It's been six months since I last made a post about The Personal Spiritual Life. I was struggling with some health issues, I really pray to God to help me get momentum again.
The real goal of the spiritual life.
The spiritual life is only a means to an end. The goal is for the believer to be conformed to the image of Christ in character, conduct and conversation over the course of his life.
This is achieved by ever increasing:
- dependence on the power and enablement of the Holy Spirit
- obedience to the Word of God
- realization of his position in Christ
- practice of the principles of the spiritual life
So the goal of the process is basically two-fold:
1. Personal conformity to the image of Christ
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
1 Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we[l] shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as [b]by the Spirit of the Lord.
1 John 3:2-3 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
James 1:22-25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
2. Practical usefulness to God to accomplish His purpose in the world.
James 2:14-17 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
There are 2 key concepts which will dramatically impact the Christian:
1. The believer is not called by God to live the Christian life on his own.
2. The believer should not try to be like Christ by his efforts but rely on the Holy Spirit to produce in him the fruit of righteousness and manifest in his life the very life of Christ.
Thank you for reading and studying. Hope you are blessed by these studies.
Source: Personal spiritual life, Dr. Dennis J. Mock
Scripture: New King James Version
