“The reason God refused to take the Israelites directly into Canaan following their deliverance was that they were still mentally enslaved in Egypt. They had been delivered from Egypt, but they weren’t yet free. So God had to deal with their minds, though their bodies were already liberated from bondage. This illustration captures a principle that applies to individuals, communities, and nations: Conditions determine conduct until interrupted by an external force.”
Being free and being delivered are two completely different things altogether. If you were locked in a jail cell for five, ten, twenty years or more - and then someone came along and unlocked the cell. This means that your circumstance has changed and they allowed you the opportunity to go free, but you never made the decision to walk out of that cell and change your situation. You are still imprisoned, although you were set free. You are your own jailer.
The Israelites are not only historical people but a representation of many that live today. They represent humankind at-large. These people were freed from the bondage of slavery only to be kept in bondage of their own mindsets, fears, beliefs, and negative habits. They were set free, but not delivered. Freedom is a physical thing, but deliverance is purely mental. There are many who are actually in a confined circumstance but experience much more freedom than those of us who walk around without barriers or restrictions.
God will not allow you to experience the fullness of your freedom until you decide how much deliverance you want. He will never force it on you. He can’t. He will never give you more than you ask for or are ready to receive. It’s funny that we will often fight for the right to believe what we want to believe, even if we know it is wrong. That’s what I call a stronghold.
Freedom is a burden that only the mature can bear. It happens in our minds as we accept our responsibility to move forward and allow the reconditioning of our oppressive thinking. Those who won't move forward travel in aimless wilderness circles, because nothing truly changes until your mind changes.
~Dr. Myles Munroe, The Burden of Freedom
We cannot be crowned as kings without changing the way that we think. ~JLD
