Lesson 9 Committed to His Cause

Stephen was a man fully committed to Christ. Stephen had a vision of a reigning Christ. Everywhere Stephen went the reign of King Jesus advanced.

Jerry Sheveland shared briefly about Jim Elliot and the Auca tribe (End of the Spear). The exhortation to become a "crisis man" is compelling by Jerry. But, is it an exhortation and therefore something that I can chose or chose not to do. My answer is it is not a choice if I (or you) am a follower of Christ. We are commanded:

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)

The question to me rather is how much of myself am I going to control versus giving God control. That is allowing the Holy Spirit to indwell in order to take captive the evil desires and intentionally pursue the will of God.

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. (1 Peter 4:1-3)

Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22)

I am feeling more deeply the call of Christ to be more committed to His cause and fully submitted to the Holy Spirit. I am immensely challenged and have begun to pray for the four Spirit-filled commitments to Christ and His cause.

1. The commitment to live a faith-filled life.
2. The commitment to God-filled ministry.
3. The commitment to wisdom-filled words.
4. The commitment to hope-filled endurance.