BECOMING LIKE JESUS
1. This is the essence of becoming a Christian
2. It requires knowing His ways
3. Knowing His commands and obeying them
1. This is the essence of becoming a Christian
2. It requires knowing His ways
3. Knowing His commands and obeying them
Introduction
The goal of the Christian life is to know Christ and to be like Him.
The goal of the Christian life is to know Christ and to be like Him.
Christianity is not a religion, but a living relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ initiated from heaven and started here on earth for the salvation, deliverance, and help of the living man.
Christianity is definitely not a religion of rules and rituals that we must work at keeping in order to climb the ladder to heaven. Rather, it is a personal, growing relationship with the risen, living Lord Jesus Christ that results in our growing conformity to Him.
The goal of the Christian faith is to be like Christ, blameless, sinless and righteous. These are the attributes that will make us acceptable by God and allow us to enjoy an eternity of joy in heaven with Jesus Christ. Our goal is to know Jesus and receive the grace to be like Him.......That’s it.
Christianity is definitely not a religion of rules and rituals that we must work at keeping in order to climb the ladder to heaven. Rather, it is a personal, growing relationship with the risen, living Lord Jesus Christ that results in our growing conformity to Him.
The goal of the Christian faith is to be like Christ, blameless, sinless and righteous. These are the attributes that will make us acceptable by God and allow us to enjoy an eternity of joy in heaven with Jesus Christ. Our goal is to know Jesus and receive the grace to be like Him.......That’s it.
The goal of the Christian life is to know Christ.
It is a great idea to desire to be like Jesus, but, whoever wants to be like the Lord, would, first of all, get to know Him. It’s one thing to know who Jesus is. It is another thing to know him on a personal and intimate level. According to 1 John 2:3, “And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.” Keeping his commandments is one of the evidence that we love Him.
To know Him and be like Him is never an easy assignment because we cannot know Him, except He reveals Himself to us. We cannot know Him without the help of the Holy Spirit and yet the goal of our relationship is to Know Him.
Jesus said the same thing when He prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Christianity is relationship with the infinite God who has revealed Himself through our savior Jesus Christ. It is knowing the Lord deeper.
To know Him and be like Him is never an easy assignment because we cannot know Him, except He reveals Himself to us. We cannot know Him without the help of the Holy Spirit and yet the goal of our relationship is to Know Him.
Jesus said the same thing when He prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Christianity is relationship with the infinite God who has revealed Himself through our savior Jesus Christ. It is knowing the Lord deeper.
Personal Relationship is required
As with all relationships, it begins with an initial meeting or introduction. In Paul’s case, it was not a planned or polite introduction, at least from his point of view! He wasn’t seeking after Christ, inquiring as to how he could become a Christian. Far from it! “Breathing threats and murder,” he was on his way to Damascus to arrest men and women who were followers of Jesus when suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” He answered, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (see Acts 9:1-6). So Paul met the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
As with all relationships, it begins with an initial meeting or introduction. In Paul’s case, it was not a planned or polite introduction, at least from his point of view! He wasn’t seeking after Christ, inquiring as to how he could become a Christian. Far from it! “Breathing threats and murder,” he was on his way to Damascus to arrest men and women who were followers of Jesus when suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” He answered, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (see Acts 9:1-6). So Paul met the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s the same with your relationship with Jesus Christ. Your introduction to the Lord Jesus may have been far different than Paul’s. You may have met Christ as a young child, reared in a Christian home. Or, you may have met Him later in life. It may have been a traumatic situation, wherein a moment of crisis you called out to Him and were saved.
It may have been less dramatic so that you can’t even recall the exact time or place. But one thing is certain: If you are truly a Christian, you know Jesus Christ personally. You don’t just know about Him; you know Him. You can say with Paul that He is “Christ Jesus my Lord.”
It may have been less dramatic so that you can’t even recall the exact time or place. But one thing is certain: If you are truly a Christian, you know Jesus Christ personally. You don’t just know about Him; you know Him. You can say with Paul that He is “Christ Jesus my Lord.”
Intimate Relationship - You can't know God from far
You can know a lot about someone without knowing the person himself. I know about Billy Graham because I’ve read his biography and I’ve seen him preach on TV and in person. I’ve read some books he has written. I know a bit about his wife and her upbringing as a missionary kid in China. But I do not know Billy Graham because I’ve never been introduced to him and we do not have a personal relationship.
You can know a lot about someone without knowing the person himself. I know about Billy Graham because I’ve read his biography and I’ve seen him preach on TV and in person. I’ve read some books he has written. I know a bit about his wife and her upbringing as a missionary kid in China. But I do not know Billy Graham because I’ve never been introduced to him and we do not have a personal relationship.
Becoming a Christian requires that you know some things about Jesus Christ. You need to know who He claimed to be, eternal God in human flesh. You must know some of the things He did and taught. You need to understand that He died on the cross for your sins and that He was raised bodily from the dead. But beyond these facts, you need to know Christ personally.
That relationship begins at the moment you recognize that your sins have separated you from God and that you need a Savior. You also realize that you cannot save yourself from God’s judgment through your efforts or good works. Letting go of all human merit, you call upon the Lord to be merciful to you based on the merits of the death of His Son Jesus. Your object of trust for commending yourself to God shifts from self to Christ. You are saved. You have met Jesus Christ personally.
That relationship begins at the moment you recognize that your sins have separated you from God and that you need a Savior. You also realize that you cannot save yourself from God’s judgment through your efforts or good works. Letting go of all human merit, you call upon the Lord to be merciful to you based on the merits of the death of His Son Jesus. Your object of trust for commending yourself to God shifts from self to Christ. You are saved. You have met Jesus Christ personally.
Cultivate and grow the relationship
Like any relationship, once you’ve met, you must cultivate that relationship. If you meet the girl of your dreams, but then never see her again, you won’t have a relationship with her. You must spend time together, getting to know one another through conversation and shared experiences. You learn about her history, her family, her likes and dislikes, her hopes for the future, etc. If you do something to offend her, you ask her forgiveness and learn to work through difficulties in a harmonious way.
Like any relationship, once you’ve met, you must cultivate that relationship. If you meet the girl of your dreams, but then never see her again, you won’t have a relationship with her. You must spend time together, getting to know one another through conversation and shared experiences. You learn about her history, her family, her likes and dislikes, her hopes for the future, etc. If you do something to offend her, you ask her forgiveness and learn to work through difficulties in a harmonious way.
It’s the same in a personal relationship with Christ. It requires cultivation and that requires time. It never ceases to amaze me how a young man and a young woman can be extremely busy, but when they meet and things click between them, suddenly they can find many hours every week to be together. What were they doing to fill all those hours before? Whatever it was, it gets shoved aside so that they can pursue this new relationship.
Spend time with your Saviour
Do you often make time to spend with the Lord? It’s sure easy for that first love to cool off, and time between you and the Lord gets squeezed out with other things. Or, it becomes your duty to have a quiet time, so you get out your Bible, grimace, and swallow a chapter a day to keep the devil away. But there wasn’t any love in it. You weren’t seeking to know Christ in a more intimate way. You weren’t opening your heart to Him so that He could confront you and cleanse you and make you more like Himself. There’s no closeness, no intimacy.
Do you often make time to spend with the Lord? It’s sure easy for that first love to cool off, and time between you and the Lord gets squeezed out with other things. Or, it becomes your duty to have a quiet time, so you get out your Bible, grimace, and swallow a chapter a day to keep the devil away. But there wasn’t any love in it. You weren’t seeking to know Christ in a more intimate way. You weren’t opening your heart to Him so that He could confront you and cleanse you and make you more like Himself. There’s no closeness, no intimacy.
Get a divine revelation of Him
We cannot know the Triune God except as He has chosen to reveal Himself to us. He is infinite and altogether apart from us. We can never come to know Him through philosophy or speculation. We can’t know Him through our own imagination or feelings. We can’t know Him through the ideas or experiences of others. We can only know Him as He has chosen to reveal Himself. That revelation comes through His written Word which tells us of the eternal living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ (see Heb. 1:1-3).
Preach His Gospel
One of the ways that I have encounterede divine presence is when I am preaching the gospel, and sincerely it does not matter where you choose to preach. Whenever you are preaching or teaching His Word, I believe He comes around by His Spirit to assist you, motivate you and correctly position your thoughts that it will touch the souls of men. Have you noticed that many times, when you are preaching with prepared message, but along the line Utterances, prophetic insights and divine illumination is gained that will alter the prepared message and give it a boost. As you preach and teach, the Lord is also available to confirm the words you are speaking by His Spirit.
Study and meditatate on the Word
Studying the Word of God brings revelations into your heart, it makes a lot of issues clear to you. If you will ask the Holy Ghost to reveal the Lord to you in the bible, and explain certain things He did and why he did them. Your prayer will be answered. Everything about Him is written in the Bible, from His life story, before His birth, His birth and walk on earth, His death, resurrection, and return to heaven.
Worship Him
Worship is golden when it is done in the spirit. When our spirit worships the Lord, and you are sensitive, you will notice a divine presence. This is why worship services are uncommon for healing, deliverance, signs and wonders. The comes down to inhabit the praises of His people, and in such meetings sickness of any kind cannot stand, they are discharged and the fellow regains his freedom. I don't know your experience, but worship brings me to a point where I feel I am before the mercy sest, in His throne, and specific request made at that moment gets answered. You know that the prayer is answered, and you don't need to repeat the prayer again.
Through abiding prayers
Prayer is communication between us and God through Jesus. But, abiding prayer is a continuous conversation, communication and confession before the Lord through the day. If you can develop it, you will know the Lord deeper and feel His presence all the time with you. If when you wake up in the morning, you pray and thank Him for keeping you alive to see a new day, when you want to brush, you thank Him for the strength to brush your teeth, when its time to leave the house you pray and thank Him, commit the day unto His hands and you leave the house.
In the car, you thank Him for the car, and for a smooth ride to your office, at another times, you invite Him to ride with you to the office. In the office, you ask the Master to come with you into your office for the day's work. When you get into your office, you kneel or sit on your seat and thank Him again for bringing you there, and for the success of the day's work. When you close for the day, you thank Him for a successful day's work, and ask Him to take you home. At home, you thank Him for bringing you back home safely etc.
Abiding prayers is a sweet experience for any believer to have. I encourage you to grow deeper in the knowledge of the Lord today. Begin today to abide in Christ through prayer and your life will never be the same again!
BECOMING LIKE JESUS
Every child of God wants to be more like Jesus. And, by God’s grace, this actually happens. Becoming like Jesus is the same thing as being sanctified. To be sanctified is to become more dedicated to God and separated from sin (Rom. 6:22). It is to walk the footsteps of Jesus.
The process of sanctification deals with all the filthiness of the spirit, soul and body. It deals with all the worldly desires that distract us and cause people to look back. Remember Lot's wife, I believe that it was when she remembered their possessions, that were left behind, she looked back. You will not look back in Jesus name.
Sanctification
Sanctification deals with those rebellous instincts in you, that causes you to say No to important doctrines and things of God, deals with those wrong images and thoughts the devil had hidden in your heart for years, upon which you stand to practise religion, instead of fellowship and worshipping the Lord. All the self rightousness and resistance to confess any sin, secret or open you have committed, sanctification deals with pride in you, as God hates the proud. What ever makes you to disobey the word of God is dealt with.
Everything that make you walk in crucked paths is destroyed by sanctification so that you can be a man or woman of integrity, who fears and reverences the Lord, hard working and truthful. After your sanctification, you will see the root of godliness sprouting up in your spirit and in your body. The Lord will have to cleanse you and wash you in His blood.
We cannot know the Triune God except as He has chosen to reveal Himself to us. He is infinite and altogether apart from us. We can never come to know Him through philosophy or speculation. We can’t know Him through our own imagination or feelings. We can’t know Him through the ideas or experiences of others. We can only know Him as He has chosen to reveal Himself. That revelation comes through His written Word which tells us of the eternal living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ (see Heb. 1:1-3).
Preach His Gospel
One of the ways that I have encounterede divine presence is when I am preaching the gospel, and sincerely it does not matter where you choose to preach. Whenever you are preaching or teaching His Word, I believe He comes around by His Spirit to assist you, motivate you and correctly position your thoughts that it will touch the souls of men. Have you noticed that many times, when you are preaching with prepared message, but along the line Utterances, prophetic insights and divine illumination is gained that will alter the prepared message and give it a boost. As you preach and teach, the Lord is also available to confirm the words you are speaking by His Spirit.
Study and meditatate on the Word
Studying the Word of God brings revelations into your heart, it makes a lot of issues clear to you. If you will ask the Holy Ghost to reveal the Lord to you in the bible, and explain certain things He did and why he did them. Your prayer will be answered. Everything about Him is written in the Bible, from His life story, before His birth, His birth and walk on earth, His death, resurrection, and return to heaven.
Worship Him
Worship is golden when it is done in the spirit. When our spirit worships the Lord, and you are sensitive, you will notice a divine presence. This is why worship services are uncommon for healing, deliverance, signs and wonders. The comes down to inhabit the praises of His people, and in such meetings sickness of any kind cannot stand, they are discharged and the fellow regains his freedom. I don't know your experience, but worship brings me to a point where I feel I am before the mercy sest, in His throne, and specific request made at that moment gets answered. You know that the prayer is answered, and you don't need to repeat the prayer again.
Through abiding prayers
Prayer is communication between us and God through Jesus. But, abiding prayer is a continuous conversation, communication and confession before the Lord through the day. If you can develop it, you will know the Lord deeper and feel His presence all the time with you. If when you wake up in the morning, you pray and thank Him for keeping you alive to see a new day, when you want to brush, you thank Him for the strength to brush your teeth, when its time to leave the house you pray and thank Him, commit the day unto His hands and you leave the house.
In the car, you thank Him for the car, and for a smooth ride to your office, at another times, you invite Him to ride with you to the office. In the office, you ask the Master to come with you into your office for the day's work. When you get into your office, you kneel or sit on your seat and thank Him again for bringing you there, and for the success of the day's work. When you close for the day, you thank Him for a successful day's work, and ask Him to take you home. At home, you thank Him for bringing you back home safely etc.
Abiding prayers is a sweet experience for any believer to have. I encourage you to grow deeper in the knowledge of the Lord today. Begin today to abide in Christ through prayer and your life will never be the same again!
BECOMING LIKE JESUS
Every child of God wants to be more like Jesus. And, by God’s grace, this actually happens. Becoming like Jesus is the same thing as being sanctified. To be sanctified is to become more dedicated to God and separated from sin (Rom. 6:22). It is to walk the footsteps of Jesus.
The process of sanctification deals with all the filthiness of the spirit, soul and body. It deals with all the worldly desires that distract us and cause people to look back. Remember Lot's wife, I believe that it was when she remembered their possessions, that were left behind, she looked back. You will not look back in Jesus name.
Sanctification
Sanctification deals with those rebellous instincts in you, that causes you to say No to important doctrines and things of God, deals with those wrong images and thoughts the devil had hidden in your heart for years, upon which you stand to practise religion, instead of fellowship and worshipping the Lord. All the self rightousness and resistance to confess any sin, secret or open you have committed, sanctification deals with pride in you, as God hates the proud. What ever makes you to disobey the word of God is dealt with.
Everything that make you walk in crucked paths is destroyed by sanctification so that you can be a man or woman of integrity, who fears and reverences the Lord, hard working and truthful. After your sanctification, you will see the root of godliness sprouting up in your spirit and in your body. The Lord will have to cleanse you and wash you in His blood.
After sanctification, you will rest your worldly ambitions and carry your cross to follow Jesus Christ, trusting Him with your whole heart,spirit soul and body. No body will preach to you to trust the Lord, Why? Because you have been sanctified by Him and all worldliness, and all foolishness has been excised from you. Your life depends on Him alone.
When you know the Lord, you cannot live in darkness again. He is the Word, He is the Light of the world. Nobody knows Him and remain the same, it's impossible, because knowing Him changes your mindset and your entire being. If you know Him, the first sign is that you will begin to like what He likes and hate what the Master hates. You will hate every appearance of evil and without wasting time, you will rebuke it.
When you know Him, you will be a ready and willing evangelist, prepared with the word in your spirit, tracts, books and tapes in your hands, everywhere you go. He came to save sinners and reconcile them to God, and you cannot afford to be passive at soul winning.
When you know the Lord, you cannot live in darkness again. He is the Word, He is the Light of the world. Nobody knows Him and remain the same, it's impossible, because knowing Him changes your mindset and your entire being. If you know Him, the first sign is that you will begin to like what He likes and hate what the Master hates. You will hate every appearance of evil and without wasting time, you will rebuke it.
When you know Him, you will be a ready and willing evangelist, prepared with the word in your spirit, tracts, books and tapes in your hands, everywhere you go. He came to save sinners and reconcile them to God, and you cannot afford to be passive at soul winning.
Your heart for souls will be so large that you can sacrifice anything for the sake of winning a soul, and when you have brought someone to Christ, you cannot afford to let him alone...NO! You will continue to pray for them to be established in the Lord. Many years after you brought them to Christ, you are still praying, that God will establish and keep them in the faith.
Brethren, at this time, you are a prepared vessel unto honour. Sanctification is the Lord preparing you, remoulding you and repositioning you for His own glory. He will fill you with Godly wisdom, the one the bible described as 'sound wisdom'. No more ignorance! Paul describes sanctification as a work of God’s sovereign grace ( Phil. 2:1–11). “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (v.13; 1 Thess. 5:23). God’s “good pleasure” is to establish the elect in godliness, and to give you eternal life.
GOOD WORKS
As Christians, one way to be like Jesus is to live the way He lived, when He was on the earth. Remember it was not an easy life for Him and even the disciples who were with Him. He disciplined Himself to remain focused on the goal, and as can be seen from the scriptures, the disciples could not cope with some of His ways and methods.
Before discussing the sweet aspect of His doings, which was miracles, healings and deliverance, let me point you to His lifestyle, which we should embrace and walk in prayerfully, so we can also manifest the wonders that He did. The Lord would daily do all these, I believe:
1. Fasting
2. Reclining to the mountain to pray at any time of the day
3. Going back to the mountain in the early hours of the day, say from 2.00Am till day break.
4. Going to the synagogue to teach the Word of God,
5. He was always in the spirit, and sensitive to hear the Father's voice
6. He was going from place to place to preach and teach the Word
7. He was always giving thanks to God.
To be like Him, you have to do what He did.
1. Be humble, do what the Spirit of God tells you to do. Put away selfish ambition. He went about preaching and teaching the Word of God and saying "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" Do the same thing!
2. He went about doing good and healing the sick. Do the same as your Master did. Remember that many of the people He healed or delivered, he met them at the synagogues while teaching the people, or on the way as He went about preaching the gospel. This is why many Evangelists have the healing grace working in their ministry. Step out to preach and teach the word of God, and as occasion warrant, many will be healed by the declarations you will make in Jesus name.
3. He gave thanks at the grave of Lazarus
That was a difficult time for men, but not so for Christ. He gave thanks to God and then issued a command to the dead man to arise and come back to life. Child of God, walk in the Spirit and be bold to give thanks during triying moments. Stop seeing troubles and difficulties, see solution, for with God, nothing is impossible. Whatever man cannot handle or do, give it to God, and the Lord will glorify Hisd Holy name.
4. Walk in love. Show kindness to the people around you, even if they aren’t showing it to you. Jesus knew that Judas would betray Him, yet He allowed him to continue as a disciple with the other disciples. He was not angry that a devil in among his disciples, He did not sack him. That is love, and at the end of the whole matter, Judas blood was on his own head, as he killed himself.
5. Pray without season. Converse with your Master throughout the day. He is your strength and your guide through life. Abide with Him and be fruitful.
Brethren, at this time, you are a prepared vessel unto honour. Sanctification is the Lord preparing you, remoulding you and repositioning you for His own glory. He will fill you with Godly wisdom, the one the bible described as 'sound wisdom'. No more ignorance! Paul describes sanctification as a work of God’s sovereign grace ( Phil. 2:1–11). “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (v.13; 1 Thess. 5:23). God’s “good pleasure” is to establish the elect in godliness, and to give you eternal life.
GOOD WORKS
As Christians, one way to be like Jesus is to live the way He lived, when He was on the earth. Remember it was not an easy life for Him and even the disciples who were with Him. He disciplined Himself to remain focused on the goal, and as can be seen from the scriptures, the disciples could not cope with some of His ways and methods.
Before discussing the sweet aspect of His doings, which was miracles, healings and deliverance, let me point you to His lifestyle, which we should embrace and walk in prayerfully, so we can also manifest the wonders that He did. The Lord would daily do all these, I believe:
1. Fasting
2. Reclining to the mountain to pray at any time of the day
3. Going back to the mountain in the early hours of the day, say from 2.00Am till day break.
4. Going to the synagogue to teach the Word of God,
5. He was always in the spirit, and sensitive to hear the Father's voice
6. He was going from place to place to preach and teach the Word
7. He was always giving thanks to God.
To be like Him, you have to do what He did.
1. Be humble, do what the Spirit of God tells you to do. Put away selfish ambition. He went about preaching and teaching the Word of God and saying "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" Do the same thing!
2. He went about doing good and healing the sick. Do the same as your Master did. Remember that many of the people He healed or delivered, he met them at the synagogues while teaching the people, or on the way as He went about preaching the gospel. This is why many Evangelists have the healing grace working in their ministry. Step out to preach and teach the word of God, and as occasion warrant, many will be healed by the declarations you will make in Jesus name.
3. He gave thanks at the grave of Lazarus
That was a difficult time for men, but not so for Christ. He gave thanks to God and then issued a command to the dead man to arise and come back to life. Child of God, walk in the Spirit and be bold to give thanks during triying moments. Stop seeing troubles and difficulties, see solution, for with God, nothing is impossible. Whatever man cannot handle or do, give it to God, and the Lord will glorify Hisd Holy name.
4. Walk in love. Show kindness to the people around you, even if they aren’t showing it to you. Jesus knew that Judas would betray Him, yet He allowed him to continue as a disciple with the other disciples. He was not angry that a devil in among his disciples, He did not sack him. That is love, and at the end of the whole matter, Judas blood was on his own head, as he killed himself.
5. Pray without season. Converse with your Master throughout the day. He is your strength and your guide through life. Abide with Him and be fruitful.
CONCLUSION
Friends, Jesus is coming soon. It's the loving-kindness of God that He has kept you alive till now and given you time to hear the gospel. If you have not yet received Him as Lord and Saviour, I plead with you to do it now.
Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow could be too late.
Say this simple prayer:
Heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus Christ.
I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose again for my justification. I repent of my sins and ask for forgiveness. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and reign as my Lord and Saviour.
I receive Him by faith and I am born again.
FIRE...
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