Page 69 - RiseUpWarrior

Chapter 28 68 Ask God to open your eyes MORE to what really mat- Ephesians 4 ters in choosing your spouse. Are you willing to choose As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a your life-mate based on their godly character and NOT life worthy of the calling you have received. Be com- their looks, fame, money, or fabulous ministry skills? pletely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with Yes / NO one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to Choose to WAIT. Are you willing to wait on God’s tim- one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, ing, not rushing into relationships ahead of time? Pur- one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over pose right now how far you are willing to go sexually, all and through all and in all. and decide if you want to make it to your wedding day But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ as a virgin. apportioned it. This is why it says: Are you willing to wait to have sex, and make it to your wedding day pure? “When he ascended on high, he took many captives Yes / NO and gave gifts to his people.” Are you willing to let God choose who you date? (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also Yes / NO descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who These are the most important decisions for your future descended is the very one who ascended higher than ministry. It’s of the utmost importance that you let God all the heavens, in order to fll the whole universe.) be the boss of your life when it comes to who you mar- So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the ry, because there is no turning back later. Ask God to evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his impress on your heart the extreme importance of your people for works of service, so that the body of Christ behavior in this area. It will help you make it! Once you may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and fnish praying, sign on the dotted line to give God this forth by the waves, and blown here and there by area of your life. every wind of teaching and by the cunning and crafti- These are the 14 steps that are important for you to make ness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, as you grow and mature in God. There are more steps speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in up the ladder, but after this point, God initiates. As I every respect the mature body of him who is the head, have mentioned before, God is a gentleman and will not that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and force these things on you. You must take some initia- held together by every supporting ligament, grows tive in these areas frst. Second, God will not give you and builds itself up in love, as each part does its MORE until you are frst faithful in the small things. work. I receive emails from children’s ministry workers from So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you all across Latin America. People ask me how to become must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility a missionary or what to do in a diffcult political situa- of their thinking. They are darkened in their under- tion at their church. They ask me how to increase their standing and separated from the life of God because ministry. The answer to all those questions is this book. of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening God wants us to be mature Christians, no longer babies of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have who are tossed about by the wind. He wants us to NOT given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge trust ourselves, but renew our minds with HIS will. God in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. wants us to think eternal, not caring about what others That, however, is not the way of life you learned when think of us, but only caring about what GOD thinks! you heard about Christ and were taught in him in God wants us to grow up. accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put