The path to spiritual freedom.
Acts 5:18-20
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.” (NIV)
In this passage, we see the angel of God freeing the apostles and revealing the path of freedom. The angels give two steps toward spiritual freedom to overcome our bondage to the spirit of death.
The spirit of death kills our peace, your contentment, our joy, and our love. The loss of these will destroy relationships and could go so far as to ruin a person financially, mentally, and socially. Depression, anxiety, and anger are rampant symptoms revealing the power and the degree to which we as sinful beings are in bondage to death. But Christ has come that we might be free.
As Christians, we have been given freedom over death, but we never walk out of the tomb. Just as Christ called Lazarus to come out of the tomb of death, to find spiritual freedom, we must also leave the tomb and walk in the power we have been given over death. But what does this look like?
First, the angel commands them to stand in the temple. The Temple is where we commune with God through prayer, meditation and teaching of Scripture, and the support of other believers to help us. This is the first.
Second, the angel commands them to go and tell people about this new life in Christ. When we have spent time in the temple, it prepares our spirit to go and help others that they too might be free. As we teach, the truth is etched deeply into our own hearts keeping us free. It seals what the Lord has shown us in the Temple.
We need both steps. If we spend all of our time in the Temple but never help anyone else get there, we are living in disobedience to God who commands us to help others. We will lose what we gained in the temple. But if we don’t first spend time in the temple, we will become arrogant as we tell others about Christ. This arrogance will kill our faith. We will be full of ourselves and not God. We need to stand in the temple, then go and tell others about this new life.
Prayer: Lord, help me to pursue and live for the cause of spiritual freedom in me and all those around me. Amen.
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