Mensa Otabil - The Spirit of God Gives Us Liberty
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Our relationship with God is one of freedom. The Spirit of God gives us the spirit of liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Our relationship with God in the New Testament is different from the relationship people had with God in the Old Testament. The Old Testament relationship with God was based on human effort, with people trying to genuinely worship God and doing their best to be good before Him. In the New Testament, it is the Spirit of God who gives us the power to become children of God. It’s no longer based on our effort but on the strength, power, and provision of the Holy Spirit.
Under the Old Testament, people wanted to please God through their own effort, which always led to fear when approaching Him. There was trepidation and a sense of awe in the presence of God that made people feel they might not be right before Him and that He would strike them or do something terrible to them. But thank God for the Holy Spirit, who now dwells within us; our bodies are now His temple, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. In the New Testament, our relationship with God is not based on fear and bondage but on the freedom and liberty that the Spirit of God, who now dwells in us, provides.
The passage tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So if the Spirit of God is in us, what does that mean? It means that our relationship with God is now based on liberty and not on bondage. But what kind of liberty is that? Is it a liberty for us to just do whatever we want or to live our lives our own way? No, it is the liberty to relate to God without fear—doing His will without fear, serving Him without fear, and honoring Him without fear. Thus, whatever we do for God, we are not doing it because we are afraid He will punish us; we are doing it because we are now free to truly love Him and show Him our appreciation.
Once the Spirit of God comes to live inside us, our relationship with God becomes a relationship of liberty, not a spirit of bondage or fear. The Spirit of God gives us liberty in many ways: liberty from the dominion of Satan. We are no longer under Satan’s control; we are free from demonic bondage, and he has no power over us. He also gives us liberty from the demands of the law. The law had so many demands—do this, don’t do that, kill this, don’t kill that, eat this, don’t eat that. But He gives us liberty to worship Him freely and with all our hearts.
He gives us liberty from our own limitations; many times we are bound by what we can or cannot do. However, when the Spirit of God comes to live inside of us, He gives us liberty from our limitations. We are not bound by them, and He gives us liberty to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit and the liberty to serve God with joy and gladness. If truly Christ lives inside of you, if truly the Spirit of God lives inside of you, then your relationship with God is one not of bondage or fear or trepidation, but of joy and gladness. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; experience that and share it with the rest of the world. I am Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.