Author:
Prophet Joshua DeRuiter
Joshua serves as a called and confirmed Prophet in the restored government of God, and he is an IDCCST Spiritual Life Coach. Prophet Joshua helps you to begin a new and final chapter in your search for truth. View my profile.
How does God empower us to walk in the liberty of the Spirit? Let’s start with Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
I like the word here, stand fast, which means a firm-fixed or settled position. This speaks of the foundation of truth that never changes. When we stand fast in the knowledge of Christ we stand fast in His liberty.
Now, I want us to look at the bondage Apostle Paul speaks of where he says, “be not engaged again with the yoke of bondage.” Most teaching about yokes of bondage come from a carnal perspective. To learn about them we are asked to think about wrong turns we made in life and how that brought about a series of painful events and how the fallout from all that has planted itself in our thoughts.
What I’m bringing out is that we allow for a map of sorts to be drawn in our mind to trace our steps to see how they lead all the way back to a string of bad decisions. Sometimes these bad choices are referred to as consequences, as we look at what the behavior led to.
Having said that, we’re now going to look at God’s perception of the yoke of bondage, and how each thread of bondage can be traced back to false knowledge. God’s map is not about life decisions, but rather the choice to accept false knowledge in place of truth. There’s a consequence for that, as we look at what the knowledge led to.
The Knowledge we Accept Shapes our Faith
As you know, the knowledge we accept shapes our faith. If we accept false knowledge, then our faith follows a different path and God describes that path of knowledge as bondage for the soul. False knowledge is a burden the soul is forced to carry in the absence of covenant knowledge. Let’s look at what that bondage is like, and we’re going to do this in a way that doesn’t speak about your life, but your faith. Why are we doing that? Because our faith is our life.
So, just to be clear, we’ll be looking at the different paths knowledge takes when it does not come from the foundation of truth and how a yoke of bondage is formed.
Tracing the Roots of False Knowledge
As we just compared the two paths for grace and truth, God is developing your discernment. New connections are being made to help believers through their doctrinal cleansing. God empowers believers to walk in the liberty of Christ by first helping them to trace their exposure to false knowledge.
If you went to your doctor because you noticed an unusual breaking out of a rash all over your body and your arm is swollen twice the size, your head hurts and you have chills, the first thing your doctor will want to know is what you’ve been exposed to. Did you travel abroad? Did you come into contact with someone who had these same symptoms?
Jesus, the Great Physician, is leading His team of apostles along with His restored government to heal the church. The first thing the Lord addresses is your contact with false knowledge. But rather than go through a list of all the strains of false doctrines you’ve been exposed to, we will set you on a new course for your faith.
No Truth, No Liberty
So then, while people normally talk about not wanting to be brought under the power of their passions, God’s focus is on the power of false knowledge, that you not again come under the power of this persuasion and allow grace to be an inactive work. This opens our eyes.
If you received a diagnosis from your doctor, he also prescribes treatment of the disease or sickness you contracted while you were out and about, minding your own business.
No treatment, no cure.
It’s the same in God’s kingdom. No truth, no liberty in Christ. I am also reminded of the instructions the children of Israel received,
Joshua 6:18
“And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.”
