Asa – A Study in Leadership – Freedom in the Spirit

Asa – An Example in Leadership

Freedom In The Spirit

“The land is still ours,
because we have sought the LORD our God”
2 Chronicles 14:7 (ESV)

(continued from Part One and Part Two)

The above scripture states the reason Asa fortified the Kingdom of Judah. He understood from Israel’s history that dwelling in the Land of Promise was a privilege rather than an entitlement!

The Land of Promise represented freedom from oppression and the enjoyment of a place that flowed with “milk and honey”. It was a prized possession that was to be maintained by their diligence to serve the Lord and keep themselves from the idolatry of the nations surrounding them.

It is essential that we comprehend the New Testament truths hidden within the Old Covenant. Paul and the other apostles reaffirmed this. Please read 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 to feel the weight of these truths.

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”
1 Corinthians 10:11 (ESV)

Paul follows this remarkable scripture with a sobering truth:

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands
take heed lest he fall.”
1 Corinthians 10:12

Too often the gospel heard today minimizes the fear of God and presents a contrived assurance of our place in God by mere confession of faith rather than our need to walk in a life of faith. It is to this end that Paul warns the people of God to “take heed.”

“The land is still ours,
because we have sought the LORD our God”
2 Chronicles 14:7 (ESV)

Asa, filled with the wisdom and fear of the Lord, understood the need to fortify the cities of Judah; the land given by God required diligence to maintain their blessing.

It is one thing to be a child of God yet quite another to abide in the blessings, the power, and the freedom of Christ. Read the long history of Israel concerning their experiential reality of living in the “Land of Promise”. How agonizing it is to see that they often fell into idolatry and compromise and as a result found themselves living in a strange land as slaves under the rule and governance of other nations.

Even in their exile God referred to them as His people but their freedom and privileges were lost through disobedience and carelessness. Note again the motive that impelled King Asa to fortify the cities of Judah. May we embrace this powerful truth to maintain and grow in the “freedom” that is ours in Christ.

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God…”
Jude 1:20-21 (ESV)

There is a diligence required of those who live and abide in the Spirit of God to continually “build up” their “most holy faith” by which they “keep” themselves in the Love of God. There is a necessity to maintain, and more importantly grow, in the graces and the power of His life to keep the intensity of His Love in this “evil day”.

Without the vitality of faith and love as the inward substance of our lives, our experience becomes limited, mundane and ineffective. Like the Israelites of old we may go through the motions of a religious experience, but there remains a disconnectedness and a joyless rote of life characterized by little or no “works of faith”. There are no vistas of His glory impelling our hearts with the vital pulse of His power to touch the lives of others.

Without His love we lose the wonder of His presence within. The power of Christ fades and our world shrinks; our participation in the “work of the Lord” becomes empty. Paul was ever exhorting and pressing the people of God to see the “fellowship (participation) of the mystery”.

“And to make all men see
what is the fellowship of the mystery…”
Ephesians 3:9

Those who are caught up in the Spirit of God are ever exhorting His people to see and to participate in THE MYSTERY. What is that mystery?

“Christ IN you”

The Christ in one is moved to exhort God’s people to participate with the Christ who dwells in them. There is a wondrous impulse to see the people of God “fellowship” and participate in the Spirit of Christ; to see every member moving and living in the “land of promise”.

May we comprehend that the Holy Spirit has been given to us to fulfill the ministration and to walk in the giftings whereby we become one in spirit and in “one accord”. The “unity of the Spirit” is ours to maintain, not something to which we strive!

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…”
Ephesians 4:1-3

Paul completes this truth by declaring:

“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:4

This is the truth of our relationship with Him and with one another. This is the New Testament “land of promise” which is ours to maintain and ours to lose if we do not walk “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love”.

The Unity Of The Spirit

The “unity of the Spirit” is a growing dynamic in those who dwell in the Spirit. One must live and abide in the Spirit to touch this reality. May we read carefully the Word of God here: it is THE UNITY OF the Spirit, not a unity of the flesh. It is a unity that ever exists and not one that is achieved by the works of men. The disunity we see and feel is the result of having left our “first love”. The judgement of God upon those who have “left” their first love is that God removes His ministrations of the “lampstand” from our midst.

“But I have against you that you left your first love. Then remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works. And if not, I am coming to you quickly, and will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
Revelation 2:4-5

This is God’s Word to HIS Church. This is a present-day exhortation to us “on whom the end of the ages has come”. As with Asa there is a contending and a need to “maintain” the “unity of the Spirit”. We have little comprehension of the ramifications of God removing the “lampstand” from our midst. The truth of God removing His Lampstand was understood in the early church but so much has been lost in the present day gospel. For a brief presentation of the Lampstand in the midst of His Church please see related Podcast – (PODCAST – The Spirit of Knowledge and the Local Church)

May the Lord restore to us the fear of the Lord by which Asa was moved to fortify the cities of Judah as a united people dwelling in the Land of Promise.

“By THIS shall all men know that ye are my disciples,
IF ye have love one to another”
John 13:35

There is no other characteristic that will reveal the testimony of God in His people to this world than the evidence of our love for one another. Those who love not, know not God.

“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:2

To measure our walk in the Spirit by any other metric is the deception of religion.

Brian Troxel

(continued in part Four)