Saved but not yet free

Messages for September 2017: Our Month of New Things

Message for Sunday 24^th of September, 2017

Theme: Understanding the New Creation Life

Topic: Saved but not yet free

Introduction: So far, we have seen what new birth is and why we must be born again. We also saw the benefits we stand to enjoy when we give our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. As we conclude the series for this month, I have chosen to look at this very important topic which so many tend to ignore to their detriment. In the book of John, there was an account where Jesus Christ was addressing some people who believed on Him and he gave them the terms of spiritual freedom as follows: continuity in the word of God until they became disciples indeed and then they would know the truth which would make them free. See Col.1:13 and Jn.8:31-32.

The summary of this is that while deliverance is automatic at new birth, freedom is not. So how do we get freedom? This is what we shall seek to be looking at this week.

We are delivered but not instantly free: We learn from Apostle Paul in Col.1:13 that at new birth when we became new creations we were delivered from the dominion of darkness. Later, as we learn the word of God we would discover from John 8:31-32 that even though we were believers in Christ we must grow to become disciples and then qualify to know the truth which would eventually make us free. However there are demands for freedom which we shall be looking at now.

Bible demands for freedom:

1.     Continuity in God’s word: From the mouth of the Lord, we learn in Jn.8:29-31 that when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not free automatically; we have to continue in the word until we know the truth that would make us free in any area where freedom is required in our lives. Please understand that this is without prejudice to our salvation because when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God. As a matter of fact, John says we pass from death to life. So we are saved from death and passed unto life. See Jn.5:24 and Col.1:13.

2.     Spirituality: As we saw in paragraph one here, we must continue in the word to become free. To continue in the word, we are to read it daily, meditate on it daily so that it can hatch understanding in us to enable us to do it. Whenever we do the word of God, we are being spiritual. When we are spiritual, we become blessed with many benefits from God the best of which is to be taught and led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can only teach spiritual people because He is Spirit and spirits only communicate with spirits. As a matter of fact, we learn from the word that the Spirit cannot communicate with the flesh because they would never agree with each other. See Gal.5:16-17; Rm.8:5-8 and 1Cor.2:14. This therefore means that every time we put into our spiritual development to enable us grow up spiritually is time invested.

3.     Knowledge of the truth: When we talk about knowledge here, it is not the natural kind of knowledge but the divine revelation of the Holy Spirit into our Spirits as the Holy Spirit gives us understanding. When we get saved, only our spirits are saved; our souls and bodies remain the same. Please understand there that according to 1Thess.5:23 that as humans, we are each a spirit, we have a soul and live in a body. So the real man is the spirit as we see in some texts from the bible. See Lk.16:19-31. Apostle Peter describes the spirit of man as the hidden man of the heart [1Pet.3:13-14]. Apostle Paul describes it as the inner man [Eph.3:16]. Therefore, when we get to know the word of God from His perspective as unfolded to us by the Holy Spirit, we become free as far as that truth revealed to us is concerned. If the truth carries instructions with it, we would be free as we take the responsibility to carry out the said instruction because it is not just the hearer of the word but the doer who is blessed. So let us see some truths we can discover and how they make us free:

The truth of our redemption: From the word of God, we get to know that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law. Let me give us a little analogy here. If you have a million Naira in the bank and are not aware of it, you could be begging to eat even though in reality you have a million. The reason you would keep being hungry in spite of your millionaire status is that you are ignorant of what you have. This is the same with many believers; some are suffering from infirmities even though Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse which includes sickness. The reason they keep serving infirmity is that they do not know how to draw from their heavenly account of divine health and actualize their healing. They do not know because they have not taken responsibility to find out how to take it directly from God and His word. The word tells us in Hosea 4:6 that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Mental accent of what the word says is not enough to take delivery of what the word offers us; we must receive revelation knowledge because it is only Revelation knowledge that has the power to transform one. We cannot do the word we have not understood. To understand the word, we need the insight only the Holy Spirit can give and only a spiritual person can receive this. See 1Cor.2:14; Jos.1:8; Jas.1:22-25 and Jas.2:26. The proof that a person understands the word is that they do it because faith without works is dead.

The truth about our new life style: Another truth we must receive is the truth about our life style as believers. If we do not learn and know how to live for God after we are saved, we would not be able to enjoy victory in our daily walk with God; we would keep trying and falling and trying until we give up in frustration. Any price you pay to know how to live for God and do it is not too much because what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? The word of God tells us how to live for God in the following texts: Jos.1:8; Ps.1:1-3; Rm.12:1-2; Gal.5:16.

The enemy of our soul: We need to know that the enemy has been defeated. In other words we do not fear him but we must come against him with faith in the word of God. If we are not aware of his defeat and the victory we are destined to have over him, we would be preys to his fears and that can rob a person of faith. This is a very dangerous place to be because faith is the victory needed to overcome the world. See 1Jn.5:4; Jn.16:7-8; Rev. 12:7-12; 20:10

His war for our destiny: Another truth we need to know is the truth of the war of the enemy of our souls against us. In Jn.10:10, the Lord makes us understand that the enemy of our soul is a thief and his mission is to steal, kill and destroy but that He Jesus Christ came to give us life in abundance. From the word, we also discover that the chief weapon of our enemy is deception. His aim is to deceive people away from the course that God has charted for them so they do not get to fulfill their destinies. The best way to checkmate him here therefore is to subscribe to being led by the Holy Spirit. When we are led by the Holy Spirit, we would walk in the ways of God and this makes us the commander of His acts. See Ps.103:7 – Moses who knew the ways of God controlled His acts but the children of Israel who didn’t know his ways kept falling into different kinds of mischief until the bulk of them were unable to get to the Promised Land.     

How to overcome all his antics: For you to overcome his antics, you must get to know and understand the nature of warfare we are into. The first thing we must recognize is that our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. It therefore means that the weapon we engage for warfare are not carnal weapons but mighty weapons through our Lord Jesus Christ. The enemy battles our thoughts and if not checked, begins to battle our imagination and if not arrested, goes to build mental strongholds with which to control us if he can. Our weapons have the power to pull down strongholds, cast down imaginations and take every thought captive to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. See 2Cor.10:6; Eph.6:10-18; Rm.8:13 and Heb.5:13-14.

From here we gather that we win the battle against the enemy of our souls   by making use of the following spiritual arsenals among others:

·        Prayer – Mt.7:7-8; Acts4:24-30; 12:5; 1Thess.5:17 and Lk.18:1.

·        The skillful use of the word – Heb.5:13-14; Rm.10:8-11; 1Tim.4:13, 15.

·        Divine guidance – Ps.32:8; Jn.16:13

·        Prophetic acts – Jn.9:11; 2Kings 2:19-22 and Lk.17:12-19

·        The mysteries of the Kingdom also known as keys of the kingdom – Mt.16:17-19.

Prophetic mantles – Mt.9:20-22; Acts 5:14-15 and 19:11-12;

The Holy Communion mystery – Mt.26:26-29,

The blood of sprinkling mystery – Ex.12:21-24; Heb.12:18-25

The anointing oil mystery – Mk.6:12-13 and Jas.5:14-15

We shall draw the curtain for the series of this month here believing God that these truths would really enforce the truth of our new creation status for our benefits to the glory of God. Meanwhile someone reading this may be longing for the expression of these lights in their lives but find it impossible because they are not saved. The first step to coming into the reality of these truths is the new birth. Should you desire to take advantage of this opportunity to be born again, you can do so right away by saying the following prayers our loud in faith:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.