In this week’s video blog, we hear from Rev. Doug Abner, a pastor from Eastern Kentucky, who gives us 10 signs that a community is being transformed by God’s presence. Doug explains that God can change the environment of a community on many levels. God touched his home town of Manchester and transformed it from the "painkiller capital of the world" to the "City of Hope." Listen, learn and be encouraged that your community can be next.

Please click here. or click the play button below to hear from Rev. Abner.

In developing or sustaining a Living Free ministry in your church and community, there are four foundational principles that we have seen to be most effective. Theses principles must be a priority so that people struggling with life will have a life-transforming environment in which they can be drawn closer to Christ and to each other.

In this video blog, Dr. Jimmy R. Lee, President Emeritus of Living Free, gives us powerful insights about creating four atmospheres in the small group environment.

Please click here. or click the play button below to hear from Dr. Lee.

For the next several weeks, we will be providing a video blog from the 2011 Living Free International Conference held at James River Assembly in Ozark, Missouri.

There is rich content from every speaker and we wanted to bring you a few nuggets of wisdom from each one. We pray that the information you receive will inspire and challenge you to become more like Christ and encourage you to reconcile people to God.

This week, Dan Strickland, President of Living Free, helps us look at how we as believers can impact our culture through the ministry of Living Free. Please click here. or click the play button below.

As we conclude this series on developing a Living Free life plan, please use these words to motivate yourself and others to take the first step or the next step in becoming free of the bad attitudes, poor behaviors, negative emotions, codependent relationships and controlling substances. God can still shine through the chaos. You may feel like there is no hope, but with God, all things are possible. When we take steps to become free, God can provide people to encourage you.

Along this journey to freedom, take the time to make the decision to change, make the hard choices to un-friend bad influences and meet new people who will encourage you, find accountability that will tell you the truth, develop boundaries so it will be easier to do the right thing and be consistent with your positive choices. God can give you the strength to live free. The choice is yours. Choose to live free.

A good step in this process is to join a Living Free small group in a local church or community. Try to find a group near you. If there is not a group near you, then be the one to ask a local pastor for help or see if there is anyone in the church who can help you. It is God’s desire that we should not be controlled by anything that this world has to offer.

I think of the verse in the Bible found in Romans 12:2 where Paul is explaining to the church in Rome, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” NLT. What a promise! God will reveal His plan for our lives if we will only take the steps to freedom in Christ by changing the way we think. Often, change is scary and uncomfortable, but what have we got to lose? Friends that drag us down? Bad attitudes that just make things worse? Take a risk to change and see what God can do with the new you.

I am reminded of the lyrics to a worship song called “Rescue” by songwriters Ashanti Douglas, Irving Domingo Lorenzo and Marcus Vest.

During our series on developing a life plan to live free, we have looked at the decision, positive peer choice, accountability and boundaries. Once we have established these elements in our lives, there comes a point at which we must practice them every day. When we practice these elements every day, we begin to have consistency. It has been said that it usually takes 21 days of doing a good habit every day for it to become a natural part of one’s life. On the flip side, it usually only takes a few hours to develop a bad habit.

You may be stuck in a life-controlling problem and there seems to be no hope. The fact is there is always hope when a person decides to make a change, when a person chooses good friends, when a person becomes accountable for their choices and when a person develops boundaries to live free. God always honors our willingness to seek help and our desire to live free.

In I Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul lists the type of people who will not go to heaven, “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Thos who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people – none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” Notice what Paul says in verse 11. “Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed, you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Paul is telling us that there were people trapped in sin and life-controlling problems, but God helped them overcome and live Godly lives. In the lives of these people, consistent practice of godly responses to life’s challenges resulted in lives free of strongholds.

There will be challenges in life, but we can depend on God to walk with us every day including the darkest moments. The Word of God tells us that God will never leave us or forsake us. God is with us always. Proverbs 3:5-6 promises us that if we trust in the Lord with all of our heart, and if we don’t lean on our own understanding and go to God with everything, He will direct us and He promises to make our path clearer.

Please understand that it’s not how we start the life plan to live free, but how consistent we are in the process. A wise person once said, “Consistency is far greater than rare moments of greatness” (Anonymous). Living free is a daily objective for the rest of our lives. The character that we must build into our lives to experience consistency is endurance. We must maintain commitment to a goal during times of pressure. There needs to be a focus on objectives, the decision you have made, the new choices in friends, the accountability and boundaries. All of us will make mistakes on this journey called life. But asking God for forgiveness and moving forward by walking with God will help you live free from life-controlling problems.

In our blog series called “Living Free Life Plan,” we are discussing elements or steps in the process of living a life free from bad attitudes, behaviors, emotions, relationships and substances that hold us back from the great plan that God has for us.

We have looked at the decision, positive peer choice and accountability. Now let’s take a look at boundaries. This is another difficult aspect of developing a life plan to live free. Our natural tendency is to live to the extremes and take risks. Our human nature tends to live in such a way that we are free to experience what makes us happy and feel good. We have all heard the saying, “If it feels good, do it.” God always meant for humans to feel good and to be free to experience the great things about life, but we humans have a tendency towards sin. God knows what is good for us and what will harm us because He made us. Paul expressed the human drive in his letter to the Corinthian church this way, “You say, ‘I am allowed to do anything,’ but not everything is helpful. You say, ‘I am allowed to do anything,’ but not everything is beneficial” (I Corinthians 10:23 NLT).

Establishing boundaries in our lives is critical to preventing poor decisions. If we have already established boundaries, then we can be free to live within what we already know to be true and safe. How do we live within boundaries? We learn to say no and understand that there are people we must not see and places where we must not go. I once had a friend tell me that he was strong enough spiritually to see certain movies without being affected. However, in only a few months, he was struggling with a life-controlling problem. It reminds me of the story of a young man who told the doctor that he broke his arm in two places. The doctor replied, “Well, stay out of those two places.”

Setting boundaries requires the character quality of responsibility. It is learning to establish personal restrictions and guidelines that are necessary to fulfill what you know you should do. There are not many buildings that were built without drawings and plans to establish the boundaries for the entire structure. It is the same way in our lives. We must develop good Godly boundaries so when faced with life’s challenges, we can say no to the poor decisions and stand firm when the challenges come.

Are you responsible? Answer these questions to find out:

• Are those around you aware of your stand on moral and ethical issues?
• Can your friends and family trust you to stand by your word?
• Do you have to be reminded to do the tasks that have been assigned to you?

In the current blog series called “Living Free Life Plan,” we are looking into a plan to help us live a life free of life-controlling problems. We must be proactive in seeking victory. God can help us avoid being stuck in a cycle of bad choices and what the Bible calls strongholds (II Corinthians 10:4).

In order to avoid and/or overcome these strongholds, we must be willing to take steps to live free. That is where the “Living Free Life Plan” comes into action. We usually do not achieve things in life if we don’t have a plan or we don’t set goals. It’s like shooting an arrow into the wind without a target. There may be action, but if there is no direction or purpose, then the arrow falls to the ground and nothing is accomplished. If there is a target, then there is direction and a purpose to accomplish the action.

It is the same way in our lives. God has designed each of us with purpose. Jeremiah 29:11-12 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”(NIV) God knows us and has a great life plan to live free from the distractions and cares of this world. We just have to take hold of His promise and enter into the plan and keep our focus on Him.

In this plan to live free, we have looked at the decision and positive peer choice. Now let’s take a look into the element of accountability. This is a difficult part of the journey because we often feel as though we can handle everything on our own. When my youngest son was 5 years old, we would try to help him pour the milk into his cereal, but he would often say, “I got it.” We would let him try, but many times, he would spill the milk and say, “Oh man, help me.” How many times have we said this as adult when facing a problem? If we would just drop our pride and let other help, we would be able to handle life’s challenges with a lot more strength.

What is accountability? It is holding ourselves to standards, beliefs and behaviors that lines up with God’s Word good and right. And it is taking responsibility for our actions and allowing others to critique, criticize and evaluate us based on our choices. We must give others permission to speak into our lives so we can progress toward our goals. The character quality needed in this step is truthfulness. We must be genuine and open about temptations and struggles so that others can help us.

Here are some good questions to ask yourself about truth in your life:

• Have I corrected the lies that I told in the past and asked forgiveness for them?

• Do I tell God the precise sins which I commit and ask for His forgiveness?

• Am I honest with people who ask about my progress of overcoming life-controlling problems?

• Do I try to hide my mistakes or am I willing to accept the consequences of them?

As we continue the series on “Creating a Living Free Life Plan,” let’s now take a look at developing a positive peer choice in our lives. One of the toughest things for anyone to do is to disassociate with a friend, but once we have made the decision to change, it becomes necessary to “un-friend” those who are still making poor life choices. We can often feel like we are turning our backs on them, but it is critical that we limit or exclude the negative influences when we begin the process of getting help.

In this process of developing a positive peer choice, we must decide to surround ourselves with people who are serious about our decision to change and who will encourage us. Old friends may sabotage our decision to live free from life-controlling problems while positive friends will be supportive in the process.

The quality we must learn to exercise is discernment, which is being aware of the true intentions of others. We must know what to look for in evaluating people, problems and things. Most people who have had life-controlling problems can sense people who are fake and who have a selfish motive. This quality is useful when choosing new friends who will help us in the process of living free.

Consider these questions when determining if you have discernment:

• Have your friends ever talked you into doing things that you later regretted?

• Are there activities that you enjoy which others feel are wrong?

• Do you find yourself trusting others too easily?

Look at what the Psalmist says in Psalm 1, “Oh the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.” (NLT)

This Psalmist begins this passage with the fact that if we don’t take advice from friends who are living out poor choices we will be blessed and we will have joy in our lives. That is a great promise. This passage translated in today’s terms would mean dropping negative friends and un-friending them on Facebook and Twitter if you have discerned that they might pull you down.

After you have made the decision to change, it is wise to start associating with people who have your best interests at heart. Consider what you want to become and then find people who exhibit those qualities and spend time with them. Paul tells us in the Bible that “bad company corrupts good character” (I Corinthians 15:33 NLT). If this is true then, the reverse is true also in that “good company promotes clean character.”

The first step in the plan to overcome a life-controlling problem is the decision to change. No one can start making positive godly changes in their life until they come to a point of realizing they have a need to make adjustments. Once that reality hits us in the face, we can then make a conscious effort to put one foot in front of the other on the journey to living free from life-controlling problems.

Making the decision to change starts the journey. We all have to say, “I have come to a point in my life where I will finally admit that I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I make the decision to get serious about living free.”

We must pray for God to build the character quality of decisiveness into our lives. Sometimes we doubt that God can help us change. In the Bible, there is a story found in Mark 9:14-29 where a man brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus for him to heal. When the evil spirit in the boy saw Jesus, it threw the boy to the ground in a violent convulsion. Jesus asked the father how long the boy had been acting this way. The father replied, “Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” Jesus immediately responds to the father with these words, “What do you mean, ‘If I can?’ Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cries out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” Jesus then commanded the evil spirit to leave the boy’s body and it left and the boy was healed.

Over the next few weeks, we will begin a series of articles on creating a life plan for living free from the unhealthy things in this life that we so often cling to when dealing with life’s challenges. God’s ultimate plan is for every one of us to rely on Him and to live out the truths found in His Word. God’s Word tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) and that God has a plan for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11-12). God’s plan for our lives does not include a reliance on unhealthy attitudes, behaviors, emotions, relationships, or substances, but a reliance on Him to be our strength and comfort instead of relying on worldly coping mechanisms.

Many times life throws us curveballs and we become trapped in trying to cope with life in all the wrong ways. When we become controlled by our present circumstances, our vision of the future becomes narrow and short-sighted. That is when we need a plan to get us back on track for the best that God has for us. We would like to introduce a five-component life plan to help you overcome life’s challenges that will offer you hope and help re-establish healthy relationships and to have a clear mind so you can accomplish the plan God has for you. The five components of the life plan of the living free life plan are: (1)decision, (2)positive peer choice, (3)accountability, (4)boundaries and (5)consistency. With God’s help, you can move your life from desperation and despair to a bright future for you and your family. You can learn to live free from the unhealthy things in life when you apply these principles.

A beginning point in this process is to evaluate where you are now. Ask yourself some tough questions. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being poor and 10 being excellent, how would you rate your job and career? How would you rate your family relationships? How do you manage your money? How do you feel about yourself? How do you care for your physical well-being? And how is your spiritual health with God? These are just a few of the question that we must evaluate to see where we are now so that we can determine where we want to be in the future.