Hey again people. Now that I just covered the idea of Why Jesus, here's the next step we are to take as Christians.
Now that we are sure why we choose Jesus, we should now unite as Christians together for a common purpose. We should serve as God's sparks to ignite other pre-believing friends interest in Christianity. How do we do that? We must first know what it truly means to be united in Christ. To be united means that we must have a common goal and passion, a desire to see the people around us be united in the same one faith, one body and one heart which beats for the Lord our God. It means that we are to burn for Him. Though we are all small sparks, but the littlest of sparks can start the biggest fires. We are to be the matches, or sparks which when gathered together, is able to sustain a huge flame. This huge flame can then serve as a light for others who are in the dark or have lost their way and stumbled. In Ephesians 4:12-13, it is written " We are to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." How appropriate. That's our calling and it's up to us to reach the unreached.
In the same way that we hunger for His word, we must aim to pass on that hunger to others. We must light a fire in them that stirs up an increasing appetite for Jesus. So now that we realise our purposem and know what it means to be united in Christ, how about being ignited in Christ? What does it mean to be ignited? To be ignited in something, the literal meaning is to catch fire, but what it means here is to arouse an interest. So what ignites us? Some of us are ignited by LAN games, others by movies and cars. Some are ignited when we don't get what we want, by unfavourable circumstances, by unfriendliness and even by aloof parents. But to be ignited in Christ, it means that our hearts must be influenced and inflamed by God with a burning desire to fulfill His purposes in our lives. That's right. By God's purposes in our lives. What is God calling us to do today? Sometimes we can hear Him and know what He wants of us, but we just choose to block it out cos we dont wanna do it. Also, we are to be ignited by the needs of the people around us. Be sensitive to God and those around us.
Now that we have a inherent desire to fulfill the plans that God has for us, what next? Now, we must recognize that God's work is a spiritual work. Jude 1:21-23 says "Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt, snatch others from the fire and save them, to others show mercy and fear". Also in 1 Peter 5:8, it is written "Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" Indeed we must always remain steadfast in the Lord, so as to keep the devil away. And we must help others who have yet to know about God in this particular way as well.
Here's a question many want answered. How real is the supernatural? There are demons and angels and evil spirits, but they are all overruled by us, with the power of Christ. For in Christ, we can do anything and everything. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an experience where the believer is supernaturally filled with the Holy Spirit which results in greater enthusiasm and power in the devotional and ministry life of the believer. This experience is like the best drug. It gets you very high spiritually, and yet has no adverse side effects. So then how do we attain it? We must first actively seek it in earnest. We must want it with our whole heart before we will receive. And we cant just expect it to happen but we must ask God to rest His presence upon us. "Seek and it will be given unto you" (Romans 12:2). We must also remember that it doesnt always happen instanteneously. It can happen when we least expect it, but if our hearts are ready, God will give it to us. The first recorded baptism of the Holy Spirit was during the day of Pentecost when the apostles received foreign tongues and preached in tongues. On that day, the church grew by 5000people. But it didnt happen instanteneously. It was said that the disciples waited for a few days before the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples.
In closing, I have this to state. We have experienced the joy that comes with salvation and the undescribable joy and peace that comes with it. But there are many others who have yet to experience that. In all good things, we should share. So, again, it's up to us to spread His word to our Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria. That is our calling. So are we willing to unite and ignite?
