So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)
Over the past two years, I have had a new revelation and experience of freedom in Christ Jesus. For 12 years, I have held onto shame and guilt from my past life. I was born into a Christian family but I walked away from the ways of the Lord in my twenties and in 2020, the shame and guilt was removed.
However, I didn’t believe I deserved to be set free from the shame – I believed in a lot of lies the enemy used to block me from walking free in who Christ has created me to be. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. Psalm 118:5
Just like that, through prayer and warfare for myself, God set me free. I live in that freedom today, knowing that it’s only Christ who did it for me and He can do it for anyone who calls on Him. He says in His word: Come to me all who are heavily burdened, I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me... (Matthew 11:28 -29a)
Jesus has done it all for us; He has taken away the sin, the striving, the shame and the guilt. He has given me a new purpose and new lenses to see life. We have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 8:16)
As the scriptures say, we are free indeed: we are free from our sinful man and born into a new life in Christ. One of my favourite preachers is Pastor Dan Mohler. He is a powerful preacher who God is using to set people free from religion. He teaches on us knowing Christ, walking in Christ and moving away from our sinful nature into the new man in Christ. In that, we gain our freedom in Christ; we are no longer slaves to our old nature. This has changed my life and view of knowing Christ. So many of us may sing and attend church, but not know Him or let Him renew us.
But the free gift [of God] is not like the trespass [because the gift of grace overwhelms the fall of man]. For if many died by one man’s trespass [Adam’s sin], much more [abundantly] did God’s grace and the gift [that comes] by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to [benefit] the many. (Romans 5:15)
Through the blood, we have been given access to come boldly into His throne room and be in relationship with Him. Our Saviour is beautiful; He is kind and wants us to be free in who He has createdus to be. There is so much more, much more glory that we are supposed to see and experience in Christ Jesus.
I have come to know that I do not have to live in my sinful nature – I have Christ in me. For in Him we live and move and exist [that is, in Him we actually have our being]. (Acts 17:28).
What does that mean? I do not have to walk around grumpy; I don’t let my life’s circumstances determine who I am or allow how I feel to lead me. I can choose to put off my sinful nature, which doesn’t entangle me anymore, and live in the new woman, which is in Christ. I can have peace; I can have joy. I can be gentle, loving and kind, putting on the spirit man.
It’s not easy – we live with people who hurt us and disappoint us. As a wife and mum to two toddlers, this is daily tested and needs to be put into practice. Some days it’s harder, and some days easier, but I am grateful for this truth I have come to know. This truth sets us free and we can all come to experience the fact that our sinful nature has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Romans 6:6-7.
I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. Psalm 119:45
Women of Reverence welcomes guest blogger Sindsiwe Mazibeli
Sindisiwe was born and bred in PMB, but now lives in JHB with her family and goes to Cornerstone Church, Bedfordview. She is a lover of Jesus, with a passion to live out all she was created to be and a boldness to share Christ. By profession, she is an entrepreneur, with her husband, and has been for 7 years. She is a wife and mother of two toddlers, Lesedi (4) and Lebone (2).