Unseen Chains
Writer Author Elizabeth Parker
Christian Article
:
Holy Spirit
- Fiction No
I once heard someone tell a story about their dog, a dog named Honey, a faithful and loyal companion, though of dubious parentage and limited intelligence. But Honey had one major character flaw. She loved to wander. They lived in a house with a fenced yard and an electric gate across the driveway. Honey used to hide, lying in wait until a car went through the gate. Then, just as the gate was closing the final few inches, she would make her bid for freedom. She would return several hours later, exhausted but very happy. For various reasons, not the least of which they lived on a busy road, they decided to put a stop to her adventures, so they installed an invisible fence across the driveway. When a dog approaches too close to an invisible fence, a little battery on their collar gives them a small jolt of electricity. They soon learn their boundaries. After a couple of, shall we say, shocking experiences, Honey learned to stay within the confines of the yard. In fact, long after the battery in her collar had died, Honey would sit, wistfully gazing at the liberty that lay on the other side of an open gate without making any attempt to escape. She had become conditioned to her limitations.
Another story I recall hearing…Someone was passing by some elephants in a circus when they suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. They saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away? “Well,” he said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” This person was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were. The giant iron shackle that’s keeping you locked under the law is nothing but a weak rope of false belief, false teaching. Break out and become free!
Harriet Tubman, who led many slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad, said: “I freed a thousand slaves. I would’ve freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves”. After the Emancipation, most slaves stayed where they were, some had no idea that they were now free. Holy Spirit told me one time, “They refuse to see until they are blind!” How sad!
Oh Jesus, open eyes, let them see that the chains that once bound them now lay broken at their feet.
The worst kind of prison is the prison of the mind, where a person accepts adverse circumstances as the natural order of things without realizing that the cage bars holding them captive are in their own minds. People raised under the law have been programmed ‘brain washed’ into believing that the law is truth and the only way. But this writer wants to tell you that is not truth! Jesus came to set you free from the lie of the law! Look down, see the broken chains at your feet….step out and walk in the freedom Jesus died to give you!
ROMANS 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
GALATIANS 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by Law; you have fallen from grace.
GALATIANS 3:10-13 All who rely on observing the Law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the Law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The Law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
GALATIANS 2:21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the Law, then Christ died for no purpose.
GALATIANS 3:23-26 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the Law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the Law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
EPHESIANS 2:8,9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Not all are bound by the chains of law. Some are bound by the doctrines of man, touch not, taste not, and handle not! Do this, don’t do this! The Lord strictly teaches that His children are not to fellowship with those who teach and practice false doctrines (2 John 9-11). Those who violate God's standard are to be marked and avoided by faithful Christians, yet most people blindly follow false teachers in the denominational world and support them with their attendance and their money (Romans 16:17; Titus 3:10). They go about searching to have their ears tickled! “ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3,4
Colossians 5:20-23 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances-- (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
So kick off those shackles! Step outta’ those chains! Be free, live the abundant life that Christ wants to give you, died to give you! Live! Laugh! Love! And dance every chance you get! Relax and enter into His rest! What does it mean to enter into His rest? The writer of Hebrews gives us the answer in chapter 4, “Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). The promise that still stands is the promise of salvation through God’s provision, Jesus Christ. He alone can provide the eternal rest of salvation through His blood shed on the cross for the remission of sins. God’s rest, then, is in the spiritual realm, the rest of salvation. Faith, the author goes on to tell us, is the key to entering God’s rest. Faith in what Christ done at Calvary is sufficient for me! Faith that when He said it is finished, He meant it! Faith in knowing what I do or don’t do has absolutely no bearing on my salvation! Faith that I can rest in the knowledge that Jesus did it all so there’s nothing left for me to do. This is the kind of faith that enables us to enter into God’s rest, a faith that first demands that we rest from relying on our own works and relying on His, making every effort to enter that rest by choosing to depend solely on God, to trust Him implicitly, to yield totally to the promises of God through the free grace of His salvation. So how do we stop trusting ourselves? How do we place our full trust in God and His promises? We enter into God’s rest by our total faith in the sacrifice of Christ and His shed blood.
Those who are led by the Spirit walk in the Spirit! If I’m walking in the Spirit I won’t covet my sister’s husband. If I’m walking in the Spirit I won’t steal from my neighbor. If I’m walking in the Spirit I won’t gossip or bear false witness. If I’m walking in the Spirit I won’t murder with tongue or gun. If I’m walking in the Spirit I will love as He loves, forgive as He forgives, and give grace where He gives grace and mercy where He would give mercy!
Hallelujah! That’s what I call freedom folks! Walk therefore ye in it!
"Faith is holding on when there's nothing to hold on to."
Editor's Comment:
About the Writer Author
State:
Texas
Country:
USA
Email:
ef_parker@yahoo.com
Website:
www.rockinchairgospel2.blogspot.com
Profile:
Click here!
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