Nurturing Spirituality: part 1

Nurturing Spirituality: part 1

As followers of Jesus Christ we are called to a Lifestyle of Evangelism & Discipleship… it is what we should be about.  Jesus Christ came in the flesh and now He lives His life out in the flesh through His body, more specifically you and me in this world.

The believer’s highest call in ministry is to reproduce the life of Christ in others. Reproduction takes the form of evangelism for those who do not know Christ, and edification for those who do. This series develops a philosophy of discipleship and evangelism and looks at edification and evangelism as a way of life; lifestyle discipleship and evangelism are the most effective and realistic approaches to unbelievers and believers within our sphere of influence. (Dr. Ken Boa)

Every believer should have a Philosophy of Discipleship, that is fleshed out in his or her life.

In the first birth we receive the gift of bios, biological life; in the second birth we receive the greater gift of zoç, spiritual life. Just as we mature and reproduce on the biological level, God wants us to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1) on the spiritual level. This divinely-ordained process of growth and reproduction after our kind is a significant facet of the spiritual life, because it is directly related to God’s purpose for us to become like His Son and to reproduce the life of Jesus in others. He calls us to nurture people spiritually by building into them, feeding them, protecting them, encouraging them, training them, and assisting in their maturation so that they can learn to do the same with others.

1. A Lifestyle of Nurturing Others

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14
 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Romans 8:29
 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31

“Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10).” Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines