Our God is a God of purpose. Everything He does is a logical progression from previous steps through the present step to every new, next step. It’s a bit like the game of golf, in which every shot sets up the next—or should, hopefully. Most of the time it doesn’t quite work out that way. Thankfully, it does work out that way when taking up our cross and following God through Jesus. In God’s perfect design, He first pays our ransom for sin in order to turn us loose to fulfill His implanted will in our lives, pursuing the Great Commission, building His kingdom, sharing His gospel truth and hopefully glorifying His name every step of the way.
The maker of the heavens and the earth could have another name alongside “Great Physician.” He can also be known as the “Great Engineer.” His divine plan didn’t leave us to our own devices to try to escape our sin nature in our own effort, schemes or struggles, to then be ready to serve Him in His purposes. No, His perfect plan is specifically composed to offer us our own release from our imprisonment in sin. He gives us the keys to unlock our prison cells.
This foundational fact is captured in John 8:32: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
Where Jesus is the way, the truth and the light, He is also our key to freedom. These words of the eighth chapter of the book of John are like the bricks and mortar from which the Christian life is built. This passage captures the threshold moment between our before and our forever after. It’s our spiritual checkpoint that provides the permanent border zone of what we were before Jesus and everywhere He will take us. It also includes everything He will produce through us in our journey together as we bear His cross throughout the rest of our days. Our goal is to glorify His name and attempt to bring the love and grace of the Lord to His great harvest. This harvest is waiting in the fields, where the hungry, hurting and hopeless can be lifted up and made whole.
Where we go and what we do with God’s precious gift of freedom is our sacred responsibility.
The Bible demonstrates many times over the importance and power of stewardship, proving ourselves worthy of trust and ever-greater responsibility. Scripture states in detail that we are decidedly not set free to then selfishly, pointlessly or, worst of all, purposelessly race off to go and chase our own wanton fleeting pleasures and satisfy every fleshly desire.
Thankfully, the power of the blood of Christ offered at His cross is the key to our prison chains, from which we are forever set free when we identify with Christ and choose Him as our Redeemer. God’s parable of the talents paints the picture for how we may best deploy the assets of heaven. In our daily lives, we can press in to the Lord’s helper Spirit and discover what tools He created for us that we can bring to the work of God’s kingdom. It is a wonderful day when we realize what it looks like specifically for each one of us, where the world’s deep need actually does intersect with the drive God built into our hearts. There we can first see the places and the opportunities to serve God out of an abundance of gratitude for the truth by which we no longer are prisoners but free forever.
For more Spirit-filled content like this, listen to more Fruit of the Vine podcasts here. {eoa}
Robert Caggiano Jr. has been a member of the Charisma Media Book Group for more than 17 years.
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