John 8:36

By Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Coleman Dowdy

Fact vs. Feelings!

We are constantly reminded throughout the New Testament that Jesus purchased our freedom from the kingdom of darkness. What does the scripture mean? “We are set free!” Col. 1:13 says. We have been delivered from the authority of the kingdom of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love, Jesus Christ, the righteous. If we are no longer under the authority of the kingdom of darkness, we are free from its demands upon us. We are no longer slaves, but sons of the Most High God. We have received His divine nature according to II Peter 1:4, “…that we may be partakers of His great and precious promises.”

Sin is to have no place in our lives, as we are changed from glory to glory, and as we fully come into the knowledge that in the mind of God all believers were in Christ Jesus and died with him on the cross of Calvary. So the life we now live is not our own life, but the life of Christ lived through us. Therefore consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ.

Why do we stumble over this fact, and let the prince of darkness trip us up? We are waiting for the feelings; we want to feel delivered, feel set free, etc. It is not about feelings, we are to take the Word of God and set our feelings. What God has said about any situation/circumstance is the final authority. All natural circumstances are temporal and thereby can be changed by steady applications of God’s Word mixed with faith.

For instance: We have freedom from fear. II Tim. 1:7 says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power (authority), love and a sound mind.” I John 4:18 states, “There is no fear in love, but perfect (mature) love casts out fear.” We must begin to speak God’s Word to see changes in our own nature as well as in our circumstances. Confession is not just about our sins, but saying what God has said about us. No, I am not talking about a positive confession, that is the imitation of the world; I am talking about Bible confession, saying what God has already said about us.

We have freedom from bondage, because Romans 8:15 says: “We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have the spirit of sonship, and by it we cry, Abba Father.”

We have been set free from the sin nature, having died with Christ on the cross; Rom. 6:2b, 6 “….We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with…”

We are dead to sin, and the sin nature, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. Let us therefore walk as the redeemed; then the world will know Christ the Transformer.