Hey guys! This is the second session for the discipleship class. Last week’s lesson would be linked here for those who might not have seen it. I pray you learn something and you don’t leave here the same as you came, thank you!

Last week’s class: DID YOU KNOW?

This week we’d be discussing:

Importance of Christlikeness

1. Eternity past (Proorizo)

There’s nothing difficult to understand here. Proorizo is just a greek word which means predestined. Even before creation God had an image in mind when creating us. We are His children and he destined for us to grow up in His image and likeness just like His son Jesus Christ. In Romans 8:29 & 30 For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His son, so that His son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him. And having called them, He gave them right standing with Himself. And having giving them right standing, He gave them His glory.I believe this scripture spells out clearly that God’s glory can only be attained when you have right standing with Him; choosing to devote your time completely and sacrificing your valuables to serve Him. Let’s be frank, it’s the best investment you could ever make. What do you stand to lose one you devote yourself to serve God and what do you stand to gain, check Matthew 6:33.

2. Eternity Present

2nd Corinthians 3:1-4 Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely not! The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognise our good work among you. Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ.
We are given an assurance of all good things of the Kingdom through our Obedience in Christ. When we are in Christ we have it all and we do have Christ. The scripture says we are the only reccomendation we need because His life is written on our hearts. We are letters from God written with the Spirit of the living God and we are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. How fortunate we are, sigh.

3. Eternity to come

1st John 3:1-3 See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognise that we are God’s children because they don’t know Him. Dear friends we are already God’s children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as He is pure.This particular point really baffled me and the insight I received from it was overwhelming. John tells us in this scripture that in the future when Christ returns He would reveal himself to us it is expected that we look like him. I believe that here we are cautioned to be particular in our endeavours and the only way we can do that is to make Christ our role model; following him in His tracks carefully, meditating on his words and actions and growing our faith as large as His.

4. The role of the Holy Spirit

2nd Corinthians 3:18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the glory of the Lord-who is Spirit-makes us more and more like him as we are changed into His glorious image.We humans are made up of flesh and Spirit. The flesh is of the world and the Spirit is of the things above. The flesh and the spirit coexist however, one must be stronger than the other and as the flesh grows bigger due to our love for the things of the world our spirit diminishes and the Holy Spirit is not able to live within us to produce the image of Christ within us.It is important that as Christians we strive to grow in the spirit because it is only in the spirit that the secrets of this world can be revealed to us. We must make sure to do this so nothing ties us to this world. The Bible says that Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, He was able starve himself for this long because His Spirit dominated over His flesh. We must learn to subdue our flesh and make our Spirit dictate for us because the flesh only causes us to fulfil the evil desires the devil whispers to us. 1st Corinthians 9:27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. These were Pauls words.

5. The life of Jesus is the most pleasing life to God on earth.

2nd Corinthians 5:21 For God made christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.1st John 3:5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in Him.1st Peter 2:22 He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.Hebrews 4:15 This High Priest of ours understands our weakness, for He faced all of the same testings we do yet He did not sin.
Christ never sinned however, He understands the temptations of sin and how weak the flesh is since he has been flesh before. It is for the reason why we believe He is seated on the right hand-side of God interceding on our behalf because He has been flesh before and understands our flaws. Regardless it is no excuse, we can overcome any temptation that comes our way because the Bible also says in 1st Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted He will show you a way out so that you can endure. It is prerequisite of us as Christians to grow in the Spirit or we would never reap the full harvest of God’s glory.

Thank you very much if you made it this far. I hope you learnt something from this week’s class and please continue to follow us in this journey.

The next update would be next week and we’d be discussing ‘God’s standard for every Christian’

Please do well to like this post and share it with a friend. Thank you very much again and have a blessed week ahead.

P.S. All scriptures in today’s text were taken from the New Living Translation (NLT) bible