Rags to Riches
Baby Girl,
I’ve been hinting around and simultaneously speaking plainly for months now about what it looks like to live as a bondservant of Christ. A bondservant is one owned by another. They have nothing that is their own. For a bondservant, even their time belongs to their master. From the moment they wake up each morning until the close of day, they seek to know and do the will of their master above all else. This is the calling on the life of those who make the conscious decision to follow Christ as a Christian.
I have no desire to lure, trick, or trap anyone into a life of submission. As you do not want the reluctant obedience of your children when you give them a task, I do not want the reluctant obedience of My children as I partner with them to seek and save the lost. My desire is that, as you are drawn by My LOVE into this covenant relationship, you would willingly lay down your life, the chains of sin you were born into, and take on the life of Christ who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross.
Being a servant of Christ is a life no one has ever been nor will ever be forced into. Part of My covenant with you is that you were born with free will, as a free agent. This freedom you were given at birth, however, ensured that you would be a slave to sin; living and dying by the cravings of the flesh. You’re asking, “How can you say that I’m born free if I’m born a slave?”
You are free because, although you were born a slave to sin, Jesus came to the world to offer payment in full for any slave who desired to be free from the cruel taskmaster of their sin nature. With that offer, you have been given the opportunity to choose from that day forward who will be your master. You WILL have a master, and you cannot serve two masters. You will serve one and hate the other - no matter which master you choose.
Since Christ made the payment in full, when you choose Him, you are not an indentured servant. He offers the opportunity for you to become a bondservant, one who declares, “I LOVE my Master and I do not want to go free.”
An indentured servant is working to pay off a debt. He is under contract as a slave until his debt has been fully paid. Your debt was paid the moment you accepted the payment Jesus made on the cross for your sins. There is no further payment required. The price for your freedom was more than you could have paid over ten lifetimes.
Bondservants of Christ are drawn into a life of servitude, not by force but by My LOVE with the understanding that everything they own and who they are belongs to Me In exchange, everything belonging to Me belongs to them as well. My servants are LOVED, well-fed, and lack nothing. My servants enjoy all the spoils of royalty spiritually when their lives and wills are entirely surrendered to Mine.
My servants are fully armed and equipped for battle so they can choose life when the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I supply My servants with LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control - all of which a life enslaved to sin cannot enjoy. My children, chosen bondservants, live in community as brothers and sisters across the world in every nation, culture, and language.
Jesus gave you the perfect example of what it means to be a bondservant, fully surrendered to God. Abraham, Moses, David, and Paul were My bondservants through whom I was able to save nations. Are you willing to lay down your life, take up your cross, and follow Me?
Surrender. Sacrifice. Radical obedience. Obscurity.
Essentially, I am asking you to surrender your soul, mind, will, and emotions in exchange for My Spirit. Dirty rags in exchange for riches. It is My will that My children be robed in royalty - not dressed as homeless paupers.
Are you ready to let go of the last of your dirty rags?
Sleep on it,
Daddy
Psalm 113:7-8
