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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Secret of a Godly Life

Ok, how many times do we find that we are frustrated with our walk with God. We know God is all powerful, we know that God moves but we look at ourselves or our ministry and we don't see the Spirit of God doing what we hope for. This little blog is simply helping us evaluate a few things about our walk with God and hopefully will cause us to reflect on the right questions.

The first thing we all have to get straight in our lives is whether we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Check on the blog, "Why did Jesus Have to Die?" to go through this a little more. If you have a chance after reading this blog, pick up your Bible and read through John 14-17. This is Jesus' last words to His disciples before He is arrested. Because it is His last words we can know that they must have been pretty important. Also, the book of I John (especially chapters 4 & 5), deals with these same truths I am about to go through with you.

Alrighty, so you have a relationship with Jesus. We know that relationship is forever because Jesus goes and prepares a place for us in heaven (John 14:1-4). Now the cool thing about that is that when we have that relationship with Jesus God does something pretty special. He puts His spirit inside of us (Col. 1:27, Gal. 2:20, John 14:17). You know one thing about God is, He doesn't do something unless He has a purpose for it. If He puts His Spirit, If God gives His own Son to live inside of us then we can garuntee that He has a purpose for that. We can know as Believers that God has a purpose and plan for our lives. He is going to accomplish His plan in our lives through Christ Living in us.

What is that Plan?

Well, as we look in John 15:8 shows us it is to bear fruit and bring Glory to God. Bearing fruit is a huge part of our relationship with Jesus. God put His spirit inside of us so that we can bring Glory to God the Father. The way we bring Glory to God is by bearing fruit. So that leads us to the next question.

What is the Secret of bearing fruit?

Remaining in Him!
The Secret of bearing fruit is mentioned in John 15 where Jesus says that we must abide or remain in Him. By remaining in Him we will be able to bear much fruit. The greatest moments of my walk with God comes when I am resting and remaining in Christ. It is those moments that I neglect my walk with God that I see my life as unfruitful. I pray that those moments are few. So if this is my prayer what must I do in order to remain in Him?

What is the secret to Remaining in Him?

Obedience! Is that all. You mean for me to remain in Him all I have to do is be obedient? The question is are you at a place with God where at any moment in your life you are willing to do whatever God asks of you? You know, I can't think of a time where I was disobedient to God and was abiding in Him at the same time. I have seen Him use me and change lives in spite of my disobedience before. The only explanation for that is God is faithful even when I don't seem to be. However, if this is our lifestyle and we continue to be disobedient we cannot expect God to use us. So if that is the case how do I remain obedient?

What is the Secret to Obedience?

Love! Jesus continued in John 15 explaining that if we don't obey the Father then we do not love Him. And if we do not love Him then we won't obey Him. We must love Jesus in order to be obedient to Him. Isn't it so much easier to do something for someone when you love them? Of course it is. I John 4:12-13 says, "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know aht we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of His Spirit." As we love, the more we will see God working inside of us to accomplish his purposes in our lives. So how do we love him more you ask?

What is the Secret to Loving God?

The secret to truly loving God comes from one thing: Knowing Him. As we get a right understanding of Who God is, His holiness, His Grace, His mercy, His faithfulness, His Justice, His Love for us, then our love for Him will Grow. The bottom line is that we must do everything we can to know God. There is a secret to growing in our relationship with God and it is knowing our God as He has made Himself known. We should invest ourselves in knowing God more through meditating on His Word, pursuing passionate prayer, doing the ministry of Christ and serving others. You see as our understanding of God grows our desire to be like Him will grow. As that happens we will see that we love Him more. As we love Him more we will be obedient to Him more, as we are obedient to Him more we will remain in Him more, and as we remain in Him more we will bear fruit and bring Glory to Him. This is a great and mighty purpose to live and I thank God He has given us His Spirit and His Son to live in us to accomplish His will!

In Christ,

Kevin Deming

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