Independence Day?

Good morning world

As the Lord opened my eyes this morning, I sat on the edge of the bed and said "it's Independence Day!". and then I heard myself questioning, "but is it really?". Because many people today are not free. Many people are bound. They might be out & about walking in a parade or enjoying a plethora of city-run activities today. Smiling. Laughing. Eating ice cream. BOUND.
The star-spangled banners will fly. Kids will be running & playing. Hot dogs & hamburgers fired up on the grill. splish-splash of the swimming pools. Burning up the road and streaking the skies-logging miles to get to celebrations all over the world. But I wondered if Yolanda, a homeless lady in downtown Center City, knows it's Independence Day. I wonder if she cares? She gets to wake up on a sidewalk, while I got to wake up in my nice warm bed this morning. Who's free?
There are Christians in certain countries that can't worship Christ in public. Can't read their bibles on a train. Can't say grace or sing a gospel song...without being beaten to within an inch of their lives. Or watch their family get tortured. Pulled apart. skinned. shot by a firing squad. WHO'S FREE?
Someone today is washed over by the darkness of sin. Someone is consumed. Can't stop looking at pornography, can't stop spending rent money on gambling, can't stop lusting after and pursuing a married woman, can't stop stalking that married man, can't stop laying down with one sex partner after another, can't stop losing themselves in the bottom of a bottle, can't stop lighting up, firing up, eating up everything in sight, can't stop compulsively lying, can't stop cutting themselves, can't stop purging, CAN'T STOP SIN.
WHO IS FREE??
This is not Independence Day for everyone. And I am very thankful for the freedoms we have here in America. I pray I don't take any of it for granted. But there's still some areas in my life that are still bound and not entirely free. I haven't given that part of my heart over to the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit to transform and use for God's glory. And that brings me to what real Independence is?
Independence, living totally free is a life in Jesus Christ. Now, I belong to God. I am His child and He's adopted me into His family through His son, the Messiah's loving & painful sacrifice on the cross. I am free. But I am only free if I STAY in Christ Jesus. Whenever I go outside of Him and His will for my life and begin entertaining the flesh and want it wants and craves for..which is sin, I am enslaved. Those who haven't accepted Christ as their saviour don't even know they're bound, don't even know they need saving and the things of Jesus are foolishness to them. Their wills are bound by satan & they couldn't choose Christ even if they wanted to. He chooses us. He draws us to Him through His Holy Spirit. He even gives us the mind to believe and the power to confess and accept Jesus in our hearts. And then the best is that throughout our Christian life, the Spirit of God still draws us, enpowers us to confess our sins & turn away from it. He gives us the power to have a life, truly free in Christ Jesus. That is why I am grateful and know that those things I'm still bound in, won't stay that way. I've been given a new heart b/c the old one is "desperately wicked and beyond cure" as God's word says. The Holy Spirit frees us a little bit at a time. Sometimes a lot at a time. There were things I was bound to years ago, that I am free in now.
I walk through my residence today, full of peace. But years ago that was not so b/c I was bound and chained to a person who abused me. I did not have peace. He came into my dreams when I tried to sleep & escape. I had to have his arms around me, even though his arms hurt me. I choose him over Christ Jesus. He became my God. I turned my back on the Lord and chose chains. But through the power of the Holy Spirit and many prayers going up for me, He loosed my will and set me free. He helped me to surrender that part of my heart to Him. Even though I had to do my part, such as stop calling this man and stop accepting his calls; among many other things..it was God that even empowered me to do that.
Friends, today you can experience a true Independence Day. Jesus will enter in and make His home in your heart. Then, when storms come, He will help you ride right through it and come out stronger on the other end. You will know TRUE freedom when you accept God's son.
If you know Him and are faced with temptation, pray before you are tempted. If you have a problem with getting up from the table, then pray before you go to that barbecue today. God is freeing me from this. Cause the thing you're addicted to? It's not even about that thing. It's the deep holes inside of us..the emptiness inside that is crying out for God..and you don't even know it. We try and fill that void with anything and everything. It will NEVER work. NEVER.
So Father God, I pray for the world today. "The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof". I pray for those bound today. May you release their wills & cause them to know their need of a Saviour. I pray for those that are looking to today's "fun" to get them through but know they have hell to go back to when they get home. Oh Lord have mercy! Draw millions by your Spirit today. Save oh Lord..SAVE! From the deep, dark hopeless wells of sin that many are in. Glorify yourself and add more names to the Lamb's book of Life. Those men and women who are fighting for freedom in the war, I ask you to strenghthen them mightily and protect them with your angels. And for them that's fighting, but something is eating them up inside, call them by name Father. As they're on the battlefield, speak to their hearts and take off the blinders. Again, I ask, draw millions to You today. To You..the Light of The World. You are the only One that can pull us out of darkness!!! Help those that are struggling in their faith walk today. That sin their struggling with might be taking them down, but Lord I ask that you rise up inside of them and let your enemy-the evil one-be destroyed in the name of Jesus! Lord you died for us to be free. To live free. Yet we are NOT living free. We are dishonoring your son's sacrifice. We are choosing to live in the small stories and small mindsets of this life. We don't get yet that we are royalty and can live God's best. Free our minds. Free our hearts. Arrest our hearts once again and bring us into right and divine relationship with you. Help us to trust you. Cords of sin entangle us and we can't get out. Help us to watch what we listen to and who we keep company with, what we read and take into our spirits. Help us to WANT to be free!! Expose sin for the evil, ugly thing that it is and give us true repentance. Help us to cry out to you!! Help us to cry out to you with a new cry! with desperation!! Only you can bring us to that point oh God. Let us hate our sin and what it does to us and how it separates us from You. Oh God I pray that you comfort Yolanda on the street and many many that are living homeless. They need a home, but more than that, they need a Saviour. They need Christ Jesus. Do a great turning of man's heart to You. BE GLORIFIED!! BE HIGH AND LIFTED UP ABOVE THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH OH MAGNIFICENT ONE!! THIS IS YOUR DAY, LIKE EVERY DAY IS! BRING TRUE FREEDOM!!
THIS DAY,BRING INDEPENDENCE DAY IN THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, JESUS THE CHRIST!!!!!!!
HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!
AMEN.