Since the very beginning God calls us to do something for all nations or to the ends of the earth, in Genesis 12:3 talking to Abraham, God says, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” A Great Commission not all that different from Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus instructs his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. To build up the body of Christ we’ve been given gifts, known to many as the fivefold ministry that can be found in Ephesians 4:11-13. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers all gifts of ministry bestowed unto us from above. The question becomes, now what? This is all fine and good, gifts given from God to spread the good news to all nations to the ends of the earth. But how exactly are these gifts formed in us? The prophet Jeremiah gives us a clue and what I consider incredibly great news! 

Jeremiah 1:5 

5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 

before you were born I set you apart; 

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 

The above verse is God talking to Jeremiah but through His Living word we can also infer that God is talking to us, to all those with recognition of God’s calling in them. Being that God is the Alpha and Omega, all knowing of all things He calls us before we are even born. He set Jeremiah apart and set you apart from everyone else. Completely and totally unique, special in the eyes of the Creator and appointed. An appointment that we will find mentioned all throughout the Bible, and appointment to disciple the world. Whether you are born again or were born with His image inherently dwelling within you; we must apprentice under Jesus. 

Relentless participation in His will for us is our spiritual genesis, where we must practice aligning our thoughts, words and actions to match that of Christ. This doesn’t mean to become self-righteous, a bible thumper or holier than though, quite the contrary, it means to practice embodying the nature and character of Christ. At which point, through discipline we will be fully formed: 

Galatians 4:19: My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. 

Being that love is the character of Christ as identified all throughout the book of John from John 3:35 “The Father loves the son and has given all things into His hand” and later said in John 14:31, “I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.” And in John 15:10, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Love is our baseline and our commandments, “love they Lord, thy God with all thy heart” and “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Love everywhere! Before we can evangelize or preach or instruct, we must be overflowing with love in every direction. Loving in all circumstances by itself seems impossible, and it is, at least for me. But when we add in the nature of Christ which is to be the least in all things it makes leading with love all that much easier. The challenge for us all that have been called? Dying to self in all circumstances.  

We must not forget the entire purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross, it is directly tied to Old and New Testament verses from Ezekiel to the Gospels to Paul speaking to the Romans and Galatians. Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” And from the lips of Jesus himself in Luke 9:23, “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’” And lastly from Apostle Paul speaking to the Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We must walk a tight rope here and I’m going to explain how we achieve this without falling prey to the legalism found in the Old Testament and our American culture.  

If we take dying to self at face value and attempt this on our own we will fail. There is an inside-out transformation that must take place. Personality growth led intentionally by Christ through His spirit in us. Dallas Willard in his book “The Great Omission” purports that life in the Spirit requires solitude, silence, prayer, fasting, worship, biblical study, fellowship and confession. It is only through the Spirit that we can successfully die to ourselves each day. To intentionally live in the Spirit, we must form new routines. Life today is inundated with secular chatter and distraction, making the Spirit realm fuzzy and hard to find focus. I often write and talk about tithing time to Jesus each day, starting out with 1% of your day, only fifteen minutes, and working up to 10% which can be rounded down to two and a half hours per day. Luckily, spiritual discipline has many facets and can be spread out throughout the day. 

For me, I usually wake up around 4AM and immediately begin reading the Bible, spending on average 30 minutes each day soaking up His Word. From there I will sit in silence and when guided will write a prayer, in letter form, to Jesus. This process is very intentional and allows me to confess to Him, pray for my family, those in need, those who are lost and ask Him to reveal any gap I may have in my love for Him. I speak to Him from the position of a humble servant with gratitude for existence. Once complete, and there may be more than one letter, I will listen to worship music, His outlet to charge the battery of His Spirit in us. By the time 6:30 rolls around my family begins making their way downstairs and I shift my focus on to them. Throughout the day I have many conversations (fellowship) with other believers or will spread His gospel to those who don’t yet believe, as we are called to do. I may spend some time writing a blog or decide to enforce an intermittent fast. My confession for today is that while I spend a considerable amount of time in solitude and silence, I rarely take rest in Him. Something I plan on incorporating in my spiritual routine; one day. I’m in no means saying this is what’s required to live in the Spirit, it’s just something that started as a motivation for me that has since turned into a habitual routine. 

As your Spirit life begins taking form, we must remain vigilant that the routine doesn’t take precedence over the relationship with Jesus, our end goal, which would make our discipline an idol. Nobody wants that. Whatever path you take to begin aligning your personality with Jesus through spiritual discipline, reading the Bible must be the first priority and I recommend each day begin there, followed by intentional prayer.  

Now as we begin maturing in Christ, we can find next steps in Ephesians 4:1-3, “1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” As you begin maturing through Christ your calling will become evident. For me, I literally can’t stop talking about Jesus to non-believers and I do so with broad brush strokes, in public settings and because of these actions I’m an evangelist. We are judged by our fruit and our fruit is formed by our actions through Christ. I’m not looking to label myself, but it’s important to understand what God is calling you to do in ministry to Him and what your specific purpose in it is. Don’t be afraid to own what you’re being called to do for Him. Be bold in your faith, because His faith in you is beyond reproach.  

There is a lot of talk in the Christian faith about self-proclaimed apostles, especially in the charismatic movement. Christianity is one fine line after another after all, and we must remain vigilant. A true apostle will be hard to spot because they will be least in their position, righteous around every turn, without ego and will be the first to repent and rebuke themselves. It’s through the weakness of an apostle that they will find their strength, and I feel this holds true to every person chosen by God to wield a ministerial gift. I don’t have enough time to get into how these gifts should be aligned inside the system of organized religion, but I will make one point. A church led by an apostle that doesn’t have preachers, teachers, prophets or evangelists isn’t fully formed and it’s likely Christ isn’t the head of that body.  

Back to Ephesians 4, Paul is showcasing that if we are willing to follow Jesus and accept our ministerial gifts, we must live a worthy life, and this won’t be easy. Persecution and judgement will lurk around every corner, not to mention the little voices that sometimes show up lying to us. We must recognize the different voices of self, the self-doubter, the self-judger, the self-I-am-not-good-enough voice that can take root if we don’t rebuke the thoughts. Through humility and patience, we will find gentleness in every situation; this takes practice and a lot of it. As we begin reflecting the life of Christ, circumstances which used to inflate us to ego, anger, judgement, and resentment will slowly be deflated into surrender and love and peace. This maturity will form first outside of your personal relationships and later inside your most intimate relationships, starting with Christ Jesus. Everything we used to curse Jesus for will be seen as opportunity for us to grow. Blame shifting will become acceptance, met with grace and mercy, through the bond of peace mentioned in verse 3.  

Further instruction can be found in Colossians 3:12-14, “12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Like we put our clothes on each day to hide our nudity, we must dress ourselves in the garments of God. Remember Paul’s ministry was to the gentiles, and that’s exactly who he’s talking about here as he’s addressing the people of Colossus when he says, “as God’s chosen people” he is talking about you. We must accept this fact to mature in our spiritual calling. I’m not going to fully dissect this verse, I’m sure the point is clear as it’s similar to what Paul was saying to the Ephesian’s, I will highlight verse 14, the most important article to cover ourselves with. Love. Again, unity with the Trinity starts and ends with love. The Hebrew word for unity is אַחְדוּת which also means oneness, solidarity and harmony and I love how this defines the relationship we are to expect with our Creator, His Son and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.  

Once our thoughts, words and actions are fully and unquestionably aligned with Christ His gift will become evident in us. For some, this process may take a while, for others this may happen quickly. Just like the doorway of surrender and renunciation we must go through to meet Christ is different for everyone; our realignment through Christ will be equally different. No two people will share the same experience. Don’t get discouraged if others stand in judgement of you or put their expectations on you. What’s important is that you spend time rooting in His faithfulness and love in you. Again, this is accomplished through the spiritual disciplines listed above and will take some time. Roots will continue to grow so long as the fruit produced from you is His fruit and for His edification. Otherwise, as laid out in Mark 11:20, like the fig tree you will dry out from the roots, from the inside out.  

We must be mindful of our soil, the foundation for which we will grow in Christ. Deep roots will supply sustenance during droughts and protection from external forces, mainly evil. Therefore, surround yourselves with others who have already acknowledged His gifts and are in active ministry, whether in the church or in the mission field. Weeds will sprout up in your garden and that is okay, God meets us there, it is His garden after all, and He will come alongside you to clean them out. Don’t fall into the law’s entrapments; weeds are great distractions that take us away from its completion. The law has been fulfilled by Christ and he says in Mathew 5:20, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Through righteousness our gardens will remain clean, our roots fed with His living water and our souls aligned with His Spirit in us.  

In closing a tree is known by it’s fruit and through obedience to Him, complete and unwavering obedience, He will produce incredible fruit that will allow you to truly live. Life only happens in the present moment where we exist. We are called to make disciples of all nations to the ends of the earth using His gifts to us, this is our actual purpose in life. All glory gained is to be given up to Him just as freely as it was given to us. So, I urge you to receive from Him what is being given, practice spiritual disciplines, die to yourself each day and serve our great Creator with the same passion His son did. Whether an apostle, preacher, teacher, evangelist or prophet you will be amazed at how He will transform your life, personality, relationships (personal and Trinitarian) and most importantly the passion for your new purpose. Go where guided, always staying on the narrow path. God bless.