Enjoy Christ Sufficiently to be Freed from Bondage and have God as our Possession

We need to see that Satan captured us, then came to dwell in us as the instigator of our sins, and he has become our illegal master while we are his captives who cannot but commit sins; but praise the Lord, in the jubilee we can receive and enjoy God sufficiently to be released from the bondage of sin and enjoy God as our portion! Hallelujah!

As believers in Christ, we are those who enjoy Christ as the real jubilee; He is the reality of the jubilee.

How can we enjoy Christ as the reality of all the blessings and freedoms of the jubilee? It is simply by spending time with Him.

We need to take time to enjoy the Lord in His word. And when we come to the Lord to fellowship with Him, we need to learn to stop our being, calm ourselves down, and focus on Him.

In the world today there is much talk about “meditation” and “mindfulness,” and the more advanced, cultured, or refined people are, the more they practice such things.

But practicing to turn inward means nothing unless you have Christ within. Real freedom is not out of us or within us; real freedom is in enjoying Christ.

If we know the Son of God, if we have the Son of God in our experience and enjoyment, we are really free!

But if we don’t have the Son of God and are not in Christ, we are still slaves to sin.

We believers in Christ need to practice sitting at the Lord’s feet to listen to His words and absorb Him.

In a world that is increasingly plagued with distractions, from our phones to the entertainment and news around us, we need to learn to put all things aside and focus on the Lord Jesus.

When we sit down, when we quiet our being before the Lord by exercising our spirit to set our wandering mind on our spirit and stop our vacillating thoughts, we can receive a revelation of Christ, and the Christ revealed to us is also wrought into us to become our jubilee.

The reason so many believers in Christ today have Christ but are not full of joy is that they do not enjoy the Lord as the reality of the jubilee.

They think that now they are free to do whatever they want, as long as they try their best to please God according to what the Bible says.

But the jubilee we are in today is Christ Himself; He is our jubilee, and only by enjoying Him can we be freed from the bondage of sin and can have the enjoyment of our inheritance, which is God Himself.

May we be those who are learning day by day to enjoy the Lord in all situations and in all things so that we may live in the reality of the jubilee and enjoy its blessings and freedoms!

How Satan Captured us, Came to Dwell in us as the Instigator of our sins, and how we are his Captives who Commit Sins and Cannot stop

Before we can enjoy Christ as the reality of the jubilee we need to see our true condition and situation today.

In the Western world, people think they are a bit more developed, more high-class, and more refined, so they think they are in a world that is post-sin and post-truth.

They think that, as long as they don’t commit gross sins, they are ok.

This is true also with many believers in Christ, who consider that sin is only something gross that we do, something really evil.

However, we need to realize that Satan, God’s enemy, has captured us through man’s fall; then, he came to dwell in us as the inciter, the instigator of our sins (Rom. 7:14; 1 John 5:19).

Anything we do apart from God, whether it may seem to be good or it is obviously evil, is sin, for to sin is to fall short of the glory of God.

When we don’t express God, we sin, whether we do something good or evil.

We need to realize that Satan has become our illegal master, and we have become his captives to the extent that we’re simply unable to do good and can only commit sins.

This is our situation as sinners in this world, and many times this is our situation when we as believers in Christ do not enjoy Christ sufficiently.

The people in the world have no way out, for unless they have God in them, they are slaves of sins.

If a man does not have God, whatever he tries to enjoy apart from God usurps them and is dung, dog food, and refuse (Phil. 3:7-9; 2 Pet. 2:22).

People in the world today think that certain entertainments or sports are not that bad, but as they are engaged in all these activities, they are led by the nose by Satan, who is Beelzebul.

Satan is “the lord of the dunghill” (the meaning of Beelzebul); he is also “the lord of the flies” (the meaning of Beelzebub).

Satan is Beelzebul leading many sinners to eat dung and feast on rubbish, and he is the Beelzebub specializing in leading sinners like fiels to feed on dung (Matt. 10:25; 12:24, 27; 2 Kings 1:2).

Dung and rubbish are smelly and disgusting, and flies are drawn to it.

People in the world are drawn to sin, they cannot but sin, and they are powerless in this matter.

In 2 Pet. 2:22 it says that sinners are like the dog returning to his vomit and like a sow wallowing in the mud after being cleansed. Oh, Lord!

Some people seem to be of higher class, for they attend high-class parties where they dress up and look great, and they dance and seem to have a good time; such places and such parties are “cultured dunghills,” for Satan as the lord of the flies leads all sinners to feed on dung.

No matter how cultured or high-class someone may seem, no matter how elegant and well-spoken a person is, unless they receive and enjoy God, they are led by the nose by Satan to sin.

Even worse, though deep inside their heart no one wants to sin, he is addicted to sin, for Satan stirs them up and they sin spontaneously.

There’s in each one of us a desire to not sin, and we even exercise our will to stop doing this or that; no matter how hard we try, sin is a person in us – Satan himself – that always overpowers us.

We may get ourselves cleaned up and get our act together, but then we fail again and commit sins, and we may wonder why this happens, and how could we be so stupid to do something like that.

The Lord Jesus said, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34).

No one today has control over himself; everyone has become a slave of sin.

The sin that is within us is a real controlling power (Rom. 7:24), always overpowering us whenever we try to do the good.

But praise the Lord, Jesus has come as the real jubilee to deliver us from the body of this sin!

He has come to be our enjoyment and also to be the power in us that delivers us from sin and its power!

Thanks be to God, the law of the Spirit of life has freed us in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death (Rom. 8:2).

Lord Jesus, cause us to see that everything we try to enjoy apart from God is dog food, refuse, and dung. Save us from being “led by the nose” by Satan to feed on dung. Keep us turning to You. We come to You again and again to be under Your light, we apply Your precious blood, and we want to remain in the enjoyment of Christ. Oh Lord, apart from You we can do nothing! Cause us to see, dear Lord, that sin in us is a real controlling power, and whenever we set our mind to do good, sin overpowers us! Oh Lord, may we realize that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin! We need You, Lord, as our jubilee! We choose to exercise our spirit and be in Christ, for in Christ we are freed from the law of sin and of death by the law of the Spirit of life! Save us from trying to not sin. Save us from striving to do better and from stopping to make mistakes. We just turn to You. We come to enjoy You. Lord Jesus, You are our portion for our enjoyment! We want to enjoy You today!

Receive and Enjoy Christ Sufficiently to be Freed from the Bondage of Sin and Enjoy God as our Possession

We may think that, now that we’re believers in Christ, we don’t sin as much as the people in the world do.

However, we may be like the sow in 2 Pet. 2:22 who, after being washed and cleaned, returns to the mud to wallow in it.

Yes, we may see that we sin, we may repent and apply the Lord’s blood, but because we do not enjoy Christ sufficiently, we may return to the mud and still feed on dung, being led by the nose by Satan, the lord of the dunghill. Oh, Lord Jesus!

The key is that we need to receive and enjoy Christ sufficiently so that we may be freed from the slavery of sin and enjoy God as our possession.

We may not sin overtly and others may think we are a good Christian, but only we and the Lord know what we spend time with today as we use our smartphone or our computer, what we do in our spare time, and what is going on through our mind when we have time by ourselves. Oh, Lord Jesus!

Many times we are like Paul in Rom. 7:24, desperately asking the Lord to free us from the body of this sin.

May we realize that, as Rom. 8:2 says, the law of the Spirit of life frees us in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death!

We can released and have real freedom only by enjoying Christ as the life-giving Spirit (John 8:11-12, 24, 28, 31-36).

Only those who enjoy God do not commit sin and are really free, and they partake of God as their portion.

Only those who receive and enjoy Christ sufficiently are really free, living a life of liberty, release, and freedom from bondage!

Through the gospel we have received and entered into the jubilee; this is not something that happens once and for all, at the time that we repent and believe into the Lord, but something that we need to experience every day.

We need to enjoy God as our possession and sufficiently enjoy Christ so that we may partake of His riches and be free! If the Son sets us free, we are free indeed (John 8:36).

If we really want to be free and not commit sin, we must receive and enjoy Christ as the Son of God.

Today Christ is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life, the Spirit who gives life; He is in us as the law of the Spirit of life.

As long as we turn to the Lord, setting our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6), we enjoy life and peace, and we are freed from the law of sin and of death.

On one hand, we need to exercise our spirit with its function of conscience by confessing our sins and applying the Lord’s precious blood to be cleansed from our sins and washed from any unrighteousness (1 John 1:7, 9).

On the other hand, we need to continue exercising our spirit in its function of fellowship to enjoy the Lord and partake of His riches.

Even as believers in Christ, if we do not enjoy the Lord sufficiently, we will still be in bondage to many things.

Making up our mind to give up this or stop doing that will not work, for in our flesh there is a person living there who is much stronger than our will.

As believers in Christ, if we make up our mind to stop doing this particular thing or be engaged in that particular activity which leads to sin, this will NOT work.

We must continually come to the Lord to eat and enjoy Him; only enjoying the Lord in a sufficient way will cause us to enjoy Him as our possession and be freed from the slavery of sin (1 Cor. 1:9; Rev. 2:7; Isa. 55:1-2).

May we come to Him again and again. May we stop our trying to deal with this “bad side” of our attitude or that annoying aspect of our disposition and just enjoy the Lord!

We may discover that we are in bondage to a little device, our phone, for we spend countless minutes and hours on our phones.

The Lord knows this; He knows we’re in bondage to our smartphone, that we love being on it, and that there are many things on our phones that are like a black hole, sucking us in and usurping us.

May we give ourselves to the Lord today to receive and enjoy Christ sufficiently so that, on the negative side, we may be released from the slavery of sin and from any bondage, and on the positive side, we may partake of God as our possession.

May the Lord deliver us by our enjoyment of Christ.

Christ as the jubilee frees us from our poverty, captivity, blindness, and oppression (see Eccl. 1:2, 14; 3:11; Phil. 3:8; 2 Pet. 2:22; Luke 12:21; Rev. 3:17).

We do not know what holds us captive, what blinds us, what causes us to be poor, and what oppresses us; we are so oblivious to the enemy’s attacks and wearing out tactics.

The only solution to this is that we receive and enjoy Christ sufficiently so that we may enjoy real freedom and be filled with His riches to live in the jubilee in reality!

When we enjoy Christ sufficiently, we are returned to God as our possession and as our enjoyment, and we become free and are released from all oppression.

It is useless and futile to struggle and strive; making up our mind will not work – we have to enjoy the Lord sufficiently and keep coming to Him to enjoy Him.

Hallelujah, the law of the Spirit of life releases us from the law of sin and of death as we are in Christ Jesus! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to be in You and abide in You. We stop striving and trying to better ourselves. We stop making up our mind to do this or that to please God or to deal with our disposition; we simply come to receive and enjoy Christ sufficiently today. We come to You, dear Lord, to contact You. You are the living Spirit in our spirit. Hallelujah, the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit, even one with our spirit, and by enjoying Him we can be released from the power of sin and we can partake of God! Amen, Lord, we return to You as our possession and enjoyment. We want to enjoy You throughout the day. We want to receive and enjoy Christ sufficiently throughout the day so that we may be freed from any bondage and partake of God as our portion! Hallelujah, Christ as our jubilee frees us from our poverty, captivity, blindness, and oppression! Amen, Lord, keep us in the jubilee today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 4, “The Jubilee,” pp. 29-31 as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 5, Enjoying Christ as the Reality of the New Testament Jubilee.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, a portion from, Life-Study of Luke, Chapter 12.
  – 5 Names of Jesus in the New Testament and What They Mean, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – What is the Jubilee? More via, The Hearing of Faith.
  – Overcome to Inherit God’s Blessings, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Enjoying the riches of Christ to become the fullness of Christ, a portion from, Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – This Is the Year of Jubilee, song via, Melody of Lilies.
  – Entering into the Good Land, via, Living to Him.
  – The enjoyment of the jubilee through Christ’s death and resurrection, a free pdf tract via LSM.
  – Proclaim the Year of Jubilee! More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The experience of Christ and the enjoyment of Christ, a portion from, The Experience of Christ, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – All sinners are the slaves of sin, / All poisoned by death’s sting; / Christ only can from sin and death / A full deliverance bring. / He is the Everlasting One, / Who longs to set us free; / If we do not believe in Him, / We’ll die in misery. (Hymns #1021)
  – Thy law of life in heart and mind / My conduct regulates; / The wealth of Thy reality / My being saturates. / O Thou art ever one with me, / Unrivaled unity! / One spirit with me all the time / For all eternity! (Hymns #539 stanzas 4-5)
  – There are three laws in Romans seven, see— / The law of God; the mind, the good old me; / The sinful law indwelling bodily; / Yet from these all the Lord has set us free, / To live by Him. / In Romans eight the law of Spirit is, / Where we’re in Christ, and we are fully His, / The law of life has set us wholly free / And Christ becomes our life eternally, / Hallelujah! (Hymns #1140)