Off Road Disciplines Series: Spiritual Friendships

“Some have the gift of the Evangelist but what about the rest of us…

Sometimes a sermon isn’t the best way to communicate the gospel… some of our friend’s desire a conversation over a speech…

Our comfort level has no bearing on friend’s need of Christ… we must not allow our comfort level to be the determining factor of whether someone hears the good news of Jesus Christ or not…

Evangelism is something we live rather than a message we say… our lives must be re-prioritized toward spending time with people that God loves that do not have an active relationship with Him…

“The nature of our relationship with the sought often defines whether we are “witnessing” or just talking.”

So being that relationships are key, how we think of one another matters…

What do “the sought” look like to us?
“Souls with Ears”
“Barbarians to be Civilized”
“Invisible People”

“Some Christian insiders simply never see people in spiritual terms, living as if they operated cash registers, typed at CPU, or poured coffee but never caught God’s eye.”

Reaching out in love never gets on the agenda… Actions within this worldview tend to make people unworthy of God’s love, unworthy of friendship, unworthy of conversation…

These three worldviews, of those whom Jesus is seeking out, reduce people to; numbers and spirits without personalities, dangerous enemies that need to be civilized, or simply nothing at all… This must not be…

Even if we have the best of intentions, and are doing spiritual things, it’s so easy to become disconnected with those that Jesus is seeking…

How do we become so disconnected with those that need an active relationship with God? In a word… we become busy…

We can become so busy doing things within the church that we can fall in the trap of believing we are released from lives of personal witness… Or our schedules become so full that those Jesus is seeking just cannot find a spot within our days… we can even become unapproachably busy…

“Vision is often determined by who you spend most of your time with”

In seeking to be a faithful servant of God we must not allow ourselves to “busy” the mission of God out of our lives! We owe it to God the Seeker, and our friends that are being sought by Him to live our lives better and more intentional…

Jesus didn’t demand that people came to Him, He went to them…

We need to become intentional with our time… we need to take back control over our time… This will require some tough choices and discipline in how we manage our time and life… but it is worth it to live like you were created to live!

How do we begin our day’s for these mandatory times? Let us begin in prayer!?! God give me spiritual eye’s today…

Not every conversation has to be deeply spiritual (relax)… Not every conversation has to be about the Chiefs (Discernment and leading of the Holy Spirit)… sometimes we just need to learn how to be friends…

Are their things within our lives that are unnecessary, that take our energy, that are not really sin in and of themselves, but are inhibiting the mission God’s called us to?

God help us to grow in our spiritual friendships…

The Church was never meant to be a safe insulated place… a gated community that would be uninviting to those whom Christ is seeking… let us, as the church, start building some new spiritual friendships, or rekindling some old ones that we’ve allowed to die… these friendships will transform us, and transform their eternity and our purposes in life…

The Seeker has never forgotten the sought, but if the church is not careful it can close its spiritual eye’s and these same sought whom Jesus loves so much can become; “Souls with Ears” or “Barbarians” or simply “invisible”…

This is not our intention, but it can become our reality if we’re not careful, and lose focus, and become too busy…”

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