Ten Traits Of A Vital Christian
Trait # 1 Experiences God's Empowering
Presence
I vividly remember how much joy
flooded my heart for the first time when I surrendered my life to Jesus at the
age of eighteen. I decided to preach the gospel and serve the Lord until the
day I die. I was full of hope, energy, and optimism to turn the world upside
down like the early disciples. With youthful exuberance and vitality, I joined
a six-month Discipleship Training School with YWAM in India. That was where I
laid a spiritual foundation for my future ministry.
The six-month DTS was one way like a
Christian boot camp for me. Because of particular rigorous training, some staff
defined DTS as Dying To Self. You will soon learn to die to
yourself if there is only one toilet for 45 people and only a half bucket of
water for a shower. However, the key concepts of discipleship I learned were so
precious that they even sustain me today in ministry after all these years.
Those principles helped me become a Vital Christian.
The dictionary defines vitality as
being strong and active or energetic. It also means liveliness, life, spiritedness,
vivacity, and exuberance. It is the power of giving continuance to
life and being present in all living things. A Vital Christian is
not necessarily always energetic, exuberant, and euphoric but a joyful,
committed disciple of Christ. They have been battle-tested and refined in the
crucible of affliction. They love the Lord, and as Eugene Peterson puts it,
they maintain a life of "A Long Obedience In The Same Direction," no
matter the cost.
Today, we begin a Vital Christian
Living Series. For the next several weeks, we will learn why it is essential to
have vitality in our daily lives as Christians and what the ten traits of a
vital Christian are. The ten traits should be seen in the light of Jesus's life
and teaching, based on the Gospel of John and the relationship Jesus had with
his disciples. To help us unpack these traits, we will use Stephen Macchia's
book, "Becoming A Healthy Disciple." The First Trait of a Vital
Christian: "A Vital Christian Experiences God's Empowering Presence."
John 14:15-21
I.
Vitality is God's Design for All People
Since the beginning, God has designed
vitality for all mankind. This was how God formed the first man. Genesis 2:7
says, "Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being." According to this scripture, we have
no life without God's breath (Spirit) in our nostrils; we are just a lump of
clay. God blessed mankind and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number;
fill the earth and subdue it." Gen 2:8. As we see, physical vitality
(Life) and blessings of fruitfulness and multiplication are God's design for
all people. Satan has disrupted God's divine intentions for mankind by tempting
man to sin. Since then, God has been working to restore both physical and
spiritual vitality to people which Satan has stolen.
Several OT passages explain God's
provision of physical and spiritual vitality for His children, those who walk
closely with Him. Psalm 1:1-3, "Blessed is the one who does not walk in
step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the
company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who
meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by water
streams, which yield fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever
they do prospers." Are you like that tree planted by water streams?
In this world, several people
outwardly seem to be healthy, wealthy, and successful, yet inwardly, they may
be lonely, fearful, unhappy, and unfulfillment. They may be physically alive
but spiritually dead. What robs our spiritual vitality, and how can we restore
it?
II.
How Can We Restore Spiritual Vitality?
Before we talk about restoring
spiritual vitality, we need to address how we lost it in the first place. In
Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam that on the day he eats the forbidden fruit, he
will "surely die." Adam does fall, but his physical death does not
occur immediately.
God must have had spiritual death in
his mind. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual
death, which is of greater significance, is the separation of the soul from
God. This separation from God is precisely what we see in Genesis 3:8. When
Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord, they "hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God." The fellowship had been broken. They could not
relate to God anymore. They were spiritually dead.
Every man and woman without Christ
is spiritually dead. Paul describes it as "being alienated from the life
of God." Ephe 4:18. (To be separated from life is the same as being dead).
Isaiah 59:1-2: People were separated from God by their sins, which hid
God's face from them. In Ephesians 2:1-3, we read people were dead in their
sins, which separated them from God and deserving God's wrath. We thank God for
Romans 5:8, which says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
How can we be spiritually revived
and our vitality restored? This might have been in the mind of a learned Hebrew
Rabbi Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night. Jesus told him, "Very truly,
one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." John 3:2-5 The
natural man, like Adam hiding in the garden, is isolated from God. Spiritual
death is reversed when we are born again, and we become God's children. Now, we
can live a vital Christian Life.
III.
A Vital Christian Experiences God's Empowering Presence.
As a dead man can not follow human
instructions, a spiritually dead man can not understand and obey God's
commands. As sinners, none of us can save ourselves from the impending wrath of
God. God, in his mercy, sent His Holy Spirit to Convict the world of sin, and
righteousness and judgment." John 16:8. The Holy Spirit convicted me of my
sins in that Evangelistic meeting, so I repented and accepted God's
forgiveness. At that moment, something supernatural happened. The Holy Spirit
came into my life as promised in John 14:15-21.
Many Christians are unaware that the
Holy Spirit comes to live in them when they get saved. Jesus promised his
disciples that He would send another advocate to help them and be with them
forever. He said the Spirit of Truth will be with and in them. The Holy Spirit
came to live in us when we were born again. A vital Christian Experiences the
Powerful Presence of God. To experience
the presence of the Holy Spirit, first of all, we must believe He is living in
us. With that realization, we invite the Holy Spirit to take charge of our
lives. The N.T writers used a Greek
word, Dunamis, to describe the Power of the Holy Spirit, from which we get our
English word dynamite. Now, you can imagine the power of the Holy Spirit inside
you.
You have learned from Romans
8:11-13, "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is
living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your
mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, brothers and
sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh to live according to
it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit
you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live."
We can live a vital Christian life
by regularly experiencing God's empowering presence. When we recognize we are
in the presence of the Holy Spirit, we will experience Joy. Despite the
challenging circumstances, there is peace, abundant life, and eternal hope when
we abide in his presence. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins. He heals and
transforms broken hearts.
He counsels us with His wisdom. He comforts us when we are hurting. He consoles us with his love and grace. He reveals and exalts Jesus. He will show us what is right and how to avoid the wrong. Ultimately, it will be the Spirit who completes the work in us so that when we go home to be with the Lord for all eternity, it will be the Spirit who empowered us to be recipients of the "well done, good and faithful servant" affirmation from our loving heavenly Father. How are you Experiencing God's Empowering Presence in your life?
