And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:2
To have my eyes opened to see what conformity to this world was doing to me was a miracle. I am so thankful God opened my eyes.
Many years ago, while we were still dating, Annie had a vision (the ox cart vision) of getting free indeed in Jesus. At the time, we were dating, and we didn’t really have any idea what, specifically, that vision meant for us. What a blessing that vision from the Lord was and Jesus is being faithful to see it carried out in our lives. Hallelujah.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:32
He sent His word (His powerfully, liberating ways) and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psalm 107:20
The first step to getting set free in Jesus is to stop being conformed to this world – to stop this world from making our lives miserable. If we get in the Word, we can see how the Lord wants us to live and then we have to make the choice to live that way or to continue to live like the world does. It’s up to us. We can stay bound to this world’s ways, or we can follow Jesus out of this world’s ways and into His liberating ways. Living in the world’s ways is like living in dense smog and living in Jesus’ ways is like breaking above the smog. It is so refreshing to follow Jesus. And that is a huge understatement. To be set free indeed is so amazing and it gets better the more we agree to follow Him by adopting more and more of His precious, freeing ways. This is what true repentance is all about. Repenting (or refusing any longer to live in the world’s ways) of this world’s ways enables us to live God’s ways and Life.
Thanking and praising God in all things (Ephesians 5:20),
Mark
Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.