Freedom and Liberty under Sovereignty 6-5-01
Today I learned freedom and liberty under the all-encompassing Sovereignty of a Great and Loving God. For the first time in my life, in a certain way I am not accustomed, it is without reservation I came to the Father as His child, of whom has been given free will – yet approaches, asks, and receives from his God, of Whom no detail is missed nor passes without consent.
I write this at my usual table, yet in an unusual place we currently call home. It has been a long road coming to this place, as well as in coming to the place I now stand before my Father. I have much joy and satisfaction in recognizing that it was only yesterday at the threshold of my arrival I asked Him to help me understand this issue of living as a free being, Saved by His Grace, yet doing so under His inescapable oversight of all Creation. How can these two truths coexist? I have wondered and pondered this from my rebirth. I sat yesterday in a parking lot of some business park, in the shade of trees; in my usual position I prayed out to God for help and understanding once again, and finally I am in a place to understand. I might marvel that He took me this far from home and so much farther from my previous self to make me to understand – yet I also can report no surprise because I enjoy such an open freedom and liberty to roll along with whatever He might have of me. Not without a hitch, of course, but I look to this abandon as paramount in enjoying His teaching me how to live under Him.
Freedom to choose. Freedom under a Sovereign God. Freedom under a God Who is over all, without fail. Perhaps a simple issue to some, but to this child, a very insurmountable concept until now. How personal our Salvation and Regeneration. Each person a universe in his mind, a world in his personal dealings and consciousness. How is it a God and Saviour over just one lost and rebellious being can persevere and unravel so many intertangled issues, let alone his countless brothers’ and sisters’? How mandatory a personal relationship with the One Who would do this. Only through an intimate understanding and relationship might anything like this be realized by the forgiven.
Only through that intimate relationship might we approach our Creator; that approach made possible through the Reconciliation He has provided; that intercourse maintained and made possible by His encompassing Spirit Who attends and roams this Earth for our quickening, conviction, connection, communion, and benefit until we are gathered rightfully. How else might this Miracle of Regeneration be possible while still preserving our free will, without arresting it or denying it? And not for the sake of us because of some perceived value or rights we might wish to claim, but in fact to honor what He has created, that which makes us what He intended – capable of a choice, of a real and loving relationship, of communion of an intimate nature as it was in the beginning before the Fall.
What are God’s responsibilities, and what are ours? How many times have I uttered that question? We are to exercise our free will, choosing that which is pleasing to God, under Whom all things are made able to exist, as He is truly God; in freedom and liberty afforded us despite our beginnings in failure in condemnation; freedom and liberty which now has been Gifted to us by the same Provider. We may make our choices, and do best in making them under His precepts; made attainable through Forgiveness, made possible only in a relationship and true walk with our Saviour Jesus, and thus with God on His Mighty Throne, through His Gift of the Counselor He has poured out for our benefit.
Today I asked the Father to make way for a job for me here for the next few months, to bring us back home to Indiana, to provide us property and a new place we may come to find as a home, and to let us make good use of our time here, enjoying His creation in the Northwest. And for the first time, I perceived no fear, reservation, or concern that I was out of the bounds of our respective responsibilities. All of these things I desire to do as a free child of God, who desires to live in a way pleasing to Him. Comfortable in my freedom, content and thankful under the God of all.