Habits of Effective Disciples: Intro

When we completed our study on the Holy Spirit we learned that after the Lord's Spirit convicts us and turns our hearts toward God, teaching us that we are without the means to bring ourselves to salvation, we become sons of God through His grace gifted through faith.

We learned that after we are saved, God prepares each of us, through His holy Spirit, for service to Him while we remain in mortal life. He prepares each of us by granting us a certain portion of each of the FRUITS of the SPIRIT, which are: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF CONTROL

After we are so further gifted, there are certain expectations placed upon our lives by God as He, through the Spirit, begins the process of bringing us closer and closer to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ, in the process known as sanctification.

As we continue our walk with God, it becomes necessary for each of us to find understanding as to how to best serve the Lord to better His earthly kingdom. This effort is best described as becoming his DISCIPLE for the rest of our mortal life. To properly serve Him, we need to discover how to arrange effective habits in our lives that accomplish this service. Over many centuries, there has been found to be a few habits that seem to supply this need. These are the habits we will study this term in our group to learn and apply in order that each of us may become a better disciple as we ourselves focus on these habits.

Jesus himself commanded the primary habit that all who are His disciples should live by and display. He provided this habit in the form of a new commandment and gave it on the last night he and His chosen ones were together as a group. We find this new command in John 13:34-35:

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

We must note that these new marching orders did not say simply to love one another. The command is quite clear that we are to love one another AS HE HAS LOVED US.

As we seek to learn to become more effective disciples we need to focus ourhearts on this important portion of the new command He gave.

May the Lord bless this study and may His Holy Spirit lead and guide us.