Living as a freedom activist
Our goals during Freedom Season, March 24 - May 8, 2024:
Activating our authentically free life as a member of Jesus's campaign team and calling others to discover and activate theirs
Do you want to make a difference in the world? God is presenting you with a golden opportunity to do that, and Freedom Season is a great time to seize it.
The Freedom Rhythm
Four ways to get moving with the Freedom Rhythm
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Join the campaign team if you haven't already (see under "God's campaign"; remember it is his campaign, and you are joining him, not SYNC)
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Read the Bible to get the big picture of the story of God's campaign, starting with an overview (click "Story of the World" tab)
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Tell Jesus you are listening for his next assignment for you in his campaign (see "Just Do It Groups" under "Activities")
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Explore the Freedom Tool Kit (see under "Resources")
As we participate in God's campaign, doing our campaign assignments as Jesus directs us and empowers us through his Spirit, we discover that we are getting freer and freer from all the things that have been holding us back from living fulfilled lives--all the distractions, addictions, tangles, fog, and fears.
The Spirit of Jesus, a.k.a. his "breath", flows into us and we can breathe again! We belong, we have a great purpose, and we have a leader who wants us to live freer lives so we are better poster children for his freedom campaign.
Freedom Season is not the time to let Jesus's Freedom Rhythm go in one ear and out the other. God's rhythms are not elevator music to make our lives a little nicer even if we barely notice them. They are music with a beat that is supposed to get into us, music we can't help clapping with and dancing to.
Getting started as freedom activists in Jesus's public awareness campaign
Freedom activists live a life of discovery. We are learning how it feels to live the freedom message we are talking about. We are calling others to be as free as we are.
We gradually discover a new identity and purpose. We don't feel like we are struggling through life one hard day after another, doing the best we can on our own. We are in SYNC with Jesus, his Freedom Declaration, and his campaign strategy, and it is all so liberating!
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He pronounced the arrival of the new era of freedom that the ancient prophets had predicted (Luke 4.18-21, 43)
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He sent out his freedom activists to spread his official proclamation across the whole country. (Matthew 10.5-8)
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He is still alive, still beating the drum of freedom, still turning people like us into his freedom activists (Acts 1.8)
He gives us a new life as free citizens of his new kingdom, and we start dancing to his freedom beat. As we dance we reinforce the freedom beat with prayers like these:
A global prayer
God our Liberator, we marvel at your strategy of sending your Son Jesus to declare heaven's freedom on earth. It was amazing how he launched the new era of freedom and how you raised him from the grave to shatter the power of those who wanted to stop him.
Thank you so much for setting us free from all the things that used to box us in. Now we are free to live as activists, calling the whole world to enjoy the freedom we have.
SYNC us with your plan to bring true freedom and joy to all families, tribes, and nations. May the thrill of your freedom get the whole world cheering.
A prayer for someone you know
God, please give [name of person or group] your freedom. Break their chains. Free them from their addictions, habits, and obsessions that are ruining their lives and causing pain to others. Heal their broken hearts and their scars. Heal their diseases, physical and every other kind.
Give them the joy of free people, free citizens of your kingdom. Let the suffering of the world be reduced because their lives are SYNCed with your plan.
These prayers shift our focus from our own welfare to our assignments in his campaign. Jesus gives each of us our own assignments all the time through his Spirit (his inner Self) who lives in us, and they are not oppressive or even burdensome.
Jesus is a great coach! We love playing on his team of freedom activists even if some of the practices are hard, the play is challenging, and we get injured sometimes. We are thrilled to get to play, discovering more about the game as we go.
How do we actually discover all this freedom in everyday life?
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We say "Aahhh." This is the "Aahhh" of someone who is taking a first breath of fresh air in the street after spending years in prison. Free at last! We may not be the brightest, the richest, or the best looking people in town, but who cares? We are free! We have a whole new life opening up for us to explore. Everybody wants to say, "Aahhh," sometimes. When others hear us say it, they will want to hear our story.
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We master the basics, starting with the most basic fact, the empty tomb. Jesus was in the tomb because he was leading a national non-violent campaign for freedom, and his powerful enemies thought he had to be stopped. God the Father raised Jesus from the tomb in order to put his stamp of approval onto Jesus's Freedom Declaration and enable him to keep directing his freedom activists until the whole world gets the news. The empty tomb tells us what time it is--Freedom Time!
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We stay on message. Jesus constantly hammered one message, "The time is fulfilled. God is taking over now" (Mark 1.15), that is, "The old era is gone. Step into the new era of God's rule, and discover the rights of free citizens of his kingdom." Jesus did not overthrow the old order and impose a new one. He created a "kingdom of the willing," and that is what we promote now in his name. It was extremely difficult for him to get people to understand the kind of freedom he was talking about, and it will be difficult for us too, but like all skilled campaigners, he stayed on his message. He patiently, creatively, sacrificially made his point.
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We don't expect everybody to like Jesus's definition of freedom. Many people today suppose they like Jesus's teaching. They suppose it fits easily with the way they already understand freedom, but often it clashes. For example, if we suppose that freedom is the right to be whoever we understand ourselves to be and to express whatever we feel like expressing, that will clash with Jesus' teaching that we are citizens of a kingdom, which requires loyalty to the king and his agenda. People who want to run their lives as their own kingdoms, fitting Jesus in as far as it suits them, will not see any freedom in Jesus at all. They are tourists, not pilgrims.
As you practice these bullet points and get better at them, you keep discovering more of what it means to SYNC, to "See Yourself iN Christ." Jesus connects you to the truth that sets you free from all kinds of things that have been tying you up and holding you back.
The freer you get, the more people will like to be around you. Your freedom is refreshing to them. In the meantime as you are discovering your own freedom, your assignment is to make sure those around you get the memo, "Freedom is here, and Jesus brought it." Then they can start their own journeys of discovery.