If You Want to Be Free...Be Free
- Apostle Kanya Stewart
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
If you want to be free, be free.
Although slaves were emancipated on paper in 1863, historians have found that in different parts of the South, some family lines remained enslaved until the 1970s. Why? They didn’t believe they had a right to be free. They were led to believe they had debts for food, clothing, and shelter owed to their masters to pay off, and when they thought they had completed the work needed to pay them off, they were beguiled into thinking their work was not enough to cover the debt — so they kept working.
They did not know that their freedom could no longer be controlled by another man. Others were afraid to leave their family behind. If some family members weren’t able to leave or felt they couldn’t, then others would stay.
What about where we are still enslaved in the spirit and in our hearts and minds? What about our soul's Emancipation Proclamation? Where do we choose to stay bound because of believing lies or holding on to the family way?
Chief Apostle Gunn shared with me the other day that God reminded us that we don’t owe anything to sin. The control of sin is just like a slave master. But because of Jesus, we can tell sin no!
If you want to be free, be free.
Imagine if those who stayed on as slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation came together and revolted with a resounding no to their masters — and said, “We owe you nothing”—and stood on their rights by law and used all force to break free and encouraged others to do so. Some did revolt, and as a result, they inspired generations of free-minded, hopeful people.
We have a right to freedom and hope through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection power. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
Salvation and sincerely accepting it and living it daily, sets us free from sin, but we must resist enslaving ourselves to the fallen nature of man. Chief Apostle Gunn taught us that the fallen nature represents the old, filthy way of mankind before being reconciled to God through Jesus. It can be like a slave master holding you in imaginary chains, making you believe you are still not reconciled to God and that you don’t have a choice.
Because Jesus destroyed sin with his obedience, the devil works hard to make us believe that we have to be subject to sin and participate in sin. But Jesus’ shed blood broke the shackles of sin.
The devil’s job and obsession is to get us to pick back up those shackles when we choose to rebel against the law, ways, will, and word of God. But it’s a smokescreen.
In a message, Chief Apostle Gunn taught some months ago, “Hope: A Transforming Word,” he explained to us that the fallen nature tries to get us to pick up the residue of sin — the trash that lingers when we give place to the lusts and desires of the flesh and the devil’s ploys. But hope is our emancipation.
Hope is a transforming word, he said. Imagine if those families that remained enslaved for 100 years after being freed had hope to hold on to — and let hope give them the courage to leave the plantation without fear and in unity.
Chief Apostle Gunn said we can fight the shackles of sin with hope.
God helped me to see hope like a vacuum cleaner that can forcefully and quickly suck up the residue of sin and its lingering trash. Hope is a choice for a clean and transformed life — just like you have to choose to plug in and use a vacuum cleaner in order to clean your floors.
Have you ever noticed how much of a difference vacuuming a room makes? It refreshes the room and makes the carpet look different — even restores the texture.
Like dirty carpet, some of us have been flattened and run down by choosing sin and not standing against it. But hope can restore us. Hope can free us. Hope can transform us. It's time to move from a sin-slave mentality to a freed mind — a mind for Christ.
Jeremiah 17:7: Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
Romans 15:13: Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 5:5: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
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