Understanding Christian Freedom

Live from the Mecca of Mormonism, SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. – And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.. Let’s keep learning together about walking as Christians in the age of fulfillment.

Show 27A From Glory to Glory
Taped June 16th 2020
Aired June 20th 2020

So, no matter where you fellowship, and no matter what doctrines and practices you have embraced religiously – some none, some highly regimented – Sons and Daughters of God, over the course of their earthly life – choose to live in this world but not after the course of it.

Freedom of Choice in God's Creation

Let me plainly address the layout:

• God created the world and everything on it.
• He created man – male and female created He them, in His image.
• He gave them a garden, and he gave them freedom, and he allowed them to choose to love God and his ways over their own . . . or not.
• Man would prove that they loved God more than themselves by and through obedience (or disobedience) by ??? not eating (or eating) the forbidden fruit.
• Man chose their own will over God’s, proving that they loved themselves more than Him – and the world fell into sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. with Satan, who got them to fall, reigning over the earth by sin and deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. and the grave.
• But God so loved the world he gave us His Son who, as the Second Adam, came and out of love for His father, did the father's will perfectly, and offered himself up as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
• This bought back the right for him to reign over sin and death and the grave (once and for all) as He put to shame everything that stood in the way – Satan, sin, death and hell.
• (LISTEN) This victory brought the world back – restored it back SPIRITUALLY, along with all people on it, to that Edenic state!
• What I mean by this is the State that existed prior to the fall, where God gave Adam and Eve a place to live and the choice as to whether or not they would love God most or themselves more.
• This is the state that the world is in today – where every individual, in and through their choices, attitudes and ways, shows every day who they LOVE most . . .

(beat)

God and others . . . or themselves.

The Burden of Freedom

But instead of Satan reigning in horror and taking people to hell, God reigns, and in love allows each of us to choose the course of our lives – every freaking minute of every freaking day. For many, that is too big of a burden. Jean Paul Sartre described the weight of this constant freedom as a “condemnation,” saying that humankind is “condemned to be free.” And in the face of these relentless unending freedoms to choose, where every single minute of the day we are deciding whether to eat the fruit (and serve ourselves) or to reject the fruit out of love for God and to serve him and others selflessly.

Again, human beings, his creations, made in His image, choose each day whom they will serve – themselves and their will . . . or His. The ability to serve Him without Him present in the heart is impossible – which is why Jesus said we must be born again or from above. But even having Him in us, we are all still “condemned to be free” choosing minute by minute whom we will follow – ourselves or Him.

New Christians, babes in Christ, continue to feed their flesh, just a babes on earth feed their every want and desire throughout the day. But mature Christians, by and through their desire to love God over themselves and out of GRATITUDE for all he’s done for them, LEARN (through time, trial and error) to submit to the power of the Spirit in them OVER the will of their flesh.

Becoming Children of God

This concept is clear in scripture as John 1:11, speaking of Jesus, says

11 He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

He gave POWER to BECOME CHILDREN of God. I don’t know about you, but I want and long in my soul to be a child of God, to be a son, as scripture says. God has daughters, by and through His Son too. Did you know that?

Paul writes, citing Old Testament scripture in 2nd Corinthians 6:16-18 and says:

2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of

God's Sons and Daughters

God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Reflections on Divine Sonship

I want you to really stop and think about this description tonight – Sons and daughters of God. That God has – the very living God – out of all of his creations, and the billions who do not care about him in the least, that God has given His power to those who have received His Son in faith, to BECOME HIS ACTUAL SONS AND DAUGHTERS. God has SONS AND DAUGHTERS!

Are you one of them? Do you want or desire to be one of them? If you don’t, that’s okay. Our God has given you life and loves you and blesses you just the same. So much so that he gave his son to save you from your sin and causes the rain and sun to bless your lives. But if you are a Son or Daughter or if you take seriously that God has given you the Power to become one (it doesn’t happen naturally or overnight) then I want to encourage you toward a few things.

First, never let go of your faith, and never stop growing in your faith. Because faith comes by hearing (reading) the Word, when you feel yourself waning in this world, and sort of distancing from Him – open the Word. Read and consider it. Let it work its magic of washing away the things of the flesh and renewing your mind along the way. The flesh hates the word – it's like oil in water. And so you may resist it (at times) in your life. But read by the Spirit it is the fire that ignites faith.

When we look to God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, we learn a few things about what God allows to happen in His children’s lives too. His Son was not of this world, nor was His kingdom of this world. His Son entered the world in a lowly fashion and wound up being an unknown carpenter. We don’t read of him having the biggest carpentry business in the land – he led a simple life prior to his time. And then in ministry, once the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, he entered into life dedicated to the service of His Father. That included another word really important to Sons and daughters of God today, yesterday, and going all the way back to Jesus day – suffering.

Biblical Insights on Spiritual Adoption

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (And he adds)
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Son’s and Daughters don’t receive the glory here in this world – it is bestowed after this life and I believe it is bestowed in and through the respective resurrected bodies everyone receives when they take the last breath of mortality. Along the way, or throughout the course of our lives, each of us are being altered by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Transcending Through Trials

Every time we face a challenge to our pride and choose humility, we are both suffering, and being changed from glory to glory. Every time we have reason to not forgive but forgive anyway, we both suffer, and are changed from glory to glory. Every time we sacrifice of ourselves for the benefit of another, or choose righteousness over sin, or the Kingdom of Heaven over this present world, we suffer here, but move from one glory to the next. This is why Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 3:18

“But we all, with open face behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same"

Embracing Suffering as Growth

Let God work in you by His Spirit, my friends. Allow Him to assume the reigns of things rather than you assuming the control through your flesh or the things of this world. It can be extremely difficult and this difficulty is called, suffering. When I became a Christian, I suffered very little. I allowed my flesh to reign and fell short of the call on my life as a Christian too many times to tell. But what never failed in me was the pursuit of God and His Kingdom. His Son took care of the sin of the world. Sons and Daughters are not focused on that because it is gone. They are concerned with abiding and growing in the faith and learning to accept suffering AS A MEANS TO LOVE.

The Power of Transformation

What is happening to you as you allow the power of God to work is you are being conformed to the image of God’s only human Son, whether male or female, as Paul said in Romans 8:29: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” As the host of this show, I have care and love for all people. I have a special affinity and love for believers who have received Christ by faith. But my heart and mind and time is extended weekly to those of you out there who seek and have decided to allow the power that God has given you to make them sons and daughters through faith, suffering, and love.

From the Earthly to the Heavenly

Paul promises believers in 1st Corinthians 15:49: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Believe this. And while here, allow God by the Spirit to move you, from glory to glory, toward that ultimate destination. In faith I trust and promise you that the suffering of the soul you endure in this process will not compare to the glory that awaits you.

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