Freedom from Captivity

An excerpt from Break Your Invisible Chains by Brandon Telg, Dr. Jaron Jones, & Carly Barnes...

https://cfcindia.org/resources/en/books/images/god-speaks-through-animals/ch9-elephants.jpg

"Whether you’ve been to a circus with loved ones or seen a circus act on TV, I’m sure you remember seeing beautiful gigantic elephants performing tricks for the crowd. Children are laughing and families are enjoying themselves, but did you ever stop to think why these enormous animals stay within the confines of the circus tent? 

Elephants are built to uproot trees using only their trunk, yet these circus elephants never try to leave. Elephants in their natural habitat would break free from their bondage and roam as they pleased. So why don’t these circus elephant simply walk out of the circus? It’s not like anyone would be able to stop them easily. The reason why circus elephants don’t escape is that they believe in false limitations. They believe in invisible chains. This belief of bondage begins when these huge elephants are babies, barely able to walk on their own.

Each circus hires elephant trainers that take these baby elephants and systematically force them to believe that they can never escape. To accomplish this, trainers will first take a baby elephant, when it is most vulnerable, out of captivity and into the circus environment. The trainer then takes a huge metal clasp and tightly closes it around the baby elephant’s ankle. That ankle clasp is then affixed to a heavy metal chain, which is hammered into the ground using a thick metal stake. It is at that very moment that the baby elephant’s instincts kick in. It tells itself that something is terribly wrong and it must break free.

The baby elephant notices that it is attached to this contraption and tugs at the chain, panicking as it realizes it cannot escape. An instantaneous tantrum occurs because the baby elephant knows that this bondage is not normal. The baby elephant tries to run. But it can’t. It gets snapped back by the chain. The elephant tries to escape again. It can’t. The baby elephant knows it’s not supposed to be chained down and that it is built to roam the lands. The baby elephant knows that the circumference of a circus tent is not where its story ends. So for two weeks, this baby elephant fights with all of its will, with all of its might, to escape from this chain, because it knows its truth. After two weeks, this baby elephant becomes tired, frustrated, and defeated. Its will has been broken. With a bloodied ankle, this baby elephant now feels it can never move beyond the distance of this metal clasp and chain. This baby elephant is stuck.

Fast-forward 10 years: this baby elephant has grown to weigh over 6,000 pounds! Even though it is a massive and majestic animal, the circus elephant forever believes it is trapped within the circus tent. Now the trainers only need to tie a small woven rope around its ankle, just tight enough for the elephant to feel its pressure. When the fully grown elephant senses this rope, it believes it is still that same baby elephant. It doesn't know that it can break free. The elephant is bound by invisible chains."

Reflection:

1) What invisible chains have falsely claimed victory in your life? 2) What stories have people come up with about you that causes you to feel "pressure" and temps you to believe you are bound?

We were made in the likeness of God to believe and have those beliefs "bring forth" into the world. He is passionate about us and will not take that likeness of Himself away from us, even if what we are believing is producing the fruit of death (hurt and pain) in our lives. 

Like an abused animal, we sometimes can be limited in what we see and even lash out on anyone and anything that attempts to come near us, especially near our wounds or our hurt. When we are like this we are essentially afraid for our lives. We are in a state of conditioning to believe that our life is is in danger, that we need to find ways to preserve ourselves, lest we be found naked, ashamed, and ultimately without life (the life we innately feel and know we were destined to have). Your Father can show you that He is not the darkness in this worl, that He won't hurt you, that he will handle you delicately, and that you can trust Him to cloth you still with His life. 

We may often feel saddened of our condition that we find ourselves in. He is not condemning you for having been held captive or deceived by something so dark and treacherous (satan and his lies in this world). He sees exactly how you have been hurt and wants to carry you through the healing process in his arms. He understands that this world is the valley of the shadow of death and with his compassion He wants you to be persuaded and set free believing that He alone is your salvation and your gateway into an invincible and never ending life filled with no pain and hurt but love and joy.

At any given moment you can choose to embrace the likeness of God in you by looking, as if in a mirror, the glory of God. You are created with beauty. Let yourself accept this as truth and nineties fact; may your mind and inner being be illuminated with the union of His life, that the person who created the universe chooses to unite himself with you, freely! Allow yourself to see and believe the truth of who you really are: a significant and substantial being meant to experience life on earth and eternity with happiness in your heart.

 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."  

Luke 4:18-19

 "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." -2 Cor. 3:17

Source: http://frank.jou.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/booksample.pdf

Living from love rather than the lie of lack

Living from love.

Focusing our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves.

Living from the lie of lack.

Living from the lie lack will cause you to never feel complete.
If I felt like I had enough would I be searching for things that could make me "better"? Wanting to become better is different than desiring growth. Situations and things experience "better", however, humans (as living things) experience growth. A sapling is still a tree, but a dog will never become a bear. Growth acknowledges the identity that is already yours and the life you choose to embrace. Better implies that you are a "thing", that you are not good, and that you need to be REplaced.

Living from the lie of lack will cause you to never feel like you have enough or are enough.
The best sales strategy is to create a sense of "I don't have" or "I am not" within a person. If someone/thing can convince you that you are missing something in your life than that same person/thing can then proceed to tell you how they can be or provide the thing that you are missing. When you feel like you have enough and are enough the real things you learn and receive from things and others in life are simply reaffirmations of what you already have and what you already are. It's an experience of unlocking of joy within yourself that will allow you to appreciate life for what it really is.

Living from the lie of lack will drain everything and everyone around you.
When you don't have what you need for life, you will seek to get it from other and from things.

Conclusion

You simply were not made to look and evaluate yourself by what you see and come to an accurate conclusion about yourself.

The judgments you think about yourself will not contain itself to just you, you will be silently judging (or admiring) others by the same criticism you use against yourself. This is why when you judge another you are also condemning yourself by establishing a standard for a human to be measured by.

Self-analysis + judgement = criticism = Behavior analysis of another + judgement = condemnaiton.

Self-awareness illuminates the things and lies of this world that may be preventing you from experiencing the beauty that is yourself.