Revelation’s Message of Freedom: A Call to Listen to the Spirit

Posted on Dec 05, 2023 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Tony Evans

The annual Independence Day celebration in our nation ushers in a time of rest, enjoyment, great food, and even greater displays of fireworks. But let’s focus on another type of independence—what I call spiritual independence. If you have named Christ as your one and only God and Savior, you have declared independence from the rule of sin and Satan over your life. You’ve been set free. As Colossians 1:13 tells us, “[God] rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

Having gained spiritual independence from the rule of Satan, you may be wondering why, then, it often feels like you’re still in a battle. Just like the British didn’t allow its American colonies to secure their freedom simply by asking for it or letting them just declare it, Satan is not about to let you go without putting up his opposition. He knows that if he lets you out from under his influence, you become dangerous to his agenda. Instead of his telling you what to do, you’ll be telling him what you’re going to do.

That doesn’t sit well with Satan at all. Even though Jesus has legally, under His law, set you free from the reign of sin in your life, the devil doesn’t want you to be experientially set free. It’s one thing to have the status of freedom; it’s another thing entirely to experience it. But the truth in God’s Word can help you walk into the full realization and experience of spiritual freedom.

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John tells us how Jesus sent a message to each of the seven churches of Asia Minor, addressing this concept of complete spiritual freedom in multiple ways, and this begins with learning to hear.

WHAT IT MEANS TO HEAR

Seven times Christ says the same exact thing to these churches: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.” Every one of His messages—although each is addressed to a different group with a different set of problems—boils down to this same solution. Jesus suggests that it’s possible to have an ear and not hear. It’s possible to read and study the Word and still not receive and understand the truth. He’s saying that whoever has the capacity to receive the data ought to heed and apply it rather than just acknowledge it. Because hearing with the ear has as its goal the heeding and application of the truth.

We’ve all talked to people who hear our words yet don’t hear our message. Jesus is saying to the person who has an external ear, “Hear the internal message of what the Spirit of God is saying.” The church is made up of individual people, and so although Jesus has one message for the whole congregation, it’s also for each person who has an ear. In other words, each individual must decide whether they’ll personally pay attention to the message—really hear it—allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to them directly.

Attending church services or even a small group won’t get the truth of God deep within your spirit. Only when you choose to really hear and apply His truth will the fruit of it—the ability to overcome—be made manifest in your life. It’s this ability that moves you from “We shall overcome,” the statement often heard during the height of the civil rights movement, to “We have overcome,” the truth of God’s Word for believers.