âYou are the light of [Christ to] the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp an lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.
-Matthew 5:14-16, AMP
Now for the past few days, I have been hit afresh on the impact of a Christian’s behavior and character.
If there is any thing a new believer should start working on right from the start, it should be on your CHARACTER.
You see, you used to be a certain way in the past.
You used to have a sharp tongue, harsh, seemingly so strong, resilient (but really just rebellion)&stueally just rebellion)&stubborn. And all.of a sudden you have this Spirit in you who keeps leading you to be kind,meek, gentle, teachable and forgiving and your flesh almost goes to bonkers because it just can’t take it!
But you have to work on this for your own good!
You see, God will send people to you whom He wants to help you on your walk.. He will send you to those He wants you to submit to.. people He had perhaps tied in a part of your walk with theirs and if you don’t work on killing those scion scion from the past, they might end up pushing these destiny helpers away from you and shutting divine destiny doors!
It’s not God’s fault. .its yours.
So what can you do?
First, ask the Lord to humble you. One of the first things you find out after becoming born again is the fact that you are proud. Yes.
Ask the Lord for grace to humble yourself under His mighty hand. &then dig into Galatians 5. The fruits of the Spirit. When you see that old you rearing its head up again. Ask God for help.. to kill it.
Lord help me to bear the fruits of the Spirit should be your cry!
This journey doesn’t end.. it goes higher day after day after day. The struggle to kill the flesh& tune into God!
Lord give me a teachable Spirit should be your cry. *** You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Therefore, as Godâs chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.
&over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Col 3
Now, for the most part, it’s easy for a Christian to attribute shining their light to DEEDS, WORK AND WALKING IN PURPOSE. But then somehow, I see that our WAY OF LIFE as Christians seem to make bigger impacts than our deeds and that’s for good reason.
If the disciples of Jesus were here today and they were asked what they remember most about Jesus, they certainly site His works and marvelous miracles but then I am sure they would sing more about His CHARACTER – His out of this world humility even as He lived with them as God Himself.
Studying the life of Jesus (which we should) would bring us face to face with a man who was God Himself but thought nothing of it (Philippians 2) and so He would live with men like Peter who would rebuke Him and be their overly extrovert self who think that they know so much and Jesus would sometimes just smile at him and shake his head.
Peter had a revelation that Jesus was God Himself but then was face to face with God Himself sleeping, eating, drinking, fellowshipping with them and ALWAYS extending them grace when they fall.
As much as Jesus did the works and also had the deeds on lock-down, HIS LIFE SHOULD SO MUCH VOLUME THAT NO ONE COULD REFUTE THE FACT THAT HE WAS LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF THE FATHER.
He was letting His light shine. THROUGH HIS CHARACTER AND WALK WITH GOD.
It’s easy today to see people who want to walk in purpose and go all out and DO but guess what the Bible says we will bear when we remain in God?
FRUITS.
 âI am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.“
-John 15:5
It’s easy to see these fruits as people and lives impacted by our DOING but what about the fruits in Galatians 5:22?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23Â gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
-Galatians 5;22&23
What influences lives better than when we walk in the light of the above fruits?
And what’s harder than walking in the light of these truths?
Ever tried to walk in love in the face of desires to the contrary? How did it feel? Yes, painful, it hurts badly.. you guessed right. But what was the impact of that walk of love in the life of the recipient?
Some do not even realize it till years later but every life impacted by the fruits of the Spirit confess that they are better for it and are drawn closer to Jesus which is exactly the aim of walking in God’s purpose for our lives.
Let’s try to view walking in God’s purpose for our lives a bit differently; yes, do the works and go all out as He leads you to do but don’t forget to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit, impacting lives one at a time with the decision to walk in God and not in ourselves.
Till next time on here,
Keep living in Jesus, one step at a time.
Love,
Frances
****
JUST A FEW THINGS:
1: I am so happy to be back. I didn’t write last week because I had to go off and then my laptop is misbehaving (I sound like a broken record with this). In a bid to do self-repair, I lost my files but it’s all good. We still standing and working and trying to stay grateful.
It’s good to be back and I missed you, you and you!
The blog is a ministry to me and we are going to stay faithful here by God’s grace!
2: If you to need to dig into the fruits of the Spirit, our ladies ministry “The women at the well” book deals with “The character of a godly woman” based on fruits of the Spirit.
And speaking of Fruits of the Spirit (see my previous post) this Bible study Collection by @twtwnigeria should be gotten by every woman who desires to work on her within and not just outward.
The study on “the character of a godly woman” should be read by every woman who is tired of sharp mouth,nagging spirit,bitterness and unforgiveness and getting this character starts with admitting to God that “Lord I need help.. help me be your own kind of woman!”
Its available in both hard and soft copies. Stocked in Lagos and Abuja and also available for delivery
You can dm or mail 4thewomenatthewell@gmail.com to get your copy. ***
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
Proverbs 31:30 NIV
You can mail 4thewomenatthewell@gmail.com for your copy.
Hard copy and soft copy available.
3: Interested in walking in God’s purpose for your life?
Then download my book on purpose below.
Download
The book on purpose is one I also use for my NGO work in schools and starting from September we will be going on an outreach in schools across Lagos and Delta States in a conference tagged “Raising purposeful youths”.
The purpose book will be released in a second edition and given free to the students.
We need volunteers and sponsors for this and with just 1000naira you can sponsor a book and some few refreshments for a student. Nothing is too small or too big to support this with.
If you would like to be a sponsor, please email us at awakeningyouthfulseeds@gmail.com
Feel free to share the word on your social media platforms too.
God bless you.
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