40 Days of Spiritual RebootSample

We’ve done well. We have completed seven themes over the past few weeks and today we begin one last theme leading us up to Easter morning. When Jesus rose again we got new life. And with that new life we got new strength, new purpose and new people to live with. I want to focus over the next five days on the five purposes that Jesus has given us for our lives. As we look at the great commission and the great commandment, we pick up on five crucial reasons for our existence post the resurrection. Jesus died and rose again for these purposes. The Great Commandment says ‘you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength. That‘s worship! It goes on to say that you will love your neighbour as yourself. That’s ministry! In the Great Commission we pick up three more. He commanded his disciples to go into all the world and proclaim the good news. That’s mission! He instructed them to make disciples by enabling them to identify with Christ and His body through baptism. That’s Fellowship! And finally by teaching them how to obey all that Christ commanded. That’s Discipleship!

So we have five purposes that we as believers live for.

Worship… to celebrate God’s presence amidst us.

Ministry - to demonstrate God’s love.

Fellowship - to assimilate God’s family.

Mission - to communicate God’s Word to the world and finally,

Discipleship - to educate God’s people.

To be a balanced healthy disciple of Jesus, we need to be balanced in our obedience and execution of these five purposes. If we give equal importance and attention to these five in our personal lives, we will find ourselves balanced and healthy.

CENTRE DOWN

Today let's begin with Discipleship. As I sit calmly in God’s presence I reflect on his instruction to be obedient. A disciple is someone who is structure to obey. His life is structured for obedience. The structure isn’t the obedience.The structure provides the discipline and preparedness for obedience. The tasks and mission God gives requires willingness and readiness. Most often we aren’t used by God because we aren’t ready. Either we are dealing with emotional issues or we are financially disorganised or our schedule has no margins or our lives are at the beck and call of some dominating people. The five purposes take care of all these unhealthy situations.

I hope you got what I’m saying here. I’m not referring to the commands of God itself or the leading of the Holy Spirit during your day or week. I’m talking about readiness. So this week as we reflect on having personal spiritual ambitions for ourselves, let's begin by setting up a goal for readiness. If God needs me to give someone time, or serve another's needs, or help someone with money… am I ready? If God begins to speak about a situation in my life or something He is going to do in the near future… am I ready to hear his voice? You get the idea?

How does one prepare to be ready? Two ways. By knowing the purpose and by knowing the information. Are you ready to go to Hong Kong? Well… why am i going to Hong Kong and when is the flight? That helps you prepare for the purpose and organise yourself to be available at the right time to leave. Take that to your spiritual life. Being ready begins with knowing the purpose and having the right instructions. Paul says to Timothy to always be ready in season and out of season to give a reason for the hope that was in him. Timothy was a young pastor. He had to always be ready with God’s will for God’s people. Ministry opportunities just show up. You can’t organise them much less plan for them. There are the usual things a pastor does through the week and that he can plan for. He does work on these things. But a vast number of opportunities present themselves unannounced. This requires knowing why God is doing what He’s doing and what our role is. As you apply this to your own life and ministry, being ready begins with this very thing. So the first and foremost goal is to be a thorough student of Christ. Jesus was the sum total and perfect example of readiness. He got a thumbs up right at the outset of his ministry when He was baptised. God the father announced He was pleased with him and the Holy Spirit descended on him as anointing for the task ahead. Jesus had spent forty days in the wilderness and there the devil attempted to tempt him. This was for our learning. Satan had a quick shot at the son of God in the flesh; a chance he cannot dream of when Jesus is at the right hand of God. His attempts were met with Christ’s knowledge of the heart of God. See the thing is, God’s children know the fathers heart. Gods servants know His will but his children know his heart. ‘Today I have called you sons’ God declares. When I discipline myself to spending time with God and in his word...Did you read that right? Time with God AND his word. Relationship and Revelation. When I discipline myself in this I am sure of two things. God is with me and OK with me. And I know what needs to be done when the opportunity arises. Now you’re ready. So I study Christ to know how to be a Son who is ready to do the Fathers will.

COME CLEAN

Give some thought and plan to what has just been discussed. I don’t know your life, your schedules or your hurdles. You are setting spiritual ambitions with the help of God.

This is more about goal-setting. So make it practical, achievable and measurable. Where do you want to be and what do you want to see in three months from today? What needs to change, begin, turn around, stop or be strengthened for you to get there? Who will partner with you in this process?

Write this down. Break it into do-able steps every week and go for it. God is with you. Any effort you make to be with God and please God… already has his pleasure and support. So don’t pray about it. Just make it happen.