|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
The Basics of the Christian Walk
Now that I am saved, what do I do next? That is a very common question for people who have just recently got saved. I recently read that 50% of all people who get saved drop out within the first year or two. I believe that the number one reason why new Christians drop out is because they do not know what to really do next and they do not get the proper teaching and coaching from either other Christians that they are associated with or the Church that they have joined does not have any type of progressive teaching system in place to lead them on their new journey. The apostle Paul says you have to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Salvation is just the beginning. God has a purpose and a mission for each person's life - if only people knew how to find it. Here is what I call the basics. These are the areas that each new Christian has to be gradually led into if he or she is really going to walk the real walk with the Lord. I'll list them in the proper order and then I will comment on each one. Here are my thoughts on each of the above. 1. Full SurrenderThe first thing each Christian has to do after they get saved is to completely surrender their entire lives over to God the Father. Jesus has to become LORD over your life, not just your Savior. If you want to find what God's call is on your life and what He wants to do with your life, then you have to be willing to completely surrender every aspect of your life over to Him. It's your all for His all. When I say surrender your entire life over to God the Father, I mean everything. You can hold nothing back. If you do not fully surrender everything over to God, you will handcuff God and prevent Him from working full force in your life. You have to become saved and surrendered. Most Christians become saved, but not surrendered, and this is why very little happens after they first get saved. I will give you all the Scripture verses in another article that will show you why God wants this full surrender from each one of us and the argument as to why each Christian needs to do this. For now, I just want to highlight the basics for reference purposes. 2. Become Spirit-FilledThe second step after a person makes a full surrender to God the Father is they need to become Spirit-filled. They need to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. You cannot walk this walk without the power of the Holy Spirit operating in your life. It is the Holy Spirit's job to "guide you into all truth" and "to to teach you all things." He cannot properly do all of this unless He is released from your spirit to come up into your soul. Again, I will touch in much more detail on how to receive this gift for those who do not have it in another article. 3. Establish Faith and Trust in GodOnce you completely surrender your entire life over to God the Father and receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the next step is to establish Faith and Trust in God. The only thing that will bring you into God's realm is faith and belief. Nothing else will! The beautiful thing about this is God is only looking for a small amount of faith to get started. The Bible says that faith the size of a mustard seed will move a mountain. Your faith can grow, but God does not expect it to grow overnight. All He asks is that you give Him just a little bit to work with and He will more than prove Himself to you that you can completely and totally rely and trust Him to guide you on your new journey with Him. 4. Walk in All of God's WaysThe Bible says we now have to learn how to walk in all the ways of the Lord. The Bible is the number one source where you learn what God's ways are. I will be listing what these "ways" are in other articles. These are the "rules of the game. If you want to play baseball, the first thing you have to learn is the rules of the game. You cannot step out onto the playing field unless you know what those rules are. It is the same with God's playing field. If you do not learn what the rules are, the devil and his demons will come in on you for serious attacks and try to take you out. God says in the Bible that His people will perish for lack of knowledge. It is a matter of life and death to learn what God's ways are if you want to live out the allotted amount of time that you still have leftdown here on this earth. People's lives are shortened due to stupidity and not knowing the ways of God. 5. Obey All of God's CommandmentsIn the Bible, God specifically lays out what He does not want you doing. The Bible says that God sets out before each one of us a choice. You can either choose God and His ways and live - or choose your own way and die. There is only one way to live your life and that is God's way, not your way! God specifically lays out certain sins that He wants you to stay out of. I will be touching on exactly what some of these are in other articles. The Bible says you have to develop a healthy "Fear of the Lord." This means developing a reverent and healthy respect for God, His ways and His commandments. This healthy fear of the Lord will help keep you out of serious sin that could end up ruining your life. 6. Develop a Personal Relationship With GodThe number one reason I believe God created man and woman was for intimate fellowship. God wants to establish a deep, personal and intimate love relationship with each person He has created. I believe God actually longs for this. It's not that God needs us humans to exist, but for some strange reason and even to the amazement of the angels in heaven, God seems to have some type of special love and longing for us humans and wants more than anything to connect and establish this personal love relationship with each one of us. Again, I will go in much more detail on this in additional articles, as this is a whole subject in of itself. I will give you all the Scripture verses to prove this point and show you how to really enter into this kind of personal relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 7. Seek After the Knowledge of GodGod places an extremely high value on the pursuit of knowledge. God expects you to grow in the knowledge of Him, His Son and His Holy Spirit. The main sources of "God Knowledge" are: A. The Bible - This is absolutely the number one source of spiritual knowledge available to man down here on earth. Each Christian needs to spend some type of regular, quality time in the Bible in order to learn more about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God's ways, what He expects of us, what He can do for us, how to live a victorious and overcoming life in Him, etc. B. Other Books - God has anointed many of His teachers to be able to teach from His Word. There are many good quality books in the Christian bookstores that Christians can "feed off" of in addition to the Bible. C. Tapes and CD's - There are also many good teaching cassette tapes and CD's from anointed teachers that Christians can also feed off of. D. TV/Radio - Many of God's anointed teachers also have TV and/or radio ministries where you can watch and/or hear them teach from God's word. If you'll notice on the above 4 sources of knowledge, God does give you a wide variety of options to choose from in order to learn and grow from the knowledge that He wants you to have about Him. 8. Establish Relationships With Other ChristiansOnce you enter in on this walk with the Lord, you will need to establish some kind of contact and friendships with other Christians. God will start to do some real incredible things in your life and you will go nuts if you do not have someone else to share your walk with. God will lead you to the people that He wants you to be connected to. You have to have other Christians to feed with and to share your walk with. 9. ChurchJoin a good Spirit-filled church. I would personally recommend that each new born again Christian ask God which church He would like for them to join. There are different levels of the anointing in all the different churches and God knows best which one would be best suited for your spiritual development and growth. God will make sure He gets through to each person as to which church He would like for them to join. ConclusionI will go into much more detail on items 1-8 in upcoming articles as they are all subjects in themselves. I just wanted to make a short list of what I feel the basics are in becoming "active in God". Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. TheirBible Knowledge and Commentary website currently has over 100Bible articles. All articles on the site are free.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Pope John Paul II, The Right Man at the Right Time The world has been blessed to have Pope John Paul II for the past 27 years. Many people have called him The Man of the Century. Pope John Paul II was certainly one of the best known and most revered men on earth. Left Behind! Who Me? The popularity in the past few years of the apocalyptic fiction series Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins in indicative of the fact that people would rather believe a lie told to them in a sexy, slick way then believe the truth of the Word of God that has been staring them straight in the face for centuries. Ark of the Covenant - Purpose Hold on to your hat! Here comes one of the most, incredible stories of ancient technology, which ranks alongside the use of atomic forces and the 'Lost Chord'. Needless to say the editors of Scientific American who denied the Wright brothers had achieved airborne flight for months after Kitty Hawk won't or wouldn't believe this 'doozy'. I think it is a very good explanation that is part of something even more fantastic which explains the existence of accurate maps from over ten thousand years ago. But I also think these maps might have been the work of Mungo Man or the De Danaan they worked with. Tale of an Ark The ark must have been much larger than the dimensions in the Bible, 450' x 75' x 45', simply just would not have worked. There are 350,000 kinds of beetle alone. Not counting all the other kinds of insects. That is a lot of cages. The cages had to be made very well considering that at that time there were not items available for cage construction like plastics, glass and metal. That must have been hard work just dealing with the insects. Each bug has a different diet and environment. How to Study the Bible 5 Keys This article was inspired by a book by E. W. Bullinger called How to Enjoy the Bible, it was written in the early 1900's and has inspired me to devote a lifetime of research to the Word of God, I hope this will inspire you too. Development of Liberal Theology: An Overview (Part 1) The modern historical era of liberal theology basically encompass four distinct phases of change. The Enlightenment phase extends from the seventeenth century to approximately the middle or late eighteenth century. It is followed by the Romantic phase which is prominent until the mid-nineteenth century when it fades and then rise in the form of Modernism. The final, or perhaps more appropriately, the present phase of liberalism (often referred to as Neo-liberalism) began to surface during the twentieth century. Gods Breathed For it is written in the book of 2Timothy 3:16 it says All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. It goes on to say in chapter 4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. Catholic Church Ready to Fall? Americans waited for an explanation of the molestations of thousands of parishioners, they waited for a statement about abuses of power pedophilia and homosexuality of Priests. They did not get more than a little apology, which did not sit well with most Americans. To add further insult to injury Cardinal Law knew of the issues and moved priest from parish to parish, then left the United States to go back to Vatican. Several Priests in high profile cases were arrested and imprisoned. Several more Arch Dioceses went bankrupt. Resurrection Faith (Part 2) Christ died. This is a historical fact not to be denied. But it is the claim of the apostle Paul that God showed His love for us through Christ dying for sinners; this is interesting. It is interesting because we wonder what was it that encouraged Paul to believe that Jesus' death was for sinners. He could not "see" the love of God at work. Jesus had been stabbed in the back and abandoned by His disciples. His mother and a few women, together with John stood by watching Him die. Near the cross, soldiers gambled. One thief cursed God and man. The other prayed as he died. But who of those around the cross watching Jesus die was suddenly overtaken with a great sense of God's love? Who testified about how much God loved them? Following Instructions To The Letter The dictionary explains wisdom as having good judgement, understanding, comprehension and intelligence. It also explains wise as being perceptive, intelligent, and knowledgeable. It is written in Psalm 111:10 it says The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Of Snakes and Terrorism With the passing of Arafat, the Middle East will take on a slightly different face, allowing the possibilities for prophetic fulfillment to speed up. The pathway is now open for renewed efforts to procure peace in the Middle East, using the avenue of the formation of the promised Palestinian State. But this window of opportunity may not remain open for long. Indeed pressure is now mounting from the United States, encouraged by Britian, to get on with the steps necessary to implement the terms of the "Road Map." What Jesus Expects of You and Me Sometimes it is hard to know where to start even if you know what your talents are. Jesus has something to say about what we can do and what he expects us to do. Until you can find the specific purpose God has for you there is still work we can do. God is God God is God and besides Him, there is no other. He is the Holy Other, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Lord of all creation. Those acquainted with Him know that God is above and beyond all our finite minds can grasp and yet, He is our Father who understands us better than we can even hope to understand ourselves. He is our Creator God and the sustainer of all things and is perfectly holy and just. God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son to redeem us and to use us in the full and rich life of His Kingdom. Priesthood is Not a Profession - Does this Attest for Unprofessionalism? 1 INTRODUCTION Recognizing Apostasy and Deception PREFACE TO UNDERSTANDING APOSTASY AND DECEPTION Evolution Simplified and Factual The study of evolution puts into perspective our relative insignificant existence. People who deny evolution must have a hard time swallowing the fact that humans are just a teeny tiny portion of all that is in our 13.7 billion year old universe. We are a microscopic speck...if that big. Creationists seem to like the theory of human beings being at the center of things. Slightly egotistical? Literal interpretation of the story of creation from the beginning of the Bible goes right along with the "flat earth" mentality. Sexual Deviants and the Catholic Church It is unfortunate that the Catholic Church seems to continue their abuse and molestation of our youth and children. Yet it is not all that surprising, since they are sworn to celibacy and there are known and documented physiological needs of man. Raging hormones in our youth and desire throughout our lives is a given of the human species. Asking someone to be celibate is problematic and makes sense that it would come with some baggage. For centuries the Catholic Church has raped, molested and had homosexual sex with orphans, alter boys and children of parishioners. Many nuns suddenly became pregnant certainly this was not believed to be divine intervention. Why do Humans Need a God? Many have asked why people need a God to cope with life? There must be a reason, because it appears that every culture in recorded history had some belief in some type of god. All the different cultures, tribes, societies and civilization had their Gods, trinkets, traditions, rituals and temples. But why; we know now, or some of understand that all these stories and myths were nothing more than figments of our imagination. Most all ancient writing has in it; Invisible ghosts, invisible friends and/or Gods. Isn't it amazing that even modern day civilizations cannot seem to shake this and those who wish to lead use it to manipulate us into their created realities. Just look at the Evil Muslim Clerics who twist and turn the people commit atrocities against humanity? Look at the Witch Doctors in Haiti with their Voodoo Dolls? Look at the Catholic Church and their strangle hold on their followers, while they allow their leadership to rape and molest our children? Denominations Gone Wild: What Happened To Unity? The Bible teaches that Christians ought to practice a single faith. It reads: "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Ephesians 4:4-6). Yet, today, every man does what is right in his own eyes. What's the solution? Pastors and elders must set the church in order. The Pope Hates Potter ? Both of Them This month a court in Burlington, Kentucky issued the largest settlement to date against the Catholic Church in the "Priestofeelya" scandal.
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |
