John 17:3 / And this is eternal life, that THEY MAY KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
To pursue God is more than just physical movement in our daily lives. It is the physical movement guided by the Holy Spirit who lives in us. It is a matter of daily surrendering will to embrace His Kingdom plans and will for me.
Value # 1 - I value the pursuit of God. I have tasted, seen and experienced His presence and I want more. I want to know Him better today than I did yesterday. This pursuit of God is found as I study the Bible, as I learn how to pray, and most importantly, learn how to HEAR God when He speaks.
His speaking doesn't always come through an audible voice. For me it is these faint thoughts and impressions that come to me that I know I did not think up on my own. Bottom line, in my daily life I am hungry to know God's presence, hear His voice and follow hard after Him. I will say this about trying to hear God and then do what you've heard. I can't tell you the number of times I acted on what I thought God was saying only to discover I had missed it. It is my belief that if you are acting on what you thought God was telling you, there is a lot of grace to mess up. By that I mean when you realize that you missed what you thought God was telling you to do, there is His grace to get up, dust yourself off, and try again. I had much rather mess up trying to hear and obey than to simply do nothing.
There has to be more than I know or understand about God. Truth be known, I will never fully comprehend Him, His nature or His ways. But this doesn't mean I am not to chase after Him.
What is it you expect in your daily life as a follower of God? The one thing I have truly come to know is that if I spend my day expecting nothing from God, that is probably what I am going to receive. A boat load of nothing.
In this pursuit of God we focus more on Him and others than we do ourselves. Getting outside yourself is not a bad thing. This value of pursuing God prepares me to live in this world and move about as I meet others pointing out the truth of who Jesus is to them. I am not talking about having a conversation where I try to convince someone, I'm talking about listening with my spiritual ears asking God to touch them and open them up to the truth. The last thing I want to do is to boil down the eternal things of God into methods and formulas.
I know that John Wimber (who was instrumental in moving the Vineyard movement forward) referred to ministering to someone as "Doing the Stuff" (Or the works of Jesus - see John 14:12-14). I'd like to refer to this life style as "LIVING THE STUFF". That I have connected myself to Christ and His life is now my life. I no longer live for the things of this world. I guess if this new way of living were put in the easiest of terms it would look like this.
HEAR GOD = APPLY WHAT I HEAR = BE OBEDIENT = GROW
This would not be a one time action on my part, but would become part of my daily routine. Interesting verse found in Hebrews Chapter 5.
"But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."
You grow in Christ because you have "practiced" or put into place that which you heard God say. As you get better at hearing God you act on what He said. This causes you to grow spiritually. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
Well, enough for today. Check back tomorrow!
God on you...
michael b
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