“I am going to pray and fast for three days…if God does not set me free, I quit”. This is what he told his wife, and she relayed his ultimatum to me with tears in her eyes. “Do you think God will set Him free?,” she pleaded?
While the human being is not terribly complex, we have enough sophistication to get ourselves in trouble. The places we find ourselves bound up usually involve an interplay between a couple of specific forces. Specifically, life is an exchange of interaction between our circumstances, our selves (our soul), and the spiritual realm. It is in this exchange that we find our struggle compounded, and it is in this exchange that freedom is available.
It has been my experience that God occasionally invades our circumstances to heal us or set us free. It is much more frequently my experience that God wants to partner with us and teach us how to live as citizens of a SPiritual Kingdom, and as the sons and daughters of royalty He has created. Not in the “God helps those who help themselves” sort of way, but in the “what is my part, and what is God’s part” sort of way.
The failure to make this simple distinction is a form of bondage all it’s own. I have watched many people struggle to do what only God can do. Similarly, I have watched a number of people expecting God to do what He has clearly placed in our hands. Get these things straightened out, and the process becomes much easier.
“God help me to forgive my father,” Wait, forgiving is an act of your will…God waits on us.
“God, I will do better next time,” Well, what if you can’t? It is God’s job to transform us.
Here is the easy way to discern these two roles.
1. God’s part is the harder of the two: He is responsible for the difficult, the impossible, and the supernatural.
2. Our part is the easier of the two: We are responsible for surrender, honesty and agreement (which are really just different ways to express the same thing.)
Let’s use salvation, otherwise known as the New Birth as an example. Jesus is Lord, meaning that He is before, and above all things. He made it all, He has dominion over it all. That is the difficult and supernatural part. When we agree with this reality, it triggers surrender. You cannot agree that someone is over all, without yourself coming under Him. When you believe and confess this, you do not make Jesus to be Lord, you bring yourself into agreement with a truth larger than yourself. You have done your part. Now, God, once again, in the impossible and supernatural arena, brings about an exchange in your inner man. He puts your self to death, and He places New Life, His Spirit, inside you. Voila!! A partnership in which God does His thing and you benefit.
Freedom is always an act of God, in the soul of a man or woman who come into alignment (surrender, agree) with God’s already-true-truth. It’s a fantastic plan!
Is it possible that you have been trying to do God’s job, or perhaps you are waiting on Him to do something that requires an act of your will. Either way, you will remain stuck.
