Mission Possible – Vibrant Relationship with the Creator: Through Christ, Part 3

Key Verse

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)

Short Reflection

We’ve been discussing how being able to “do all things” is embedded in a vibrant relationship “with Christ”. This starts with the vertical relationship with Him which we addressed last week. It doesn’t end there. This relationship becomes much more vibrant and we see the importance of being able to “do all things” when we add the horizontal to the vertical – when we dedicate our lives to serving others.

Take a closer look at our Palpable Kingdom Presence Grid. How will that ever become reality, especially for the extremely materially poor of our world? It will only become reality when our relationship with Jesus is so vibrant that we realize we can “do all things” and we set out to do them!

As we serve and do it into Jesus, and as we develop an even more vibrant relationship with Him, something pretty awesome happens. We start to embrace those verses that encourage us to become more like Jesus. We start to love others as Jesus loved (“Just as I loved you” – John 13:34), we start to forgive others as Jesus forgave (“forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” – Ephesians 4:32), and we realize we have been called to live as Jesus lived (“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” – 1 John 2:6). Ultimately, we come into alignment with the very reason for which we were created – to seek God’s kingdom above all things and to extend that kingdom to others (“Seek first the kingdom” – Matthew 6:33).

As we do these things, our relationship with Jesus becomes more and more vibrant. As we realize it’s through Him that we can “do all things”, we start to see what we thought was impossible become possible. We take a few more steps to witnessing palpable kingdom presence as reality – not only for us, but for people much different from us. When that happens, Jesus smiles.

Remember Jesus words – “with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

This is the third in the “Encourage a Vibrant Relationship with the Creator” series of blog posts on our Journey to Palpable Kingdom Presence.