When we are, for example, abused or rejected, most times, our focus moves to a place where we never want to allow it to happen again. Sometimes our focus is so fixed on safeguarding ourselves against the re-occurrence of such an event, that we miss the healing or desire from the heart of the Father to set us free.
We have to realize that freedom according to the word of Abba Father, is not primarily anchored in the fact that something will not re-occur, but in the fact that He wants to heal us. Freedom is not a political human right but a gift that was paid for on the cross of Calvary.
Sometimes we even reach an extreme side of the equation where I rather hurt others, before they have the opportunity to hurt me. This is not living in freedom. Vulnerability becomes my second nature, and this is the very ground in which fear grows. The result of such decisions, many times bear the fruit that relationships with other people, never reach a healthy place because, I am so focused on not being hurt again, that I isolate myself.
In the previous article, we looked at the words that king David wrote in Psalm 119:45 where he said the very fact that he seeks the instructions of Abba Father resulted in him, experiencing and walking in true freedom.
“And I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts”
The Hebrew word, translated into liberty (in some translations – freedom), is the word Rachav. This word means – “a broad space of openness that lies within, walking in the instructions of God.” What does this mean? It means that the instructions of the Father open the place of freedom for us to live. Let us look at an example:
We are in the desert where the Egyptians followed the children of Abba Father furiously. They stand with their backs against the red sea. We must understand that the red sea opened on instruction of Abba Father. If Moses had ignored the instruction of the Father, the enemy, Egypt (Mitz’rayim in Hebrew which means “that which binds you”) would have pressed the children of Abba Father into a place where there would have been no escape. Because of obedience to the instructions of the Father, however, the children of God had the freedom to walk through the red sea, as it opened. We have to understand that the instructions (word) of the Father pave the way for His order and will to be done.
The word of Abba Father teaches is (Psalm 119:104) that the precepts of Abba Father give us an understanding and causes us to hate every false way. Freedom from accountability is not real freedom but casts us into the sea of abandonment. To understand this, you can imagine the picture of a train. For the train to function according to purpose and design, it needs the tracks. It can only function within the freedom of set tracks. Going off the set tracks does not bring freedom of movement but destruction of purpose. Real freedom is to live a redirected life in Him.
Is that why Jesus (Hebrew – Yeshua) Himself says – “if you continue in My word you are My disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free?” (John 8:31-32). The Jews, standing around immediately reacts by saying that they were descendants from Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. They could not understand what they needed to be freed from. But Jesus says to them – all who sin are slaves of sin. A slave does not have a permanent place in a family, but a son does. Jesus is most definitely not referring to a political definition of freedom but true biblical freedom. Jesus then continues to say – “When the son has set you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36). True freedom!
The true definition of freedom according to the word of Abba Father is not the ability to choose that which I wish, but the knowledge that what I am doing is in agreement with the will of Abba Father. It releases me from the anxiety of not knowing which way to go and having to figure it all out by myself. It releases me from the fear of not knowing what is right and what is wrong. One without the word of the Father is a slave to the world, blinded from the way that the Father has given us as His word is the lamp unto our feet (Psalm 119:105). If I am without the word of Abba Father, I am without the way as Jesus is the living word (John 1:14).
Disobedience to the word of Abba Father causes us to lose our freedom. The more we move away from the word of The Father to pursue “freedom”, the more we move into bondage rejecting the Spirit of the Lord whose presence brings liberty and freedom!
Prof Gerrie Bester PhD