Are you into mere Religion or Christianity?
In the Book of Acts 17:22-30, Paul teaches a set of people. They were very religious, they had temples and shrines dedicated to various gods. A particular one was dedicated to an unknown God. They tried their best to get close to this God by paying tribute to him on certain days, but Paul explains that God does not dwell in temples made with human hands.
Are you in the thought that God dwells in church and so you go every Sunday to appease him? That is Religion. You are trying to please an “Unknown God” Christianity is walking with God daily because he dwells in you in permanent abidance. He does not dwell in Church (Acts 17:24) but dwells within you.
God wants us to walk closely with him daily; let Him be the source, centre and pillar of your life. Let Him teach you and lead you from the dawn of the morning till the night comes again. Don’t try to please him only on Sunday mornings or when you have a difficult situation. Learn to reverence him every single day of the rest of your life.
Rom 5:1: Having been justified by faith you have peace with God and access to him by grace wherein you now stand.
He is pleased with you. He wants you to know Him, he wants to be part of your plans.
Rev 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and open, I will come in to him, and will sup (enjoy relationship) with him, and he with me.”
RELIGION IS WORKING TO PLEASE OR MEET GOD; CHRISTIANITY IS WALKING WITH GOD.
-Awoyemi Olutosin
I will start from the questions we had to answer from the last post.
Do you know your calling?
If you do, what are you doing about it?
And if not, are you on your way to discovering purpose?
The Bible tells us that we have been called out of darkness to show forth the glory of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
I will love for us to understand what this passage means. If God has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light then there must be a process. There is a process we must go through to be able to radiate that light!
After we have given our lives to Christ we must go through this process before we can ever attain any level of maturity.
The first priority of a young Christian should be building a relationship with God, learning to understand his leading, coveting the position of becoming God’s Sheep. Jesus said in John 10:27 (MSG) ‘My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me’. This means a lot of things; first as God’s Sheep you should be able to recognize His voice, know when he is speaking to you and when your flesh is speaking to you. It will be easier for you to know God is okaying your choice of partner is if you are able to hear him speak to you and can adequately recognize his voice. Secondly God must acknowledge you as His own; we all know God knows those who are His. As much as we often say only God knows who is His, in order to avoid judging another person, we also are able by the Spirit of God within us to know who is of God. So before you decide to make a choice, you need to be able to first know that you are God’s, that is, your spirit bears witness that you belong to God and His Spirit is living with you. By so doing, you can know if the Spirit of God resides in another person.
And finally the third part of the scripture: God’s sheep follow Him; so if you and I are the Christian we claim to be we should do His will at all times. Behave like Jesus would in any situation. Go back to the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and learn about the person of Christ.
In Christianity, no one may ever get to the height but the truth is that we know when we have stepped up, we know when we are no longer who we used to be. Something happens inside of us. The chances that you will be able to identify a real Christian when you meet one is completely based on your being a true one.
The first priority for any new Christian has to be perfecting this new found relationship with God Almighty.
A product of our growing relationship with God is our purpose. For many people who know their purpose and are pursuing it today, discovery of purpose did not come by sitting in a corner and expecting it. It usually comes by doing the things God says you should do per time. From there you discover it’s either your God given purpose to do the things He told you to do or that they are essential to what God has called you to actually do.
If you have been blessed with knowledge of what your purpose is, it means you know the master. He knows you and you are able to identify his voice. The next question is this, are you following the Shepherd? Are you constantly in touch with heaven for direction on what path to follow to destiny? Have you written down the vision, made it plain to see? A person armed with purpose is the most dangerous person for the pit of hell, hence a major target of the enemy. So you have to be aware of where you stand. Your active pursuit of purpose will distract people from or attract people to you. It will help a person considering you for a choice of life partner reconsider and ask questions like – can I cope with this lifestyle? It will also guide you in knowing who will fit into your future so that you can say like Adam, this is the bone of my bone…
By His grace next post we will be looking at pointers to readiness for relationship.
God Bless you.
omolola ezeifeoma