September 3, 2012
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Hopeless Freedom
Recently I had the privilege to speak with a high ranking army officer who had served in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He shared about how his heart broke for the kids he would see in both countries who were so poor and unhealthy. And what hurt him more was that he was told that the poor kids he was seeing were actually the better off, and that there were many poorer and more unhealthy kids in other areas. It killed him because part of America’s goal in going into both countries was to free the people from oppressive governments/terrorist groups, educate the people, and stabilize the nations. But despite freeing the people and educating them, they’ve actually found the nations to be even LESS stable than before! What’s resulted is a hopeless freedom in both nations. While the oppressive governments in the physical had been dealt with, the oppressive spirits over the nation are still just as active as before.
It’s the same for so many justice groups that try and rescue girls who have been sex trafficked. A majority of the rescued girls, unless they receive deep inner healing and a strong family like support, will return to the sex industry. The truth is that even though they receive freedom in the natural from the sex industry they are still in bondage spiritually and emotionally from all the trauma they had endured. And without receiving full deliverance, they too are also living in a hopeless freedom… freedom in the physical but still oppressed in the spiritual.
You cannot educate the bondage out of people. You can break the physical chains, but if the spiritual chains remain then they are not truly free. Education is a good thing, but it isn’t the key for deliverance. The key is the truth in Jesus. “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free,” John 8:32.
I’m blessed by so many activists who have hearts for the victims of injustice and desire to make a change. But unless activists are fighting in both the spiritual and the physical, I’m afraid their efforts will only accomplish so much. For this reason I really believe that when North Korea opens up many people with beautiful intentions will try and go into the nation to help the people, but in the end most of them will give up because they’ll find they can’t fully set the people free working only in the physical. It will be when people who are equipped with prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit enter the nation that we will see true healing and change among the people.
Life is made up of body, soul, and spirit. Freedom is made up of the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual. We want to see all three in complete freedom. Jesus spoke clearly when He said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” John 10:10.
God bless!
