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As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and based on the facts of God’s Word, I DECLARE myself to be FREE INDEED (John 8:36).

My liberty is seen in three realms: First, concerning the god of this age, to whom I once belonged, I have been DELIVERED from the power of darkness and have been translated into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col. 1:13), turned from the power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:18).

Secondly, concerning my relationship to this world system, my Saviour gave Himself for me that He might deliver and rescue me from this present evil world (age), according to the will of God my Father (Gal. 1:4).

Thirdly, concerning the terrible slavery of sin, the Scriptures declare that though I once was the slave of sin, I am now the slave of God (Rom. 6:17-22) and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).

The source of my liberty is found in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ in which I truly boast (Gal. 6:14). The cross is my Statue of Liberty, as it were. It was there that my soul was set free. In Christ’s death I died, and in Christ’s life I now live (Rom. 6:4).

Based on the unchanging facts of God’s Word, I joyfully declare myself to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Jesus Christ my Lord (Rom. 6:11). I am not free to live as I please or do as I want. I am free to serve Christ and do as He pleases, living unto the One who died and rose again for me (2 Cor. 5:15).

My Declaration was not written by men, but written by the living God. It was not signed by men, but signed by the Lord Himself and sealed with the blood of Christ. God has declared me to be FREE INDEED and I am to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made me free (Cal. 5:1).

My Declaration is not a Declaration of Independence, but rather a "Declaration of Dependence." I declare myself to be totally DEPENDENT upon my God. Of myself I cannot keep the law. I cannot measure up to God’s righteous standards. "How to perform that which is good I FIND NOT" (Rom. 7:18). The more I try in and of myself, the more I seem to fail, "for the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Rom. 7:19). I thus acknowledge that Jesus Christ is my only deliverance from my wretched self (Rom. 7:24-25).

The Lord Jesus Christ is MY VINE (John 15). He is my LIFE SOURCE. Apart from Him I can do nothing, because HE IS MY LIFE (Col. 3:3-4). The battle is the Lord’s! He shall fight for me. The life is the Lord’s! He shall live in me. "Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). "For to me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). I can’t, but He can. Whenever I try, I fail; but whenever I trust, He succeeds. Thus, with a firm reliance upon my God I will claim the victory which He won and which He gives to me: "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:5 7).

George W. Zeller, July 4, 2000