4 Steps To Spiritual Freedom

On this day, July 4, everyone across America is celebrating America’s freedom from British rule. But dear reader, there’s a possible chance that, although our country is experiencing wonderful liberating freedom, you’re not experiencing that same liberating freedom in your spiritual life. You’re probably struggling to break free from some sin, and you don’t know what to do.

Friend, below I’ve written 4 simple steps that, I believe, will help you to truly experience spiritual freedom–especially on this day when American liberty is being celebrated!

Happy Fourth of July to all my readers, and I hope and pray you’ll be blessed by these steps to experience true, personal freedom in your spiritual life!

1) Admit Your Need

Jesus gives us the straight truth in John 15:5–

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
(John 15:5, emphasis added)

Without Christ, we can’t be free from sin. I like how one of my favorite writers, Ellen White, put it in her book Steps To Christ:

It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken. Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Job 14:4; Romans 8:7. Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.

~Steps to CHRIST page 18~

In order to truly experience freedom from sin, we need Jesus to help us. We can’t help ourselves–and we never can help ourselves. Our only need to be free is to let Jesus come in and clean our hearts and minds. This is how Paul put it in his letter to the church in Phillipi:

For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
(Philippians 2:13)

I really like how this modern translation puts it:

God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes.
(Philippians 2:13 CEB)

We need to come face to face with the cold hard fact that we need Christ and His love to fully enable us to be spiritually free from sin. It’s not–nor will it ever be–about us and our strength to live out God’s good and righteous purposes, but rather God enabling us to do so.

2) Ask For The Gift

In Acts 5:31, we read about an essential gift needed to be free from sin:

Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
(Acts 5:31, emphasis added)

After we admit our need of Jesus and His help, we must repent of our sins–both past and the ones we’re currently struggling with. However, we naturally DO NOT WANT to repent. Paul puts it this way in his letter to the church in Rome:

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
(Romans 8:7)

When we’re born on this planet, we’re born with carnal, sinful natures. And as carnal sinners, repenting for our sins is RIDICULOUS. To our naturally sinful hearts, repentance makes NO logical sense!

That is why repentance is a gift from God. We need God to GIVE us repentance, because normally we don’t want to turn away from our sins; and this gift of repentance is free for the asking! Hallelujah!

3) Arm Yourself

Another verse in Acts gives us the basic backdrop for step 3 of becoming spiritually free in Christ:

to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
(Acts 26:18, emphasis added)

What does “sanctified” mean?

Well, in the original Greek, it comes from the word hagiazō (ἁγιάζω), which basically means “to purify.” And based on Acts 26:18, we become “sanctified,” pure, and free from sin BY FAITH. Look at what Ellen White wrote concerning this:

You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise,—believe that you are forgiven and cleansed,—God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it.
Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, “I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised.”

~Steps to christ page 51~

And in Ephesians 6:16, Paul encourages us to arm ourselves with “the shield of faith.” We must be armed with faith, believing that Jesus has cleansed us, purified us, and freed us from sin. Not relying on our feelings–but FAITH.

4) Answer The Door

But you may be wondering: How do I arm myself with faith? Let’s let Paul answer that question:

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
(Romans 10:17)

But how do we hear God’s Word? Is it by just listening to the pastor’s sermons every week at church?
No! It’s more than that!

Revelation 3:20 tells us:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
(Revelation 3:20)

Based on this verse, Jesus is knocking on the door of our hearts. I mean, as Seventh-Day Adventist Christian teens, we already know that.

But have you wondered why Jesus is knocking? Why does He even care to knock on our hearts, which are filled with so much selfishness, sin, hatred, envy, and pride? Why does Jesus knock?

One of the reasons why is because He wants you to personally hear the Word of God from His own mouth! He wants to come in, cleanse you, and help build faith in your heart! That’s why He knocks. The last step to finally be spiritually free is to just answer the door and let Him in.

A Prayer

Dear reader, is it your desire to truly experience spiritual freedom in your life? Do you wish to admit your need for Christ and ask for the gift of repentance? Do you long to arm your heart, soul, and mind with faith and invite Jesus into your heart? If so, then I wanna appeal to you to pray the following prayer below:

I’d like to conclude this post with a beautiful statement from Christian writer Andrew Murray:

“A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me.”

~Andrew Murray~

May we put full trust and faith in Christ to free us from sin, and to keep us free!

Amen! Maranatha!