At the heart of all God’s teachings is a chain that explains how a person reaches God step by step: God calls; a person responds in faith, seeks, asks for God, and reaches Him. This writing considers the freedom that emerges as part of reaching God within this chain. For the person who seeks the Lord and turns to Him comes out of darkness, is freed from what binds him, and learns to walk freely in the truth.
Seeking God is not merely seeking an answer. Asking for God is not merely expressing a desire. In the Scriptures, as a person seeks God, he draws near to Him; as he draws near to Him, he comes to the truth; and as he comes to the truth, he comes into freedom.
For this reason, freedom is not a subject outside the journey of seeking God. It is one of the deep results reached by the one who seeks, asks, and finally comes to the Lord.
In the Old Testament, this freedom sometimes appears as coming out of darkness, sometimes as chains being broken, sometimes as coming into spaciousness, and sometimes as walking freely in the way of the Lord.
Psalm 107:13-14
“Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
And he saved them from their distress.
He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
And broke away their chains.”
Here, first there is a cry. A person calls to the Lord in distress. Then the Lord saves, brings out of darkness, and breaks chains. As we saw in Blog 7, the desire of the heart becomes calling on the name of the Lord; here that calling is answered with salvation and freedom.
So asking for God is not merely inward relief; it is the road of being delivered from what binds a person. The one who cries to the Lord opens himself to God’s salvation at the place where his own strength is not enough. And God’s salvation is not only giving an answer, but breaking chains.
Psalm 119:45
“I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.”
This verse describes freedom from a very different place. Freedom is not being cut off from God; it is being able to walk in the way of God’s word. When a person turns to the Lord’s precepts, he is not narrowed; on the contrary, he walks freely.
For this reason, seeking God does not lead a person into lawlessness, but into true freedom. Because the way of the Lord does not enslave a person; it teaches him to walk in the right place and in the right way.
In the prophet Isaiah, freedom becomes a greater good news:
Isaiah 61:1
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me. Because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for prisoners…”
Here the Spirit of the Lord is mentioned together with the announcement of freedom. The brokenhearted are bound up, freedom is announced to captives, and release is proclaimed to prisoners. This is very close to our main line: reaching God means the breaking of the darkness that binds a person inwardly and outwardly.
In the New Testament, Jesus reads this passage and connects it with His own mission:
Luke 4:18-19
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me… to proclaim good news to the poor… freedom for the prisoners… recovery of sight for the blind… to set the oppressed free… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then Jesus says:
Luke 4:21
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Here freedom is now heard as the proclamation of Christ. Spirit, gospel, and freedom come together in the same place. Jesus appears not merely as one who teaches, but as the Lord who brings release to captives and freedom to the oppressed.
So the place reached by the person who seeks God is not only knowledge. It is a door opening to the gospel, the Spirit, and freedom.
Jesus speaks even more clearly about the source of freedom:
John 8:31-32
If people remain in His word, they are truly His disciples; they will know the truth, and the truth will set them free.
Here again, there is the Word. Remaining in the Word brings discipleship. Discipleship brings knowing the truth. And truth brings freedom.
Therefore, seeking God is coming to the Word. Asking for God is asking for the truth. And reaching the truth is becoming free.
Jesus also explains this in relation to inward slavery:
John 8:34-36
Everyone who sins is a slave to sin; but if the Son sets a person free, he will be free indeed.
This verse gives the deepest meaning of freedom. True captivity is not only outward circumstances; it is slavery to sin. Therefore, true freedom is not merely outward relief; it is the Son setting a person free inwardly.
The person who asks for God eventually wants not only help, but this true freedom. Because unless a person is set free by the Son, he is not fully free.
Paul connects the same truth with the Spirit:
2 Corinthians 3:16-18
When anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. With unveiled faces, we behold the Lord’s glory and are transformed into His image by the Spirit.
These verses are the heart of the writing. Because seeking and asking for God finally open into turning to the Lord, the removal of the veil, and freedom by the Spirit of the Lord. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
This freedom is not only the breaking of chains; it is the removal of the veil, seeing the glory of the Lord, and being transformed into His likeness. Thus freedom becomes one of the final forms of reaching God: a person is no longer in darkness, no longer veiled, no longer chained, but someone who is being transformed and walking by the Spirit of the Lord.
Galatians 5:1
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
Here freedom appears both as a gift and as a condition to be guarded. Christ sets free; the person is called to stand in this freedom. The one who reaches God must not return to the old forms of slavery.
For this reason, the end of the search is not only an encounter; it is a new way of life.
Paul describes this with a greater hope in Romans. First, he says that the spirit given to us is not a spirit of slavery, but the Spirit of adoption:
Romans 8:15
We did not receive a spirit that makes us slaves again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Then he says that all creation is tied to this hope of freedom:
Romans 8:20-21
“Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
Here freedom is not merely individual relief; it is the glorious freedom of the children of God. When a person reaches God, he is not only freed from his chains; he is called into freedom as a child of God.
Conclusion
In the Scriptures, freedom is not living independently from God. True freedom begins with reaching God.
A person cries to the Lord; the Lord breaks his chains.
A person turns to the word of the Lord; he walks freely.
A person remains in the word of Christ; he knows the truth.
The truth sets him free.
If the Son sets him free, he is truly free.
And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Therefore, seeking God finally opens into freedom.
Asking for God finally opens into the Spirit.
Reaching God is not only finding an answer; it is coming out of darkness, being freed from chains, and walking freely by the Spirit of the Lord.
The One sought is God.
The One asked for is God.
What is reached is the freedom that comes by His Spirit.
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