Freedom
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
2 Corinthians 3:17
I love America. There has always been a strong sense of patriotism deep within my soul. Our country holds such beauty in its diverse landscapes, such virtue in its people, and such honor in its aim for excellence and moral righteousness. I am drawn to the whole idea of America, our national stories, and the celebrations of who we are as a people.
My favorite holiday is, naturally, Independence Day. The 4th of July isn’t just an annual opportunity to reflect on the significance of our history; it’s a day to really enjoy our country. It’s a chance to gather with family and friends, barbecue and play games in the backyard, and listen to patriotic country. My go-to Pandora radio station is my Lee Greenwood station, seeded from a variety of feel-good country songs about God, country, family (and, if I’m being honest, beer). As the sun goes down on that warm summer day, there’s nothing better than gathering with your community in the park to watch a spectacular display of fireworks, and being overwhelmed with pride, gratitude and love as the speakers blare out “God Bless the USA” during the grand finale.
Why do I love America so much? To me, America represents goodness. It’s of course never been perfect, but its ideals are pure. We value human dignity, individual rights, equality and the opportunity to build for oneself “the American dream” – to work hard at whatever you choose, to shape your own success and prosperity, to own a home and start a family and enjoy life. But there’s one ideal that stands above everything else – something that was revered so highly that our founding fathers were willing to die to see it flourish. It was this concept of freedom. And its enormous value in our national identity was forged in faith.
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There’s a pattern in the Bible. Throughout much of the Old Testament, God is with his people, the Israelites. The people repeatedly forget about him, abandon his commands, and even go after other gods. When this happens, God allows them to be defeated, captured, and enslaved. Then the people, in their suffering, remember the Lord and cry out to him. God mercifully responds, raising up a rescuer who liberates them from their captors, returning the Israelites to a place of peace and unity with him. All throughout the Bible, there’s something about the absence of God that yields captivity, while the presence of God brings freedom.
In the New Testament, God sends his son Jesus as the ultimate rescuer. One day when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, he opened up the scroll of Isaiah and quoted this passage, prophetically referring to himself:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Jesus is the Good News, the one called Immanuel which means “God with us”, who would save his people from the bondage of sin. When God is with us, we can be free. Paul summarizes it this way in 2 Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
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When you realize this relationship between God’s presence and freedom, it seems inevitable that the colonial Americans – who prioritized faith in God above all else in those formative years – would increasingly be drawn to a destiny marked by freedom. The more these early Americans invited the presence of God and worshiped him, the more God put liberty on their hearts.
As the “Great Awakening” brought a wave of spiritual revival across 1700’s America, the manifest presence of God became so thick that it unleashed the full force of freedom in our nation’s burgeoning identity. Ultimately, as American independence was declared and established, the Liberty Bell rang out its Biblical inscription: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all inhabitants thereof.”
The Lord is Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. It was true as God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt. It was true in America’s founding as faith brought freedom from tyranny. And it’s true today as Jesus breaks the chains that bind us. “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36.
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Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
I have found this to be profoundly true in my own life, and am grateful for God leading me to a church where His Spirit is welcomed and honored. I’ve learned that the presence of the Holy Spirit creates an atmosphere where people can experience Him, and thus receive freedom.
My own experience was the gift of freedom from addiction. When I was 18 years old, I started smoking cigarettes. Why? I don't know, but it was rooted in insecurity and wanting to feel accepted - a lifelong struggle. But I became addicted. I smoked a pack a day all through college. I continued to smoke as I started my career, even as I started my marriage. Erin didn't like it of course, so I tried to hide it. I only smoked at work, or would "run errands" on weekends. I would secretly chew tobacco when we were at home, in the car, at the movies. I tried quitting a million times and failed. I prayed (admittedly, without much faith). I tried medication. I tried nicotine replacement - the patch, the gum, the lozenges. Ultimately, while I preferred smoking, I found the lozenges to be an acceptable and covert intake mechanism for the drug. So, I smoked when alone at work or on business trips, but I would consume nicotine lozenges all other times. No one knew, including my family. This went on for several decades. There would never be a time of day when I wouldn't have a lozenge lodged in the roof of my mouth. I had pockets full of them. I used the equivalent nicotine dosage of 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day. I spent more than a car payment on them, going to Costco for the big pack every 10 days or so, paying cash so Erin wouldn't grow suspicious when seeing credit card statements. All in all, I spent 29 years enslaved to nicotine.
Then, God led us to a new Church that prioritized experiencing Him. I started having encounters with the Holy Spirit through worship, and He reminded me that freedom was available to me through my relationship with Him. He gave me a date, December 27, 2020 - my daughter's 15th birthday - which also happened to be a Sunday in which I would need the power of God in me more than ever.
So I went to Church, I drew near to God, and I prayed with both faith and desperation. I asked Jesus to break the chains of addiction. I asked Him: "Lord, replace the nicotine coursing through my veins with an equal measure of your Holy Spirit". I resolved to stay in His presence and hold on to the promise of freedom. After that Sunday, I began starting every day going for a walk, listening to worship music, listening to the Bible. Each day I would pray that prayer of replace: "God, replace those 2 milligrams of nicotine I used to have in my blood with 2 milligrams of your Spirit!" I felt like God responded: "You know, it doesn't really work that way, but OK. Here you go".
He answered my prayer. The withdrawal symptoms were hard, but they were strangely muted, like I was given something else that was sustaining me. Days went by. Weeks. Months. No nicotine, for the first time since I was a kid almost 30 years ago!
Then one Sunday in March 2021, our Church had a "Miracle March" service in which people were invited to give up their addictions and ask God for freedom and healing. As people came forward to drop their own vices into the trash cans up front, I prayed silently in gratitude for what God was already doing for me.
He then gave me this thought – I guess sort of like a vision. I had been in a dark prison cell for the last 29 years. The prison door was open, and Jesus was with me. He explained that I already had freedom, as His child I've had it all along. The door was always open, I just had to choose to walk through it. I had to take a step of faith, holding on to the hand of my Savior. But there I was, choosing not to walk out, choosing instead to stay in my familiar prison cell year after year, decade after decade. On that day in December, in my increasing closeness to Him, Jesus had given me the desire for freedom, and the strength of His Spirit to claim victory. I grabbed ahold of his hand and walked through that jail door and breathed fresh air, felt the sun and the rain and life, like a man set free after a lifetime of incarceration.
Then I stood there just outside that door for those weeks between December and March. I was free, but I wanted to stay close to my cell; I wanted to know I could go back in if things got hard. But that Miracle March Sunday, I saw Jesus lovingly close that door behind me. He locked it and threw away the key. It was no longer possible for me to get in! He then said "Come, walk with me, and I'll show you how to live in freedom."
It's now been nearly five years living in freedom from nicotine. God has replaced the bonds of addiction with new bonds of love and gratitude. I am forever grateful I serve a chain breaking, miracle working God. And I choose to live the rest of my life in his liberating presence.
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“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
Isaiah 42:6-7 NIV
