THE SPIRIT OF SLAVERY OR THE SPIRIT OF SONSHIP

 

It's amazing how much we can seem to know about God. We can have a command of scriptures, an insight into spiritual things, and yet God Himself remains for us, "on the other side of the wall," so to speak. All we really see is a wall. We believe He's over there. We shout over the wall and hope we're being heard, and call it prayer. Or, per­haps we pretend to others that we have x-ray eyes and that we can really see through the wall to God, but all the while we know that we have no real relationship with God at all. We think that if we could somehow knock the wall down things would be all right. But which side of the wall God is on has nothing to do with the wall or with God. There is no wall that can come between God and His children. Whether God is on this side of the wall or that side depends on what's going on inside our hearts.

 

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.                                                                  Matthew 5:8

 

Two people can be walking along the wall. For one of them God is on this side, absolutely real, perfectly near,

 

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?                                              Psalm 27:1

 

while for the other person God is on the far side, if He's anywhere at all. Judas and Peter shared the same environment for three years; heard words of life, saw miracles, served together. These identical circumstances developed Judas into a son of perdition while they developed Peter into a son of God. Why?

 

Years ago I used to visit an old Danish woman who wore the clothes of another era. Her face was a mosaic of deep wrinkles, and her eyes burned right through you. Her living room was quite bare and as we talked you could hear the strange breathing of her husband, who was slowly dying, in the next room. Her one love was the Kingdom of God. Over and over again old Mrs. Andreasen would say, "It's the spirit that you're driven by". The longer I live, the more I understand the truth of what she said.

 

Never mind the outward appearances, the fine words, and the noble gestures. Where a soul stands in relationship to the living God is determined

by the spirit that drives it from within. What kind of fruit a life bears as it passes through this world is determined by the spirit that drives it from within. Down in the inmost heart, at any given moment, each life is driven by one of two spirits: the spirit of slavery, or the Spirit of sonship.

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have re­ceived the Spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God....

 

To the spirit of slavery, God is always on the other side of the wall. It may understand the doctrines, it may even cast out demons in Jesus' name, yet God is on the other side. To the Spirit of sonship, God is always on this side of the wall. Even when it has to walk through the valley of the shadow of death God is still present, still comforting His child.

 

The whole purpose of Jesus' coming, His death on the cross, His resur­rection, was to plant in us the Spirit of sonship; to make it possible for us to come out of our bondage to the spirit of slavery and cry, "Abba, Father!", to enable you to pray, "Our Father who art in Heaven", to know that even as we pray Heaven comes down to where we are.

 

If we receive Jesus He plants in us the Spirit of sonship.

 

... he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.                                                       John 1:12b-13

 

That power is His Spirit. And yet, even after we have received the Spirit of sonship the temptation is always present to go right back into slavery.

 

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to re­deem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the wreak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? 

                                                            Galatians 4:4-9

 

So we have to learn to distinguish between the spirit of slavery and the Spirit of sonship all the time.

 

The spirit of slavery takes many forms. In the beginning, before we came to know the Lord, it was slavery to sin.

 

...every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever...          John 8:34b-35

 

How we tried to break out of the slavery, only to fall back into it again and again until Jesus set us free! But now that we've tasted freedom from sin through the Lamb's blood, the spirit of slavery takes more subtle forms. Some of us fall into slavery to rules. Rules over and above anything our Lord told us to do. Rules that have come to us through certain men, or through books we've read, or they've be­come the standard among the saints where we fellowship. These rules may have started out as helpful disciplines in somebody's life but now they're the source of slavery. We're not thinking about pleasing God, we're too busy being worried about what we can do and what we can't do, what we can touch and what we can't touch, where we can go and where we can't go.

 

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still be­longed to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch", (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines?     

                                                Colossians 2:20-22

 

Or perhaps we're in slavery to some human personality. A fellowship of believers may take great pride in the fact that it's not caught up in legalism, and yet in everything, down to the gestures they make with their hands, they ape their leader. They're in bondage to him.

 

What I mean is that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul", or "I belong to Apollos", or "I belong to Cephas", or "I belong to Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?  I Corinthians 1:12-13

 

 

 

Be careful when you allow the pastor, or the teacher, or this or that brother or sister to become too important to you. Soon you don't make a move without wondering whether brother so-and-so would approve. The question is not, "Does brother so-and-so approve?" but, "is this what you want me to do Lord Jesus?"

 

And some of us are in slavery to fear.

 

 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear...                                                        Romans 8:15a

 

...for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-discipline.    II Timothy 1:7       

 

Subtly, fear of man, fear of tomorrow, fear of the un­known, fear of making a mistake begin to govern our lives.  We say we're waiting for guidance, or we "feel led" to go in a certain direction but we've long since stopped going forward with Jesus. We're going backwards, running from our fears.

 

Some of us are in slavery to some ever-new idea. Every six months we're into some new "spiritual truth," or some new concept of church life, or some new secret of power, some new technique for praising your way into blessings, and all we ever talk about is this marvelous idea till the next one comes along. As long as we're in slavery to any of these things God remains on the other side of the wall. There is no genuine communion, no relationship, no sense of His presence, and no joy.

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba, Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God...                       Romans 8:14-16

 

Surely if we have surrendered our lives into the hands of Jesus Christ we have been given the Spirit. But, are we letting the Spirit of sonship lead us? Are we yielding to Him? Are we allowing Him to drive us where He wills, as our Lord did? If the Spirit of sonship moves and we don't move with Him, we're right back into slavery. If the Spirit cries, "Abba, Father!" in our hearts but we don't cry with Him, we soon find ourselves on the other side of the wall. The issue is, will I let myself be led, moved, driven by the Spirit of sonship? For instance, will I let the Spirit of sonship take me through the wall to where I can truly worship God? 

 

 

 

"0, but that's been my desire all my life." Has it? God didn't put the wall there, you did. If you let the Spirit have His way with you, that wall will disappear and you will find yourself standing in the presence of Light that exposes everything. There won't be a shred of covering behind which to hide.

 

Notice how often, when the Spirit of God starts to move on our lives, we resist. We don't want to be exposed to light, we don't want to be taken out of ourselves into burning worship. And we know instinctively that that's the first thing we're going to do when we start yielding to the Spirit. "Abba, Father!" will become a song of praise and a shout of victory on our lips.

Or, will I let the Spirit of sonship bring me under the yoke with Jesus to go with Him to the cross? The Spirit never takes us anywhere but to Jesus and his cross.

 

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine

and declare it to  you.                      John 16:14

 

Am I willing to be led by a Spirit who will narrow my life down to the place where nothing else matters but to do the Father's will by walking in the footsteps of the Son? Am I willing to be led by a Spirit who wakens me morning after morning to rise up and follow Jesus down that road of self-emptying?

 

It all comes down to this: Will I let the Spirit of sonship take me out of my rut, my slavery, to move forward, trusting God? There are changes waiting to be made in each of our lives. The only reason we aren't making them is because we're afraid we won't be able to handle the consequences. If I turn my life around, if I confess that sin, if I take that step will I be able to handle it? The Spirit of sonship says, "Move forward and trust God. What kind of Father do you think you have?  He alone is trustworthy!"

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  Romans 8:14

 

It's not that the Spirit hasn't been given, and it's not that the Spirit is unwilling to lead. He has come, and He will lead as soon as we turn our backs on the spirit of slavery and follow Him.

 

         And we can do that, if we want to, right now.