Freedom is never a reality until it is tested.  In the Constitutions of most countries you will see flowery words of individual rights and freedoms but they mean nothing until they are attempted by individuals in that society.  Freedom of speech, freedom to travel, and freedom to work are assumed rights, but they are often challenged by controlling people.

At the turn of the century America’s freedom of religion was tested by a foreigner named Alexander Dowie.  He came from Australia with a healing message for this country which prides itself in its freedoms, and he was arrested over 100 times for all sorts of reasons, like practicing medicine without a license or disturbing the peace.  All those arrests were illegal, but someone had to pay the price to test the system to see if the freedom written in the books was in reality a freedom you could experience.

Egypt kept Israel in bondage for 400 years.  It was long enough to make them forget how a free person thinks.  When they had an opportunity to be free men they wanted to return to the security of the chains in Egypt.

If a Christian is in bondage it is not because the devil is so strong, but rather their will to walk free is too weak.  They will need to continually hear that Jesus has set them free and that they can stand in that freedom, until it gets down in their spirit and reprograms their thinking.

After the Emancipation Proclamation first ordered the freedom of over 3 million slaves, they were given the opportunity to become legally free if they escaped the control of their slave masters.  However, many died on those same farms under the whip of the owners because they were afraid to risk failure as free people.  Remember, who the Son sets free is free indeed!

Religion teaches people to stop thinking for themselves.

One thing people do not want to do is THINK.  They will do almost anything to avoid the trouble of thinking.  Indoctrination is when someone starts to do the thinking for you, and that’s why so many churches that were once alive are now dead.  The leader taught them doctrine rather than how to think.

Indoctrination is the process of being copied in the image of humankind rather than in the image of God.  Your goal is subtly changed from following Christ to following Christ’s church.

Satan has reserved this last trip for the most sincere of Christians.  If he could not get you to live in sin and promote the flesh life, then he takes your zeal for God and turns it into a weapon of religion to enforce a religious bondage on the people rather than a fleshly vice. Those most hungry to please God are the ones who fall for this trick.

I remember a dream God gave me back in 1984 when I was wearing a long black robe and trying to run with my pastor, but I kept falling over my robe.  I woke up and God spoke to me and said I was getting religious.  I thank God for the warning, and you should be warned as well!

One of the great truths of our era that has caused an explosion of growth in literature and given understanding to the spiritual workings of the word of God, is the revelation of seeds.

The power in life is found in the seeds of life, in every aspect of our natural life.  A farmer doesn’t need great faith to see a crop or harvest, he just needs enough good sense to plant seeds.  He doesn’t need any power or anointing to farm, all he needs is to put the seed in the ground. A farmer doesn’t check the soil to see if the soil is doing its job, he just plants the seeds.

It would be strange indeed to applaud the farmer for all his creativity in a crop, and marvel at his ability to produce. He would humbly say, I just put the seed in the ground.

Every seed in the earth will grow. God’s Word is a spiritual seed full of potential, and when put in the ground of man’s spirit, it will always grow!  This truth has revolutionized the church.  A preacher who belittles the power of words is like a surgeon who belittles what knife he uses.  Would you agree to be operated on if your surgeon was happy to use a kitchen knife?

When you have an encounter with Jesus Christ and surrender your life to receive Him as your Savior and Lord, it is not just an emotional experience. It is not just a rational, intelligent moment of decision. It is not just a cleansing of your past and passport to your future.

The seed of God has been planted in you in the same miraculous way that the seed of God was planted in Mary to produce the Lord Jesus!

You had to say yes to His will the same way Mary did. She did not understand but said, “Be it done unto me according to your will.”

Peter describes this phenomenon by declaring:

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.  1 Peter 1:23

You have a miracle in you! All the potential of Jesus as a Son of God was placed in seed form in you as a child of God, except for the redemptive nature of Jesus. All His purpose and power is now able to grow and develop in you. This gives special meaning when we celebrate His birth at Christmas!

There is a debate as to whether Jesus always knew who He was. Some think that Jesus was all knowing in the flesh, but think for a moment.  He was born a baby and had all the limitations of a baby.  For 30 years you only hear of Him once and that was in the synagogue talking about scripture.

Jesus was born a man and had to grow in wisdom like any person.  Did God have to give the revelation to Jesus, or did He already know it?  Scripture says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which GOD GAVE UNTO HIM, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Revelation 1:1 author’s emphasis).

I believe that God had to give the revelation to Jesus of who He was, just like He has to give it to us.  He had to discover it in scripture, and He challenged the religious people to search the scriptures for they speak of Him.

Jesus found Himself in the Word, and you can find yourself in the Word.  Accept the letters to the church as personal letters to you.  Examine the lifestyle of Jesus in the Gospels as an example of your own lifestyle.  Read the commission to Jesus as God’s commission to you, because the world is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

Jesus came to reveal not only Who God is, but who we are! Here are a few revelations that the Scriptures give us about Who Jesus is and how much we—all of us—are like Him:

[Now] He [Christ] is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15 Amplified).

Jesus began a new species of god-men. He is the first-born so we are born of His family and likeness in the image of His Father who is now our Father.

“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). And when did our resurrection occur? The moment we were born again from death to life!

“…Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message).

We go from faith to faith, from love to love, from adventure to adventure!

Matthew 18:20 promises that where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus —He is there in our midst. When the Word is preached, His presence is preached, and His presence fills the atmosphere around us.

In Luke chapter 4 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to declare freedom for the prisoners…” Mark 16 says that He sends us to do the same thing!

Declare with me today, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me; His Holy Spirit is upon me.” When we speak His Word, His power and His incorruptible presence is in that Word.

When we are born again He dwells in us, His presence is in us, and we have the mind of Christ. He is there wherever two of us gather together. His presence is here in our midst and upon us, dwelling in us and surrounding us.

Now what does this mean to Christians? It simply means that we are not seeking to find a manifestation of God; we are living in the manifestation of His grace and His presence.

I no longer have to beg God for a miracle, because I am a miracle; He’s come to dwell in me! I no longer have to beg God to show up and present Himself, for I know the miracle of His presence exists in His Word!

If you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t do what God tells you to do.

In Matthew 16:18-19 Jesus told Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will create the Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (author’s paraphrase).

Poverty comes from hell, not from heaven. Sickness comes out of hell, not from heaven. Fear comes from hell, not from heaven. All liars, deceivers and angry things come from hell, not from heaven. Nothing that comes from the gates of hell will prevail against you! Hallelujah! The gates of hell will not prevail against you! I don’t care what has been coming at you, it will not prevail. It will not persist. It will not continue.

Why? Because you have a revelation from heaven, Christ has told you who you are. And when you know who you are, everything that you bind on earth will be bound and everything that you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Because you know who you are!

Second Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ.” Hallelujah! He always causes us to triumph! Always! Always!

Not, “I win sometimes, I lose sometimes,” not, “well, I’ll see…maybe it will work, maybe it won’t work…” No!  Thanks be to God, who always causes me to triumph! Always! Always!

I don’t care what the government says, I don’t care what the people say, I don’t care what religion says, I don’t care what my finances say, I don’t care what the economy says!

Thanks be to God, who always causes me to triumph. ALWAYS!!

Christians should be the leaders in the field of science, where discoveries are made. They should be the leaders in the business community, where favor is needed. They should be the leaders in the stock market, where having a hunch is often the key to success. They should be the top surgeons in the medical field, where skill and insight are required.

Why? Because Christians have the Anointed One living on the inside of them, giving them knowledge of clever inventions and showing them things to come. “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him”(1 John 2:27).

We are not left to our own intelligence or wisdom in this life. We have a living relationship with God, Who has chosen to live inside the believer!