August 2023
Nougat 1
It’s been some 200+ years since the enslaved people in the British West Indies received their freedom; and on this day 700+ years ago three small groups of people signed an agreement that would establish the Confederation Helvetica, also known as Switzerland. Their treaty was more about self preservation and protection than anything else. What these two dates have in common is the link to freedom and self determination.
It’s been an adjustment living in a country where they’ve never had to struggle for independence and where nationhood has been a given since its inception. (Well, to some degree). Of course, not all states in Switzerland are so blessed – for Geneva had to secure its independence from France to become its own republic. Even so, freedom is a guarded human right for the Swiss.
We generally understand freedom to be one’s ability to enjoy the rights and privileges that are accorded to people in a country, or the absence of restrictions of movement, thought or worship. Those are some of the things being celebrated on either side of the Atlantic today. Today’s Holy Nougat
“The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17 CEB
Freedom Fi We
As Spirit, God is not bound to the earthly realm, nor by natural laws. As Lord, God is also ruler over all that has been created in the earth, in the heavenlies and even under the earth. As ruler, God has access to and command over all that falls under God’s jurisdiction. One could say that God’s free to be God wherever God is!
Part of a ruler’s privilege is their veto power – they can undo that which has already been decided by the peoples, and by extension, judgements already established can be reversed. A ruler can also command things to be done, and it happens; providing it is within their or their subjects’ capacity.
Whereas humans are bound by natural laws, in that our physical selves can only accommodate particular actions and are restricted to existing in one literal place at a time, God has no such restrictions. So the lack of restrictions afforded spiritual beings are accessible to humans when they are at one with the spiritual. We see these in yoga, martial arts and in several different ways. Ironically we don’t necessarily have positive associations with it among believers, despite God being Chief of the spiritual realm. Could it be that our liberty has been restricted by our inability or unwillingness to accept the access to God’s spiritual realm?
For, if there’s freedom in God’s presence, then we ought to be walking in Freedom wherever God is. And God’s is not only in our midst, but also within us. We then are bound by Heaven’s laws, to God and all that God has placed under our jurisdiction. It is true, we are physical beings. But we are most definitely spiritual beings too, and operating in both realms. It is for us to determine what God’s liberty looks like in our lives by being open to the move of God’s Spirit within.
Not for civil disobedience, or for enslaving others; rather, that we might enjoy even more fully all God has in store for us.
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May all we seek be found in Christ