Untangled vs. New
Often when people hear my testimony of my journey from being enslaved to being set free, there are a common few questions that are asked:
Were you abused as child?
Why were you entangled at such a young age?
How did you break through the homosexual stuff?
I have often pondered the process to my own freedom and thought “Lord, it would be much easier to help others be set free if you had only taken me through 10-steps To Freedom. Then, I could just tell everyone else the 10-steps.” When I listen to psychologically-trained professionals and pastors list all the things that need to be addressed (The 4-characteristics of Satan’s Noose, The 5-components of Walking In Freedom, The 4 Essentials To Fight A Lion, The 6-Keys To Victory) in order to walk in freedom, I get weary!
If I had to know all the reasons, causes and triggers and all the right answers to untangle my net of sexual bondage, I would still be working on the first knot!
My testimony is that the Word of God that says “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” is actually the only key! When I was BS-ing my answers to my Walk Of Repentance Study Guide and faxing them to my counselor, just so I didn’t lose my deposit on the program, God was doing a mysterious and mighty work in my heart. I was opening the living and active Word of God on a daily basis and like it or not, it was “piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)
I had the picture of Jesus, in His great Love, holding my head under water at the edge of a swimming pool while I was kicking and screaming.
Finally, I drowned. I died. My flesh ceased to exist on oxygen.
My only choice was to then drink in the water. The Living Water. In doing so, the Word of God scrubbed, disinfected, renewed my mind and changed my perspective on everything.
If I had to know all the reasons, causes and triggers and all the right answers to untangle my net of sexual bondage, I would still be working on the first knot!
So, what I know is that I don’t have to know all the reasons why things happened, what did or didn’t happen or even have a list and battle plan against every single trigger to be set free! That’s the whole point: I need to be set free. I can’t do it on my own. It is His work in me! I have nothing to boast in except the power of Jesus blood cleansing me from all sin. A good friend and profoundly gifted teacher, Jimmy Nimon, once told me “Justin, sometimes it is better to just get a new fishing net rather than trying to untangle the one you’ve been using.”
Stop wasting time trying to untangle every knot. You and I both have some pretty wicked-tangled nets. Rather, walk as the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) that you are.
Let the Master Fisherman give you a new net.
~Justin Rule
Free: An Identity. A Decision. A Destination.