Focus on Looking Forward 2

[HKHaugan]

Focus on Looking Forward 2

“The question of course is what happens after we open the Door. Once you are in, what happens next? What is the new life all about?” Those are the questions left from the last entry. That’s where we presented the ‘Looking Forward’ theme. After you enter the Door there comes the startling reality you are no longer the same person. You have been spiritually reborn, born again, born to begin a spiritually relational life founded on a relationship with the risen Jesus. It’s not about feelings or intellect or some vague ‘higher power.’ It’s about being filled by the Holy Spirit who restores you to the One Holy God in Jesus. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come (2Cor.5:17).”

The interesting thing about being spiritually reborn is that you never stop being a child. “We are God’s children...heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom.8:17).” It is that humbling realization that matures us as His growing children. With that we return to the questions about what’s next.

There’s a fourfold approach to answer these questions. They’re the tools for growth in newness, being a spiritually reborn person: worship, discipleship, ministry and mission. It’s all about learning a moment-by-moment consciousness of who we are serving where we are at any given moment. These four functions God gives us to activate our being spiritually new born through Him.

First, worship. We maintain our relationship with the Lord through worship. We’re not just talking about sitting in a pew on Sunday. It’s about personal prayer time, getting into the Bible to read about Jesus, appreciating our physical body as His temple in the larger Temple of His universe and being conscious of His presence while we are on our way from one situation to another. It’s about where our mind thinks, our heart’s attitude is centered and our spirit finds its motivation.

Second, discipleship. We have become part of a family of spiritual brothers and sisters. The Body of Christ is our practice ground. It’s where we risk being open with one another about what we think, feel and act. We are not alone in this new life of newness.

For a moment, zero in on this identity thing. Our first realization is that we and everyone we meet is an image of God. But as believers in Jesus our identity is extended to being a disciple of Jesus. Being a disciple means He defines who we are. We accept that. No longer do we see our bloodline, our ethnicity, our nation, our denomination, our profession, who we know, our schools, our state, our town, our size, shape, gender or emotions as identity claims. They are now secondary functions in which we can be a witness to something far greater. We have one basic eternal identity. We are disciples of Jesus.

That new identity is nurtured through the study and sharing of Scripture. The Bible contains everything we need to grow as spiritual beings. Obviously the Bible centers around the life of Jesus; what He taught, what He did and why He did it. It is His lifestyle that models the spiritual life for us. It is the source of our relational tie to Him. The more we bathe in the Scripture the closer we are to Him.

Third, ministry. We have been given spiritual gifts in the spiritual family for ministry to others. We have a new identity and that identity is being servant. We are given spiritual gifts to serve one another. Romans 12, 1Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, begin the learning process of discovering the ones given us personally. Spiritual gifts is how we help one another grow in the Spirit.

Fourth, mission. Mission is being spiritually alert, aware of every next moment as an opportunity to open the Door so the outside world can see Him through us. Every single moment we are alive is a new moment in which we can grow as newborns and share Jesus with those yet to experience spiritual reality in Him. We run into them every day. Spiritual alertness is looking forward, aware in every next moment. That’s the key to mission.

Now these four steps are attitudinal. It is this fourfold attitude Jesus delivered to His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount (Mt.5-7). The Sermon on the Mount is the means to bring the heart into play so that the mind and spirit function together to accomplish God’s ‘Looking Forward’ purpose for each of us. What the Sermon does is to give the heart a new attitude based on our willingness to let the Holy Spirit lead us. Wherever we go and whomever we meet are the new moments full of the unexpected, the unanticipated, that make up the exciting new world of opportunity to share eternal reality in Jesus. But it is totally dependent on our wills being led by His will.