How to Live Like Jesus

 Do you want to live like Jesus?

Do you want to live a transformed life in relationship with God as your Father, Christ as your brother and the Holy Spirit as your constant help and comfort?

Do you want your Christian faith to not just be a part of your life, but be your life; penetrating and permeating everything you say and think and do?

If you are like me you are probably saying “Yes! Yes! Yes! I want all of those things!” while at the same time remembering how often you’ve started down that road, full of enthusiasm, passion and vision, only to stumble and falter. Maybe you’ve been disappointed by so many “false starts” toward living a truly transformed Christian life that you’re beginning to think it isn’t even possible.

If that’s the case, don’t be discouraged. Transformation is possible, not because I say so but because God does! And the key isn’t with some hidden formula, secret knowledge, or mystical experience only available to the “truly spiritual” (whoever they are). It’s for everyone who puts their trust in Jesus Christ—even you. All that’s required is listening to and trusting what God plainly tells you.

The key to living like Jesus

In Romans 12:2, God tells us the key to living like Jesus. Through the Apostle Paul He says,

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)

Paul is saying, “Don’t let the world shape you according to its mould; rather let God refashion you to be like Jesus.”

Here it is; the way to transformed living. It’s no secret. God hasn’t made it complicated. It’s fairly simple, but not necessarily easy, so let’s take a closer look at Paul’s words.

When he says, “do not be conformed,” he’s using a passive verb, which means that we’re the receivers of the conforming work, not the doers. In other words he’s telling us not to let ourselves be squeezed by the world into its mould.

Next, when Paul says, “but be transformed,” he’s using another passive verb, which means we’re also not the ones doing the transforming work. God is doing it to us, like a potter moulding the clay (Isaiah 64:8). Simply put, Paul is saying, “Don’t let the world shape you according to its mould; rather let God refashion you to be like Jesus.”

The how of living like Jesus

Now for the important part…the how. How do we put a stop to the world’s “conforming” influence in favour of God’s “transformation?”

The answer: “by the renewing of your minds.”

Now you’re probably saying, “Ok, but how do we do that? How do we renew our minds?”

Good question! The easiest way I can put it is like this: By learning to think like Jesus. I could say a whole lot more than that, but the reason I like this short answer is because it reminds me that even Jesus didn’t live like Jesus just by just trying really hard. Rather, he lived in perfect obedience to God because his mind was perfectly aligned with the mind and will of the Father.

“Men do what they think.”

FRANCIS SCHAEFFER

If that was true for Jesus then it must be true for us, which is why Paul went on to say,

…be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

(Romans 12:2)

You see, living like Jesus means approving of what God approves of; wanting what God wants; and calling good what God calls good, acceptable what he calls acceptable, and perfect what he calls perfect.

But we can do none of those things until we learn to think like Jesus, because as Francis Schaeffer said, “Men do what they think.”

Why Christians struggle to live like Jesus

I think the reason many Christian aren’t living transformed lives is because they’re pursuing God’s heart while ignoring His mind. This is backed up by so much research showing how little Christians read, study and understand the Bible. It also explains why so many Christians today struggle to pinpoint what really sets their values, lifestyles, and perspectives apart from the rest of culture around them.

We fail to live like Jesus because we haven’t learned to think the way he thinks.

The mission of Prepared to Answer is to teach a new generation of Christians to think like Jesus. Yes, living like Jesus is more than just thinking like him, but it is certainly not less. We can’t live with hearts devoted to Christ, after all, if our minds aren’t.

We fail to live like Jesus because we haven’t learned to think the way he thinks.

If you’re still reading, that means that something here resonates with you. You sense that despite your sincerest intentions you’re missing an essential key to living a truly transformed Christian life.

If so, I want to invite you to join with me and a community of others who are seeking to live as Jesus did and teaching others to do the same by accepting God’s call to consciously, intentionally, diligently, and faithfully re-train ourselves to think like Jesus.

Ready to continue the journey? Next post in series (2 of 3): How Do I Start Thinking Like Jesus?

Originally published Jul 23, 2018, updated Aug 11, 2020.

Ways to Grow in Your Faith

 God has dealt to every person a measure of faith (Romans 12:3, NKJV). But as a Christian full of faith, God doesn’t want you to become stagnant. He wants you to GROW in Him! Growing in Him means growing from faith to faith (Romans 1:17, KJV). It means getting to know Him better, and getting to know Him more this week than last week, and more today than yesterday. Below are four ways you can grow in your faith.

Grow Through Hearing the Word

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17, NKJV).

If you want to grow in your faith, it starts by hearing, and that means feeding yourself with God’s Word. When you hear God’s Word, it changes you. It affects your worldview and alters the way you think. Is this talking about brainwashing? Yes—if brainwashing means washing your brain with the Word of God!

We want to see things the way God sees them, and we want to think the way He thinks. The good news is, there’s an entire book filled with the way God thinks: the Bible. Open your Bible and begin to read. Get an audio recording of the Bible, and listen to it as you go to sleep, as you get ready in the morning, or as you drive in your car. Get audio and video teaching from Bible teachers you can trust. We have hundreds of teachings and media resources available to you for free on our website in the Watch section. Additionally, you can subscribe to our podcast and listen to faith-filled teaching on the go. It’s a great way to start your growth.

Grow Through Believing the Word

It’s one thing to hear the Word…it’s another to believe it. You may have heard for years that Jesus is Lord. You may have grown up in a Christian home and been taught that since you were old enough to understand what your parents were saying. But something happened the day you believed it. Everything changed. “The old passed away and everything became new.”

Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (KJV, emphasis added). You became a Christian from hearing—and believing—God’s Word. That goes for every part of your Christian life. When you read God’s Word, don’t hesitate to believe it. If God said it, it doesn’t matter how you feel about it. If God said it, it doesn’t matter what you’ve heard that’s contrary to it. God’s Word trumps everything else. You may be struggling with your health. You may feel sick. You may have gone to a church that says God doesn’t heal today. What does God’s Word say? It says:

“I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26).

“By his wounds you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

“[Jesus] healed all the sick among them” (Matthew 12:15).

If God’s Word says it, the matter is settled. It’s time to believe it.

Grow Through Taking God’s Word

“But I’m still sick!” you may say.

Once you’ve heard God’s Word and made the decision to believe it, you need to make the decision to take it. Take hold of the truth and never let go.

Taking it means putting God’s Word before your eyes and keeping it before your eyes. Every day, speak that truth. When you want to receive your healing, search through God’s Word and find verse after verse after verse about how God wants to heal you. Highlight those verses. Print them out. Tape them on your mirror. Add them as the home screen on your smartphone. Speak them every day.

When you take God’s Word, the world may be playing tug of war with you, but you won’t let go of that truth! Read it, believe it, take it and never let go no matter what comes your way!

Grow Through Acting on God’s Word

“Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead…. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:17-18, NKJV).

It’s one thing to read, believe and take hold of something. It’s another to act as though you believe it.

When you know that you know God has healed you—because that’s the loving God He is—it’s time to act like it. Wake up in the morning and thank God for your healing. You may feel sick; you may feel like not moving a muscle. But don’t let your feelings stop you from acting on God’s Word. You may not be able to do much yet, because sometimes it takes time to get the natural in line with the supernatural. If someone tells you, “You look sick,” reply, “No, I’m doing great because by His stripes, I am healed!”

As you act upon His Word, you’re allowing it to grow in you, settle in you, become active and strong in your life.

 

Hearing. Believing. Taking. Acting. When you listen to the Lord, believe what He says, take Him at His Word, and act on it, you’ll find yourself growing in your faith like never before. Then, God’s Word will be working in your life in a way like nothing else can. It’ll be working in a life full of FAITH!

© 1997 – 2022 Eagle Mountain International Church Inc. Aka Kenneth Copeland Ministries. All Rights Reserved.

The Efficacy of Christ's Cross

 The Efficacy of Christ's Cross

The cross of Christ, with its infinite suffering, sorrow, and shame, freely endured by Him, can only be known in all its value by God, Who has fully accepted it. For He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God is glorified thereby.

The work of propitiation was there and thus perfectly accomplished by Jesus the Son of God and Son of man, lifted up from the earth, and exalted now to the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3). Thence He sent down the Holy Ghost to bear testimony, not only in the church, but to sinful man, that a Savior now sits upon the throne of God, and that to believe in Him secures not only the forgiveness of all his sins, but “justification from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39). “For He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification,” (Rom. 4:25). “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

It is no small measure of blessing and joy to a guilty, and condemned sinner, that trembles at God's word, to be able to say, Through faith in a once crucified now risen and glorified Christ, I am “justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3); or, according to Col. 1:14, in Christ I “have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” And is even this all? Far from it. From the moment he believes, he can thank the Father Who made him meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints (Col. 1:12). For he has been sanctified by the will of God through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:10); yea, by that one offering “perfected forever” (ver. 14). And a blessed testimony to this glorious truth is given by the presence and indwelling of the Holy Ghost sent down ever since the day of Pentecost (Heb. 10:15-17), Who bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16), all sins and iniquities having been forever removed from the believer before God, so that there is no more offering for sin. Less than this is not His gospel nor suited to Christ's cross. Other than this is not the Holy Spirit's witness to us. The sinner's position is thus entirely changed by the faith of Christ and of His blood. A new standing in divine grace is given to the believer. He is no longer seen in his sins, nor is he any longer under the responsibility of his Adam nature. As a child of God he is set apart by the Spirit to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2). He is called to the path of His obedience (1 Peter 1:14-15). He is a new creature in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17), old things being passed, and new things come. Peace and joy now fill his heart in believing, and he exults in hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2).