SONSHIP 17 DELIVERANCE AND LIBERTY

DELIVERANCE AND LIBERTY

Back in the very early 50's, I was driving down SR 22 to sing at a funeral in Prosser, WA. I was training myself to think on God, and commune with Him at any time I was doing something which didn't require me to concentrate on the task at hand. Driving my 1950 Ford was certainly not a task which required heavy concentration, so I was singing and praising the Lord-- letting my spirit reach out to Him.

Suddenly, a scripture flashed to my mind. Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! WHO SHALL DELIVER ME FROM THE BODY OF THIS DEATH?

Immediately following that, another scripture was impressed upon me. Romans 7:25 I thank God THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

That was, as best I recall, the BEGINNING of what was to become one of the most outstanding factors in my Spiritual life-- The better understanding of the Plan and Purposes of God in His dealings with humans who commit their lives and souls into HIS KEEPING. Since that time, I have marveled many times at the tolerance and patience of the Lord in dealing with the vast array of interpretations and teachings about what He is doing now, and planning to do in the future, with and for His People.

About the same time, a Minister from Dallas, TX. came into town and held a meeting in Stenberg's Tabernacle, where Bro. Barfoot was Pastor. People really "took" to the young Evangelist, and he began to get some "ideas" about what God wanted him to do. He later came back to town and opened up a Revival Center in a building which had at one time housed a Spiritual Church, but was now empty.

He majored in what he called "Deliverance". For a long time I thought the man had the same revelation I had been given, about The Lord being able and willing to set us free from our carnality and other shortcomings if we would strive to do what His Word told us to do.

MY TEACHINGS ABOUT BEING "GOD-CONSCIOUS" AS MUCH AS WE COULD BE, WERE PART OF THE PROCESS OF BEING SET AT LIBERTY TO LIVE THE TYPE OF LIFE GOD WANTED US TO LIVE. IF OUR MINDS WERE "STAYED ON HIM" WE WOULD BE FEEDING OUR SPIRIT NATURE, AND IT WOULD GROW STRONG-- STRONGER THAN OUR "HUMAN NATURE". THUS, WE WOULD HAVE MORE "LIBERTY" AND FREEDOM FROM THE HUMAN EMOTIONS AND DESIRES.

Imagine my shock, when I attended a few services and learned that, to him, "Deliverance" meant healing of the body, rather than purification of spirit and attitudes. IN MY MIND, THE SPIRIT OF MAN WAS WHAT WE NEEDED "DELIVERANCE" FROM. His message was quite popular, however, and he gained a large following, for there were not many who were really interested in refinement of their walk in the Spirit and Word of the Lord. Not then. Not now.

But, I kept hearing this "distant drummer"-- calling me to explore the matter of being delivered from the "body of this death", or, as another translation puts it, "this body of death." I found somewhere, a writing in a book which told how Paul came to use that expression. In some places, a form of punishment for a murderer was to fasten the body of the victim upon him, and make him carry the putrefying form everywhere he went-- UNTIL HE HIMSELF DIED FROM IT.

What an apt description of the condition of human beings today! Strapped with a body of death-- unable to get free from it, EXCEPT. Except, that is, as we are able to become submissive to, and obedient to, the Spirit of God. (I'm not talking about Salvation. I mean AFTER we are saved.) As we are able to "through (by) the Spirit mortify (put down) the deeds (impulses and desires) of the flesh" we can have a degree of "deliverance and liberty" from them.

We Christian humans, like all other creatures, are crying out for God to do something to set us free from the NATURE OF SIN (bondage of corruption) which holds us in its vise-like grip. It is the "mortgage of Adam", when he arrogantly believed he knew more than God knew, and went and "did his own thing." The dying cry of every creature of prey is a crying out to God for the "Manifestation of the Sons of God." But, that is another subject in itself.

Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Romans 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

COMPLETE DELIVERANCE FROM THE IMPULSES OF THE FLESH (BODY) IS IN THE PLAN OF GOD FOR A PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE THEMSELVES CANDIDATES FOR THAT MIGHTY MOVING OF GOD IN THE EARTH.

BUT IT IS BY NO MEANS TO BE GIVEN TO ALL WHO HAVE SALVATION NOW. NEITHER IS IT PERTAINING TO WHAT HAS BECOME KNOWN AS THE "RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH."

I can't tell you all the "mechanics" of it, but of this much I am assured-- MOST PEOPLE WILL BE SURPRISED AT WHAT GOD IS PLANNING TO DO IN THE LIVES OF A PEOPLE WHO SUBMIT TO THE REFINING FIRES OF HIS SPIRIT.
--adapted from EMMANUEL MINISTRIES