Living Free: Maximizing the Gift of Freedom to Live a Fulfilling Life in Christ

By William T. Bantom

Every born-again believer has been given the gift of freedom. However, freedom itself will never produce God's desired outcome for your life.

Freedom gives us the authority to choose the course of our own lives, but it will not force us to give up the unproductive patterns that cause the bondage and stagnation plaguing the lives of many believers today.

Question, when a believer's choices have led to a life of bondage, does that negate the gift of freedom? "No!" Freedom is an empowerment through Christ that gives us the right to change the course of our lives even when our own choices are the cause of our current conditions.

"Living Free" teaches eight biblical principles that will transform your thinking patterns, fortify your ability to resist the trappings of your past, and help you maintain a steadfast commitment to the pursuit of God's intended purpose for your life.

William T. Bantom III is a pastor, principle teacher, and men's ministry leader with a passion for sharing the key biblical principles God shared with him to break the patterns of his past and live a fulfilling life in Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781952926228

Book preview

Introduction

Addiction, bondage, and other patterns of poor decision-making that keep our lives stagnant are not topics most people want to tackle openly. We hide them in the dark recesses of our minds, not wanting the light to shine on our failures, mistakes, and weaknesses. We hope we will wake up one day to find that God has automatically changed our lives for the better, covered up our past mistakes, and forever broken the cycle of repeated defeat. Even though we know deep down this is probably an unrealistic expectation, for some of us it is all we have to hold on to. Letting go would mean giving up all hope for a better life. Day after day, year after year, we hold on, becoming more emotionally drained and feeling more spiritually defeated.

This was my life for many years. I was a Christian: I had a personal relationship with God and had logged many hours of personal prayer and corporate Bible study, yet the promises of God identified in Scripture did not seem to be consistently working for me. I was stuck and not able to gain any forward momentum. I tried everything I could to break free. I was baptized three or four times, had people lay hands on me, and made multiple trips to rehab. I even went to a deliverance service where the pastor told me I could get rid of demons by vomiting them into a paper bag. Needless to say, nothing I tried worked. In fact, all my unsuccessful efforts helped the enemy convince me I was so messed up that God no longer loved me and the promises in His Word did not apply to me. As a result, I believed the enemy’s lies, lost all hope, and attempted suicide.

Thanks be to God He did not just save me from death. He rescued me from my sin. He restored my faith in Him. He showed me in His Word how to break free from the life of bondage, addiction, and poor decision-making patterns that kept me from living the abundant life He sent Christ to make available.

My prayer is that this book will spare you from going through what I went through before I learned to live free. Hebrews 6:12 tells us that we are to follow those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promise of God. This does not negate personal experience as a good teacher, but it does negate the idea that it should be your only teacher.

Approximately seventeen years ago, while I was helping to facilitate an addiction-recovery program at the church I attended, I sensed the Lord telling me to find a Bible-based program to help others experience the freedom that had changed my life. When I went home to tell my wife, she immediately told me the Lord was not telling me to find a program; He was commissioning me to write one. So, after months of praying and fasting, we launched Empowered to Be Free, a thirty-two-week program that has helped many break free from the negative patterns of their past.

After teaching Empowered to Be Free for many years, I saw a need to condense it into a course that could be taught at any Bible-believing church. As a result, we have since revised the format, added a workbook, and developed a self-contained course called Living Free. The eight key principles taught in this course will help you fortify your faith in God, apply biblical principles in your daily lives, and break free from the areas of bondage and negative patterns that have held you captive for so long.

This course is not written from the perspective of a theologian or biblical scholar, nor is it meant to be an exhaustive study of the topics covered within. It is simply a practical application of eight key biblical principles that have changed my life and empowered many others to live free. I have learned the promises of God are triggered by living out the principles He teaches us in His Word on a day-to-day basis. No quick fix or magic potion enables us to live up to our God-given potential because true and lasting change requires hard work and diligence.

May God bless you on your journey to living a life beyond your dreams.

Chapter One

Freedom and Empowerment

Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:31–32 (MKJV)

Most believers live their lives plagued with bondage and perpetual frustration because they are not experiencing the biblical promises in their lives at the level of their expectations. This is not because they are bad people who do not love God; it’s because they are stuck and do not know how to get free from unproductive life patterns. Many have tried all kinds of programs that guarantee a quick fix, but there is no quick fix for bondage and stagnation. Getting out of an unproductive mind-set takes time, personal effort, assistance from God, and a commitment to replace past patterns with biblical principles. It is not a one-step process but a commitment to a lifestyle of learning to live by faith in the Word and power of God.

John 8:36 says, "Therefore if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (MKJV). This is a powerful statement with an important promise that warrants a basic understanding of its meaning. Let’s look at three key observations from that verse:

1.      Jesus Christ is the one who sets us free; we cannot set ourselves free from anything.

2.      The words make free mean to liberate from the bondage of sin, deliver, or cause to be unrestricted.

3.      The word indeed means truly, in reality, and as a matter of fact.

Considering these three points, this verse tells us it is a true and unchangeable fact that those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior have been made free from the bondage of sin and death. Jesus has given them the authority to make unrestricted decisions, which means they alone have the authority to determine the course of their lives.

However, John 8:36 does not apply to those who have not accepted Jesus as Lord. As a matter of fact, Ephesians 2 tells us unbelievers are in the world without God, disconnected from His promises and therefore without hope. They lack the ability or the authority to resist the lusts of their flesh, the lures of this world, or the devil’s attempts to destroy their lives.

If you don’t have a personal relationship with God, I pray you ask yourself right now whether you want to continue the life of bondage you are currently living or whether you want to be free to live the abundant life that is only available through Christ. If you have had enough and you genuinely want your life to change, the first step is to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9–10 says if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. This simply means if you have a heartfelt conviction that Jesus is alive and you are willing to receive Him as your Lord and Savior, you are ready to pray a prayer that will lead you to salvation. Yes, it is really that simple. All you must do to be saved is repeat the following prayer aloud:

Lord God, I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that your Son, Jesus, lived, died, and rose again just for me. I thank you that His blood washes me and cleanses me from all sin, guilt, and shame. I receive Jesus now as my Lord and Savior and I ask that you would mold me and shape me into the person you created me to be so that I may live the life you created me to live and find the peace I so desperately desire. In Jesus’ name I pray - Amen

If you prayed that prayer of salvation, let me be the first to welcome you into the family of God! You are now entitled to all God’s promises in Scripture, including His guidance and assistance in every area of your life. Please follow your decision by joining a church that will teach you more about God, His Word, and your new life available through Christ.

The million-dollar question is, Can a believer who has been set free by Christ still be in bondage? The answer is "Yes! Galatians 5:13 (NLT) says, For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love." Because freedom gives us the authority to choose the course of our own lives, we can choose certain lifestyles or patterns that lead to unhealthy, ungodly, and unproductive practices that lead to addictions and bondage. This explains why so many believers are hooked on the various vices we see in the world today. Even though Jesus has made them free, they still choose to use that freedom to satisfy the lusts of the flesh—which, by the way, will never be satisfied.

But here is the ten-million-dollar question: When a believer’s choices have led to a life of bondage, does that negate the freedom Jesus provided? The answer is emphatically "No!" because freedom is not based on our situation; it is based on an empowerment from the Lord Jesus Christ, giving us as believers the right to change the course of our lives. In most cases our freedom to choose certain lifestyles is what led us into bondage, and we can exercise that same freedom of choice to break ourselves free.

If you are addicted to porn, drugs, alcohol, gambling, or food, freedom gives you the authority to choose to break free from that area of bondage. You may need to go into rehab, receive deliverance, join a support group, get under a doctor’s care, or choose different relationships, but freedom allows you to make the necessary choices to get free and stay free. Please note that freedom will not make you do anything, but it does guarantee you will always have the authority to make choices that line up with God’s Word and will for your life. As we know, our choices will ultimately determine the quality of life we live. John 10:10 tells us Christ came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. While most believers see this as a guarantee of an abundant life, it is actually the guarantee of the opportunity for an abundant life—one that did not exist before Christ came and made us free.

This means the abundant life is not an automatic occurrence that we can just pray for, fast for, or wait for. It is the promise of an opportunity to use our freedom to align ourselves with the will of God to live the abundant life He wants us to live. Unfortunately, many believers are waiting on an outcome (abundant life) that is not guaranteed instead of maximizing the opportunity (freedom) that is guaranteed. Maximized opportunities are not predicated on circumstances but on our capacity to make the right choices in those circumstances. This leads us back to the powerful role freedom plays in the life of a believer.

To help you understand freedom, let’s briefly examine three reasons God sets the believer free. In Exodus 10:3, Moses tells Pharaoh to let God’s people go so they may serve Him. The first reason for freedom is to serve God. After all, God says we cannot serve two masters; therefore, He had to free His people from Pharaoh to give them a choice to serve Him. The second reason is to serve one another, as we read earlier in Galatians 5:13. The final reason is to fulfill purpose or do the good works referenced in Ephesians 2:8–10.

Understanding that Jesus has made all believers free to serve Him, serve one another, and fulfill the purpose He created us for. Why are so many believers still frustrated and living in captivity? We know God is capable and credible to fulfill His Word, so the problem must lie with us. I believe one solution to this perpetual problem lies in John 8:31–32, which I call the empowering path to freedom. These verses contain five steps or principles that are critical in fortifying the believer’s ability to identify and eliminate negative patterns, lifestyles, and habitual behaviors, any of which will keep us bound and stagnant as we pursue a victorious life in Christ. Let’s look at John 8:31–32 (MKJV) again and underline the empowering path to freedom:

Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

As you can see from the underlined text, the five keys in the empowering path to freedom are:

1. Believing, or having faith, in God

2. Continuing in, or abiding in, the Word of God

3. Becoming a disciple of God

4. Gaining a personal revelation of the person and power of God, which leads to…

5. Properly appreciating and applying the empowerment from God (freedom)

Believing, or Having Faith, in God

The word believe in John 8:31–32 comes from the Greek word pisteuo, which means to have faith in, to entrust, or to put trust with. In context, it simply means, to come to know and believe in the credibility and capability of God. Faith, or believing in God, is an important key in every aspect of our relationship with Him and the quality of life we ultimately live. Romans 10:9 tells us that salvation comes through faith. Matthew 9:27–30 says our ability to receive from God is based on our level of faith. 1 John 5:1–5 tells us that faith is the only way we can overcome the world and its vices. Based on these Scriptures, we can see why faith, or believing in God, is the first and most critical step on the empowering path to freedom.

Continuing in, or Abiding in, the Word of God

The word continue comes from the Greek word meno, which means to stay in a given place or state, to abide, dwell, remain, and stand. In context, it simply means to diligently pursue and abide in the Word of God. When we honestly believe in God and His Word,