In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Once Satan realizes that you're about to break out and get out of under his bondage, he's going to attack. I can tell you that. You have thought the way he thinks long enough. And you see, if I think the way he thinks and I get down here where I'm thinking, I'm going to be in a mess.

But if I begin to think the way God thinks, then what happens? I'm going to walk on a higher plane than I've ever walked on before. That's what we're talking about. So I'm telling you, expect it, but listen. Don't say, "Oh my goodness, going into battle." No, praise God, I'm going in the victory.

Guest (Male): Industry relies on machines, and to function, those machines need to be connected to a power source. The Christian life is like that. Behind the truth of Scripture, we find the power of the living God. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, believers see how the Lord's divine power works on our behalf. Here now is part nine of our series, How the Truth Can Set You Free.

Dr. Charles Stanley: We have been discussing for some time the truth that sets us free. And today, I want to talk about how. So let's take just a moment to review what we said in the very beginning, and that is, many of God's people who are saved, saved people, born again, know that you are, go to church, read your Bible and pray, do all the things, activities that you know to do. And yet, there's something missing in your life. The cutting edge of joy and accomplishment and achievement and contentment and fruitfulness in your life is not there.

And the reason is because Satan gets us into bondage because we think the way he wants us to think rather than the way God wants us to think. So what does he do? He harasses us with these feelings of insecurity, inadequacy, inferiority, poor self-image. And the fact that we've got to measure up and because we don't measure up to what other people expect, then we get guilt feelings. Then we berate ourselves and condemn ourselves. We forget that we are acceptable on the basis of God's grace and not our measuring up to anything.

So afraid we're going to disappoint God, going to disappoint others, measuring up to their expectations, working at our appearance, our performance, our status, and all of this, which is a terrible merry-go-round and awful cycle to be in, trying to get some joy and contentment of life. That is satanic bondage. It is born of Satan, it is bred of Satan, and it is continued by Satan. And the reason we get hung up on that is because we choose to believe Satan's lie rather than God's truth.

If you just break out of that and stop living by your feelings and live by the truth. The truth, he says, is what sets us free. Our feelings put us in bondage. Our feelings put us in bondage, and the truth of God sets us free of all of that. Now, we said there's one big turnpike, has three lanes. And those lanes are what our position is, who our person is, that is who we are, and what our possessions are in Christ.

Now, listen. It is one thing to hear about them, but how do I make application of these truths in order to be freed and liberated from those harassing patterns of the past that keep us living in the negative and accomplishing and achieving of being what God wants us to be? So what I'd like to do is to give you four simple steps. They're real simple. They're so simple, I'm afraid some of you may skip over them.

But if you'll recall what Jesus said here in this eighth chapter, beginning in verse 31, he says, "Therefore, if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." All right now, how do I make this practical so that when I'm faced with a temptation, how do I respond? When I walk into a situation and I am terribly intimidated, I get this terrible inferior feeling, or in a situation where I feel so totally inadequate.

All of a sudden my security is all gone and this anxiety and worry and doubt and fear or this terrible sense of guilt. How am I to respond? Now, listen. What is the first step? Step number one is to choose a life of freedom. You say, "Well, now, what do you mean by choosing it?" I mean this. When you were saved, what did you do? You made a definite, deliberate, voluntary choice to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior based on his atoning death at the cross.

You accepted him by faith. You received by faith his forgiveness and his acceptance, and you became a child of God. You do not drift into freedom. Because, now, watch this, because what we've been talking about, you don't drift into this because the tide is running against you. The tide of your pre-programming, the tide of all the stuff that you hear every day, "You can't do that. Who do you think you are?" All the tide is running against you.

So you are swimming against the tide when it comes to breaking out of pre-programmed, involuntary attitudes that will cause you to miss out on God's best. The tide's running against you, so I want you to know that to begin with. Now, watch this carefully. While it is a definite matter of making a definite choice, it is likewise a process. It didn't take you 25 minutes to get rooted and grounded in negative attitudes, and it won't take you 25 minutes to get out.

But while it is a definite, deliberate, willful choice on your part, a moment when you say, "I choose to be free," there's a process that sets in. Secondly, in that area, it's going to demand patience because Satan is going to put the pressure on you. Listen, when you say, "I choose to be free," what you're saying to Satan is, "Look, I'm sick and tired of your harassment. I'm fed up with you. I reject, I renounce, I repudiate, I refuse all of your harassment. I'm going with Jesus, the way to freedom."

Now, listen. If you don't think something will stir up every demon in hell against you, brother, that'll do it. Because you see, he doesn't mind you being saved. Now that you are saved, he can't do anything about that as long as he can harass you, ruin your testimony, keep you down in the dumps, keep you in fear and your attitudes, keeping you from being what God wants you to be. But listen, once Satan realizes that you're about to break out and get out of under his bondage, he's going to attack. I can tell you that.

So I'm telling you, expect it, but listen. Don't say, "Oh my goodness, going into battle." No, praise God, I'm going in the victory. He wants you to think, "Aha, getting ready to go to war with the old devil. I never have won yet, can't win now." You see, that's negative. And what I want you to see is this. Listen to me. We are so much more negative than we realize because we have been programmed on a lower level of thinking than God has.

You ask God what he wants to do in your life and then you reach in the power of the Holy Spirit for God's goal for your life. There's a man in business and he says, "Well, here's what I'd like to do, but I just don't think that'll ever happen in my life." That is straight from the devil. All of that negative satanic deception and harassment needs to be put away by the power of God. And what's going to happen is you're going to become freed and positive and confident in that which is within you to bring about what your heart desires.

But I can tell you this. It is easier to walk in doubt, frustration, anxiety, and fear than it is in the joy of the Lord until you learn something. So first of all, you've got to make a choice. Secondly, and here's what he says, I said this in the very first one, you must continue in his word. Now, listen to what he says, verse 31. "If you abide or continue in my word, then you are disciples of mine and you shall know the truth."

That is, if you continue in the word of God, you're going to know the truth. And what is it that makes us free? It is the truth that makes us free. Now, watch this. The second step, having made a choice that I want to be free from that, secondly, my second decision is I must be willing to continue in God's word. Now, here's what that means. That means the word of God is going to become the number one book. It is going to be the key interest of my life.

Meditating upon the word, thinking about what he's saying, concentrating on those verses, beginning to understand how that applies to my life. Continuing in the word. That doesn't mean reading it just before hopping in bed at night. But it means getting ahold of that truth. Continuing, absorbing, digesting the truth. Focusing, concentrating, abiding in, looking at, absorbing, meditating on, being quiet, praying to him about it. "Lord, I want this truth in my life." Continuing in the word.

Now, listen. As you meditate upon it, think about it, apply it, discuss it, talk to someone else about it, share it with them. What's happening is it is becoming a part of you. And what you're doing in that is you are continuing in the word. Why do we want to continue in it, absorb it, think about it, pray over it, meditate on it? Because what we are searching for is the truth. "If you continue in my word, ye shall know the truth."

You don't know the truth by memorizing a verse. That doesn't necessarily make you know the truth. You know the truth when the Holy Spirit of God makes that verse a priority in your life, that truth a priority, and you begin to think about it and pray over and ask God to show you how that applies to your life. Continuing in the word to know the truth. What is the truth? The truth about what your position is, the truth about who you are and what you have.

As these truths become a part of your thinking, all of a sudden, here's what happens. You begin to realize that the old patterns begin to crack. The old thought patterns and pre-programming begins to shatter. Before long, like thin plate glass, they begin to crumble in your mind. And what happens? They are replaced with solid scriptural, divine, God-given truth of what your position is. I am in Christ forever.

Who I am, a saint and ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, a child of God, a servant of the Lord. What do I have? Everything I'll ever need. All that I need to be what God wants me to be, all that I need whenever a need arises, an inheritance provided, access to it, fellowship with the Father. And you see, as these truths begin to be a part of our thinking, what happens is, here's what happens. We resort to new thought patterns, new concepts, new ideas.

That is, we have given up the false for the truth. And therefore, what happens? If I have been responding to the false, I'm going to act in that way, which is not in pleasing with God. So if I begin to respond properly, what's going to happen? I'm going to have the results of responding properly to him. Security, not going to be anxious and worried and fretted about things. Don't have to worry about being inferior, there's no other person in the world just like you.

You're the only one of your kind. You're not inferior, can't be inferior. Nobody else to compare yourself with legitimately. Inadequate, how could you be inadequate when almighty God who created this universe is living within you and has promised to empower you to do anything he called you to do? How are you going to be inadequate? And you see, here's what I'm saying. If you don't make the choice and you don't continue in the word, you see, you're continuing in it when you hear it, understand it, keep on praying over, absorbing it.

And you see, all of us could probably pick out one given area or two or three areas in which we may be weaker than in other areas. Then find the truth whether it deals with your position or your person or your possessions. Let's say, for example, that you're just one of those persons you on the outside you've got a lot going for you. On the inside you have a terrible self-image. As far as you see yourself, you don't deserve anything and you're nobody and you're having a terrible time continually faking the world out.

Then zero in on that one. And what do you do? You major on these truths about who you are. Who you are in Christ, the son of God. Who you are in Christ, the light of the world, a light, like salt, a servant, an ambassador, a saint, a temple. You major on those truths. Continuing in the word until what? Until those truths have shattered old truths, and now you're able to respond positively, moving in God's direction so that old patterns are no longer harassing you.

Because you have chosen to do what? Not only to believe the truth, but you've chosen to live by the truth. And my friend, the old patterns break up. When you get your attitude toward yourself and you see yourself the way God sees you, I want to tell you, everything in you is going to change. But you see, what I want you to understand is so much of what we thought for so many years of our life at times, which appeared to be right.

What I'm asking you to do is to challenge and to put everything you have been taught about yourself over against God's word and see what is true and what is error. What is error, put it aside, as Paul says in Ephesians, put it away. Continuing in the word. Thirdly, I must express confidence in the word. I've got to believe what it says. Now, here's where the problem comes. Now, lot going on today about inerrant Scripture. We believe the Bible is true from cover to cover.

Now, that's true. But here's where Satan again, he just comes in right under the truth and just adds this error. He says Satan would agree this is God's word. If he knows you and knows your confidence in the Scripture, he'd say, "You're absolutely right, that is God's word. But now there is some question about whether that'll work in your life or not." You see, that's the way Satan operates. "Oh, sure, it's God's word, but it won't work in your life exactly that way."

There not only must be a choosing for freedom and a continuing in the word, but a confidence that what God says in this book, listen, will work for you as well as for anybody else. You see, Satan says, "For others but not for you." That is satanic deception and harassment. I've got to believe if God said it, it is true, and if it's true, it'll work for me. If it'll work for anybody, it'll work for me. It'll work for anybody, it'll work for you.

The confidence must be in the fact that it is true in your life and it will bring about the results in your life. Then the fourth thing's very simple. Claiming my position, my personage, and my possessions, claiming them. Now, watch this. Just write that down, claiming the truth. Now, here's what I want you to see. You don't say, "Lord, I just claim all this truth as mine. I want to pray that you'll bless me." No, here's how you claim it.

When a given incident arises and all of a sudden you feel inadequate, insecure, or inferior, or worried, anxious, doubtful. In other words, when that situation arises, what you do is you claim his truth about you right then and there. "Lord, you said that I'm in you and that you're in me. You said I'm your servant, or I'm an ambassador, I'm a son, I'm a child. You're my Father. That's our relationship. You said that I have everything I need to live a godly life. You said that I have your nature living within me."

"And because I have your nature within me and because I'm a saint, I'm a servant, an ambassador of Christ, then what I am being tempted to do is a total contradiction of who I am. It doesn't fit into my personage. Therefore, I have more respect for myself and therefore I reject that on the basis of the truth of who I am, what I am, what my position is, and I do not have to indulge in that because of my relationship, who I am, and what I have. I don't have to indulge in that."

And I want to tell you something. There's not a temptation Satan can throw at you that almighty God won't defeat right before your eyes if you are willing to do exactly what I just told you. Claim it. It's no good if it doesn't work in your individual life. And even if it does, if you don't claim it, it can't work. Claim it. What did he say? "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." How does the truth make me free?

The truth makes me free when I understand what the truth is and am willing to apply it to my life, and am willing to believe that in that application, listen, that all the supernatural power of a sovereign God is behind that application to make it work in my life. Now, it's either true or it's not true. Now, listen to me. Am I sick and tired of these inferior feelings, these feelings of rejection? Do I see myself the way God sees me?

Am I willing just to relax and enjoy being one of God's children? And my friend, here's how simple it is, and God knew better than to make anything too complicated for us. You choose to be free, you continue in the word, you confidently believe God's book to be true, and then you claim by faith what is rightfully yours, provided at the cross, has nothing to do with your deserving it, has nothing to do with that, provided at the cross and is yours for the claiming and the applying.

And God says, "Listen, if I ask you, how many of you believe John 3:16?" Everybody believes John 3:16. "How many of you believe John chapter eight, verse 32?" "If ye shall know the truth, the truth will set you free." You want to be saved? Yes, so you believed and you were saved. You want to be free? Discover the truth, apply it to your heart, believe God's power, and he says, "I'll set you free." The choice is yours.

And you'll either choose to remain in bondage or you'll choose to be free. The truth is that you are free because you've chosen to be free and you have applied the truth that sets you free. And he says the truth known and applied in your heart frees you and liberates you to become the person God wants you to be, achieve what God wants you to achieve, and to reach your potential. And I'm simply asking you this. You want to be free? You want to be liberated? Unshackled, out of prison, and available to enjoy what God's provided? Then you must make the choice and follow the steps.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. If you're a believer, freedom can be yours by investing time reading Scripture and applying it to your life. When you do that, Jesus says you'll find true freedom. To supplement your journey of transformation, stop by intouch.org and find a variety of resources that can help you nurture your understanding of God's incomparable truth, and go back over what you just heard at the link to Today on Radio. That's all at intouch.org.

And there is our online bookstore as well. You can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete teaching set called How the Truth Can Set You Free. Again, you'll find these resources available at intouch.org or call or text us. The number simply is 1-800-IN-TOUCH. And to write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Again, 1-800-IN-TOUCH is our toll-free number.

How are you using the gifts and abilities God has given you? Today's Moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.

Dr. Charles Stanley: When you go about your work, do you give it your very best or are you just doing as little as you can get by with? Would you say, as you think about yourself, that you're a person who's very energetic, or would you say, "I'm really more apathetic?" When people look at your life and watch how you operate, would they see you as a person who's diligent and fruitful and energetic, or would they see you as a person who's laid back, always excusing yourself, always having some reason not to be doing something, maybe a little pessimistic and a little negative? Which of the two would be more like you?

Well, ask yourself this question. Which of the two kinds of characters would be the most like a follower of Jesus Christ? God has gifted you in different ways. He's called you to do certain jobs, and he said it is your and my personal responsibility as stewards of these gifts to do what? Employ these gifts, your mind, your heart, your soul, your body in doing what? Serving one another in whatever way that may be on your job, in your church, in your family, whatever it might be.

We have the responsibility of serving each other. A slothful person is purely self-centered. And so what happens? If a person takes those gifts and wastes them on mundane things that have no real fruitfulness and no value, or if they just sleep away their life, and they just lay back and they're idle and they're habitually lazy, it is a pure sin against God because what you're doing is you're sinning against God by wasting these precious gifts that he's given you.

Guest (Male): Find resources to help you be a faithful steward of the gifts God has given you at intouch.org. And please share how this program has encouraged you to know Jesus better and to live for him. Next time on In Touch, once you begin to walk in freedom, well, what's next? Hear about God's assignment for you when you join us for the wrap-up of How the Truth Can Set You Free on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.