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In response to my friend Dave and his quick wit demonstrated over here, I wanted to share the following.
A popular movement in Christianity in the past few years has been the attempt to live our lives by applying the question, “What would Jesus do?” to the situations in our lives.
This sounds good but it completely misses the point. What we commonly look for in asking this question is some kind of specific guidance such as, “Would Jesus buy a Ford or a Chevy?” It pains me to inform you that Jesus didn’t know what a “Ford” is. The object of seeking specific guidance is really to allow us to live independently instead of living through the moment by moment operation of the Father’s life in us. The Father’s life is spontaneous and operating in that spontaneity requires the walk of faith. Being told what to do, even by God, is not faith. It may be obedience but it is not faith.And obedience apart from faith is dead obedience.
I don’t mean to imply here that we cannot expect to get guidance for our living from the Father. We can expect to be led by the Father in our daily living. This is not the prescriptive “go and do” type of guidance we are often taught to seek. Rather, when we live by the Father’s life leading from our spirit we are guided moment by moment. This is most often the leading of “God’s unspoken yes.” We have God’s leading from our reborn human spirit continually. The life of Christ in us is continually operating. We go through our days confronted by a series of choices. As long as we are making choices that are acceptable to the Father we feel no hesitation. If we consider a course that is harmful (to ourselves or others) we will experience a “check” or sense to not go there. We can heed the check or we can ignore that check and live with the consequences of walking in our own way. These consequences need not be dire but we will see our plans fail and our expectations not be met.This is not a BIG deal. We learn to follow the Lord’s leading by our mistakes as well as our successes. The Father knows this is part of the process---this is why Christ died for ALL our sins everywhere; past, present and future. (1Peter 3:18)
As we gain experience in listening to the Father’s leading we will make fewer mistakes. We will learn to listen better and turn more quickly. In the end there is NO substitute for dependence on the Father’s life as our only life and resource for living: (John 15:5)
Living independently from the Father is bankrupt living. There is no legitimate reason for walking apart from the moment by moment resting in dependence on the Father for all things. This is the way we were meant to live. This is the ONLY way we can live effectively.
Once again this is taken from Bill Landon’s book, ‘My Father and Your Father’.
I am so thrilled that NO man can teach us this operation of the Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and its unfolding work of grace within us, liberating us daily from the gravitational pull from the Law of sin and death!!There are NO short cuts for any of us. In being awakened to the depths of His matchless grace and unconditional love, we are freed to join Him in discovering just how deep the rabbit hole really is.
Yahoo!!!!
Rich
A popular movement in Christianity in the past few years has been the attempt to live our lives by applying the question, “What would Jesus do?” to the situations in our lives.
This sounds good but it completely misses the point. What we commonly look for in asking this question is some kind of specific guidance such as, “Would Jesus buy a Ford or a Chevy?” It pains me to inform you that Jesus didn’t know what a “Ford” is. The object of seeking specific guidance is really to allow us to live independently instead of living through the moment by moment operation of the Father’s life in us. The Father’s life is spontaneous and operating in that spontaneity requires the walk of faith. Being told what to do, even by God, is not faith. It may be obedience but it is not faith.And obedience apart from faith is dead obedience.
I don’t mean to imply here that we cannot expect to get guidance for our living from the Father. We can expect to be led by the Father in our daily living. This is not the prescriptive “go and do” type of guidance we are often taught to seek. Rather, when we live by the Father’s life leading from our spirit we are guided moment by moment. This is most often the leading of “God’s unspoken yes.” We have God’s leading from our reborn human spirit continually. The life of Christ in us is continually operating. We go through our days confronted by a series of choices. As long as we are making choices that are acceptable to the Father we feel no hesitation. If we consider a course that is harmful (to ourselves or others) we will experience a “check” or sense to not go there. We can heed the check or we can ignore that check and live with the consequences of walking in our own way. These consequences need not be dire but we will see our plans fail and our expectations not be met.This is not a BIG deal. We learn to follow the Lord’s leading by our mistakes as well as our successes. The Father knows this is part of the process---this is why Christ died for ALL our sins everywhere; past, present and future. (1Peter 3:18)
As we gain experience in listening to the Father’s leading we will make fewer mistakes. We will learn to listen better and turn more quickly. In the end there is NO substitute for dependence on the Father’s life as our only life and resource for living: (John 15:5)
Living independently from the Father is bankrupt living. There is no legitimate reason for walking apart from the moment by moment resting in dependence on the Father for all things. This is the way we were meant to live. This is the ONLY way we can live effectively.
Once again this is taken from Bill Landon’s book, ‘My Father and Your Father’.
I am so thrilled that NO man can teach us this operation of the Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and its unfolding work of grace within us, liberating us daily from the gravitational pull from the Law of sin and death!!There are NO short cuts for any of us. In being awakened to the depths of His matchless grace and unconditional love, we are freed to join Him in discovering just how deep the rabbit hole really is.
Yahoo!!!!
Rich
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