Release

Once free, stay free. That’s the best counsel I can give anyone who has been granted freedom from the shackles of sin and despair. Jesus sets us free, and we are no longer shackled to the sin that so easily beset us, but once we are free of the shackles, we must also let go of the chain. Once we are set free, we are no longer bound, so if you see yourself slipping back into your old ways, it’s up to you to release the rope you’re holding in your hands.

I spent much of yesterday’s afternoon conversing with a young man who approached me for help because he felt he was being pulled back into his old lifestyle. He doesn’t want it, he’s resisting it, but he feels as though he’s being dragged closer and closer to relapsing and making a mess of his life anew.

“Have you been made free?” I asked him, to which he nodded yes. “Then the slave collar is no longer around your neck, the shackles are no longer around your wrists, you’re just holding onto one end of a chain, the devil is holding onto the other, and while he’s pulling and you give up ground, you’re screaming for help. Stop screaming for help, and let go of the chain.”

Those of whom Jude speaks were never made free. Rather, they gave themselves over and fully surrendered to their lusts and desires, coming to the point of watching their entire lives crumble into dust and being powerless to do anything about it. In the beginning, they may have tried to resist, to put up a fight, to push back on becoming the person they knew they would be, but after a season, there was no resistance or struggle at all.

There’s a difference between those bound by sin and those who were set free but still insist on holding on to that bit of chain connecting them to the darkness. Where in one instance it is nigh to impossible to escape unless you are freed, in the other, the onus is on you to let go of the things you know will lead you down the dark path.

Why do some insist on holding on? We’re all adults here; we know why. Because, in the moment, sin is pleasurable. Sin feels good momentarily, but the repercussions and consequences of it linger long after the feeling of pleasure is gone. Just because it feels good doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous and deadly. Just because you derive pleasure from it doesn’t mean it won’t follow up with a dose of pain that will make your world spin out of control.

It’s not enough to kick the squatters out and clean up the place; you have to have new tenants move in, lest the squatters return with friends, see it empty, and reassert themselves. It’s why you see so many returning to their old sin, their old life, relapsing, picking up where they left off, and only getting worse.

They may have had the wherewithal to get clean and sober, but since the void of their heart was not filled, the old ways start peeking through the windows again, hoping for a moment of distraction where they can barge in.

Matthew 12:43-45, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

Within three verses, Jesus explains why men do what they do when it comes to sin and why so many go back like a dog to its vomit, delving deeper into depravity than the previous cycle. They may have been able to resist the original temptation just fine had it returned on its own, but it brought seven friends along, and each was more wicked than the original.

Imagine getting jumped by one average-sized individual, being able to fight them off, then going home, cleaning yourself up, and going back out, only to find that the individual had called seven friends twice his size to come and deal with you. At that point, the odds are not in your favor, and you’ll likely get the beating of a lifetime.

If, however, Christ replaces the spirit that went out of the man, and the indwelling presence thereof is evident, when the evil spirit and his friends return from the dry places, they find it is not vacant as they had hoped, but occupied, and well defended.

When Jesus is present in the heart of man, it’s not one against eight; it’s eight against an army. The devil knows better than to try and take Him on. This is why the indwelling of Christ and the Holy Spirit are vital in the life of a believer. Because He is present, the believer can resist, and because what the enemy sees is not Mike, Jane, Paul, or Connie, but Christ, he has no choice but to flee.

Men fail to remain delivered because once they are, they don’t follow through and make certain that Jesus is now Lord of their life, and the void remains, waiting to be filled.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.