Disciples Abide

I'm not sure whether my post title is a command or a statement of fact. I think it's both.


In our reading for discipleship class this week we have a large pack of material that touches on several subjects with the overarching theme of "abide" or "watlk in the spirit" (WITS as my friend, Bert says). some of the reading is from one of our teaching pastors, Mike, some is from author Andrew Murray, and some is from The Victorious Life that the pastor found on http://www.bibleteacher.com/.

It talks about the christian life being a journey made up of four parts: seeking God, knowing God, being transformed by God and loving others (because of God). I think of it almost as a cycle (I made this fun little graph of the four points with arrows moving from one to the next in a circle, but I can't figure out how to import it - I'm not too savvy, I guess).

There's so much richness in these reading. Here I'll share some.

"As disciples we need to move from seeking God as one of our options to seeking God as our primary passsion and the overwhelming motivator of our life." ~ Mike Richardson

In a sheet discussing deliverance and freedom in Christ, Mike writes, "We need to deal with the body, soul and spirit of the person in order to bring about complete freedom and 'it was for freedom that Christ set us free' (Gal 5:1). What did Jesus do? - Healed the sick and cast out demons." I appreciate this because it takes a wholistic approach to ministry. Not every ailment is spiritually based ans yet not every problem has a resolution in the physical world. We often need both! (as I do in eating)

The most profound thing that I saw from Andrew Maurry was that God does the work, all we are calle dto do is YEILD, TRUST (i.e. BELIEVE) and WAIT. We aren't to do anything else unless the Spirit moves us. In some ways it seems easy, yet these are three very hard things for humans to do becuase they make us totally dependent on another. We no longer have the control because we've yielded it to Him.  "You are not under the law, with its inexorable DO, but under grace with its blessed Belive what christ will do for you."

From The Victorious Life we were given chapters 10 and 14. It is so rich.

"Victory begins only when struggling ceases."

"Christ can and does give us Victory over all known sin: not gradually but INSTANTANEOUSLY." We just have to learn to live that way moment by moment. It's a process.

"We are neither saved nor sanctified by what we give up, but by what we receive." I am not sanctified or made more holy by stopping to binge eat. I am sanctified by receiving Christ, allowing the spirit to move me and accpeting whatever He has for me. This is blessed news because I still have had the thought that I am made more holy by giving up my life of sin. No! I am made holy by accepting the holy One.  "...we may not, cannot in the smallest degree, share with christ the work of accomplishing any part of our salvation. et so many of us imagine that in the matter of sanctification we must 'paddle our own canoe'."

This little story is cute:
"A little girl of 13 was asked what difference the Victorious Life meant to her in times of temptation. after a little pause she replied, "Before I saw this truth, I used to argue with the tempter, and he usually got the better of me. But now, when he knocks at the door of my heart, I say, 'Lord Jesus, will you answer the door for me?' And when Satan sees the Lord Jesus within, he says, "I'm sorry, I think I've come to the wrong house' - and he flees."

Finally, for today, part of Hudson Taylor's definition of abiding, as recorded in The Victorious Life:

"Abiding - not struggling or striving; looking off to Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue all inward corruption; resting in the conscious joy of a complete salvation; a salvation from all sin: willing that He should be truly supreme."