Many of you who receive this know of my fall or sin in the last week, but the truth is 1John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I have confessed my sins and have asked God to forgive me. I am not perfect I still have flaws and impurities that God is in the process of refining. I have got several messages out of the ordeal of the last few weeks that I will eventually be sharing but for now I believe the following is the one God wants out there.
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32
When we were young my brothers and I plus a few of the kids in the neighborhood used to play a game called ‘statues’. The person who was ‘tagged’ had to try and catch all the others, and once touched they had to stay perfectly still and were not free until someone else came along and touched them. The idea was that the tagger made everyone into statues, it was lots of fun. When the 1st Narnia film came out there was a similar scenario in the plot where the wicked Witch turned her victims into stone statues, and they were only freed when Aslan the Lion breathed upon them. Aslan was symbolic of Jesus and the Witch of Satan, the one who turns people’s hearts to stone; only the Holy Spirit can save them. Jesus came to set the captives free, not only for Israel but for the whole world. Jesus is anointed to set people free.
Luke 4:18- 21″The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Before I became a Christian, my heart was like one of those stone statues. I wasn’t able to do what is right and I was bound by sin which manifested itself in many ways such as depression, addictions, profanity, fornicating and a lack of peace. I remember having a dream just before I got saved, of being in an airplane that was trying to take off along a big never ending runway, but couldn’t do it as there were over head power lines keeping me down.
The Bible says that I was a Child or Seed of Satan who was the Father of all Lies and I too was bound by lies. In fact I was actually a member of a Satanic Church – self styled Satanists in North Carolina I wanted to be set free but didn’t know how to do it.
I thought that freedom would come from experimenting with drugs but it made things far worse. I thought it would come from New Age Teaching (more Satanic lies), but that nearly killed me too.
Just before I was saved I got hold of a book that was supposedly from teachings found on scrolls that had been discovered at the Zimbabwe Ruins and I embraced them enthusiastically. Man, they really were satanically inspired as the effect upon me was really scary.
I was reading all sorts of other rubbish as well to find the truth, but only got further and further into deception. I was like a fly in a spider’s web that got more entangled the more it struggled. The traps of Satan are like a spider’s web which is not that easy to see, and can look really beautiful with the dew glistening on them. Sin can look so beautiful at times but the end is always death.
I remember the story of the Sirens in the book of ‘Ulysses’. Sailors who went past these islands could not resist the Siren’s beautiful singing and had to go and have a look, but when they went they were turned into pigs. In my teenage years and early twenties there was a lot of ‘New Age’ stuff that looked really appealing and it was ‘in’ to be spiritual. I went to séances and read all sorts of material by Lobsong Rampar a supposed Tibetan Monk and also Timothy Leary the prophet of LSD. I was involved with roll playing games which eventually led my joining the satanic church I was part of.
The trouble is that these ideas were full of half truths and even had passages from the bible to make them look more authentic, Satan will still quote scripture to us to make us believe the lies he is telling us are the truth, he mixes just enough of it in to lead us astray, but the end result was and is always bondage.
“There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12
The trouble is that ignorance of truth always also leads to bondage just as rebellion of the truth leads to bondage, both of them are the lies of Satan.
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 Jesus said that truth will set us free and history has backed this up.
He has come to free us from lies about; GOD: That He is far away, up there in heaven. He is an angry God who is standing over us with a big stick. There are so many lies that we can adopt on how to please Him as well, like if you really want to please Him then you need to go into the ministry, be a monk, wear plain clothing, hair styles etc. no makeup, longhair and no jewels for women and dark suits for men. God is so powerful and holy that you must be quiet before Him. MAN: You are not a sinner, and have no need of a Savior. And being good gets you into heaven. SATAN: That He doesn’t exist and if he does then he is in a red suit and has horns and a tail. DEATH: That we evaporate when we die, reincarnate, or turn into an Angel. There is no hell.
Christians can be bound too even though they are saved: You may say that you are a Christian now and can’t be deceived by the Devil but Paul said to the Galatian Church in Galatians 3:1, “Who has bewitched you?” Who has cast a spell on you Christians so that you don’t obey the truth anymore?
Ron Morrow admin@ronmorrowministries.org