Freed Living in Christ
By Patrick Roberts
Freed Living in Christ By Patrick Roberts
We shouldn't claim to know anything that we haven't put into
practice. Christ-followers as well as anyone who sincerely wants
to know anything will learn by doing. This is both humbling as
well as re-assuring; this means it's not enough just to say the
right answers.
As we follow Christ, He will develop our spiritual palate for
truthfulness and openness before God. Christ will free us to
embrace a reality-based spirituality.
This means, if we set out to teach someone something good, then
we should make sure, first of all, that we are good. The true
quality of our heart will affect (or teach) people more
significantly than the nice words that we say.
One of Christ's first lessons for us, as we set out for the
first time to follow Him, is to teach us our humble place in His
kingdom. He will liberate us from insecurities so we can
acknowledge whether or not we have a clue about spiritual
realities. We will learn not to be more spiritual than God.
Spiritual awakening of any kind is painful at first, like blood
rushing into an arm after it's been asleep for an hour.
Soul-baring truth is excruciating for those who are used to
measuring their spiritual qualifications according to religious
accomplishments. But this is a necessary growing pain. This is a
vital part of embracing Christ's reality.
The freedom to embrace Christ's reality is far superior to all
the religious success in the world. Gritty soul-inspection leads
us to spiritual doors we never new existed. These doors open up
to all the heavenly possibilities of trusting Christ.
The Biblical account of the early church is useful for us these
days as an example of practical, unassuming spirituality. Though
we should not try to imitate them, we should imitate their
sincere approach to following after Christ.
The early church was in the business of obeying Christ. There is
no other explanation for that church's existence.
Early Christ-followers couldn't have faked their faith because
they were the first of their kind. It is impossible to
counterfeit something that has never previously existed. It is
especially difficult for a large room full of people to
simultaneously fake something they've never heard of before.
Even apart from miraculous occurrences, these early believers
were such a relationally tight-knit assembly that putting on an
artificial, spiritual show would have seemed silly to them.
Nowadays, depending on what part of the country you're in, a
Spirit-led response to a modern preacher might sound like, "Whoa
der Bob, you can quit the yellin and the preachin... where
standing right next to ya eh. Why don-cha sit down nice and have
some hot cider wid us der eh. C'mon der, Bob be a sport. Give
somebody else a chance to get a word or two in now and again
eh."
Besides, local churches knew how genuine each other's faith was
by experience. People knew how much their friends had been
seasoned by trials because they all went through those same
trials together. If the church sent anyone out in Christ's name,
then these sent-ones (apostles) would have been known by the
fruit of their lives to be spiritual ground-breakers.
Another useful reality check for us is, the New Testament church
we read about so often couldn't function apart from the Holy
Spirit. They literally depended on the God to survive. Can you
imagine?
They knew who to recognize as what among them, whether elders,
teachers, pastors, prophets, evangelists, apostles or whatever
else, because the Spirit explicitly told them these things.
These first believers were free to come and go however the
Spirit commanded them.
If we still follow the same Savior, then we ought to imitate the
earliest church's genuine Spirit-led-ness. They listened to
Christ and obeyed Him. He led them and they followed.
Genuine faith is difficult. Reality-based faith is courageously
venturing into unknown territory with only one Leader and one
Source of confidence: Jesus Christ.
Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people
to Jesus Christ.
Find additional resources at
www.BooksByPatrick.com and www.KoGmedia.com
