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BREAKING OUT!
Going Beyond the Containment Barrier
"For the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
- 2 Corinthians 3:17
When each of us came into this world we were tied to a yoke of limitation brought on by the nature of sin. Sin defined us as a servant to something we did not have power or strength to change. Ephesians chapter two says, "We were dead in trespasses and sins...and were by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:1-3). We didn't ask to be that way. We really didn't do anything to cause it to happen. We were the product of a fallen nature that was passed down to us when Adam fell in the garden. Romans chapter five tells us: "For by one man's offense death reigned by one..." (Rom. 5:17-19). The very fact that death reigned means we all were born with a condition of bondage that put a cap on our potential.
When Jesus Christ came and died in our place, he broke the containment barrier that held us as prisoners to a life of confinement. The very fact that Paul wrote and said: "Now unto him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph. 3:20), clearly reveals to us that as far as God is concerned this containment barrier no longer has the power to keep us bound to a life of limitations. We now have the right and privilege of becoming more than we have become.
There is a great truth hidden within the revelation of redemption, a truth that if we will grab a hold of can change everything. It is simply this: Christ made it possible for us to become all that we have become in Him! This is one of the great reasons why he sent the Holy Spirit - our teacher. He is here to teach us who we are as new creatures in Christ, so that we can rise above the limitations of our flesh, and go beyond the containment barrier that has restricted our potential.
Faith, hope, and love are all tied to the anointing to break you out of your limitations so that you are no longer subject to human frailty.
Whatever your reality appears to be in you, the image that you perceive as to who you are, determines to a large degree the level of containment or the level of freedom you are going to experience. If you hold to a mindset that still defines you by your limitations then that is the reality that lives in you. But if you hold to a mind that says, "All things are possible to him that believeth" then you have the potential of breaking out of everything that has tried to contain you. This is what needs to become our reality!
The truth is, each and every one of us are a product of our own level of expectation. Expectation is a necessary element for every believer to become more than they have become. Things in life will never change by waiting for some miracle to come along and make it happen on its own. Something needs to stand up on the inside of us and determine that we have an unlimited redemption that has recreated in us an exalted nature. And out of this revelation comes our rite of passage out of a life of containment.
The Greek word for HOPE is, ELPIS. It is defined as a confident expectation or a strong desire filled with anticipation. It is far more than wishing or hoping out of fear or uncertainty. It is a "knowing" on the inside that there is deliverance and freedom from every bondage and restriction that sin once held us captive to. We are the product of a great work done in Christ. It is out of this very greatness, which lives in our new nature that will determine the full scope of our potential. A potential that will lie dormant if hope does not stand up on the inside us and declare we are more than what we have become.
Paul said, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17). The word "liberty" in the Greek, means freedom from the restraint and miseries of human frailty. "For God has not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim.1:7). We do not have to coward under a yoke of bondage any longer. If you are dealing with any area where fear tries to control you, then know you are fighting against the containment barrier. Faith, hope, and love are all tied to the anointing to break you out of your limitations so that you are no longer subject to human frailty. Instead, you have within you an arsenal "mighty through God" to the pulling down of strongholds, so that you can live your life out of an exalted nature and enjoy reigning in life through one, Jesus Christ! (Rom. 5:17).
If you will raise your level of expectancy, stretch yourself, dare to believe beyond you, and hope with a desire filled with anticipation, I promise you things will change. You will lose that sense of containment. You will become invigorated with a life of purpose. Your liberty will become your reality, and you will be snatched out of a life bound by reluctances and inferiorities, no longer defined by mediocrity. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you...
PRAYER
Father, I know I came into this world yoked with a nature of sin, but I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and today, I choose to live a life free from every entanglement that tries to hold me in a place of confinement. By the power of the Holy Spirit I use my faith and the full force of my expectancy to be liberated from that which has tried to hold me back from all that you created for me to be. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen
CONFESSION
I will be all that Christ made me to be. I am what he says I am. I can do what he says I can do. I am becoming all that I have become in him. I will not allow my past to dictate my future. I call my life free from any containment barrier set by what I once was in Adam, and I declare that God is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that I ask or think, according to the power that is working in me - right now!
DEFINING MOMENTS...
So much of what God wants for our lives is held in stasis because our potential is still confined by a yoke of bondage that restricts us by our own human frailty. That yoke is brought on by the fear, that so many of us have been contained by that keeps plaguing our thoughts with the idea that we aren't what we ought to be. The enemy has used the tool of condemnation, reluctancy, and inferiority to prevent us from breaking out of the containment barrier. It is time we realize our destiny. We are the people of God, called by his name, and we have his life living in us. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us... and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!
It is time to break out and become all that we have become in Him! Isaiah fifty four says, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtain of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes!" (Isa. 54:2). Your potential lies within the grasp of your level of expectation...
In His Grace,
Pastor David
Faith Harvest Church
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