Freedom Run
By Shirley Mitchell
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. "
Galatians 5:1
On the island of Guam, a road approximately six miles long stretches from the east side to the west side. When I lived in Guam many years ago, I told my friends that right before I left the island, I wanted to run that road. My friends Chris and Jean were crazy enough to run it with me. I called this rite of passage "The Freedom Run." It was something that I wanted to prove to myself that I could do before I left the island.
When I returned to Guam for my 40th birthday, I wanted to drive across this "Freedom Run" road. My mind had diminished this feat that I had accomplished because it was only six miles. However, when my rental car had a hard time getting up the hills, I was so impressed with my accomplishment! The inclines were so much steeper than I remembered. I had run six miles up the "mountains" of the island of Guam that is close to the equator and always 90-100 degrees and humid, from the east coast to the west coast.
Then God showed me how in the 12 years since I had run that Freedom Run, He had taken me on a spiritual freedom run. When I lived on that island, my mind had a steady intake of the world - fashion, beauty, fitness, perfection, and materialism. I was so bound up with lies from the enemy about what was important and how a woman was supposed to be. I lived under the tyranny of inferiority and self-centered thoughts like "I'm not fast enough, strong enough, fit enough, tough enough, or smart enough. I'm not beautiful or attractive. I must work on my hair, my tan, my face, and my body." My world revolved around me and what I must do to prove to the world that I was of value. Thus, I fell into a series of bad choices.
Over the past 12 years, God has daily poured His Spirit into me. Through my Bible study and prayer time, He has renewed my mind. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." I stopped conforming to the world and stopped the intake of commercials, TV shows, secular radio, and so on. I sought God through His Word and through others who are further in their walks with Him than I was. I relinquished control of my life and fell under the authority of God. I found freedom when I yielded to His Lordship. I don't live by a set of laws and list of "don'ts." I live under the freely flowing power of the Spirit. By finding spiritual victory, I found God Himself. By finding and experiencing God, I found my identity in Christ. When I settled my value, I was free to pour out the love of Christ to others and serve, no longer living under the pride of thinking so little about myself too much of the time. I found true freedom, and this is the freedom run that I choose to take the rest of my life.
Have you ever been chained by your own mind? Do you live in the oppression of your bad choices? Can you not imagine what it would be like to be free? Can you choose today to daily seek God through His Word, let Him transform Your mind, and to run the freedom run in Christ?
Pray with me: Oh, Lord, we lift up the ones to You today who are under the bondage of sin. We ask You, Lord, to break down gates of bronze, cut through bars of iron (Psalm 107:16), and to release them from the cell. The world sends forth so many lies that we believe. Our value is not based on our beauty to the world. Our worth is not the sum of our parts or determined by judges of a beauty contest. Our worth is based on the fact that we are Yours. We are Your princesses. We are highly esteemed. You fight for us. You guide us, and You speak to us. We ask that You reveal to us where we have withheld any part of our lives from Your authority. We desire to run in the path of Your commands for You have set our hearts free (Psalm 119:32). It's in the Name above all names that we pray, in Jesus' Name, Yeshua's Name. Amen.
"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Showing posts with label Guam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guam. Show all posts
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Redemption Point
Redemption Point
"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."
Isaiah 61:4
"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
Isaiah 58:11
Previously, I shared with you that God gave me a one day trip to Guam for my 40th birthday present. He told me at the beginning of the year that I would be returning soon to the island where I lived for two years. I did not know how or when. I just knew His voice. The first time that I went to Guam, I unknowingly went there to fulfill the plan of satan. When I went to the tarot card reader, it was the same as asking satan himself what he wanted to do with my life. I had been trapped by the enemy, fulfilling satan's plan for my life (2 Timothy 2:26), but I came to my senses and God helped me to escape. This time I was going to Guam to fulfill the plan of God. In this physical act, God completed the full redemption process of taking back the land that I gave to the enemy. He is rebuilding the ancient ruins. I am no longer miserable inside but overflow with joy and the love of Christ.
Let me share with you one of the things that God revealed in my short visit. When I arrived on the island, the recesses of my mind released memories of my time on Guam. I remembered the loneliness, the sadness, the grief, and the reckless living. It was equally important that I also remembered how to navigate around the island! I found my way to the place where I lived my first few months on the island and my last year - the bachelor's officers Quarters (BOQ). The building should have been condemned due to typhoon damage when I lived there, but they renovated it on the inside. One of the first things that I did when I came to the island was to walk a trail that led to a World War II plane that had crashed. I attempted to find the trail, but it was gone. The island vegetation had grown over the trail in the past 12 years. This was so typical of Guam. The island was known for its booney trails and hash runs. Both allowed one to explore just as Daniel Boone explored the United States Frontier taking a machete to slash one's way through the island which was overgrown, untended, and untouched by man. From the corners of my mind, I remembered how I always thought Guam was untamed and so wild.
I didn't have the same success finding my other homes on the island. The main road was easy to find, but the horseshoe road that joined the main road twice was hidden from me. Even though I turned down every road to the right and was determined to find it, the vegetation had grown so much that I was concerned that it would scrape my rental car. (It was a convertible, of course. It is the only way to tour an island!) I thought this is typical of Guam to not have the roads cleared. Once again, the theme in my mind was Guam was untamed.
I turned down one last road thinking this must be the road. I stopped the car and looked down into the valley below. This valley was the beauty of Guam - pacific blue and bath water temperature water on the outside of the island and lush green mountains and valleys on the inner parts of the island.
As I was delighting in the beauty of the island, I realized that I was not alone. A man was tending to his yard, the property to the right of me. His yard was nothing like the other places that I had encountered that day. He had meticulously trimmed every tree, bush, and the grass to the perfect dimensions. He told me that he worked in his yard every day.
Then God-bumps covered my arms, and I knew this was the moment for which I came. God said to me, "Shirley, you were just like Guam. You were an untamed child in need of a daily gardener." He took my breath away. Just like that man tended to his garden every day, so had God tended to me. God had sown His Word into the soil of my heart. Through daily intake of His Word, abiding in His presence, seeking Him and not merely knowledge, I was transformed! He has given me the sun, the light of the world, and Living Water. He has tilled and fertilized the soil of my heart. He has pruned me and clipped away the unnecessary things from my life.
God told me to call this place "Redemption Point." I don't shudder any more when I think of Guam and the sad, "untamed" girl that I used to be. Haunting memories were left behind at that point on the hill by the gardener's home. I had released other hauntings, but this one required more. I needed a physical place and that one memorable day when my mind could release things to God if the pain and guilt tried to drag me down. I replaced my shameful moments with this beautiful God moment. When satan brings it up to me, I now have a physical place where I can say those memories can't hurt me anymore but will only keep me from returning to my old ways.
Precious one, what about you? Do you have any memories that haunt you? Were you ever "untamed," wild, lacking self-control, living foolishly, sad, or just really stupid? Has there been a point in your life where you have released those memories to God once and for all and never said "hello" to those hauntings again? Take it from someone who knows. There must be a time when you not only release the times that you repent, but replace it with the God moments and His joy that you have found by abiding in Him. Just like that man tended to his garden every day, so must our Father tend to us - His well-watered garden - everyday.
Pray with me: Oh Father, God, praise You for making us well-watered gardens! Thank You for tending to us every day and watering us with the water of life! Thank You for pruning and discipling us. Thank You for shaping us into creations that are beautiful and stunning in Your sight! You give us breathtaking beauty! You can rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated! There is nothing in our lives that is too devastating and too beyond repair for You!
You can redeem and restore any life that has been ruined by the enemy, by man, or by her own hand. We cry out to You on her behalf that she will find her redemption in You. May she find healing. May she find a place where she can leave her life of sin and replace it with the life she has found in You. It's in the Name above all names, in Jesus' Name, Yeshua's Name, we pray. Amen.
Copyright 2009 © Christ Compels
"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."
Isaiah 61:4
"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
Isaiah 58:11
Previously, I shared with you that God gave me a one day trip to Guam for my 40th birthday present. He told me at the beginning of the year that I would be returning soon to the island where I lived for two years. I did not know how or when. I just knew His voice. The first time that I went to Guam, I unknowingly went there to fulfill the plan of satan. When I went to the tarot card reader, it was the same as asking satan himself what he wanted to do with my life. I had been trapped by the enemy, fulfilling satan's plan for my life (2 Timothy 2:26), but I came to my senses and God helped me to escape. This time I was going to Guam to fulfill the plan of God. In this physical act, God completed the full redemption process of taking back the land that I gave to the enemy. He is rebuilding the ancient ruins. I am no longer miserable inside but overflow with joy and the love of Christ.
Let me share with you one of the things that God revealed in my short visit. When I arrived on the island, the recesses of my mind released memories of my time on Guam. I remembered the loneliness, the sadness, the grief, and the reckless living. It was equally important that I also remembered how to navigate around the island! I found my way to the place where I lived my first few months on the island and my last year - the bachelor's officers Quarters (BOQ). The building should have been condemned due to typhoon damage when I lived there, but they renovated it on the inside. One of the first things that I did when I came to the island was to walk a trail that led to a World War II plane that had crashed. I attempted to find the trail, but it was gone. The island vegetation had grown over the trail in the past 12 years. This was so typical of Guam. The island was known for its booney trails and hash runs. Both allowed one to explore just as Daniel Boone explored the United States Frontier taking a machete to slash one's way through the island which was overgrown, untended, and untouched by man. From the corners of my mind, I remembered how I always thought Guam was untamed and so wild.
I didn't have the same success finding my other homes on the island. The main road was easy to find, but the horseshoe road that joined the main road twice was hidden from me. Even though I turned down every road to the right and was determined to find it, the vegetation had grown so much that I was concerned that it would scrape my rental car. (It was a convertible, of course. It is the only way to tour an island!) I thought this is typical of Guam to not have the roads cleared. Once again, the theme in my mind was Guam was untamed.
I turned down one last road thinking this must be the road. I stopped the car and looked down into the valley below. This valley was the beauty of Guam - pacific blue and bath water temperature water on the outside of the island and lush green mountains and valleys on the inner parts of the island.
As I was delighting in the beauty of the island, I realized that I was not alone. A man was tending to his yard, the property to the right of me. His yard was nothing like the other places that I had encountered that day. He had meticulously trimmed every tree, bush, and the grass to the perfect dimensions. He told me that he worked in his yard every day.
Then God-bumps covered my arms, and I knew this was the moment for which I came. God said to me, "Shirley, you were just like Guam. You were an untamed child in need of a daily gardener." He took my breath away. Just like that man tended to his garden every day, so had God tended to me. God had sown His Word into the soil of my heart. Through daily intake of His Word, abiding in His presence, seeking Him and not merely knowledge, I was transformed! He has given me the sun, the light of the world, and Living Water. He has tilled and fertilized the soil of my heart. He has pruned me and clipped away the unnecessary things from my life.
God told me to call this place "Redemption Point." I don't shudder any more when I think of Guam and the sad, "untamed" girl that I used to be. Haunting memories were left behind at that point on the hill by the gardener's home. I had released other hauntings, but this one required more. I needed a physical place and that one memorable day when my mind could release things to God if the pain and guilt tried to drag me down. I replaced my shameful moments with this beautiful God moment. When satan brings it up to me, I now have a physical place where I can say those memories can't hurt me anymore but will only keep me from returning to my old ways.
Precious one, what about you? Do you have any memories that haunt you? Were you ever "untamed," wild, lacking self-control, living foolishly, sad, or just really stupid? Has there been a point in your life where you have released those memories to God once and for all and never said "hello" to those hauntings again? Take it from someone who knows. There must be a time when you not only release the times that you repent, but replace it with the God moments and His joy that you have found by abiding in Him. Just like that man tended to his garden every day, so must our Father tend to us - His well-watered garden - everyday.
Pray with me: Oh Father, God, praise You for making us well-watered gardens! Thank You for tending to us every day and watering us with the water of life! Thank You for pruning and discipling us. Thank You for shaping us into creations that are beautiful and stunning in Your sight! You give us breathtaking beauty! You can rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated! There is nothing in our lives that is too devastating and too beyond repair for You!
You can redeem and restore any life that has been ruined by the enemy, by man, or by her own hand. We cry out to You on her behalf that she will find her redemption in You. May she find healing. May she find a place where she can leave her life of sin and replace it with the life she has found in You. It's in the Name above all names, in Jesus' Name, Yeshua's Name, we pray. Amen.
Copyright 2009 © Christ Compels
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