“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32 NLT)
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36 ESV)
“He sent His word and healed them, and provided them escape from their destructions.” (Psalm 107:20 LSB)
Back a while ago I began sharing pieces of my life story starting all the way back when I was 8 years old. If you recall, it was at this age back in the summer of 1969, in a Sunday morning church service at Norvell Community Baptist Church, that I gave my life to Jesus. The following week I committed myself to following Christ in water baptism. Soon after that I realized that my Daddy (my Heavenly Abba Father) had called me to serve Him in “ministry” and given me a special assignment in life. I didn’t know this “religous” way of describing what I was sensing, but I knew in my innermost being that I was destined to make a difference in this world for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Fast forward all the way to April of 2013. During April I once again began sensing the stirring of that “call.” This time in an even greater way than ever before. I definitely have unfinished business with my Daddy as I have not yet fulfilled the assignment on my life. The problem is that addictions continue to get in the way. The enemy tried to take me out with alcohol and tobacco and failed. However, he is bombarding my mind and body with flaming arrows as he has hooked up with my fleshly food addictions. The worst thing is that I “know” the truth and yet I am still not living as one who is “free indeed.”
To quote from the back cover of each of my Refire and Inspire Series books, I have… “lived many years under Daddy’s tutelage in the ‘School of Kingdom Life Learning’, along with a few sessions in the ‘School of Hard Knocks’, and a season or two in the ‘Wilderness School of Wandering’.” I can’t help but ask myself, “Self, how can it be that after all of these years of being under the Word, being taught the Truth, and sharing that Truth with others, that you are so bound by addiction? You know the Truth, you speak the Truth, in most areas you live the Truth; so why aren’t you ‘free indeed’?”
That is the million dollar question. I know, that I know, that I know, that I have been called to raise up an army of super senior saints (Rise of the New Caleb Generation). I am fully persuaded that I have been given a very special assignment by my Daddy to set those who are 55 and older free from the bondages and failures that have left them broken and burned out by imparting Joy, Youth, and Peace. Yet, here I am still living in bondage myself. And the worst thing is that I know who I am, and what I possess in Christ, and am still being bound by the illusion of the addictions that I have already been set free from.
Daddy, please take me beyond this as I spend time with you!