In John 8:31-32, Jesus said, “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

One reason I quote this verse so often is because it typifies God’s will for you. God’s will is that you be set free. But set free from what?

First of all, God wants, of course, for you to have eternal, everlasting life. That’s why He sent Jesus to earth to live and die in the first place. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

But everlasting life doesn’t mean just living forever. You will live forever anyway, whether you believe in Jesus or not. The question is where will you live. Will you live forever in His presence, in the glory of heaven or will you live for all eternity separated from Him and His love. One way is eternal life. The other is eternal death.

God sent His Son, Jesus, to set us free from eternal death and those of us who believe in Him have the assurance of everlasting life.

However, when Jesus said that if we would abide in His Word, we would know the truth and be set free, He wasn’t just talking about being set free from eternal death. He was also talking about being set free from the bondages that are here, now, on earth.

Many Christians live their entire lives under the bondages of sickness, poverty and the letter of the law. When Jesus came to set us free, He came to set us free completely.

Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” And in John 10:10, Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

If this is true, then why are so many Christians still under bondage? Why are they not set free?

Well, here’s the answer. God said in His Word, over and over again, that it is faith that causes His promises to take effect. In other words, when God promises something in His Word, we must believe that what He promised is the truth and that it will come to pass.

But, we must not just believe that it can come to pass in someone else’s life, but we must believe that it will come to pass in our own life. Why? Because God said it would, and we believe God. It’s when God’s promise gets from your head and into your heart where you know it that it is faith.

Jesus came to set us free from everything that binds us. And we can be set free, if we can believe that we will be set free. In the town of Nazareth, Jesus taught the good news of the kingdom, but unlike the other villages who received His teachings, Nazareth did not.

Because they didn’t believe the words of Jesus, Jesus could not do any great miracles there. Mark 6:5 says, “Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief.”

We must not be like the people of Nazareth. Only when we believe God’s Word completely will we receive the fullness of abundant life. God’s will is for you to be set free. Not just in eternity, but today.