Monday – July 4, 2016
INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Today is the day in America when we celebrate our independence from Great Britain. Great Britain had become tyrannical and the colonies of this new world determined that it was right, just, and the duty of the people to throw off that oppressive government and institute a government that honored the unalienable rights given by God including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I have copied a lengthy segment of the Declaration of Independence and it is well worth reading through it slowly and thoughtfully.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.”
The primary author of this Declaration, which is considered to be part of the National or Federal Constitution, is our third President, Thomas Jefferson. The Continental Congress voted for independence on the 2nd of July 1776 and unanimously approved The Declaration of Independence in the evening hours of July 4, 1776. As an interesting aside, at least to us, both our second President, John Adams and our third President, Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826.
As wonderful as this Independence Day is for us as American citizens you and I who are in Christ Jesus had another even more wonderful and consequential Independence Day, the day we were born again. There were many early pictures or types and shadows of the coming liberty in a coming sacrifice, a Messiah. Let us start with God’s command for the observance of a Jubile (King James old English spelling) every fiftieth year.
Leviticus 25:10 (KJV)
10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Fifty is a number that is representative of The Holy Spirit. When we are born again, when we make Jesus the Lord of our life, The Holy Spirit instantly quickens, makes alive, our spirit man and we are transformed from a dead eternal being to an alive eternal being. We are instantly translated from the kingdom of darkness and confusion into the Kingdom of Gods dear Son, the kingdom of light and clarity. This liberty is available to all and it brings one back to his real family, the family of God, and to his own possession, eternal life.
Isaiah 61:1 (KJV)
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
This is a Messianic Scripture looking directly at Jesus. Isaiah by the Spirit of God says this coming Messiah will “proclaim liberty to the captives”. Jesus proclaimed everywhere He went that whosoever would choose Him would be set at liberty, instantly freed from the oppression of Satan and his dark kingdom. If you have not chosen this liberty do so right now and then write to me. You will be glad you did, I’ve heard that hell is no fun at all.
James 1:23-25 (KJV)
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Just prior to the preceding passage Brother James had been talking about a variety of sins, in the Church, individual believers. He points out that if you will look into the Word of God you will see your error and with repentance be free of that bondage. I have picked this up with James 1:23 where he is admonishing us to not just listen or look at the Word and keep right on the same as before. This is the guy (or girl) that sits up in Church and listens to the Word week after week and no one can tell any difference in their lives over the years. On the other hand you take that Word (verse 25) and change your thinking, your words, and your ways, you will be blessed (empowered by The Holy Spirit) in all that you are doing according to the will of God.
Praise the Lord of both Independence Days!
By Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
