My Declaration of Independence (Part III)
A large number of the people under the early British jurisdiction submitted their allegiance to the King and to the Catholic Church. …But there was another group of people that were of another persuasion. They did not wish to submit to the King’s laws and demands of a religion. A desire to be free from this rule became stronger within them. America seemed to be the answer for some, but for others, they felt bound to the familiar. America seemed so far away. America meant starting over. America was new territory; the unknown; the unfamiliar. The attitude, “At least I know what to expect here in Britain; …the same ole, same ole – bondage.” The attitude, “I don’t like the bondage, but I fear the steps to freedom.” There would be the leaving of some family and friends. So, they chose to stay in Britain, bound to another man’s will.
Yes, coming to America was a step into the unknown, but it was a step into a desired result called freedom. People are often miserable where they are in life, and they fear being miserable if they move towards the unfamiliar. They may live in the ghetto and feel that there is no alternative for them because they are poor. Many generations had lived in that ghetto and the thought is, “I guess I have to live here, too. I hate it, but I don’t have a choice.” Why are they bound to the poverty? …Because they are bound in their thinking. They are bound to their familiar. An individual could wish all day that they lived in that subdivision four blocks over, but continue to sit right there in the slum. The desire has to become so strong that they arise from the familiar and face the unknown.
People have desired better, but they attempt to get it satan’s way; cheating, stealing, selling drugs, prostitution, and etc. Then, where do they end up? …more bondage, jail, death, ... It is when a person gets into God’s Word and he/she sees a Promise and thinking lines up with God’s thinking.
I knew a woman who lived in the projects. She had only known poverty all of her life. She came to our church, was born again, became a student of the Word, and received its Promises as her own. She read Ephesians 3:20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” She knew that she had the power within her, the Holy Spirit. She desired to get out of the slums. She began by asking God, praising Him by faith for a nice home, and started looking for a job. Every demon of hell roared at her that she would live in the projects and die there. She began to war against these demons by declaring the Promises found in her Bible. The familiar was tempting, but the strong desire to have a nice home meant facing the unfamiliar; the unknown. God gave her a job, she went back to school, and soon was able to move from the ghetto into a nice place with her children.
What do you desire? Do you desire it enough to seek out what the Bible says about it? Will you declare it before the Lord daily? Will you war against satan’s strategies that cause fear. Yes, you will have to leave the familiar and press into the unseen to receive the Promises. How do I know? Faith and patience is what allows us to receive the Promises (Heb. 6:12), and faith is believing the unseen (Heb. 11:1). Faith is confidence in God and in what He promises from His Word, EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN’T SEE IT. It is the unfamiliar. “Rise up,” says the Lord, “and dare to believe what I have promised.”