The Believer of Jesus Pathway
"I believe in Jesus and I'm working on what it means to get to know Him."
If you
sense you are living in this stage of your journey, here are some suggestions
and options you might be interested in trying as you seek to make the most of
our intentional spiritual journey to Christlikeness.
Let the
journey begin!
The call to
follow Christ is also a call to be transformed into His image. Thus,
kingdom living begins when we accept Jesus’
invitation
to keep company with him…that we might become like him (Mark 3:14; Mark 1:17; John
15; John 17:3; Galatians 4:9; Colossians 3:1-17). In other words, we become like Christ by interaction with Christ himself. Taking on the
character of Christ then, being spiritually formed, flows from an ongoing
interaction with Christ, through the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives, to receive from God the
life we cannot birth in ourselves.
The
fact is we can’t change our own hearts. We can’t control, manage, or dictate spiritual
reality in our lives. The active agent in the transformation process is the
Holy Spirit, who regenerates, enlightens, motivates, and empowers believers in
their inner being by his presence to grow us in our likeness to Christ. On the other hand, it is unlikely that we will
deepen our relationship with God in a random or unintentional way.
Although we
cannot by direct effort change our heart, we are invited to participate with
God in our transformation. We do this by a purposeful pattern of life…of
intentionally placing ourselves in environments where we create the conditions in
our lives so as to train our hearts to recognize and surrender to the
already ongoing, maturing and healing presence of the Holy Spirit, who is
shaping us to be like Jesus and bringing about God’s Kingdom purposes and
mission.
For example,
if you were asked to list people, places or events that were
instrumental in
your spiritual development, what are some of those things you would
list? More than likely it would look something like this: a friend who
took you “under wing” as a
spiritual mentor, a retreat place or summer camp, a book, a missions
trip,
Scripture, an altar experience, cancer, fasting, a pastor, serving in a
soup
kitchen, etc. All of these “environments” provided the opportunity for
you to
open your heart to the transforming presence and work of the Holy Spirit
in
your life.
If you would like to know
more, you may listen to the sermon called The Intentional Journey.
The good news
is there are some natural “places” of transformation already embedded
in our lives and our church that become opportunities to encounter Jesus’
transforming presence. All
of the
people, places, and/or events you listed earlier can be organized into
five environments that provide opportunities to encounter Jesus:
personal, relational, intellectual, missional, and experiential. These
five
environments can be identified by the acrostic P.R.I.M.E. Click on the links below to read more about each environment.
Mid-Sized Events
