The Freedom Response

My Story - Part 2 - Introduction to The Freedom Response

Part 1 is HERE

Part two: my story - the foundation of The Freedom Response. 

The primary goal of The Freedom Response is Matt 22:37-39 - To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul & strength- and to love your neighbor as yourself.

We want to look at each of those areas (heart, mind, soul & strength) in a unique way of staying in Gods word, personal experience, along with reflection and application.

The first manuscript is called Deep Waters and is based on Proverbs 20:5 of which is: “The purpose of a mans heart is like deep waters and it takes a man of understanding to draw it out”. 

This implies that you dear reader along with the Holy Spirit have the ability to draw out understanding for what you are walking through with God - and if you are incapable of doing so alone - we look to a man with understanding to help you out. The Holy Spirit is THE Intimate Counselor and will aid us in our journey to live out Matt 22:37-39 and also in other ways as well. 

Deep Waters refers to all of what is in the way of what we are capable of and also where the Holy Spirit will draw up HIS understanding to counsel us as needed. There is a lot of great things hidden in those deep waters. 

If you have a moment look up Isaiah 43:2 and write it out in your journal. This is what I do when I mentor/coach men - mention a scripture and have them look it up and write it out. Over time you have a reference of God’s word to consult with that you do not have now in your journal. 

Many men I meet feel mis-understood and they do not have someone that does have understanding that are two steps ahead of them to guide them out of their situation. 

Without understanding we feel stuck, get stagnated, feel isolated and just stop caring about certain areas of our life. Send me an email of where you feel stuck at [email protected] 

This can change. 

This resource also has words I discovered from studies using expository teaching (books) that break down the Greek & Hebrew of words that God highlighted to me in my heart to notice and teach others about - so, those words will be discussed with notation as needed to help you with understanding. Learning of how the original words were used and in its native language reveals another layer of discovery to be revealed to you. 

The secondary goal of this manuscript is that we need more men of understanding (Pro 20:5) and the hope is to help men form circles of trust with each other - and also reach out to others that are stuck - to mentor and guide others over time - as you gain orientation and experience to what God is doing in your life - you will understand how to serve others from….just as I am doing with this resource. 

God used unusual resources, books, unexpected things that people would say, experiences and of course The Bible - in a few different translations - and teaching aids to help form understanding. 

It is without a doubt God was working in my life in a unique way and he will for you as well. 

I have walked this out for many years now. 

I have served others with this content and they have passed it on to others as needed. 

And now, I bring this to you knowing that as a believer in Jesus Christ we have salvation and are delivered from darkness and into the light of Gods Kingdom. Through discipleship we learn how to grow in the character of Christ and utilize all he has given us to reform our heart, mind, strength & soul. We take on his cross to end our old ways of reacting in bondage of the past to walking in new ways that train our soul to respond in freedom. 

Finally, throughout this resource is a variety of art work - mainly abstract - that was put on my heart to share in different forms of medium (watercolor, color pencils, pen, and more) to sketch out what was generating in my soul to express on paper. 

I encourage you to express what you sense the Holy Spirit is generating within you in your own journal/sketchbook - and I discuss this in a future session for you to try - with just words, writing out scripture, or doodle in some way that you can use to form a way of understanding what God is forming within you - to express that in freedom. 

I have worked the 12 steps of AA - and after one year I was prompted in my heart to leave AA. It is a wonderful program and the 12 steps are a fantastic layer of understanding why I did what I did. 

When I left, I found and read a book called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge that impacted me so much that I have taught that book to groups of men for over 20 years. 

I taught Boundaries by Henry Cloud. 

I have a wife of 30 years. 

We have twins boys that are now strong men of God. 

I have been self-employed for over 30 years. 

And more. I am sure you have a strong backstory of experiences & knowledge. 

And yet, all of this did not prepare me for what happened to me around 2020 - and this reveals that there are many layers of Deep Waters that God can use for his purpose.

I had many irons in the fire plugging along in life. I was a mentor to many men working with a variety of resources in groups or one on one, leading a business of my own, I also have online courses and live trainings while going to church and being a father & husband. 

Something felt different within me and I did not understand what was going on. I could not put my finger on it and when I met up with a guy here and there they could not see anything wrong other than staying with what is already working. 

Looking back on it now, I probably had a form of burn out going on that I did not see. 

Writing this now, I realize I WAS burnt out. 

The hustle & grind, promoting my brand, working with people, listening to feedback, changing things here & there, marketing with social media. I had small circles of people in my niche but they were associated with work…they did not really know me.

Same with the men I was mentoring. I would share bits and pieces here and there but the emptiness in my soul was strong. This is NO rub on them as I did what I only knew to do and it was a limited expression of who I am…or, thought I was. 

Burn out leaves you empty and yet your body & mind are so used to charging up with caffein, working out at the gym and striving hard into the day that you do not realize all of the impact it has until you get a hard stop from all of what you depend on to make it throughout the day. 

I was sitting outside at our backyard fire pit…empty. 

With all of what was going on…for years - it eventually accumulated during the pandemic of 2020 with a sense that out of all I did over the years, somewhere I lost my soul and I had no idea of how to find it. I could not even explain what part of my soul I lost….or what my soul in general was. 

I was at a loss of words, which is rare for me. 

When I had two months off from my main day job, I sensed God was with me at our fire pit one afternoon at very start of the pandemic and I heard in my heart, “Now, how do you want to do this?” And I sensed it was the Holy Spirit prompting me. I replied back, “With you Lord”, but I thought I WAS doing everything with God throughout all of this with praying, reading Scripture and talking in general about what was going on in my life….but it was surface level. When I said ‘with you Lord’ I felt as though it was a generic reply - but it wasn’t - it was a cry for help that I did not know I needed. 

Those words from the Holy Spirit stuck in my heart but it seemed incomplete. I felt like I heard part of a sentence that was unfinished. When this happens to me, I know something is going on but with a sense of uncertainty I am to continue on relying on Jesus in new ways, with faith that the next part of the sentence will come to me in HIS   TIMING. 

That timing came in an unexpected way. 

We have a home gym that my sons and I trained in for years. Many stories, laughs, tears and friends worked out with us over the years. It was a place where men were forged in the heat of training, mind-set formation and conversations with my sons that went deep into their hearts. God was there throughout the whole time. 

We are a tight family. 

I love my wife and sons. 

When my sons left for college the house went silent - we have twins and in one second after18 years of life in our home they left for college and the house went silent. 

Being boys, we did a lot of things together that my wife understood with being their father. She encouraged it. 

Many men I meet did not have a present father. 

My wife and I were BOTH present. 

Moving on from college graduation,  my sons went on to a variety of experiences that brought one of my sons a job opportunity and to move out of our home to Charlotte NC - and my wife and I had a ‘last lunch’ with him, gave him a hug, and I was with him as he left the garage gym, into his car, and drove out of the neighborhood…and it hit me. 

I cried for an hour. 

At the hour mark I was dry and tears stopped flowing and I heard in my heart the next part of that sentence…”What you did with your sons is what other men need….you are not done”. 

I immediately felt that I had a purpose. 

To put it simply, I was living my life the best I could with what I had and with all of what was accomplished I ended up loosing my soul along the way and I did not see it coming. 

When I work with other men that God puts in my path…they did too. 

What is missing are men that understand this and can guide you out of it. 

The Freedom Response was born out of my time alone with God that I surrendered my soul to him and he reformed my heart in a way that gave me peace, patience, joy all from a humble spirit in his presence. 

He mentored me. 

Pro 20:5 = The purpose of a man is like deep waters and it takes a man of understanding to draw it out. 

God drew it out of me - purged me - and trained me in His ways. 

Jesus discipled me. 

The Holy Spirit prompted me to lead in ways I was passive or oblivious to. 

God highlighted where and what He wanted me to notice and step into. 

I became a man of understanding…and yes, I have a LOT more to learn and experience…and knowing this I am excited to gain all I can until he takes me away. 

In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do. 

With that spirit I took all of what I learned to write, share, & mentor others with all of what I have experienced. 

We need more stories like this.  

We have layers that are still in bondage that cause us to react from. 

When this is brought to light, we can learn to respond in freedom. 

Welcome to The Freedom Response! 

Scott Musgrave 

Gal 5:1 (look it up) and write it out here_____________________________________________

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