In 1957, Dr. Morris L. Dulaney, Sr. was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost in the city of Pasadena, California. While under the leadership of the late District Elder Thomas Kinslow, he worked faithfully as a Sunday School superintendent and Young Peoples' President. He was called to the ministry in 1958 which eventually led to him serving as the assistant pastor to District Elder Kinslow.
The First Lady of Word of Faith Pentecostal Church, Sister Irma Dulaney, wears various hats. Besides fulfilling the basic duties of being a pastor's wife where she goes above and beyond by helping to oversee several of the church's auxiliaries, she is also a seamstress, the mother of three, the grandmother of six, and even a great-grandmother.Deliverance is still not free!
By Max Stevens
What is freedom? Orlando Patterson, in his book “Freedom in the Making of Western Culture” described freedom as having a tripartite value (consisting of three parts). He suggest that there is:
1st Personal Freedom, which gives a person the sense and the right to not be coerced or restrained by another person in doing something desired.
2nd Sovereign Freedom, which is simply the power to act as one pleases, regardless of the rights and wishes of others.
3rd Civic Freedom, which is the capacity of members of a community to participate in it’s life and governance. The suggestion is that a person feels free in the sense and to the degree that he or she participates in the electoral process.
However Dr. Myles Munroe, in his book “The Burden Of Freedom” suggest yet another type of freedom that does not get it’s definition from the Greeks, the Romans, or from Western culture, but rather it’s definition comes from the Creator of all mankind, which is God, and from His Word. This concept is called natural freedom. This is the freedom that exist in the very nature of every man and woman as a God given right and responsibility that has been established from the beginning of the creation of man. It is the human right that has been delegated by God to man in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 1:26
- Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
In this verse of the Bible we find the source and foundation of true freedom (free-dominion … freedom). Therefore the definition of freedom according to Genesis 1:26 is the liberty to dominate the earth through one’s unique gifts and talents in fulfillment of God’s purpose. This verse suggest that each individual is created by God to dominate and manage God’s environment through his or her own personal and unique talents and gifts in pursuit of fulfilling God’s personal plan and purpose for his or her life and to serve others.
In order to fully understand natural freedom and God’s mandate to us we must be willingly to open our minds to a broader concept of slavery and the impact of slavery. Slavery is the same in every circumstance, whether spiritual, mental or physical, whether individual, cultural, community or natural. Any attempt to limit, control, hinder, restrict, inhibit, prevent, or stop the fulfillment of God’s purpose and will in another’s life is rebellion against God. Rebellion is defined as the sin of witchcraft, which is any attempt to control the will and spirit of another.
The impact of slavery is not limited to the physical damage it can wreak on the slave, but more importantly is the mental damage it causes. When oppression becomes a mental condition then physical freedom is not enough. Your mental state is more important than your physical state. According to Proverbs 23:7 you are not free until your mind is liberated.
- “As a [man] thinketh in his heart [mind] so is he”
Freedom must first be a mental condition before it can become a physical statement. According to John 8:32 the source of freedom is not legislation or a key to a chain or lock, but rather knowledge.
- “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free”
True freedom comes in the discovery of information (The Word Of God) that is powerful enough to set you free in your mind. If a man is what he thinks then he is not free until he thinks free. Therefore it is possible to be delivered and yet not be free.
Deliverance is physical liberation from physical restrictions, it is the removal of the oppressed from the environment of the oppressor. Deliverance is not freedom, but instead deliverance prepares you for freedom. Freedom happens in our minds when we accept our responsibility and mandate of God and move forward and allow the reconditioning of our old ways of thinking through God’s word. Those who don’t experience this newness of thinking or this newness of mind will find themselves wandering aimlessly in the wilderness.
“Freedom is not the absences of law, work, or labor, but the embracing of responsibility”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights (freedoms), that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
