THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY OF THE CHILD OF GOD

“Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the GLORIOUS LIBERTY of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21)

There is a place called liberty and it is a glorious liberty reserved for God’s children. Absolute freedom is the birthright of every single child of God and no child of His should settle for anything less. Listen, child of God, freedom in Christ is a reality, not a fairy tale. It is not an average freedom either, but a glorious one. I want you to hear this as though the Lord Jesus stood before you in voice of thunder and lighting and said, IF YOU SINCERELY WANT FREEDOM FROM ANY KIND OF BONDAGE, IT IS WITHIN YOUR REACH. IT IS UP TO YOU TO TAKE IT AND WALK IN IT – IT IS THAT SIMPLE. I am aware that so many of God’s precious people are in bondage to all kinds of things and these bondages have brought so much disgrace to the name of Christ but you don’t have to live in it another day of your life. This may sound to good to be true especially for those whose life’s experiences tell a different story. Child of God, you don’t have to struggle with Sin or any type of yoke for the rest of your life. I know that you’ve tried all types of things to get freedom and yet, it seems far-fetched and I hate to break this news to you that you tried religion and not true Christianity. It is a fact that when one has lived in bondage to a thing for such a long time and has tried to get freedom from it and failed, his mind tends to convince him that true freedom is hogwash, that is, it doesn’t exist and therefore, why bother trying. Such people resign their fate to whatever comes and call it a part of life. However in Christ, you were called into a glorious life and that life includes your glorious freedom. It is freedom from all sin, including besetting and secret sins. It is freedom from addictions, and I mean all types of addictions. It is freedom from fears and all types of phobia. It is freedom from all types of emotional trauma and hunting memories. It is freedom from all types of sexual sins and perversion. It is freedom from all hurts, bitterness, failure, shame, and disappointments, toxic and suicidal thoughts, guilt, depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, lies, confusion, betrayals, and feelings of condemnation and having failed God. FREEDOM THROUGH CHRIST IS A NOW REALITY AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO STRUGGLE WITH SIN. You may ask, “If this is true then, why the struggle?” Answer: there is something you still do not know. “But through KNOWLEDGE SHALL THE JUST BE DELIVERED” (Pr. 11:9). Please, follow these instructions and live a glorious life – see you in the winner’s circle.

FOUR STAGES TO EXPERIENCING YOUR GLORIOUS FREEDOM IN CHRIST

STAGE ONE: THE FOUNDATION STAGE.

This stage is the stage of the FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST.  Simply believe the gospel that all your sins and failures were laid on Christ. (Isaiah 53:4-6; 1 Peter 2:24) Jesus bore in Himself all Sin, all yokes, and all bondages and there is nothing he didn’t bore that you’re struggling with right now. He bore all our viruses on the Cross – (Numbers 21:6-9). Let me show you how this works. How did you get saved? Somehow, you heard the good-news of the gospel of Christ and accepted it by Faith or by acting on it – (Ephesians 2:8-9), right? You didn’t work for it or performed to earn it. You simply in child-like faith, accepted it as a present reality, right? Only after you took that action, did the Holy Spirit endorse it or bore witness to it that you are now a child of God, right? Well, how did you receive the Spirit’s power? “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:2) Apply this to the event of Acts 19:1-7. All those 12 men did to receive the Holy Spirit was believe the good-news about the Holy Spirit and acted on the message heard. They acted on the correct knowledge, for the Holy Spirit can only make real the correct knowledge of the word of God. Again, how do miracles take place? – (Galatians 3:5). Simply by hearing the good-news and acting on it. How did Abraham live an outstanding glorious life? He simply acted on the message – (Genesis 12:1-4; Genesis 22:1-3; Romans 4:2-5; Romans 9:30-32). You’re asking now, “ I get the point but how does this apply to my struggles?” Well, in the same way, you must accept the good-news of Romans 6:2. It states, “How shall we that are dead to sin, live therein any longer.” You see that bondage is Sin. Every addiction is Sin, but in Christ you’ve died to it. Don’t fight it; just accept it as truth. THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN DO NO FURTHER WORK WITHOUT THIS FOUNDATION OF TRUTH. You cannot win without a foundation of truth, because the Holy Spirit only endorses truth and He is the one with the job of making the truth a living reality in your life. Has anyone ever told you that the power of the cross in its ability to severe from Sin, only works when Sin is acknowledged as Sin? “The word of the Cross is the energy of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) Not Sin as a result of its devastating consequences on your life but Sin as it breaks the heart of God. Often, we substitute all kinds of names for Sin and unconsciously, displace the power of the cross. Different names call for different measures, but the power of the cross can only be applied to Sin. All bondages in the believer’s life must be acknowledge as Sin – a grievous Sin in the eyes of God and only then, will the Holy Spirit work His work of mighty convictions and deliverance.

STAGE TWO: THE TRANSFORMATION STAGE.

This is the stage where the Holy Spirit makes your foundation truth a living reality. Remember, your foundation must be laid right and then, He, the Holy Spirit, will build upon it a beautiful palace of freedom. How does this work? First, you must understand that only the presence of Jesus transforms us – nothing else can do it. Take the example of Moses’ transformation on mount Sinai, “And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, THAT MOSES DID NOT KNOW THAT HIS FACE SHONE WHILE HE TALKED WITH HIM” -  (Exodus 34:28-29 - emphasis mine). All that Moses did was abide in God’s presence and as he did, he was transformed. You will also notice that some elements for effective fellowship with God were present in the transformational process, such as: the word, prayer, fasting, worshiping and waiting and seeking God’s face. Moses simply delighted himself in God, while God did the transforming. Notice the difference of what Moses did from what most Christians do. He used the word, prayer, fasting, ministering and waiting and seeking simply as a means to effectively strengthen his fellowship and maintain his abiding place with God, while the union of that communion allowed the presence of God to transform him. Most Christians see these activities as the very power behind their transformation and not the presence of Jesus Himself. Yes, you may take Romans 6:2 by an act of faith, but the Holy Spirit must make Romans 6:5 a reality. You are dead to Sin and yet the Holy Spirit must make your “planting or engrafting” into the death of Christ a living reality, that is, an actual experiential death into the death of Christ, so as to experience a real resurrection with Christ. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection – (Romans 6:5). God is the one who does the engrafting (God is able to graft them in again – Romans 11:23), but it is your responsibility to maintain your position of faith on the finished work of the death of Christ of Romans 6:2. This stage, you are co-operating with the Spirit to make to die the influence of Sin in your mortally bodily members – (Romans 8:13), by his supply of the spirit or life of Jesus into your very being, (Philippians 1:19); hence, circumcising and transforming you by the mighty infusion of His presence.

STAGE THREE: THE PRACTICAL STAGE.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you” -  (Romans 6:12-14). It is imperative to know that although you have taken a position of faith on the word of God that you are dead to sin, and that by such a stand, you are intelligently co-operating with the Spirit of God to make to die the influence of sin in your mortal body by His life transforming presence, you must also now intelligently and faithfully and willfully refused to expose your members and faculties to sin. “If you play around in mud, you will get muddy.” If you intentionally expose yourself and your members to sin, you will get contaminated. Learn to yield your heart to God fully and constantly present your members to God as a living sacrifice – (Romans 12:1). Start in your home and build an altar of worship. Trash every unhealthy material such as reading useless magazines and watching unedifying television; rather, give yourself to constant fellowship through prayer and the studying of the word as well as listening to worship songs and godly messages. Find friends whose spiritual growth means the world to them, and constantly fellowship together. Stay away from all appearance of evil and cultivate a steady and strong discipline of constantly seeking the presence of Jesus.

STAGE FOUR: THE ABIDING STAGE.

“Abide in me and I in you” The true secret to a life of freedom is learning to abide in the vine – (John 15:1-8). The focus is not the fruit, but the abiding; just like Moses who wasn’t aware of his transformation as he pre-occupied himself with God’s presence. Align yourself with the laws of abiding in Christ, and you will bear fruit. This abiding must be constantly maintained at all cost, so that the rivers of God’s life can constantly flow through you. Be wired to God at 100% efficiency and watch His life dissolve any thing that doesn’t look like Him in you. God Bless!

THE INDISPENSIBILITY OF SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES

 “Highly successful people consciously and systematically create their own success, while others hope, pray and believe that success will find them. Cultivating and possessing habits of success, will under any circumstance, lead to only one destination – success!” 

There are laws that guarantee success and highly successful people know and constantly prove this in their own lives and businesses. In the church-world, however, so many believers believe that success is a mystery and that if they only prayed or hoped hard enough, will one day or somehow fall right into their laps. This type of thinking is at best mediocre and has contributed in the destruction of so many destinies. The great missing link in this equation is a life built without systems and structures. It affects every area of one’s personal life: “Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Relational, Vocational, Financial and one’s Life’s Purpose. I believe that “wisdom” is profitable to direct, and we shall explore God’s word to understand and apply this wisdom in our own lives. Let me say that success does not automatically or magically fall on one’s lap, it must be prepared for; and if it ever does, you will surely lose it within a very short period of time. We often see this in the lives of those who win the lottery or from those who inherited wealth that they were never prepared to handle. With this truth in mind, let’s begin!

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also” – Gen 1: 14-16.

We often read these passages, but do not see the behind the scene methodical and structural order of God’s intelligent and creative wonders. God set the sun, the central star of our solar system and its relationship to the moon and the earth to create a perfect system of signs, seasons, days and years. The earth rotates around the sun in 23.934 hrs, creating approximately a 12 hr light time and a 12 hr dark time, which we call day and night. The four seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall are a result of Earth’s axis of rotation being tilted 23.45 degrees with respect to the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun. During the part of the year, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun and the southern hemisphere is tilted away, producing summer in the north and winter in the south. Six months later, the situation is reversed.

Again, the bible says, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not have their course altered” – Gen. 8:22.

 So we see that God set a system in place based on precise mathematical equations of the Sun’s relationship with the Moon and the Earth to form and regulate seasons, calendars, time, planting and harvesting. Total eclipses, measurements of Noah’s ark, and the tabernacles of Moses and David and the temples of Solomon and Ezekiel, all reveal how meticulous and precise God is in His creative designs.

BUT WHY SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES?

The answers are found in Jer. 31: 35-36 and 33: 25-26; and I will paraphrase both.

They simply state that if the fixed laws of the Sun, Moon and the Earth ceased to function according to their constellation course, then and only then, will Israel cease to be a nation and Jesus as the Messianic Davidic King would cease to reign on the throne of David as King of Kings and Lord of lords forever!!! It seems like God is saying that you and I can put His systems and fixed laws to the test. Did you ever notice that once God set these structures in place, He rested from all His works? The fix order of the Sun and Moon in its relationship to the Earth has been in place for the past six thousand years and never once has God bothered to revisit that structure. He rested!! “For he who has entered God’s rest also has ceased from the weariness and pain of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own” – Heb 4:10. Our entire solar system is built on a precise systematic order. Johannes Kepler, who was a devoted Christian, founded the 3 fundamental laws of planetary motion, which NASA and other Space bodies use till date for space explorations in the solar system and galaxies.

Why would God choose to build the entire universe on systems and structures? Because, it is the only thing in the entire universe that never fails, rather it self-sustains and self-perpetuates. This is why God could take His hands off the system and rest or cease from all His works. The Sun and the Moon have never ceased for the last 6000 years to function in a consistent, predictable and systematic order. Its system and order is most reliable. You never have to question for once if the Sun will rise in the east, nor question if there will be a day and a night. These are not issues that you have ever to consciously be concerned with. Apart from God Himself, nothing else but the system works, because it was created to reveal God’s own character: “In whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning” – Jm. 1:17.

Take a good look at Gen. 1:12, and tell me what do you see: “And the earth brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, WHOSE SEED IS IN ITSELF …” It is a system at work that self-sustains and self-perpetuates. It was designed to work and function on its own accord and this is why it is called the law of seedtime and harvest and why God could rest from it for all eternity. Doesn’t this make you appreciate God’s intelligent and creative ability?

HOW ARE SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES FORMED?

This is another way of asking, “How do I form the habits that would guarantee a life of success?” It starts with forming habits through repeated practices. You practice based on a systematic way of doing the same thing over and over again. In Eccl. 3:1, we examine the following translations:

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven” – NLT.

“Everything has its own time, and there is a specific time for every activity under the heaven” – GWT.

“For everything there is a fixed time, and a time for every business under the sun” –

BBE.

Learn to schedule a specific time for every single activity for the day and do it to bring you closer to your set goal. Refuse a reactionary life-style, where you’re constantly reacting to everyone’s call but yours. Don’t let others fill in your schedule for you, rather control time based on God’s purpose for your life. I would strongly advise you to start with your spiritual life because every other aspect of your life hinges on this one. You cannot rule the world until, you’ve learned to rule yourself. “He that rules his spirit is better than he that conquers a city” – Pr. 16:32. You need the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night, as the earth has no light of its own but that which it receives from the heavens – Gen. 1: 16. This principle reveals that it is through encounters with the light of God’s Spirit and His Word that we are able to rule the day and when that practice is repeated at night, we also rule the night. By controlling these two times: “Morning and Evening”, you control your 24 hr day. By practicing this schedule in a systematic way, you end up creating the structure or habit for success in your spiritual life. This way, you cease to hope and believe for success. Now, you know that you are creating success through conscious choice and through a fixed order that cannot fail.

In conclusion, it is important to note the following:

(By habits, I mean systems and structures).

1) Habits are formed through repeated practices.

2) Habits become strengths or strongholds.

3) Habits outlast passion – some people’s passion for something may not last.

4) Habits outlast intensity – intensities can evaporate like fogs.

5) A life built on systems and structures are guaranteed to consistently succeed.

6) Habits are constant and do not give into pressure.

7) Habits are constant and do not succumb to climatic changes.

8) Habits are never a function of feelings, since feelings fluctuate and are unreliable.

9) Through systems and structures, you never have to live a disorderly and chaotic life again. This was God’s method of restoring the chaotic mass – Gen. 1:2.

10) Through systems and structures, you rest and never have to repeat a class ever again. Every failure in life is due to a lack of systems and structures in that area. 

11) It is uncertain to trust yourself, since you have failed and will still fail yourself. 


You cannot wish or hope yourself into a life of success; you can only trust the system you’ve built to guarantee it. Why? Because, apart form God, only the system works!!!

God bless,

Pastor Sino Agueze