By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read and study Ephesians 4:1-32.
As believers in Christ, we are to learn to walk worthy of our calling. Our God, who is in you, wants to help you in this. The people around you, in your neighborhood, families and friends need to see the Christ on the inside of you as you live your daily life. (Verses 1-6)
What may not be understood by many people is that a prayer for salvation is just the starting point of everyone’s life journey with the Holy Spirit. Many seem to believe, that with the simple prayer for salvation, that their life will totally and automatically be changed by God, not understanding it is a process, requiring our own full co-operation, and has actually only begun. It will take time for each person to learn how this is done, not just the one simple prayer. Oh, the questions each one of us may have!
It is called developing a closer relationship with One who is to become our new, personal and best Friend, Comforter, Mentor, Teacher, Guide, and Coach or whoever else we may need Him to be—as the Holy Spirit. He is our open, direct line of communication for us, as we understand He is God and we must be respectful and truthful with Him—yes, a real relationship with the One who loves us and cares about us. We must be drawn nearer to the Holy Spirit, dwelling within us, in order to get to know Him, to know Him ‘up close and personal’. We will need Him, and we must learn His reactions, and instructions, to understand each step of our journey with Him. We don’t want to make this journey ever again without our personal Guide! After all, He knows what the future holds—we don’t!
Through spending time in studying the Word of God, the Bible, our asking the Holy Spirit our questions we may have, we will begin to learn how to communicate with Him. There is so much more to this life than we can even imagine as well. We can only begin to understand there is an expectation for us to learn well how the supernatural can be a part of this new life. True, commitment of time and effort on our part is always a part of any course of study and learning, and, we will also learn, in Christ, all things are possible. (Even if our healing is to be a requirement to make it possible! The Lord has already made a way, even if it seems impossible to you at this time!)
A person must also learn, ‘Who am I?’, and what it means to be a ‘saint of the Most High God’. One must learn, ‘who they are in Christ’ and understand this journey, fundamentally makes a huge difference in how we look at life, our purpose, how we spend our time, what’s important, and even what’s not, that God is Above all, and He’s our God! He gives us His Grace, His Righteousness (our ‘righteousness is only as filthy rags’) It is life-changing, as we are learning how to be included in the process of how we are to live this new life. The only way it becomes a part of us, is for us to apply it deep down within ourselves, and in this way we each can also learn to take our place as the Bride of Christ, through our interactions with others in the Church setting.
‘A measure of Grace’ means that we are to use our view of Christ as our mirror to look at—not by comparing ourselves to others around us. We are to be like Him, to talk, and to imitate or act like Him. We are taught in this way to ‘not wreck relationships with others’, because ‘iron sharpening iron’ does not destroy each other’s processing or progressing. We are to become more Christ-like with the Holy Spirit’s help. He gives us the ‘measure of Grace’ to accomplish this. We can see better, who we are in Christ, as we begin seeing ourselves as the ’apple of His eye’ and are growing in Him.
Having others, of like minds around us, helps us to make this life-changing journey all the way to Heaven as we make the journey in unity together. We are getting closer to Heaven each day. Each person should be asking the Holy Spirit confidently for the next steps to take on their journey together.
