Relationships – Living 2 B Free

Discover Freedom

Storms are a part of life

We all experience storms at sometime in our lives. God want you to discover freedom. As Pastor Curtis mentioned, sometimes a storm that occurs in our life is caused from our sin, sometimes it is caused from the sins of others or maybe we have or will experience storms from both causes. The sins of others may have caused trauma in our life that we don’t feel we can get over. God wants to deliver you too. Whatever the cause, God is there with us whether we realize it or not. God also wants to bring us through the storm and help us overcome anything we struggle with or whatever is holding us in bondage because of the storm. He uses everything we go through if we give it to Him.

Desire to see others free

I long to see people be set free from whatever is keeping them from all that God has planned for them. This church service confirmed my desire to help others find that freedom. I have seen what God can do in the lives of those that will follow Him. God’s timing is so amazing. He sends the same message through different channels to those that are seeking. Our Sunday School lesson touched on the idea that sometimes we are our worst enemy. We say we want deliverance but we don’t do our part. Even as a follower we still hold onto things that hold us back.

Helping others find freedom

When we try to help others find deliverance, if they don’t want it, it isn’t going to work. God’s timing is what we need to wait for in this case. God knows how to reach them and what they need better than we do. We just need to watch for the opportunities that God puts before us to be able to help someone when they are seeking. He knows what some need to experience to really get it and what they need to experience to be the perfect witness to help someone else.

Finding deliverance for yourself

No matter what you need delivered from, God is bigger than that thing and He wants to help you. No one is exempt from God’s love. If you are sincerely seeking deliverance, God wants to hear from you. He will hear you. You can use your honest words and talk to Him just as if you are talking to a person. If you need help with some words you can read these to begin your journey. Sometimes you may want a person to contact, you can email me from this site. You may also want to reach out to a church, I am sure someone would love to talk with you and put you on a path to recovery. Look for those God puts in your path to help you. You can discover freedom.

Do yourself a favor and listen to this message. You can skip to minute 42:50 if you don’t want to listen through the worship. Just don’t stop listening early because you don’t want to fight through the storm on your own when God want to fight the storm for you.

God is good and He wants to set everyone free. Remember that nothing you have done or gone through is too big for Him. Reach out to God and if you need a person, reach out until you find the help you need. Keep calling to God, He will hear you and will help you walk through the storm.

Allow God out of the box

I love what Pastor Curtis said about how we put God in a box. God does not operate in a box. If you ever think you have figured God out, you are mistaken. He works in different ways all the time and will do more than you can imagine to help you. The only box God has to deal with is the one we put Him in. Let God break out of that box that you have Him in. You can discover freedom. Let Him bless you.

God speaks to us through Prayer and His Word

Prayer needs are plentiful and grace is available

God’s grace is made available to all of us. God speaks to us. We need to be listening. In praying, I thought how great the needs are and how long the “list” becomes. Having a great need within our own families, how can we have time to pray for all the needs we know of. Then the question, “If I pray for those outside my family, will God not take care of my family?”

God can deal with hardened hearts

After prayer, I proceeded to read Romans 11. I do not want my family members to have God allow their hearts to be hardened because of refusing to follow the way of faith. (vs.7) People do not fall beyond recovery. (vs.11) God is able and still desires to give them salvation. Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles, was meeting the needs of people outside the boundaries of his people and still holding onto the hope that his own would come to know the Truth. (vs.14)

God can deal with pride

If God cuts one, a branch, off because of unbelief, do not be so arrogant in your being grafted in to think that He will not also cut you off if you do not continue in your faith. (Col 1:23) Do not boast in those branches that were cut off seemingly for your sake because they were not. It was because of their unbelief and if they turn from their unbelief, “God is able to graft them in again” (vs.23) and how much more willing will they be to “be grafted into their own olive tree”. (vs.24)

We can always learn from others

One can be called a thriving olive tree and with one roar be set on fire and its branches broken. (Je 11:15-17) What would this look like in today’s world/church? Is not history recorded in the Bible to help us know how to live today? (Ro 15:4, 1 Co 10:6,11) We try to teach our children because of what we learned from our mistakes. Can we learn from the mistakes of others that are recorded in God’s Word?

God’s mercy is available to each of us

Because of our disobedience, not one of us can boast and we are all in need of God’s grace and mercy. (vs.30-32) So much to understand and never understood. (vs.33-34) We have nothing to offer Him but yet He gives us what we don’t deserve. (vs.35) Glory to God forever. Amen. (vs.36) God speaks to us. He will speak to us through prayer and His Word.

B-asic
I-instructions
B-efore
L-eaving
E-arth

People Do Hurt People

What are you to do with that hurt?

We come to expect that we will be hurt by others at some point in our life. When the hurt comes from “God’s people”, the wounds seem to go deeper. Either way the wounds can cause eternal consequences if not handled properly. These consequences can be experienced by the ones getting hurt or those doing the hurting. We can find ourselves on both sides of the fence at different times of our life. People turn away from God when God’s people misrepresent the true character of God. Don’t allow others to have that power to turn you away and don’t be that person that causes another to turn away.

If your feel you have been hurt by another person, prayerfully answer these questions from Wounded by God’s People by Anne Graham Lotz:

• Where are you in your healing journey?
• Do you remember what your life was like before you were wounded?
• How did you get to this place?
• How is the way you are reacting today going to help you tomorrow?
• Do you want your life characterized by the result of remaining focused on “them” while being blind to your own pride, arrogance, anger, resentment, name-calling, vengeful digs, schemes for revenge, or vicious gossip disguised as prayer requests?
• Are these attitudes working for you and making you happy?
• Do they give you a temporary sense of satisfaction but then disintegrate into a desire for even more revenge? And more misery?
• What are you living for? Instead of living your life to the glory of God, are you driven by a desire to get even, vindicate your actions, prove someone else wrong, justify your opinion, expose the other person, get your own way?
• Consider carefully…do any of these desires truly honor God?
• When was the last time you put your head on the pillow conscious of God’s sweet peace and joy flooding your heart? If your can’t remember, could it be time for you to give your attention to considering your own part in the wounding?

“You might distinguish between forgiveness as letting go of my right to hurt you back and reconciliation as that which requires the sincere intentions of both parties” John Ortberg

Someone needs to make the first gesture to reconcile. You can and probably should make the first gesture but also be aware of any attempt that they may be making to reach out to you. It only needs to be a small gesture. In time, there may need to be an honest conversation in which both listen to each other’s story. Often times the problem was miscommunication or misinformation. No matter who is found to be wrong, the apology and forgiveness need to be spoken. Death to pride is the key to having broken relationships reconciled.

If a person has wounded you or has been wounded by you and you have offered forgiving words or gestures to reconcile the relationship and they reject your effort, take it to Jesus. He understands. He made the ultimate gesture and was rejected. Jesus can heal you even if reconciliation does not happen.

Death to pride and position is the key for reconciliation when a wounder seeks forgiveness. It is necessary to be Christ like.
• Be approachable as Jesus is for you.
• Love those that have rejected you as Jesus loves you.
• Initiate the contact as Jesus does for you.
• Extend forgiveness to them before they ask for it as Jesus does for you.

We can’t force reconciliation or change someone’s heart or mind. The Lord can, therefore we should pray and wait, looking for opportunities and open doors.

No person should have so much power to cause you unpleasant attitudes or to cause any separation between you and God. Take it all to God in prayer.

Jesus always makes the first gesture to reconcile. Are you responding to His gestures? Are you in a relationship with Him and responding to His leading?

Don’t let anyone have the power to keep you from all God has for you. When we don’t have the strength to let go on our own, God will give us the strength that is needed. Let Go!

• Let go of bitterness toward those that caused you to view God differently than His true character. Get to know Him yourself.
• Let go of confusion and fear. These are not of God.
• Let go of your desire to justify and explain yourself. God is your redeemer.
• Let go of your emptiness. He has a plan and a purpose for you. He will fill your cup to overflowing.
• Let go of your desire for revenge. Vengeance is the Lord’s.
• Let go of your hardened heart toward those that have rejected you. Jesus understands. He was rejected like no other.
• Let go of your loneliness. God is the God of the fatherless and of the widow. He is your God also when there is no one else.
• Let go of resentment over the way others have treated you. Consider how Jesus was treated.
• Let go of the injustice. God is Just.
• Let go of unforgiveness toward those that have hurt you. Unforgiveness will hurt you more than them. Forgive as the Father has forgiven you.
• Let go of the hurt. God is your healer. He came to bind up the brokenhearted.
• Let go of the anger toward God for allowing your wounds. Those wounds will bring deeper faith and spiritual fruit. God is more concerned with your character than your comfort.
• Let go of your life dreams and embrace what God has for you. He will give you the desires of your heart.
• Let go of the past to move forward. God has a future for you.

Let go. Give it to Him.

Pharaohs of Life

We will face Pharaoh’s in this life that will want to have their way because of their prideful nature and lack of faith to be obedient to God. May the God of Abraham restore to you anything that is destroyed because of the Pharaohs that you encounter in this life. Allow those encounters to draw you closer to God. Do not allow them to harden your heart and become like Pharaoh himself. God will make you stronger in your faith because of your Pharaoh encounters. God is good. He does restore. The key for us is to allow Him to work.

Let no man…

come between you and God
cause you to stumble
have power in your life to keep you from what God has for you

May you be blessed.

Judicial Forgiveness and Relational Forgiveness

We have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and in order to escape the wages of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23), we need forgiveness.

Judicial Forgiveness

We have judicial forgiveness available to us from God that allows us to receive salvation because of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Relational Forgiveness

In order to be in close fellowship with Christ, we are in need of relational forgiveness. We have this by walking in the light He places on our path and in honest confession before God.

If we at anytime decide to be disobedient to what God tells us or we don’t walk in the light He reveals to us, we have disrupted that relational forgiveness.

It is similar in human relationships. If we disagree with a sibling or spouse or friend etc., we are still their sibling, spouse or potential friend but the relationship is no longer the same. It becomes stressed, distant, or uncomfortable. Until honest confession is practiced, those negative aspects will remain and often grow within that relationship. With God and humans, when we aren’t remaining close then we are often becoming more distant.

If a disobedience/sin (disobedience is sin) separates us from God, we can’t ignore it and continue to hear from God in the same way as we once did. That disobedience/sin needs to be taken care of in order to reestablish the closeness that was once there. Often times the relationship will be more intimate than before.

It will always be our wrong decisions that will be the cause of a disruption in the peace we have with God because He will never be the cause of disunity. He is always the perfect part of the relationship.

God Wants Us to Live at Peace

God wants us to live at peace with Him and at peace with others. God wants unity. (John 17:23, Ephesians 4:13, Colossians 3:4) Awesome thought of what could be accomplished in becoming “mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

With respect to people, we can only do so much to live at peace. It is not just based on one party because there is no perfect side to the relationship as in the relationship with God. We are called to do our part (Romans 12:18) as Christ commands and then leave the rest up to Him. We can love them and pray for them but the results are left up to God and their response to Him. God gives each of us the free will to choose to be obedient or not. We will know those that know Him if they are obeying His commands. (1 John 2:4-11)

In order to see the way God sees, we must hear what He says. (Romans 10:17) You have to be in His Word and have that close relationship with Him to know what He says and to have His perspective.