become complicated and messy, but the fortunate reality is it is much easier than I thought. Yes, there are times when God needs to take us on a bigger journey, but sometimes we just need to run to Him for repentance.

Freedom is often linked to the idea of our purpose. Every single person has a dynamic purpose, our lives are not random. We are created with a purpose in mind. Life in its simplest form is to know and love the God of the universe, who wants us to participate, with Him. Part of that journey is that He wants to set us free in such a way that we are liberated to walk with Him in the fullness of life and joy, in all circumstances. This is the beauty of the cross. Jesus died for us, so we could be free to walk with God! But, the enemy wants to come and fight to take away our freedom, so we do not walk in our true identity. To come into full possession of everything Jesus has promised means that we have to be willing to fight the enemy in warfare for the purpose place on our lives. Just like Israel fighting for the Promised Land, we must fight for the Promised Land in our lives. We must learn to walk in freedom.

So, how does one walk in freedom? Freedom is tearing down the spiritual strongholds in our lives so that we can walk in the fullness of Jesus. A spiritual stronghold works in a very similar way to a material one. "A stronghold is made up of a sin expressed in a person’s thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, philosophies, actions, and values that oppose the truth of God." They are often built by allowing the enemy to have a place or opportunity (and place of power) in our lives through our sin. These strongholds are a “launching pad” for enemy influence in our lives, where he can exercise influence over us. Too often we allow the enemy to take strongholds in our hearts and minds. This often happens due to past sins, injustices we have experienced, generational patterns (passed down to us), and curses spoken over us (whether by someone else or ourselves). The enemy is always looking for a way to create a stronghold, so we must stay alert and always be on guard, for he "comes to steal kill and destroy." 

As Christians, we must consistently come back to the truth, for Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life." Everything begins and ends with filling our lives with the truth. We have been given the authority of Jesus to live and walk in freedom, we just need to walk it out in faith and truth. We must take every thought captive, making our minds obedient and aligned to the truth of Jesus. This often means consistent repentance, where we stop and turn, going in the complete opposite direction of our sin. If we want full freedom, we must do whatever it takes to remove the sin in our lives. Then we must receive God's forgiveness and cleansing. We need to stop condemning ourselves for our sins and failures. Once we ask for forgiveness, it is done and over with! Jesus does not condemn us, so why should you? Then we must step out in faith, stepping into the authority Jesus has given us, by rebuking the enemy’s hold on us. Declare old attitudes, actions, and emotions dead and “paid for”. Lastly, we must replace, by filling our hearts and minds with truth that is consistent with the character of Jesus Christ and God’s word. 

We must train our minds, through truth and action. We must exercise that muscle and walk in it. Unfortunately, sometimes even when we do this it can feel like it does not work or that we are even going backwards (back into old sins or failures). When in reality we are just climbing higher up the mountain of freedom. The enemy is always looking to test our breakthroughs and challenge whether or not we truly believe we are free… This is just another invitation to run to Jesus, as he wants to take us to a deeper level of surrender and healing. When this happens, we must again return to repentance, receiving, rebuking, and replacing. Sometimes, we will have to continue to do this again and again, but God is faithful to help us find freedom. A life characterized by humility, obedience, and repentance towards God is a mighty weapon, which the enemy cannot defeat.

In my life, I have often sat idle as the enemy has gone to work on my identity through lies like, "You will never be good enough" or "You are unworthy to receive love". It has also happened through continual sin patterns, by which the enemy heaps condemnation upon me relentlessly. Over time, because I remained inactive and allowed such lies and sins to fester, I lost sight of who God made me to be, giving the enemy strongholds in my life. 

But, oh beautiful Jesus, how gracious He has been to me. Even when I consistently allowed such strongholds to be built in my heart and life, He chased me into the darkest parts of my heart. He pursued me, even when I felt I was not worth pursuing and reminded me of His love. He forgave me for my sins and failures, calling me His son. He spoke truth over me and reminded me of who I was. He allowed me to walk in repentance and freedom again and into His marvellous light. He broke down the strongholds that once looked so ominous. He set me free to walk with Him. I will fail again, and I will fall back into sin, but Jesus continues to gently meet me in my failings and brings me back. He is faithful despite me. He just simply asks me to take one step at a time and trust Him to figure the rest out, as He calls me onward and upward.