I think when we’re in the body of Christ we need to talk about some real stuff. We need to discuss this life and the life to come. Here’s the truth, life on this side will lead to where we spend eternity. The rewards we receive or the consequences, the point is there’s an end to this life. God wants us to do life His way so let me reintroduce myself. I am Nikki, founder of No Limit for Christ Women’s Ministry, this No Limit Living collective and your personal development guide if you’re ready!
Yes, God has put on my heart to put His directive and purpose to this journey and collective. Let’s begin with the elephant in the room. Explaining what Christian Personal Development is. In a nutshell, Christ-centered personal growth and development is the way Jesus had to develop in his Humanity. For us that would look like; taking responsibility and intentionality concerning God’s sanctification process.
One thing rarely discussed thoroughly in the church today is our role in becoming like Christ. Yes, we hear that we’re supposed to live in the likeness of Christ, but did you know there is an order to that process? One step can’t come before the next. That’s what we call the progression of God’s process in how we develop the same way Christ did. He left the blueprint. He is the firstborn of us, having established the new covenant with God (Romans 8:29-30) and if we’re not intentional about it we’re going to just go through life without living the abundant life through faith. We must walk how Christ walked (1 John 2:6). I want to talk about that a little bit today. What is personal development? How do we intentionally walk it out in our life? Also, how do we avoid certain traps that keep us hindered from being all that God called us to do and be? As we mature in Christ, we begin to understand that the being is more important than the doing because when you become who Christ created you to be whatever you do, whatever you put your hand to is going to carry the intention of glorifying God. You’ll know it’s not about you it’s about God and him getting the glory alone. As His children let’s focus on that.
Let’s get started and if you’re interested in Christian personal development, I’m going to tell you why you need it and how to start the journey.
What Is Christian Personal Development?
To be honest, when I first heard it, I thought this was bordering on new-age psychobabble. It didn’t sound very fruitful, it sounded self-centered.
We have twisted the theology and doctrine of what a Christian is.
That’s how it came across to me because I didn’t fully understand what it meant. The Lord had to take me through scripture and open my eyes to see. Once His revelation was revealed; it got my attention. I realized that Jesus did this too! Yes, think about it carefully. From his human perspective he had to grow into certain things Hebrews 5:8 says that he had to learn obedience through what he suffered. Let’s see the cross-scripture that supports this. We saw in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asks two times if He could take this cup (torture and death) nevertheless, your will be done (Matthew 26:39-42). We see there was a moment in his humanity where he’s asking, does it have to be this? However, because of his purpose (to do the will of the Father), his perspective, and his understanding of the purpose for his life, he obeyed. John the Baptist had similar focus and understanding. John the Baptist’s whole life was about making Christ known. He’d yell in the wilderness, “Prepare the way, repent!” “Prepare the way, the Messiah, the King is coming!” That was his whole life dedicated to God’s purpose. A lot of us are living lives as though Jesus works for us and not the other way around.
It is seen on social media, I hear it in conversations often, and we have twisted the theology and doctrine of what a Christian is. Being a Christian is following Jesus. Once you believe now you have the ability to follow, to understand, and the eyes can now see that Jesus is the only way. So, when we say we believe Jesus well, it has to be evidence of that. You can’t just say those words and then live life any way you want to or start focusing on yourself and think God is supposed to put his stamp of approval on it. He’s not here to blow you up and set a place in front of your enemies to incite jealousy. Truthfully, many of us have Joseph’s heart before he went through the trials he endured. Many of us boast regularly and try to be covert and fake humble, “Look what God is doing for me, He chose me to do this and that.”
Even though it’s true, God did choose you. However, if we aren’t doing it with the sole purpose of bringing him glory in a way that honors him, it is fruitless until you make it Christ-centered. So, personal development is about your walk with the Lord and how to develop a Christ-centered perspective in every area of your life. Remember Paul said we have to make sure that as we run this race and practice self-control we are not to run aimlessly or box the air. As we are helping others we have to make sure we don’t fall in the process! (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) Also, in James 1:23-25, James says those who look in the mirror and forget what we are like, are hearers only. In other words, when the Word reveals that you are not aligned with God, you ignore it or do not intentionally try to correct it.
We do not imitate his (Christs’) deity it’s not possible, we’re imitators of his humanity.
No one else is going to stand with you before God on that day when we all must give an account of how we live this life, the choices we make, what we align with, and what we agree with. No one is going to be there but you and Him so it’s best to figure out and learn what it’s like to live as a true Christian. One whose life flows from the will of God the Father. Jesus perfectly did it first. We’re following him and that’s what being a Christian is about. It’s about yielding your will to the will of the Father because that’s exactly what Jesus did even to the point of death. When we get that we’ll live life so differently we’ll move differently, and we’ll make different decisions and choices. Kingdom driven choices. For example, many are fearful about the call God has for them Many associate themselves with people and things that are detrimental to their souls. Christian personal development brings those things to light so the grip in those areas will be loosened when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus. So, if we are not living life for that purpose, we’re missing the mark and we’re not doing what God has called us to do.
So, let’s jump into it, shall we? Here’s step number one in your personal development:
Honesty and Humanity
Without this first step – Honesty with yourself it’s impossible to progress. Why? Honesty observes and gets to the root of our beliefs, alignment and agreements. I sheds light on the reality of the heart. Honesty exposes the true state of our heart. I makes one pause and realize, “Wait, I’m not intentionally pursuing God. I’m not intentionally trying to live like Christ. I’m not intentionally following Jesus. I’m following the world, the culture, and society. I’m taking the steps that the world takes, how I’m supposed to look, how I’m supposed to live life.” No, Jesus came and shook all that up when he was here. Quite literally, he came and shook up everything. He challenged and did not bend to their religious views, their traditions, and legalism.
Jesus knew how to love without compromising. You can see how that was displayed when he interacted with others. Jesus’ life demonstrates how we’re supposed to live even today. I’ve mentioned this before, in John 6 when Jesus fed the 5,000 it is important to read through it with Kingdom eyes. You can see how Jesus interacted with people and this is important because we do not imitate his deity it’s not possible, we’re imitators of his humanity. That is what we’re supposed to be following. Why? Simply put. We can never be God. We’ll never be omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. That can’t be duplicated, replicated, or imitated.
Jesus’ Humanity Lessons
However, we can imitate the humanity of Christ, for example, when you look through scripture you see that Jesus had to grow up in his human life experience. It said in Luke 2:40, 52, that he grew into wisdom he grew into favor and approval of God and man. Jesus had to grow and learn obedience. He learned indeed how weak our flesh truly was. We saw how exasperated Jesus became after repeatedly showing the power of God to the disciples, yet they continued to have “little faith”. He had never been human before, so he had to learn how and everything that came with it. That’s what we must learn on the other end of the spectrum. We must learn how to do life empowered by the Holy Spirit yet still in the flesh. We must learn how to obey “on earth as it is in Heaven.” because that is the will of God (Matthew 6:10) the Father.
Since we are imitating the humanity of Jesus and that should help a lot of us who are very judgmental and self-righteous. Understanding and receiving that God wants us to imitate Jesus’ humanity should teach us how to love people, how to treat people, how he set standards, and how he was not a people pleaser. Jesus was secure in his identity and set boundaries.
Jesus’ Human Experiences Relate to Ours
Christian personal development means paying attention to the details of Jesus’ life. For example, notice how people were coming for him not just the Pharisees but the Jewish people that were there at that time, including his siblings. Right after he fed the 5,000 his siblings said to him, “Go to the Feast of Booths” where he was sure to face opposition or his short-lived fans but not followers who were impressed after the miracle. He had to go against many human challenges. Examine this. He was the eldest of his siblings, so he had to go through that challenge. Jesus had relationships with his disciples as their leader and friend who ended up betraying him, he had to go through that. He had to be with someone who didn’t like him, who was a frenemy; he had to go through that challenge. Jesus dealt with hot and cold people who shied away from him publicly out of fear of exclusion from society. He has experienced all these things that we have experienced on a must higher level.
For example, he was on the cross getting nailed and said. “Lord forgive them for they know not what they do.” So, we must learn forgiveness, we must learn how to love people without conditions. This is a deep one!
Pay attention.
Jesus did not treat Judas any differently than he treated the other disciples even to the point of washing his feet and then telling him to betray him.
We see there’s a level of maturity that God wants us to reach without pretending. We can only come close to these goals in our hearts when we follow after Christ but if we’re not intentional about following after him it’s never going to happen. Do any of us suppose we’ll wake up one morning and become mature without practice or intentionality? No, Paul wrote in Philippians 4:9 that we must practice these things. That means according to the Greek Lexicon: prassō “to accomplish, to perform”. We must participate and put action behind our faith. We are trying to obtain a purpose and goal.
Our Life’s Purpose
Jesus lived for a purpose and he left that charge with us. Let’s do a quick deep dive. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul described what love looks like.
Pay attention
Our life goes back to love and that brings glory to God as it displays the power of His love in our unity and hope for the world to believe! However, if we aren’t mature (in the likeness of Christ) we can never obtain that unity. You see the domino effect and how this truth has impacted the state of the world today? Jesus prayed this for the disciples and for us (John 17:6-26) He also left two commandments. Love your God and love your neighbor. However, in John 13:34 he doesn’t say “as you love yourself” No, he says “as I have loved you” so that’s taking it up a notch, that’s digging a little bit deeper. We need that standard because the unfortunate truth is, we don’t know how love others because we don’t know how to love ourselves either. So, Jesus didn’t make us the standard but himself. So, Jesus says, “Love them as I have loved you” so we have no excuses.
With that in mind, it is up to us to purposely pursue what it means to live in the likeness of Christ. That is the heart we should progressively live in. Let’s end here and continue with more Christian personal development in Part 2.
