The Word

Freedom

🌟Message🌟

John 8:36
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Isaiah 55:11
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

In the old testament after God freed the Israelites and brought them to the promised land He continued to fight for them, saying I have already gone ahead of you and I am with you. And with them He was, there wasn't a nation they couldn't defeat when they obeyed God. After they conquered most of the land Joshua allotted the Israelites their portions, but there was still land to conquer. Yet God gave them assurance when He said this in Joshua 13:6 "I myself will drive them out before the Israelites."
But the isrelities had trouble driving out these nations for various reasons such as fear and just not doing it, but it was for a purpose. In Judges 3:1-2, 4 it says,
"These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):
4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses."

Sadly they failed this test because they were disobedient and disobeyed what God said in Exodus 23:33

What are some things that causes us to be disobediant to God?

"They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."

They had the power to defeat their enemies For God already went ahead of them, they had the power to stay away from the practices of the foreign lands but they refused to and this led to sin and pain.

Now I want you to image that the promised land is your flesh. Christ died so you could be free from the power of sin, now you have authority and power to rule over it and obey God but we still get tripped up with sin. We have been given peace by God but sin continues to lead us back into our old ways just like the foreign nations did to the Israelites. Why? Well I believe it's the same reason God allowed some of the foreign nations to stay in the land of Isreal so one they'd know how to fight and two to test them to see if they'd remain obediant to God. Now the question remains how do we overcome the sin that we continue to struggle with the sin still present in our flesh. Well, I think God put it the best in Joshua 22:5

5 But be very careful to obey all the commands and the instructions that Moses gave to you. Love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, hold firmly to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”

How do we do that, how can we obey God, how do we love Him, how do we walk in his ways? We must hold firmly to Him and serve Him with all of our hearts and souls. We must throw down anything in our flesh that we value or love more than God, and hold firmly to him in our actions and our thoughts no matter what. If it takes fasting fast, if it takes more time praying pray, If it takes more time in The Word spend the time, if it takes giving up something you love give it up or you'll once again become the slave of sin, a slave to something that has already been defeated on the cross through Christ suffering and death. Also, we can do this by staying around believers. If the Israelites didn't allow the forign nations to come into their land and influence them, if they didn't spend so much time around them but around believers and in the presence of God they wouldn't have fallen.
I'll end with this scripture

Romans 6:12-14 says
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

What are some practical ways we can defeat sin based on the discussion?