Thursday, January 6, 2011

Unique Spiritual Conditions

Once you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you're in a full-time relationship with Jesus, and by extension God (the Father). That's a fact of life.

Technically, all this curtails is that you repent of your sin, love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. After you choose to follow Jesus, and you've asked him to forgive your sins and come into your heart, you're good. You could drop dead that instant and you'd have your ticket to heaven stamped and pocketed.

Since people don't usually die the instant they're born again, there's a bit more to it than that. As far as I understand it, God wants us to have the opportunity to grow in our faith, to serve and trust God, and to love one another as He loved us.

Putting it loosely, that pretty much sums up all Christianity is supposed to be. But, the Bible has sixty-six books, so there's indubitably more to it than that.

In my daily bible readings, I've noticed there are occasions when believers can be closer to God in some way, or experience more of his love, power, and glory. I don't mean to imply these specific situations must be created in order to experience the Christian life; everything I explained above is literally all there is to it. All the stuff I'm going to list from here on is more like a spiritual bonus.

Jesus said that if two believers agree about anything they ask for, God gives it the go-ahead.

In a similar vein is the idea that wherever two or three gather in Jesus' name, there He is with them. It's like, whenever a group of believers gets together to learn about and worship God, the presence of God can be felt even more clearly and powerfully than before. Ideally, it's why people go to church (however, church culture in America has drifted away from this and become more of a religious practice than a spiritual recharging).

Interestingly, while praying with other believers is really helpful, one should not forget the importance of praying alone in a quiet place.

Another unusual circumstance God shows us is what happens when we persist in praying for help in desperate times; we receive an answer. After all,seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.

What we ask for plays a role too. If we ask for wisdom and discernment concerning our situation, the Bible promises God will always grant it.

Tithing, is both a commandment and a way for us to see if God is the real-deal. We can tithe because God said we should, or we can tithe because we want to and then God will be so thrilled, he'll bless us big time.

I'm sure there are other unusual circumstances mentioned in the Bible, but I'm not familiar with all of them right now.

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