Beth Moore - Breaking Free: Discover the Victory of Total Surrender

2000 by Beth Moore

Trade Paper Edition 2007 by Beth Moore

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-0-8054-4552-7

Published by B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 241

Subject Heading: FREEDOM (THEOLOGY) / CHRISTIAN LIFE

Unless otherwise stated all Scripture citation is from the NIV, the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Also cited is KJV, the King James Version.

15 16 17 18 19 18 17 16 15 14

Dedication

To the wonderful people of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church,my home away from home. I will never be able to think about the message of Breaking Free without thinking of you.Words are inadequate to express my gratitude for your loving share in this vision. You have stolen my heart.

Acknowledgment

I am deeply indebted to my dear friend and editor, Dale McCleskey, for his willingness to reformat the in-depth Bible study God has given me into this reader-friendly version. Dale, you have been trustworthy with the most personal and gloriously painful

journey God has ever entrusted to me. May every captive who turns these pages discover the only true Deliverer.

Preface

Welcome to Breaking Free .

Somehow I think a writer should never appear desperate for the reader to care about her work. It just isnt seemly. She should just do her best and place the result out there. I believe that, but in this case I just cant do it. The contents of these pages are so important to me that I desperately want them to be important to you. The message in this volume is so precious to me that I desperately desire for it to be precious to you.

I want the process described here to grab your heart. I want it to pull at your life so powerfully that the bondage of mediocre discipleship will never again be acceptable. Christ calls us to a place of breaking free. He woos us to the place of absolute freedomthe only kind of freedom that is real. Let me start by pulling back the curtain just a bit to give you a preview of the road ahead. I have divided the journey into six segments.

We start in part I with the prophet Isaiah. I believe Gods Word brings freedom. His incarnate Word through His written Word. So we begin with Bible study. Well see how captivity came to the kings of ancient Israel, and well see how freedom comes through the King of kings.

Part II of our journey together is called Benefits and Obstacles. Well encounter the benefits of the Christian life that make freedom possible. Well see how the Father intends these benefits for every one of His children, and well see the major obstacles in the way of that freedom.

In part III well explore some personal matters. Well take a look back for the right reasons. Well see how strongholds take such deep root in believers lives. Only by facing some ancient ruins and broken hearts will we find the freedom God promises.

After weve dealt with some matters of the past, we get to turn to the future. We all have dreams. Some of those dreams may seem impossible. In part IV well see that God wants to surpass our best dreams, and He wants to bring us to the place of obedience that lasts.

Part V touches upon the deepest need of every human heart. We all long for a love that will not fade or fail. Genuine freedom can grow only in the light of that unfailing love.

Finally we will seek the place where we can gaze over into the promised land. Like Moses we will scale the heights to see the land of freedom and splendor, but unlike Moses, we have the opportunity to cross into the land. God shows us His splendor that He may beckon us. Come with all haste. Come to the place of breaking free. The place where we know Him and believe Him. The place where we seek His glory and forget our own. The place where satisfaction comes from the only true satisfier of our souls. The place where we experience His peace no matter what the world may throw our way. And the place where His presence is our constant desire and our daily joy.

Yes, I am desperate for you and for your freedom. I long for you to join the unshackled multitude that is breaking free.

Introduction

Welcome to a Journey to Freedom

I have never written anything that meant more to me than the message of this book. When I was eighteen, I surrendered to Gods call to vocational ministry. Some years later, God spoke to my heart and said something like this: I sent my Son to set the captives free. You will go forth and ring the liberty bell. Sweet thought. Even a little poetic for a romantic like me, but it sounded awfully evangelistic. I was fairly certain my calling was in the area of discipleship.

I shake my head and marvel now that I thought the only people captive were the spiritually lost. God pried open my comfortably closed mind in the most effective way possible: from the inside out.

I had no idea I was in captivity until God began to set me free. If anyone had told me Christians could be in bondage, I would have argued with all the volume a person can muster when a yoke of slavery is strangling her neck. I was the worst kind of captive: a prisoner unaware. The kind of prisoner most vulnerable to her captors. The easiest prey there is.

The following statement will constitute our definition of captivity throughout our study: A Christian is held captive by anything that hinders the abundant and effective Spirit-filled life God planned for him or her.

In the first steps of our journey, we will begin with an introduction both to the prophet Isaiah and to our subject of breaking free. We will make this beginning using two methods. You might think of them as the microscopic and the macroscopic. The microscopic view comes from an examination of a phrase from Isaiah 9:4 in this introduction. The broad overview in chapter 1 will be a look at the kings who ruled during the prophets lifetime. Both views will give us the biblical tools to consider how to gain freedom in Christ.

Come and join me as we begin with a phrase from the pen of the Prince of the Prophets. Isaiah 9:4 contains a most intriguing reference: As in the day of Midians defeat, / you have shattered / the yoke that burdens them,... / the rod of their oppressor. If you know your Bible, you may recognize the reference to Gideon, in the Book of Judges. Something happened in the days of Midians defeat that was extremely important, not only to the Book of Isaiah, but to the Savior coming to set captives free.

In the Book of Judges, God told the people, I will always go before you and bring you victory, but do not do one thing. Dont ever start worshiping other gods. Naturally, that is exactly what they did. Judges 6 begins with the unsettling words, Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Lets consider a series of lessons that lay the groundwork for our discussion of breaking free. I will list them as nine lessons about captivity and freedom.

Lesson 1

The people of God can be oppressed by the enemy. The Israelites had done evil in the eyes of the Lord. Judges 6:1 uses the incriminating word again. So God handed them over for a season to the enemy to learn better. You may be like I once was. I thought, If I just ignore Satan and desire to walk with God, Im going to be fine. We find out that doesnt work for very long, especially if youre beginning to be a threat to Satans dark kingdom.