Becoming the People God is Calling Us to Be

"Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

Ephesians 4:13

“God’s will is that we would bear a family resemblance to His Son. In other words, God’s plan is for us to become more and more like Jesus – not physically, of course, but in the way we think and act and treat other people. From all eternity, the Bible says, God’s plan was for us ‘to be conformed to the likeness of his Son’ (Romans 8:29).

We are part of His family – and because of that, we should bear His likeness! Do you want to know what God’s will is for you? It is for you to become more and more like Christ. This is spiritual maturity, and if you make this your goal it will change your life.”

Billy Graham, The Journey, pgs. 78-79

Prepare People to Live Like Jesus

How?

By preparing God’s people to be less conformed to this world and more conformed to the likeness of Christ, especially in one specific area of our lives:


• The way we communicate with others.

Why communication?

Listen to these words from Dr. Henry Blackaby:


• “God’s people do not even recognize that they have moved from what God wants them to be. So they’re like Malachi, where God says, “You’ve got to return to me,” and they say, “Wherein have we departed?”
  
  
• Well look and see what is not happening because of wrong focus by God’s people. Are we going to be a people like God has asked us to be? Would we stop fussing within our churches? Would we stop fussing between our churches? Would we ask God to give us one heart and one mind and one soul? We’ve got to have an observable difference.”

To see if people within your church or organization are communicating in ways that bear witness unto Christ, take the following survey of your congregation:


• Which is more prevalent: gossip, quarreling, or dialogue in the Spirit of Christ?
  
  
• Are people speaking the truth in love, or are some still erring on the side of false grace and others on the side of harsh truth?
  
  
• Is an environment of listening and other-mindedness being cultivated?
  
  
• Are people responding as Christ would to people with opposing views?

Why communication?

Because God is addressing our hearts.


• “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”
  
  Matthew 12:34b
  
  

All scripture quotations are taken from the NIV.