Freedom

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus- Luke 4:18 Isaiah Is 61:1

Freedom

It isn’t a political idea, it’s a state of being that every person is created to be in.

Every person is created with power and every person has the potential to use that power to protect others freedoms or take them away.

Any time there are two people or more together, there is a power differential. Age, gender, size, mental capacity or understanding, capability, social status, cultural status, intelligence, trauma all determine who is more powerful. In turn, the more powerful individual has a choice, to protect and defend or oppress and abuse.

Angelo understood the power given to him as a leader, his responsibility and the possibility as a leader of either protecting others freedoms or using that authority to oppress and harm others. There is no middle ground.

He spent the last year and half of his life dedicated to learning how to minister to individuals who had been spiritually and sexually abused. We did this together, and I am forever grateful for the freedom I am now experiencing because of his faithfulness to the truth.

Freedom isn’t hidden in the darkness, it isn’t found through ignorance, avoidance or neglect of the truth.

Freedom is established through exposing the darkness, calling sexual and spiritual abuse exactly what they are, exacting justice upon the perpetrator and releasing the victim from the absolute lie that they are at fault or deserve to carry any shame for any of the abuse they suffered.

Committing to understanding just how oppressive and debilitating abuse is, and how to support the survivor took a huge commitment on Angelo’s part. It was important to him. It was important because he loved like Christ loves, selflessly with the intention of helping people know their priceless value.

We learned the important freeing truth that oppressors try to twist.

A survivor of abuse is not required to forgive. Not only are they not required to, they don’t have the power to. Only God has the power to forgive a REPENTANT abuser.

The survivor does have the power to tell the truth and walk in the truth that the shame and abuse they endured does not define them, does not belong to them and does not affect their worth before God or man.

This is freedom.

This is truth.

This is what my husband walked in, a gentle leader.

If Angelo impacted you, please consider selflessly taking time to educate yourself and become an advocate and a support for abuse survivors. 1 in 4 females and 1 in 6 males have suffered sexual and spiritual abuse and need support and healing from their trauma.

[Angelo had completed months of training to become a group facilitator, and there is a void that needs to be filled.]()

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. -Benjamin Franklin

Freedom isn't free. It will cost your time, energy and commitment to understanding truth. It will require helping others understand what freedom actually is and challenging them to learn.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17,18

Please read Mending the Soul and take advantage of Mending the Soul [educational materials]() and take a moment to watch Dr. Tracy to understand the level of integrity this ministry holds.

Interview with Dr. Steven Tracy