PT 2 - SIMPLE, NOT EASY - 4 STEPS TO FLOURISH WITH GOD. 004

This post is the second part to yesterday’s post. In this two-post mini-series I am writing about the 4 steps anyone can take to begin to flourish with God.

I want to tell you a story about Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody, so stay tuned. For now, Here are the steps:

1. Truth must be apprehended by the intellect (Mind/Understanding)

2. Truth must be received in the heart (Heart/Desire)

3. The principles of truth must be incorporated into the character (Experience/Daily living)

4. There must be a constant effort to win others to accept it (Fragrance/Attraction)

I love that the first step is to simply capture or apprehend the truth with the mind/intellect. This means that –YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT TO TAKE THE FIRST STEP— I am so sorry for yelling, but in all seriousness, God is not afraid of your sins or your past, God’s grace is stronger, and thats a truth you have to apprehend.

You may have questions and doubts which may never be dispelled, God actually doesn’t want to totally remove those, and if you wait for every single question to be answered, or thing to be figured out you may never come. Doctors and scientists understand that sometimes the more they know, the more they find that they don’t know, but the how much they do already know, drives them to keep pursuing the unknown. Let this principle apply with God, and while you’re at it, doubt your doubts too.

After the truth is apprehended by the intellect, it must be received into the heart. What does this mean? Well, the heart is the seat of affection and desire in the Bible. After you understand that Jesus died for you, lives for you and only desires to empower you and allow you to live your best and most abundant life, then you begin to establish a love for the truth and the God of that truth that has given you a second chance. This may take time, kind of like how we grow in love with others sometimes. There is a caveat though, this is simple, but because of the many things vying for our affection, it’s easy to have our hearts pulled in different directions. We can’t develop love for God if we love things that are sinful. Here is a good opportunity for me to say that in order to become relatively settled in any of these steps, we must pray. If you’re struggling with this second step (as most do) you have to war and plead with God to make you fall in love with the Him. There’s more to be said but we only have about 5 minutes.

The following step is for truth to be incorporated into the character. What does this step –practically—look like? There is a quote that goes like this.

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

Here it is, simply. Take the truth that you intellectually apprehend, that you are developing love for and think about it, speak about it, do it, build habits associated with it (reading the Bible, praying etc.) and this truth will become a part of who you are. It will.

Living a Christian life is a slow grind, it’s like a light that gets a little brighter every day.

Lastly, lastly, lastly, if everything prior to this seemed elementary this is the step where many people never really reach. You see millions could say they understand the main message of the Bible and love Jesus. Millions could even say they live relatively good lives influenced by Biblical morals (even though it may be ostensibly), yet if millions did this last step, God’s work here on earth would be perfectly complete.

The last step is this.

There must be a constant effort to win others to accept the truth. (Fragrance/Attraction)

Do you understand the main message of the Bible? Do you love Jesus? Are you allowing God to live through you on the daily? Well go on and tell somebody, anybody. Do something selfless for someone, the most random person, and just tell them God loves them. You must do something. Stagnant water breads disease, flowing water gives life. Do something. Do it.

No seriously, please I am begging you, take this seriously, God is asking you, will you do something? We work so hard for our temporal and secular interests, 40+ hours a week, 2-4 years in university or college minimum. We sweat, we cry, we go to work when we hate it, or love it, no matter what we show up, yet the things we may do for God go undone or at best are at the mercy of our sporadic action. No one can do the work that God has for us to do, He wants to partner with us individually. A blog? Through social media or YouTube? Random yet systematic and consistent acts of selflessness? This is not just the pastor’s job, it's ours too. Pray God, He will help you.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.

Lord, help this not me be in a spiritual sense. IJN amen.

I pray these steps were a blessing, and that you can take them and live a dynamic flourishing life with God.

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