How in the world do you keep God on your mind all the time? By constantly focusing on your redemption.

And the chief captain answered, ‘With a great sum obtained I this freedom.’ And Paul said, ‘But I was free born.’  (Acts 22:28 KJV)

When a man or woman has made Jesus their Lord, they have passed from eternal death to eternal life. No longer are they under the control of Satan. No longer under the dominion of death. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus is pumping through their veins, and everything God has—has been placed at their disposal.

Yet, many of those same men and women are living day to day in anything but life to the overflow. They’re walking around discouraged, disillusioned, and defeated in a sea of lack, death, and impossibilities at every turn. Why? Because although they’ve made Jesus their Lord and are trying to serve Him with all their heart—they’re still living in bondage because they don’t know who they really are.

In this passage from Acts 22, we find the Apostle Paul again being bound and headed for imprisonment for spreading the Gospel. During that day and age, it was illegal to bind a person who was a Roman citizen without first being tried and condemned as guilty. However, the guard binding Paul didn’t know he was a Roman. After he had gone through his ordeal of tying him down for scourging, Paul let him know who he was.

Well, the guard went immediately to his commander, saying, “What are you about to do? This man is a Roman!” The commander rushed to Paul to confirm the details for himself. Sure enough, when he asked him if he was a Roman citizen, Paul’s answer was 'yes."

At that the commander replied, “with a great sum obtained I this freedom….” In other words, this didn’t come cheap. But Paul said, “Yes, but I was born free!”

Instantly, those who were about to examine him and flog him withdrew from him, and the commander also was frightened, because he realized that Paul was truly a Roman citizen and he had put him in chains.

The fact was, Paul wasn’t just born free—he also knew it. Had he not known who he was and known the rights he was entitled to—he would have gone through something he was free from. It’s the same way with you and me.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in the Body of Christ that we were Born Free from—and it is time we knew it—all of it—and begin speaking up, like Paul did, against these things that have no right to assail us.

Real freedom isn’t about doing just anything you want to do. Real freedom is the liberty to do whatever God called you to do, and have all that God has promised you in His Word.

But to tap into those heavenly reservoirs of abundant life and living—we must both be totally convinced of who we really are in Him and boldly lay hold of every one of our covenant rights.

You will recall that the word peace in Hebrew is translated “complete wholeness”. Isaiah 26.3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You.” God will keep in absolute peace and wholeness the person who sets their mind permanently on Him.

How in the world do you keep God on your mind all the time? By constantly focusing on your redemption. We have no identity without redemption. Life in God hangs on redemption because it was love that gave His Son to redeem us—and everything hangs on Love. (Matt. 22:37-40)  What’s more, you can’t think about redemption without thinking about Jesus because He embodies it—He is our Redeemer!

When we continually identify with our redemption it opens our mind and heart to meditate on all that that redemption entails—every benefit, every promise, of our covenant with God. The reason this will take place for the one who stakes his identity on his redemption is because, by doing so, one opens themselves up completely to the Lordship of Jesus—who is the Word of the Living God.

(Editor's Note: You may find Part 2 of this series by Sharah LaGail Wyatt by searching  for her articles on the "Article Search" page.)