What does being FREE mean to you?

[JulieTang84]

What does being free mean to each of us. I would love to know   :HeartThrob:

Jesus left us with the following and surely it must be life changing.......

Jhn 14:17
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will befn in you.

Jhn 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

I can truthfully tell you all that after being blessed in so many ways by Father, and His Spirit of Truth I am LOVE  :HeartThrob: . I am still a work in progress but I am free from all the things I once knew. Worry, stress, anger, resentment, frustration etc are long gone.

I now see and hear everything different. Life is truly beautiful as every moment presents an opportunity to ***be*** LOVE  :HeartThrob:  My whole purpose is to LOVE in gratitude which is the only way I can now live. For my world is now filled with beauty beyond compare, Love touches me every moment and sadness is almost a lost memory.

Nothing matters now other than I be true to myself, they small being that Father has blessed through the darkness of total despair. Love, His LOVE  :HeartThrob: has changed my life forever.

I bet your lives have been changed beyond recognition as well!!!!

Please share your story and the LOVE it contains.  :dsunny:

Love Julie  :HeartThrob:

[marie glen]

...before knowing Jesus, I 'feared' others.. competed.. etc.. But after salvation and beginning that process of being born again, I now love people and am free to love people! Yes, I agree this is the GReatest of BLessings! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :girlheart:

Also I learned a truth which has also set me free and filled me with much joy and stability, the truth and logic that "God is Perfect".

Since He is Perfect, and can only be perfect (or He too would fade)..

Then the 'end' result of all this (human history and life as we presently know it) can only be the Best One Possible! :cloud9:

It also means that Father God has done each and every thing in just such a way, in order to bring about the Very Best Of All Possibilities.. every choice HE made (since first envisioning every possibility) ='s *perfect* in order to bring about the very best 'end' result (possible). ...Another reason to not worry nor fear, etc.. He's the Best!! and His Will is supreme.. Perfection includes "all" powerful. No doubt on His Will being fully and completely carried out. Period.
:banana: :HeartThrob:

[JulieTang84]

Your testomony to Fathers Love is truly beautiful Maria  :HeartThrob:


Yes, being free to LOVE is the single biggest blessing one can ever receive. BECAUSE one can never have this freedom until they can fully and utterly receive Love in the same way as it is given.


Freely, without any thought of balancing of scales. Isn't it so peaceful, just giving LOVE away as Father has so freely given us. NOTHING but Love matters now, because as you said. Father's LOVE is perfect and we who are in his image can indeed Love others as He has loved us.


There is no division in LOVE  :HeartThrob:


Love Julie

[Tom]

We are all free to enjoy life now that we know God is love. I thank God for bringing me out of the darkness into the light of his love, and I know that eventually the whole universe will receive the same blessing.

[JulieTang84]

Awesome Tom  :HeartThrob:


In the interest of getting a loving thread going, (because we are children of LOVE)


Would you mind sharing some of the awesome things that Fathers LOVE has did for you. I have come to know that Love is nothing without GRATITUDE and when we can smile at the worst of moments  :doh:


We know and can feel LOVE to our very core. I know you have much Love Tom, please share.


Love Julie

[marie glen]

...and I know that eventually the whole universe will receive the same blessing.

I absolutely love hearing and thinking about that.. how awesome must HIS ultimate blueprint be?

[Tom]

Awesome Tom  :HeartThrob:


In the interest of getting a loving thread going, (because we are children of LOVE)


Would you mind sharing some of the awesome things that Fathers LOVE has did for you. I have come to know that Love is nothing without GRATITUDE and when we can smile at the worst of moments  :doh:


We know and can feel LOVE to our very core. I know you have much Love Tom, please share.


Love Julie

I think my story is basically the same as everybody else's who believes God. I was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see thanks to amazing grace. I am free from drugs and church doctrine by the power of God. I feel sorry for all the folks still deceived by either because they both distort your perception. "Drugging," from the Greek "pharmakeia" translated as "enchantment" in the Concordant Version, is one of "the works of the flesh" against the spirit. Addiction is a monster, but it can be overcome by the power of God. Church doctrine is something most of us have been programmed with, but it also can be overcome by the power of God. When you let go of the fear of a vindictive sadistic god, and learn to love like the living God, it changes your life! You can't help loving your brothers and sisters on the planet because God's love is too powerful to contain. It is meant to flow through you to others. It is the power that overcomes all. If it could save me from what I was into, it can save everybody, and it will. It's sad that church folks don't know this, but that's why we have to keep telling them. I think everybody's demons are just as much of a struggle for them as mine were for me, but what I have to say is, no matter what you're going through, God's love is more powerful and will overcome it. We all still have to deal with adversity in our lives on a regular basis to keep us humble, but all our trials come from God to strengthen our faith. All we have to do is keep the faith, and remember God "is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11), and "out of Him and through Him and for Him is all" (Romans 11:36). Trust God to overcome whatever you're going through. "The fiery arrows of the wicked one" will bounce off your "shield of faith", and "the sword of the spirit", "the word of God," will give you the power to resist and overcome the Adversary. When Christ was confronted by the Adversary in the wilderness, he just kept quoting scripture, even when the Adversary twisted scripture, until finally he left him because the word of God is empowered with the spirit of God to overcome all adversity. "Being free" means experiencing the peace of knowing "God is love" (1 John 4:16), and eventually all on earth and in the heavens will be overwhelmed with that realization because God will be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28).

[JulieTang84]

Tom you are truly an inspiration to me and I dare say most others here as well.  :HeartThrob:

That Father has blessed you with much Love and Patience is very clear.  :HeartThrob:

This was my intention with this thread; I know way to many christians who profess to believe out of their mouthes yet their lives do not change. How could they not?

You did not mention how you garnered the strength needed to break free of your many addictions. That Father had a hand in it is obvious, yet it was you who had to make the first turn. My own life was always empty, I was always standing on the outside and looking into something I could not see. I knew it was their, I ached for it, but it wasn't for me to find.

I imagine you went through something similar. Not even the drugs could fill the emptiness that only Father's Love can. I believe this is a very important point and is lost on many. Fullness (I know you know what I mean) cannot be bought or traded. It certainly cannot be found as Love is never lost. I devoured Bibles of all types, to the point I can easily debate any topic that anyone wants to throw at me. Yet knowledge is empty without Love. For all my answers were of little comfort.

While ever one tries to fill the emptiness with "stuff" Love will not be understood.

1Cr 13:1
If I speak in the tonguesfn of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

1Cr 13:2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

1Cr 13:3
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1Cr 13:4
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

1Cr 13:5
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

1Cr 13:6
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

1Cr 13:7
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1Cr 13:8
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

1Cr 13:9
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

1Cr 13:10
but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

1Cr 13:11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

1Cr 13:12
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

1Cr 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is  :HeartThrob: love.  :HeartThrob:



As with everything. Fathers Holy Word comes alive when understood through LOVE!!!


Thank you Tom


Love Julie  :HeartThrob:

[Tom]

Amen, it is love that is the spirit of God that is the real power in the word of God as well as in those of us who believe. All we have to do is believe, and let God's spirit operate through us. The world thinks we're fools, but we are blessed in the midst of our persecution because there is real peace and joy in the spirit of God. Different folks have their own obsessions with trying to fill that "emptiness" you spoke of that can only be filled by God's love. Money, sex, booze, food, nothing does it but God's love. That's why God's ultimate goal is to fill all his creatures in the universe with his love. That's a very different idea than what you hear in church, but that's exactly what the word of God says. God bless you, sis.

[sheila]

while Love  is the Rock we stay on..there is also something to be said for knowledge/Wisdom

   wisdm is knowledge /understanding from a heart of Love.

the scriptures say...my people perish through a lack of knowledge......[.foolish/wise virgins]

x-tra oil  inthe lamp..is understanding wisdom taught of the Holy spirit.....

   if God's people would have  had wisdom andlove...the inquisitionandcrusades would not

havehappened

  today..in our time...will 'beleivers' rise up in rebellion against the authorities..because they

beleive[ignorance] a micro-chipis the mark of the beast?

  some will not go near a computor due to 666....ignorance. is no-ones freind.

   Love is fromwhich all the other gifts shall flow from...knowledge puffs up..love and wisdom

builds up all...for this reson we have apostle's teachers,  etc.

   Love looks not afterjustit's own..but embraces all the gifts as provided....the heart[love] does not say

  'I have no need of a brain[wisdom/knowledge] nor does the brainsay..'I have no needof the

heart[love]"  lest there be discord/unharmony. in the body.

                 

         
     

[JulieTang84]

while Love  is the Rock we stay on..there is also something to be said for knowledge/Wisdom

   wisdm is knowledge /understanding from a heart of Love.

the scriptures say...my people perish through a lack of knowledge......[.foolish/wise virgins]

x-tra oil  inthe lamp..is understanding wisdom taught of the Holy spirit.....

   if God's people would have  had wisdom andlove...the inquisitionandcrusades would not

havehappened

  today..in our time...will 'beleivers' rise up in rebellion against the authorities..because they

beleive[ignorance] a micro-chipis the mark of the beast?

  some will not go near a computor due to 666....ignorance. is no-ones freind.

   Love is fromwhich all the other gifts shall flow from...knowledge puffs up..love and wisdom

builds up all...for this reson we have apostle's teachers,  etc.

   Love looks not afterjustit's own..but embraces all the gifts as provided....the heart[love] does not say

  'I have no need of a brain[wisdom/knowledge] nor does the brainsay..'I have no needof the

heart[love]"  lest there be discord/unharmony. in the body.

Thanks Sheila  :HeartThrob:


I think we are on the same page here. as Paul said: "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."


Knowledge is of no value without LOVE. Because without LOVE it produces nothing. For sure there are plenty of ignorant people around and many even may appear to be quite level headed have no concept of Fathers Love. But are certainly not ignorant of their opinion concerning Him.


I am sure you have been around the block (figuratively) more than once. Would you care to share of how Fathers Love has changed your life or the lives of other you know. It would be nice if a guest just looking around could see the results of Fathers Love and of course our Love in action.


Loving isn't knowing it is being  :HeartThrob:


Love Julie  :HeartThrob:

[sheila]

I have shared very personalthings on the forum..through the years[would take a book!]

  ..but Idistinctly remember whenI realized the Goodnews was for ALLpeople...that I

  tookheart! and said,finally, A God I can truly LOVE,Honour .and RESPECT....now

I canlove again!...

    the spiritualabuse/fear/terror.[babylon].....just maade my heart clamp up in cold terror.

if ALL are saved...then Iam too![I despaired ofmeasuring up to the saaints ofold]


  it's been a long road,since I was annointed at the age of 17[anddidnot evenknowwhatit was]

  He's brought me through alotin my life.  There is a peace and contentment,now in my life

  that Ihave never had before.  Knowing these things...His true nature...helps me to bear/endure

allthe cruelty,suffering andpain in this world.I have hope when everything appears hopeless


  Ithink I may have beenwhat you call an empath...  whenI wasasmallchild..I would become ill

with greif[deaathofpet,etc]

..my Grandmother said' you are such a greiver" I remember  praying as a 6 yr old..cryingto

God.....that there had beensomekind of terrible mistake..itwasn't supposed to be likethis[world]

  I didn' t thinkI belonged down here......I wasn't'happy' here

I feellike I have a future to look forward to now......SOME_ONE WONDERFUL HAS COME

    OUR WAY....LIGHT T THE END OF THE TUNNEL!!!!  A GREAT LIGHT HAS COME!

      andI'mheading straight forHim........notlooking back.......

[Tom]

Amen, sis. God bless you.

[JulieTang84]

I have shared very personalthings on the forum..through the years[would take a book!]

  ..but Idistinctly remember whenI realized the Goodnews was for ALLpeople...that I

  tookheart! and said,finally, A God I can truly LOVE,Honour .and RESPECT....now

I canlove again!...

    the spiritualabuse/fear/terror.[babylon].....just maade my heart clamp up in cold terror.

if ALL are saved...then Iam too![I despaired ofmeasuring up to the saaints ofold]


  it's been a long road,since I was annointed at the age of 17[anddidnot evenknowwhatit was]

  He's brought me through alotin my life.  There is a peace and contentment,now in my life

  that Ihave never had before.  Knowing these things...His true nature...helps me to bear/endure

allthe cruelty,suffering andpain in this world.I have hope when everything appears hopeless


  Ithink I may have beenwhat you call an empath...  whenI wasasmallchild..I would become ill

with greif[deaathofpet,etc]

..my Grandmother said' you are such a greiver" I remember  praying as a 6 yr old..cryingto

God.....that there had beensomekind of terrible mistake..itwasn't supposed to be likethis[world]

  I didn' t thinkI belonged down here......I wasn't'happy' here

I feellike I have a future to look forward to now......SOME_ONE WONDERFUL HAS COME

    OUR WAY....LIGHT T THE END OF THE TUNNEL!!!!  A GREAT LIGHT HAS COME!

      andI'mheading straight forHim........notlooking back.......

Thank you so much Sheila, your words brought tears to my eyes. [/size][size=78%]

Isn't it amazing how as young children we knew we were away from Father's presence by the huge void in our hearts. Not saying that I wasn't loved as a child, for I was and I have happy memories. But as you said, sadness at the death of a loved one (pet or other) made no sense and the hole just seemed to get bigger and darker. I know what you mean about feeling lost and alone (my words) and not feeling like you belonged here.

Bless you Sheila for staying true to yourself and sharing your journey here. I have always shied away from calling myself a "christian" as it seems now more so than ever: The Religion of Fear!

Yes, Love is Light and I see it too!!!!!  :dsunny:

Love Julie :HeartThrob: [/size]

[sheila]

forthe most part..I don't feel worthy of the term..'christian" still to this day........

  manywillfollow with acts of loose conduct and becauseof these..the truth shall be spoken against...

   at my religious 'peak" people always said...'she's real religious,isn'tshe"  makes me cringe

  to this day!!!!!

        now, I referto myself  as spiritual...as do some others that I heard about.........

   the first manis thenatural..right? the secound spiritual..'born fromabove'

         

[Tom]

I know what you mean, sis. There's a difference between spiritual and religious. I also think the concept of the word "Christian" has been distorted by hypocritical folks pushing church doctrine. I think that's why many unbelievers are turned off to God by church folks not practicing what they preach. I don't think we should let them get away with claiming the word "Christian" for themselves. I usually refer to myself as a believer to avoid any confusion though, but I will not hesitate to clarify the difference between the true faith and churchianity.

[rosered]

  Amen  to that Tom and Shelia and Julie  and of course Marie !!
  This has been  a blessing to read ! :HeartThrob:
  the divisions in religious  faiths is always what threw  me off !
  and we know that there are no divisions in Christ   
  that  love them anyway despite of  , is where we can rest  in Jesus !!
  most easy to say and at times hard to do , but than again ,ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD !!  :dsunny:

[JulieTang84]

forthe most part..I don't feel worthy of the term..'christian" still to this day........

  manywillfollow with acts of loose conduct and becauseof these..the truth shall be spoken against...

   at my religious 'peak" people always said...'she's real religious,isn'tshe"  makes me cringe

  to this day!!!!!

        now, I referto myself  as spiritual...as do some others that I heard about.........

   the first manis thenatural..right? the secound spiritual..'born fromabove'
       

I too prefer to call myself Spiritual.    :friendstu:

I know it sounds NewAge but then that is exactly what Jesus brought to the world. So I am okay with it.

Love Julie  :HeartThrob:

[JulieTang84]

Here is some more that "being Free" means to me.  :HeartThrob:


One of the biggest changes was losing the fear of what others thought of me, now my first thought is what my ego thinks of them. Sometimes I have to reign it in so my (read Fathers) love can shine through.


I can now fall asleep peacefully and easily instead of stewing over the events of the day past or worrying about the day/s ahead. This alone has done wonders to my health.


I used to get very frustrated in traffic jams, now I find it a perfect opportunity to put on some good music (meditative) and look about me, sending love to whomever and all.


Oh and my world is filled with smiles now. It seems smiling is contagious as I can't help smiling if someone smiles at me and it is so joyous watching someone else break into a smile when I smile at them.


It is the little things like this that have made the biggest difference. Thank You Father   :HeartThrob:


Love to All of you for keeping the Love flowing  :dsunny:


Love Julie  :HeartThrob: