The Freedom of the Son

I have been pondering lately why it is so hard sometimes to feel the presence of God. I know his goodness and his love, his grace and the extravagance of the victory of his Son. Or at least I like to think I do.

One day while meditating on this, I felt like I heard the Lord say I needed to work on “self-inflicted guilt and condemnation.”

As I began to think about this, I could start to see the truth come clearly into view. What if God has always been there, his sweet and loving embrace, but because of our own negative thoughts and words, we conceal the light of his presence?

I realized that, from the earliest moments of my day, I have been starting off with condemning myself. Thoughts like, “I should have gotten up earlier”, or “why can’t you ever stop hitting the snooze button?” And of course, I didn’t think anything of them, because I had chalked it up to be the “righteous” thing to do, to guilt myself for not doing better. I assumed God was disappointed I could not do it, therefore I was “justified” in piling this on myself.

This is a simple example, but I began to see how this affected my entire day. It’s almost as if a gray “cloud” overshadowed my feelings, thoughts, and interactions. A heaviness that didn’t seem to want to go away. I tried praying for peace, and for the Holy Spirit’s presence. I tried praying through emotional healing. Nothing seemed to work.

And then it dawned on me. What if the Lord has given us such power in our words, thoughts and intents, that they have creative ability? Even to the extent of self-inflicted damage and limitations? If I start my day off telling myself I should have done better, or I’m not stacking up, what if I was putting a “curse” on myself, causing my heart to condemn me?

It reminded me of 1 John 3:21-22:

“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

I realized that it wasn’t that the Lord’s presence wasn’t there, it was that I had dulled my own heart. I thought maybe I had done something wrong to make the Lord not want to bring his presence enough, and had become double minded (James 1:8) and was putting myself under condemnation. If there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1), then why am I allowing it to remain?

So how do we begin to enter into experiencing the Lord’s Presence, and the beauty of his Peace? I believe it begins with a simple prayer to break agreement with self-inflicted condemnation. And then beginning to love ourselves so that we can love others (Matthew 19:19). Treating ourselves the way we would treat a treasured friend: giving them loads of love and grace. Remembering how powerful our words are, and taking our thoughts captive. Not because God is an overbearing taskmaster and is looking for a reason to “get you”, but because you know your words can either create life or create death. Guess what, if “death-producing” words are directed at yourself, what do you think they will produce?

Now that you are beginning to sow words of life into yourself and others, the next step is to meditate on the goodness of God, over and over again. When I was praying about this message, a picture popped in my mind of an axe chopping and carving wood. I saw that meditation is taking a scripture or a truth of the character of God, and it becomes the axe head which chips away at the dead wood (dull heart), to reveal the living wood that was always underneath the whole time. This is why repeated imaginations have power, either to produce light or to produce darkness. Either they will cause your heart to be more “bare” and open to the presence of the Spirit, or they will cause it to create a hard shell of dead wood over top.

The good news is he has never left you! I pray this message will be an encouragement to you, as the Lord desires all to experience the true Freedom of the Son- a glorious liberty from all self imposed limitations. I really think this is the beginning of an outpouring of revelation about how powerful we truly are.

If you would like to experience this freedom, pray this along with me:

Father in Heaven, in Jesus’ name, I ask for and receive forgiveness for all negative and condemning words and thoughts I’ve inflicted upon myself. I rebuke and break agreement with every single one of them right now. I receive and appropriate your Truth about me, that I am a child of the Most High and I am dearly loved. I thank you that your Presence is always with me, and I ask you to help me chip away the dead wood, so that I may experience the fullness of the Reality that your Living Waters flow out of me at all times. I thank you for your Love, and your Peace that surpasses all understanding. Amen.