Spirit of Slavery or Spirit of Sonship 1975

It's amazing how much we can seem to know about God. We can have a tremendous grasp of scripture, and an insight into all kinds of spiritual things, and yet God himself, for us, remains on the other side of the wall, so to speak. All we can really see is the wall.

We believe he's over there, and every once in a while we shout over the wall and hope that we're being heard, and we call a prayer, and sometimes we pretend to our friends that we have x-ray eyes and we can see right through to God, but all the while we know that we have no real relationship with the living God at all. Perhaps if we could somehow blast our way through that wall, we say, then things would be all right. But actually, which side of the wall God is on has nothing to do with God or the wall.

There's no wall that can come down between God and his children. Whether God is on this side of the wall or that side of the wall depends entirely on what's going on inside our own hearts. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Two people can be walking side by side along that wall. For one of them, God is on this side of the wall, very real, absolutely near. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? While for the other person right next to him, God is on the far side of the wall. For instance, Judas and Peter shared the same environment for about three years.

They both heard the living word of God. They both saw miracles. They were both again and again working together, ministering and serving.

And these identical circumstances developed Judas into a son of perdition, while they developed Peter into a son of God. Why? Years ago, I used to visit an old, old Danish woman. That's good.

Right. That's beautiful. I used to visit this old Danish woman who wore clothes that were from another era and her face was just a mosaic of deep wrinkles.

And those eyes, when they looked at you, would burn right through. And her living room was quite fair. And as we would talk, many times this happened, you could hear the strange breathing of her husband, who was slowly dying in the next room.

This woman's one love was the kingdom of God. And I'll never forget, as long as I live, perhaps in all eternity, never forget how this woman again and again, old Mrs. Andreasen would say, it's the spirit that you're driven by, it's the spirit that you're driven by. And as I live year after year since that time, I begin to appreciate the truth of what she said.

The relationship of any soul to the living God is determined by the spirit that drives it from within. And the fruit which is born by any life as it travels through this world on its way to the next is determined by the spirit that drives it from within. Deep down in the heart, at any given moment, each life is driven by one or the other of two possible spirits.

The spirit of slavery or the spirit of sonship. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.

When we cry Abba, Father, it is the spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. To the spirit of slavery, God is always on the other side of the wall. It may know the doctrines, it may even be able to cast out demons in the name of Jesus, and yet God is always on the other side.

Whereas for the spirit of sonship, God is always on this side of the wall. Even when it has to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is still present comforting His child. Now the whole purpose of Jesus' coming, His death on the cross, and His resurrection, was to plant in our hearts the spirit of sonship.

To make it possible for us to come out of our slavery and be able to say from our hearts, Abba, Father. To make it possible for us to say, Our Father, who art in heaven, knowing that even as we say the words, heaven descends right down to us. If we receive Jesus into our hearts, He gives us the spirit of sonship.

And this spirit in our hearts makes it possible for us to walk a new way. As many as received Him, as believed in His name, to them He gave power to become sons of God, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And that power is His spirit.

But, even after we have received the spirit of sonship and tasted these things, after we've come through the wall and we see God, and we worship Him, and we serve Him, and we praise Him, the temptation always remains to turn right around and go back into slavery. And when we fail to recognize that that temptation is there, that's when we get into trouble. This was the problem that Paul had with the Galatians, and he had to write these words.

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So through God you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather, have come to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly and elemental spirits whose slaves you want to be once more? There is that in us which will do it every time.

And we have to constantly be alert and be able to tell the difference between the spirit of sonship and the spirit of slavery. Now the spirit of slavery takes many forms. Before we came to know Jesus, it was simply slavery to sin.

Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin, says Jesus. And the slave does not abide in the house forever. And we all can look back and see how again and again we try to break out of that bondage, only to fall back into it time after time.

But after we tasted liberty from sin through the blood of the Lamb, then the spirit of slavery began to take other forms, more subtle forms. For instance, some of us right now are in slavery to rules. Rules over and above anything Jesus ever told us to do.

Rules that came through some man or some book we read, or have become the standard procedure, the way to live in a particular fellowship of saints. And very often these rules began as a very helpful discipline in somebody's life, until somebody got the bright idea to standardize the rules. And now those rules are nothing but death and bondage.

And we're no longer, when we're caught up in this, able to say, what does God want me to do? What will please my Father? That's not the issue anymore. All we're worried about anymore is, may I do it or may I not? Can I go here or can I go there? What can I touch and what can't I? And we're in bondage. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? Why do you submit to regulation? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things which all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and doctrines.

And some of us are in bondage to a human personality. Then, of course, maybe our whole fellowship says, we're free from any kind of legalism. Praise the Lord.

And even as they say it, the hands, the gestures, the way the words are uttered reveal that everybody in that fellowship is aping the leader. And they're on bondage to this man, whoever he happens to be. Or sometimes to this woman, whoever she happens to be.

What I mean is, each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Be very careful never to allow the pastor or the teacher or this brother or that sister to become too important to you. If you do, pretty soon you won't make a move without, first of all, worrying about what will brother so-and-so think.

And the issue is never what will brother so-and-so think, but rather, Lord Jesus, what is it that you want me to do? And some of us are in bondage to fear. You did not receive the spirit of slavery again to fear, Paul says in today's scripture there. We have not received the spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind.

And yet, how quickly, how very quickly we come under a fear of man or a fear of tomorrow or a fear of the unknown or a fear of making a mistake. And that fear just has us locked. It rules our lives.

And we say, well, I'm just sitting here waiting for guidance. Or we say, I'm moving in this direction because I feel led. But the truth is we have long since quit going forward with our Lord Jesus.

And we're now simply going backward, running away from our fears. And some of us are in bondage to some ever new idea. Every six months we have to come into some new spiritual truth, some new concept of church life, some new secret of power, or some new technique for praising our way into blessings.

And all we ever think about or talk about is this marvelous idea until the next idea comes along. Now, as long as we are in bondage to any of these things, God remains on the other side of the wall. We have no communion with him, no relationship, no sense of his presence, and no joy.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, Abba, Father, it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are sons, children, male or female, makes no difference, of God.

And we've been given the spirit of sonship. Surely, if at any point in our lives, any of us here have opened our hearts and invited the Lord to become Lord over us and given him the throne of our hearts, we can be sure that the minute we did this, God gave us, through his Son, the spirit of sonship. But are we allowing this spirit of sonship to move us, to take us where he wants to take us? Jesus says those who are born of the Spirit are like the wind.

The wind blows where it wants to. You can't tell where it came from or where it's going. And that's how our Lord lived his life.

Nobody could predict what he was going to do next. Nobody. He couldn't even do that.

He relied utterly and completely on what the Father directed him through the Spirit to do. And if we're going to be sons of God, we have to yield to that spirit of sonship by going where he leads and by doing what he commands. If the spirit of sonship is moving forward and we don't move with him, then very soon we're back into slavery.

Or if the spirit of sonship cries, Abba, Father, in our hearts, and we don't say anything, very quickly we're back on the other side of the wall. The issue is, will I allow myself to be moved and guided and sometimes truly driven by the spirit of sonship? Will I allow myself to be moved by a spirit that's going to take me right through the wall into blazing worship of God? And people say, well, wait a minute. I've been trying to get through that wall all my life.

What do you mean will I let myself be taken through the wall? But the truth of the matter is that God didn't put the wall there. You did. And when you yield to the spirit of sonship, the wall will simply disintegrate.

It won't be there anymore. And you will find yourself standing in the presence or perhaps a prostrate in the presence of blazing light, light before which nothing can be hidden. There isn't a scrap, not a shred of cover behind which you can hide.

And instinctively we know that's what's going to happen. And this is why time and time and time again when the spirit of God begins to move upon us, we fight it, we resist this, because we don't want to be so exposed. We don't want to be standing before that kind of light.

And instinctively we sense that that's what's going to happen and we're going to find ourselves saying, Abba, Father. And that's going to be a word of praise and a victory on our lips. And we're afraid we might just get carried away.

Or to put it another way, am I willing to be moved and led by a spirit that will guide me in the footsteps of Jesus all the way to the cross? The Holy Spirit never takes us anywhere but to Jesus. He shall glorify me, for he will take what is mine and manifest it, reveal it to you, proclaim it, declare it to you. Am I willing to be guided by a spirit that's going to actually narrow my life down to the place where nothing else matters to me anymore but to walk in the footsteps of my Lord, even to Calvary? Am I willing to be guided by a spirit, driven by a spirit, that's going to awaken me morning by morning to get up and walk on that road of self-emptiness? It comes down to this.

Am I willing to be led by a spirit that will take me up out of that rut of slavery and move me forward in the will of my Father in the face of all kinds of things that threaten me and frighten me and worry me? Right now, there are changes waiting to be made in every single one of our lives. And the reason we're not making them is because we're afraid of the consequences. Will I be able to handle it if I turn my life around or if I confess that sin or if I take that step? Will I be able to handle it? The Spirit of Sonship says, Rise up and go.

Follow. What kind of father do you think you have? As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. They don't just sit there like dummies.

They move. The problem is not that the Spirit hasn't been given, nor is it that the Spirit won't lead. The Spirit has already come to us.

He's here right now. And He's quite willing and able to lead us right now. The minute we turn our backs on the Spirit of slavery and follow Him.

And that we can do right now, if we will. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that the things of deception, particularly self-deception, that have caused us to be self-satisfied or caused us, Lord God, to evade the things you've been telling us to do by concentrating on a critical view of everybody else.

That these things may be exposed to your light right now. And that each of us, each one of us, Lord God, may hear some specific thing that we need to do. Heavenly Father, those of us who came here knowing already what that was.

That the Spirit would just help us beyond anything we could dare to ask or think. To end the procrastination right now. And begin.

And Father, for those among us who have been chained to habits that they just have not been able to break out of. We just pray, Lord God, that today will be the day of victory and liberty and salvation for them. And that whatever way you choose to do it, that prison door will just swing open.

And that they may walk out into freedom they've never known in all their lives. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.