WHAT do we devote our lives to? That which is vital! In the Kingdom, do we really understand what is vital? How would we ‘test’ to find the vital things?
Here is a test… If someone were to point a gun at you and those you are connected to and say, “STOP doing this or that or ELSE!” If you would simply stop doing the things you were doing, though those things might be important, they would not be vital. If you would not stop because you understood that by stopping you would be denying the core of who God has called you to be -individually and together as the body of Christ, you would be identifying the vital. We call these vital things, The Seven Devotions.
The 7 Devotions.
These describe WHAT we should do.
1. Love God and Living Christ!
2. Love Our Neighbor- Love One Another as God loves Us
3. The Great Commission- Make Disciples of ALL peoples
4. Apostles Teaching- Sharing in our Understanding of the Word
5. Fellowship - Koinonia- Building Intentional, Christ-Centered Loving Relationships
6. Breaking of Bread- Eating Together- Sharing our Daily Lives with one another
7. Prayer- Sharing in our Prayer Life with one another regularly
WHERE should we practice the things we are devoted to?
First, to practice those things that are vital in our day to day lives. We have tried to look at the core dimensions of our lives. These are like the legs of a chair, remove a leg from the chair and it will become unstable. Remove enough legs and you no longer have a chair that you can use. We call these the 4 Life Pillars.
4 Life Pillars
Disciple
Marriage
Family
Church
MORE….
Second, when we live life together, we call this ‘society’. How we live life together is called our ‘culture.’ You may have heard of the 7 Mountains of culture. We have simplified these to four elements. These are the area that God has given us responsibility in. When God give responsibility, he also gives us the authority to act. We call these the 4 Authorities.
4 Authorities
Sacred
Social
Civic (UPDR)
Market
HOW should we practice the things we are devoted to?
All of us will find some of the things we should do, be devoted to doing easy. Why? Because of the gifts, talents and abilities that we have. Other things will be harder and we will need to learn skills. There are 5 basic skills that we need to be equipped into fully live out the 7 Devotions. We call these the 5 Gateway Skills. The word ‘gateway’ helps us to understand just like a student should always master the ‘gateway’ skills of reading, writing and math, there are core skills that come into play for us to practice the basics of our Christian walk.
Apostle. Planting. Every time we organize to do something for Christian service, we create a ‘wineskin’. Wineskins grow old, rather they are food ministries, clothing ministries or local churches. Jesus told us the solution to this problem is simple: new wineskins. We all have a role in either planting new works or supporting the new work. If you think about it, even a Bible study is a type of ‘new work’!
Prophet. Perceiving and testing by truth. We all need to be equipped to perceive what God is saying to us and to test various things we hear with the scripture, the plumb-line of God’s truth. Part of “Loving God” is hearing what he says and doing it!
Evangelist. Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom is each of our responsibility! Part of “Loving our neighbor” is sharing the Good News about how their lives can be different, no longer living in the Kingdom of Darkness and the rules of that Kingdom, but living in the Kingdom of Light as citizens and heirs of a marvelous inheritance, incredible promises and the power to live a new life!
Pastor. Guiding and Caring are some of the keys to the Great Commandment… “Loving our neighbor” as ourselves.
Teacher. Imparting. Passing on or imparting God’s truth, the “Apostle’s Teaching”, happens as we live it out, we are the only ‘bible’ that some may ever read! And, it happens as we are equipped to learn and are equipped to teach good things.
We call all of these things the DNA of the Kingdom. For further information go here: MORE…. OR in the discussion above you will find hyperlinks to the specific topic that is being mentioned!
Replies
This discussion is an oldie but goodie! Don't miss it. -Admin
This video takes a candid look at where we live our lives, how we live our lives and who we live our lives for. The simplicity of living the Kingdom is astounding. But, the cost... well, we need to consider that, too! Enjoy the video HERE.
How can we, the osteoporosis generation, devote ourselves to these seven things?
It is a mystery to me...
https://kingdominsight.ning.com/forum/topics/a-day-in-my-journey-the...
Some people prefer to hear about things than read them.
I was on a WebTV program recently and explained more about these Kingdom concepts.
We are really gaining traction living this out in northcentral PA.
To hear more, follow me on twitter : twitter.com/JuanitaBerguson
Ok... one of the things we need to devote ourselves to is Koinonia. This word is the same word used to describe our relationship with God. We can't do this unless we learn how to have Christ-centered relationships with one another. Here is a great discussion on what it means to have Christ-centered relationships, how to 'get there from here.! Read more HERE
People seem to think that the word governance is the same as 'government', like with the president and congress. The truth is, whenever you have people coming together, you need some type of governance! The family is no exception. Indeed, one of the reasons our families are distressed is because they don't have good governance. Bill has written an excellent article describing the basic building blocks of good family governance. Read more HERE
You need to see this: http://j.mp/Mh4htt
Why? I think the most missed dimension of our lives is learning how to break bread with Christ in the center. This account shows what is happening in just one family. Imagine if every Christian family broke bread with each other and Christ in the center! READ MORE
I have been sharing about the things that we should devote ourselves to. Here is what the Lord showed me... If we would DO this and train others to do these things, the blessings from Isa. 60 would flow. I sent out some tweets to new twitter followers sharing this conversation. You have to see this... someone tweeted back Isa. 60: 22! Amen.
Gustav vonChristiaan
@natussum2xbis@JuanitaBerguson The full import of the word WALK is still lost 2 many.. Biblically it is to ARRANGE our lives acc 2 Spiritual Principles.Above is what I just got from someone on Twitter --- Yes! So true - we need to know what we should devote our lives to AND do it!
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