2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
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One of the very earliest messages that Jesus brought in His earthly ministry was right after He had dealt with and defeated the devil in the wilderness. {Mat.4:1-11} Right after that time He entered a synagogue in Nazareth and read from the prophet Isaiah and what He read was that God the Father had sent Him to set the captives free saying that the prophesy, that Scripture, was now fulfilled! {Lk.4:17-21}

What a precious gift freedom is. So many have fought and died for it! I was born in 1943 when the entire world was engulfed in a horrible war that took the lives of millions upon millions of people. Oh what a celebration there was when it ended. But in fact, all of the blood that was shed on all of the beaches, in the fields, in cities and villages and at sea was not able to set mankind free from the bondage of sin. So wars continue to arise over and over. The root cause of those wars is not territory and power, it was then and is now about sin!

Jesus said that if you sin, you are a slave to sin. {John 8:36} The United States, 'the land of the free', like the rest of the world, is filled with terrible slavery. People are enslaved, in bondage to greed or lust or drugs or alcohol or any of a thousand other things that dominate the lives of fallen mankind, things that are the masters of them.

Remember that Jesus had said in the Sermon on the Mount that you will either serve God or you will serve mammon—but you will certainly serve one or the other. {Matt.6:24} Mammon in the Authorized Version (KJV) is translated as wealth in most, but I am certain that it is referring to the worldly power people believe it brings; the world system! It is not about what is in your bank account but what is in your heart that matters, for with the heart man believes. {Rom.10:10}

It took the Blood of the Lamb shed on an old wooden cross on a hill called Golgotha just outside of Jerusalem to accomplish what all of the wars could not and have not. "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” {John 8:36} Sin and death as well as Satan the god of this world were defeated that day when Jesus said it was finished! {Jn.19:30}

It was Joshua leading the people of God to the land of the promise who said to them 'choose you this day whom you will serve the god, the things of this world...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' {Jos.24:15} Make that right choice and hear the voice of Jesus the Savior who said:

"The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

BE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD