Matthew 22:2-10 (KJV)
2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 

I wanted you to read this familiar story above so that we may fully reinforce the idea given from Scripture that you have been invited to a marriage as an honored participant. You have privileges as a believer in Christ that outsiders do not have. This parable which Jesus spoke towards His adversaries reveals just how many of God's chosen people found scores of excuses to not attend the marriage offer that was being made available, and therefore, the Gentiles were extended invitations in their stead. Now don't become spiritually arrogant over your Jewish brothers backslidden condition here; but rather, be thankful that you were grafted in because of it, and pray for these whose failure gave opportunity for you to be invited. Now concerning you and I who arose from the Gentile community from all around the world, we are made up of good and bad folks (vs. 10), who essentially by God's request will furnish the wedding with its guests. It's very important to establish this very fact, that we were chosen by God to be His choice for the marriage [covenant relationship, a family member] with His Son. So, with this being spiritually understood, we have every solution in Christ that can loose the grip of hopelessness as we identify with the truth of God's Word, rather than the lies that we often believe in. We are loved by a gracious and merciful God who has and will do everything in His power to help us arise to our full position in Him as we acknowledge the truth (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

 

There are so many examples in the Bible that tell the story of people who were seemingly helpless and swallowed up with many sorrows. This is the obvious reason why the Bible is such a relevant book to folks like you and me. Each one of us is very acquainted with sorrows and afflictions of some sort in this life. Some greater than others, of course. Yet, this book tells of a God who came in the person of Jesus Christ wrapped up in flesh just like ours, who was touched with the very same afflictions that we were as humans, and therefore, could offer Himself as a true priest that identified with the things that we are going through. Simply, because He had experienced them too, but without ever sinning. In addition, Scripture tells us that Jesus overcame this world no matter what its diabolical agents threw at Him. And because He overcame it, He emphatically expresses that we that are His can do the same through our faith in Him, and by believing on His finished work on Calvary. In other words, we were afforded the all-inclusive freedoms that will enable us to live freely right now as He does eternally in heaven; just as we were created to be from the very beginning before the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

 

As I sat on my porch with my wife this fourth of July and watched the fireworks being displayed in the sky above us. I thought and wondered on just how many of the folks around this country who were exploding fireworks really understood what this day represented in its truest sense? For me it was a sobering reflection on the many who had died for my freedoms and privileges. There have been so many mothers and father's who have cried over the years past at the passing of their son or daughter for the cause of freedom that others could experience at their expense. Foreign soil has obviously soaked up the shed blood of many of our son's and daughter's in uniform who went to preserve the freedoms that we now have and enjoy. And the sad wonder of it all, is to witness people who live in the privileges that others died for. And see them have the audacity to burn the very flag that represents the freedom that these honorable soldiers wanted for their loved ones and yet, treat it with disdain and disrespect. Amazing, and yet hard to understand how this could happen in a nation known for such great freedoms at such an enormous cost. Yet, the impropriety of all of this as I think about it, is that where there is the good that preserves wonderful things for others, there is also a present evil devouring what these glorious men and women paid for with their own life. Freedom is costly, and someone needs to remind the people of what they so often keep forgetting.

 

There was another death that invoked a sphere of freedom that does not compare to any other that has ever been known, or ever will be. It was the death of the Son of God who came to this earth to redeem mankind from his own self afflictions and eventual destruction. Scripture tells us that His death paved a way for all others who would take up their cross and follow Him, and they would receive a life that could never be snuffed out. Even death could not kill this life, because it is eternal and therefore, breathes both the air of this world and the air that fills the spirit world which God inhabits. This Jesus, who died for the freedom of others, knew full well that He was dying for sinners that had no value of their own. He knew that we were reprobates, derelicts, despisers of good and workers of every evil thing that could be imagined. Yet, He being a loving God, could see a finished work in each of us before it was possible to perceive within ourselves. How glorious is this Creator that has called us by His name! Oh! How expensive was the blood that ran down that cross where my sins were fastened, and where my pardon was granted. Freedom is costly, and someone needs to remind the people of what they so often keep forgetting!

 

Let me conclude this article on true liberty that we are adamantly waving in the banner of words before your very eyes today. Troubles and difficulty are a way of life which find their way in different degrees upon every pilgrim that passes through this life. This world will never keep its visitors satisfied with a credible and faithful promise that can be counted on that it would allow them to live here forever. In fact, every second of time finds this old world keeps rejecting its inhabitants by casting them out into the grasp of the spirit of death; even though these journeymen fell in love with this world, it would refuse to love them back. No man has ever been exempted from the harshness of this world when it comes to ravaging and abusing all of its many travelers throughout time. Even the Son of God found the hostility of this place filled with suffering which in the grand scheme of things was conducive to prove by His overcoming it that He was not of this world, nor are we who belong to Him. This speaks with such clarity in the Scriptures when it says He endured the cross for the joy of you and me being adopted. Suffering therefore, is a small thing in comparison to what we have received in Christ Jesus. Even these light afflictions do not compare to what is prepared for us who believe in the Son of God. 

 

To which now brings me to the finality of this article. Throughout the years I have witnessed many Christians that have continually sought to receive some form of a breakthrough in a given area that has held them beneath their privileges in God. These folks have pursued every imaginable prayer group, church leader, prophet, miracle worker, and organization that could be reached in hopes that they may get a breakthrough in that area that they have been held captive. For some, it was seeking a breakthrough from a spirit of poverty, for others it was a healing or a intimate relationship to be restored. In each of these cases it was a strong desire to breakout of some unpleasant situation of life that they had deemed as keeping them from true happiness and indeed it had. However, the outcome has rarely changed in most cases who seek these Christendom breakthroughs. Let me express it this way in a very simple illustration.

 

If a baby chick that lives in an eggshell wished to come out of the limited space in which it is so confined to and obviously out-growing. It will have to peck the shell from within to start the process. Once the baby chick has created a small opening, then it has the capacity to poke its head outside of the eggshell and for the first time see what it did not know had ever existed. An expanse of freedom as far as the eye could see. Now, as we consider the term breakthrough in light of this example. I hope to bring some illumination to what has kept people so far away from walking in a complete work when it comes to getting past our difficulties in life. Much like the baby chick in its eggshell, our struggles get extremely cramped and unbearable due to the limited room in which to move about. These cramped quarters therefore, creates in us the moaning and excruciating pain that has us crying out to God with desperation. In addition, it is here that we are motivated to peck on the eggshell of struggles in this life, seeking God for that needed breakthrough. In our desperation to seek Him for the answers, we find certain ministries around town that have by reputation what we presume He will use to help us find victory [and I believe God can use these ministries and He often does]. Because our heart and mind are now open we therefore, gladly receive an impartation that releases the divine strength to break out of the confined place where we are now struggling.

 

But what I have discovered more times than I would like to admit, is that many of these who seek constant breakthroughs. Are only poking their head out of the eggshell of adversity, and then becoming fearful at the very thought of having to be responsible for managing their new found freedom and quickly concede to stay put and not come all the way out. It's here that many will digress back to a familiar place within the eggshell even though its extremely cramped inside. Over the years as a minister I have watched numerous folks return again and again seeking to get out of the same repetitive cycle that they had once earlier received a remarkable breakthrough. I asked the Lord why does the breakthrough not last for them? He revealed to my heart it is because they don't want the responsibility of holding onto what they have received. In other words, they want Me to do it for them time and time again while they continue to do everything the same as they always did and ignore the responsibility of speaking with authority to their struggle. Never maturing, and never walking in the responsible Words that I have given them, they just hold up within their tiny miserable eggshell  seeking for another breakthrough from Me. Much like a prisoner gets his limited and sparse rations distributed to his cell, but is never fully satisfied from his hunger. He is always crying how there is never enough!

 

Some examples to this fact, are how so many stay on the welfare system instead of getting a job and work towards a better life for themselves. To get a job to them, is to lose their benefits from the government, and should the job not work out, it would be too hard to get reinstated again for the government assistance. These just remain stuck in their eggshell though it is cramped and limiting in what it can produce for them. They just somehow settle for what it holds for them in hopes that there will be another breakthrough down the road in the form of a gift from someone or some other means of delivery. These reinvent the Scriptures, "You have not, because you hint not!" These folks will sit around and make complaints to God and everyone else with words like, "Why does everything have to be so hard for me." "I need God to help me right now, I just can't go on like this any more." While many of these same folks will spend what money they do get on cigarettes, alcohol, movies or some other wasteful junk in this world. This is a very sad perspective I know, but many have it, and someone needs to point it out in hopes that they may come out of it, once and for all times. Freedom is costly, and someone needs to tell the people what they keep forgetting.

 

There is another example that we can use here that will show the captivity of sickness within a person's life if they face it by always trusting the medical field for their healing instead of God. This point is a hard one I know, and I am sure will generate many well meaning people to pose some very strong intellectual and valid arguments based from their own point of view. But think about it as God sees it: Jesus bore our infirmities, and by His stripes we were healed. Again, Scriptures tell us that God sent His Word to heal us and deliver us out of all of our destruction. It also tells us in the Bible that God is a God that heals us of all our diseases. I think we all can agree it becomes harder to stand on the Word once you are experiencing the sickness first hand; which is exactly why we need to start standing on the Word for our headaches, stomach issues, and little things that are not life threatening instead of always reaching for the medicine cabinet. Preparing your faith to stand on the Word of God in these smaller things now will enable you to administer great faith in the event that the enemy shows up with a more difficult disease or trial.

 

My friends, do not develop a daily practice of  pursuing breakthroughs in your life as a means to getting relief. But rather, [with the navigation of God's Word] peck out of the eggshell of adversity and get all the way out and never return back to that place of confinement again. Out grow it completely by coming into the full stature of Christ that you are born of which will enlarge you beyond the ability to return back to such a small place. Every struggle and hardship of life has a remedy in the finished work of Christ our Lord that without fail releases us in the freedom to live above it. God intends for you and me to live victoriously in the finished work of Jesus every day, not settle for little breakthroughs to only need it again later on. This finished work that Jesus accomplished on Calvary, is a victory over poverty once and for all; it is a sealed victory over all diseases once and for all, and it is an unwavering force of victory over every low and evil thing that would try to exalt itself above the truth of what God has provided us through His Son. Never forget that a breakthrough is not a finished work, unless you walk through it and never return to its confinement and limitations again. We have the victory because of the finished work of Jesus Christ in us. Therefore, get your breakthrough, but be sure and come all the way out and realize what freedom holds!