Title: The Spiritual Management of Jesus
Contents
Jesus' spiritual management (Mark 1:35-45)
The essence of spirituality is love for the Lord.
Christian spirituality is becoming like Christ. To be like Christ, we must first love Christ. If we love and respect each other, we will resemble each other. That is why couples resemble each other, and parents and children resemble each other. Saying that you resemble a great person is a compliment, and saying that you resemble someone who will be criticized is an insult. Christians are to be like Christ. Only those who truly love the Lord resemble Him. Jesus did not ask his disciples to have techniques to feed the sheep, but he shared his love for Him to the very end. To feed the sheep, they must be filled with the full love of the Lord. Faith is not the filling of knowledge, it is the filling of the happiness of love.
What does spiritual management mean?
Spiritual management refers to managing one's inner world. “I believe that one of the fiercest battlefields of our time is the inner world of each person” (Gordon MacDonald) “God is looking for people with depth, not talents” (Richard Foster).
Spirituality is the management of the heart, which is the core stage of God's activity. "The soul of a man is the lamp of the Lord, and searches the depths of man" (Proverbs 20:27). “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
"Jesus said to him, "Are you still not enlightened? Don't you know that everything that goes into the mouth goes into the belly and is thrown away? What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and these defile a person. From the heart come evil thoughts and murder. and adultery, fornication, theft, false testimony, and slander, which defile a man, and to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man" (Matthew 15:16-20).
Man's maturity is his inner maturity and inner wealth.
A person's maturity is evaluated by his inner maturity and inner wealth. We must take care of our own souls before we manage the souls of others. You cannot conquer the world without conquering yourself. You cannot control others unless you control yourself. We should spend a lot of time praying before God to rule ourselves. You need to take the time to take care of yourself. Even beautiful music has rests, and even world-class performers re-tune after a song is over. You must stop before changing direction. We must stand quietly before the Lord and listen to the voice of God. “I strike my body into subjection, lest after I have preached to others, I myself will be rejected” (1 Corinthians 9:27). To achieve God's vision, thorough self-management is required. Only then can we succeed in God's principles and methods. Howard Hendrix once said, "I don't worry about failure, it's about succeeding the wrong way." God also values the process.
Christians must take good care of themselves according to God's methods and principles. Christian spirituality is “let’s live according to the Bible”. Just as an athlete beats him and makes it difficult to train him to obey, you need to train yourself with Jesus as your coach. Like a farmer, you need to be sincere, diligent, and able to wait in order to reap a lot. How do you manage your time, material, and talents for self-management? is real. Have you ever taken seriously the problems of your own soul?
Jesus' spiritual management
Jesus first heard the voice of God before hearing the voices of people. Jesus woke up at dawn and had intimate fellowship with God in a quiet place (Mark 1:35,45).
He spoke alone with God, heard the word of God, and was filled with the Holy Spirit of God (John 3:34).
Before meeting people, you need to have fellowship with God. Jesus was always with God. God has not left you alone (John 8:29). We need to meet in our daily life what kind of God is with us now. So, I need to experience the omnipotence of God who provides me and know how abundant God's love is. Meet God at dawn to nurture your dreams and have a good time. It will lead you to a happy future.
You set priorities in life and worked. Time management is a priority in life. Jesus prioritized what must be done and what was not. He has decided who to meet and whom to avoid. He set a time to pray and a time to meet his disciples. Jesus chose not to live impulsively, but to live according to the call of God.
The Lord has always reaffirmed the purpose of life. If the target misses, you get a suicide goal. Even if you work diligently, if your goal is wrong, it's my job, not God's. “I came down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).
What is your goal? Like Jesus, let us reaffirm our purpose in life and scour our lives, just like Paul did. “Not that I have already obtained it or that I have achieved it, but I am running to seize the one for which I was captured by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not think that I have caught it yet. There is only one thing: forgetting what is behind and grasping what is ahead, I run toward the goal for the reward of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
Jesus did not live according to popularity, but according to his mission. Mission is mission in English. This means "to send". Therefore, mission means a person sent by God, a life sent by God. Jesus always lived according to the mission God sent to this world. To live by your mission, you need to know your mission. As Carl Hilti said, "The best day of your life is the day you discover your mission." A Christian is a person who lives for a mission and dies for a mission. Paul said, “But the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider even my life to be of any value in order to finish my course and the mission I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of God’s grace No” (Acts 20:23-24).
The mission is talents and gifts. God doesn't force you to work. He lets you work to the fullest according to your talents and gifts. “Where your talents and the needs of the world intersect, your mission is” (Aristotle). A missionary is a person who develops God-given talents and gifts well and lives for the glory of the one who entrusted them with it. Thomas Carlyle said, "Blessed is the man who finds his work. He should not seek another." Mission is a sacred burden. God's people, including the prophets, prayed and fulfilled their missions with a holy burden in their relationship with God. You have to pay a price to fulfill your mission. Jesus gave his life for his mission.
The love of Jesus is the spirituality of the Christian
Faith in following the Lord is not a skill, but a relationship of love. Following the Lord with love like a married couple is spirituality. So, before the resurrected Jesus ascended to heaven, he did not teach his disciples the techniques of ministry or how to live in the world, but shared only the most precious love.
Christian spirituality is the pure love of the Shunammite woman who served Elisha or the love of Jesus Christ of Mary Magdalene. Jesus made his position clear so he did not fall. Jesus' place was always after God. Although he was God, he never once was in the place of God, but rather worshiped God in the low position of a servant. If I pray, I know where I should stand. If I study the Bible, I know the Lord I need to serve.
Henri Nouwen said, “The way of faith is to die from the past of others, and to die from the wrath within me.” People begin with planning, achieve with effort, and perish with pride. Jesus said that crowds came and forced him to make him king. “One of the most susceptible diseases of the Spirit is the idea that you are doing very well” (Chesterton).
He went to the mountain alone and prayed (John 6:15).
Five wisdoms of faith that make life dance,
“From the Small Self to the Wider World of Grace”, “From Grasping to Letting Down”, “From Fatalism to Hope”, “From the Manipulation of Emotions to Sheer Love”, “From the Fearful Death to a Life of Joy” -Henri Nouwen -
Christian spirituality is a life that resembles Jesus. The spirituality in which I die, God lives, and I die and saves you is the true Christian spirituality. Christians are missionaries who make a different world out of this world. We should live our lives with our hearts so that even small things are pleasing to God and that others do not feel uncomfortable. If there are many people like Jesus, wouldn't life be delicious?
give me man of god
Give me a man of God, a man
Give him a man whose faith rules his heart
Then I will correct all errors, and/
I will bless the name of mankind.
Give me a man of God, a man
Give me the one whose tongue touches the fire of heaven
Then I light up my darkest heart
I will make them hearts of high determination and pure aspirations.
Give me a man of God, a man
Give me a mighty prophet of the Lord/
Then I will bring peace to this land by prayer, not by sword.
Give me a man of God, a man
Give me a man who is faithful to the vision he sees
Then I will rebuild your ruined sanctuary
I will make the nations kneel before him. - George Liddell -