Catalyst Track: You Are Free // Day Two

This track comes from Rebekah Lyons’ new book, You Are Free. 

 

Many in the church cannot fathom the kind of freedom Christ’s pardon brings. We are so used to our prison cells, we don’t even know we are still in them! The doors are wide open—Christ tore them off the hinges two thousand years ago.

 

Many of us, though, still stand inside. My prayer is that we will begin to receive healing from our deepest wounds and discover that restoration brings true freedom.

 

As we abide in God’s presence, where he informs and sustains us, we can serve from a new place of freedom. Confession, whether it be a confession of repentance or a declaration of truth, begets freedom. There is no shortcut or strategy.

 

This is how we run free.

 

In this three-day track, Rebekah invites us on a journey of knowing the freedom we have already been given. Over the next couple of days, we will discover how Christ has made us:

• Set free
• Free to ask
• Free to pursue God’s mission in our lives

 

Leaders are often in the business of helping others walk out in their freedom. But do you know your own freedom? Do you live it? Do you serve from it?

 

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DAY 2: Free to Ask

 

One thing is for sure: the way people in Scripture experienced healing looks different than what most of us experience today. Since we can’t explain how healing actually works, we ask God to heal us “if it is his will,” and then surrender to the outcome. Is that what he intends?

 

Yes, partly. But Scripture also instructs those who are suffering to pray, for those who are sick to confess their sin and sickness, to call the elders for prayer and anointing. Here’s the key: We aren’t responsible for the healing (or whatever seemingly impossible thing we are asking for); we’re only responsible for the asking.

 

Maybe you’ve asked God for something, but only heard silence for many years, and it feels like your mustard seed of faith isn’t growing.

 

I don’t know why God answers some prayers immediately and not others. It’s a mystery. What I do know with full assurance is this: God has given us the freedom to ask him for anything—anything.

 

Perhaps in God’s economy what’s most important is that we have the freedom and faith to ask. What if we lay aside our concern about the results of our prayers? What if we simply confess and declare what we have been given—the freedom to ask?

 

Being free to ask God for anything means trusting him the way a child trusts—openly and unreservedly and expectantly. It means not holding back. And isn’t that the crux of our faith?

 

CHALLENGE:

Answer the poll below.

 

What prevents you from living out the freedom you have to ask?

1. I am afraid God won’t answer
2. I don’t believe God will respond
3. I don’t like giving up control
4. I don’t know what to ask for

What is something you need to step out in your freedom and ask God for? Take the next step and spend some time asking God for it!