Are You A Responsible Christian Or A Fruitful Christian? 6 Questions To Answer

Our passion at Be A Living Miracle is to encourage you be a miracle. We consider a miracle to be any person God empowers and uses to do good works. I really wanted to title this post, “Are You A Responsible Christian Or A Miracle Doing Christian?” But not many Christians would consider themselves Miracle Doing Christians. After reading this post, you might change your mind or at least you may consider becoming a Miracle Doing Christian.

The questions are listed below without detail or explanations in order to fully grasp their simplicity. It is our hope that in quietness and honesty, the Holy Spirit can give clarity, without any information clutter or preconceived noise. I will provide detail and explanations for the questions later in the post.

Questions:

1. Make a list of your spiritual priorities. How many of them are responsibilities shared by non-Christians?
2. What are your spiritual gifts?
3. What are your talents?
4. What are your desires?
5. What are your current goals? What have been your lifetime goals?
6. In what specific ways are you currently serving as a Christian?

Disruption Or Motivation?
You might be asking yourself, “Why do I want to disrupt my life with questions that will slow me down or distract me?” You might be satisfied with your life now. Or you may be discouraged and these questions accentuate the discouragement. Perhaps, you have resigned yourself to believe that you have no purpose other than what you are doing now. Have you had previous failures that you feel have disqualified you from fruitfulness.

Contentment
What about being content? If I am unsatisfied with my spiritual growth or fruitfulness, am I being discontented? The short answer is no. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matt 5:6) The words hunger and thirst are “present participle active” which implies continuous action. We shouldn’t be satisfied with the righteousness we possess at any given time, so we should be hungering and thirsting for it continually. Contentment is not an absence of desiring more, it is a disposition of gratitude. “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.” (Heb 13:5)

Honest, Clear Answers
Getting back to the questions… Did you quietly think about the questions and how you would answer them? Did you jot down any answers? Did the Holy Spirit give you clarity, or did He prompt you to pray about or think more deeply about the questions? Did the Spirit lead you to serve in some way? My details and explanations may be too limiting but I will explain why I came up with the questions.

Responsibilities
Hopefully, you are fulfilling your responsibilities in a way that glorifies God. You are a good parent, a good spouse, a good employee, a good sibling, a good neighbor, a good child, and a good citizen. What are you doing with the rest of your time? Are you trying to enjoy life? How high are your priorities for God and your spiritual purposes? How do those priorities help define abundant life?

Abundant Life
Have you asked yourself what Jesus meant by the following statement? “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (Jn 10:10) Jesus has promised abundant life. Does this mean that you will have abundant life by possessing abundant stuff? No. “And He said to them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Lk 12:15)

Spiritual Priorities
The New Testament is full of exhortations of what to do. I want to focus on a couple of them. The main spiritual priorities should include prayer, fellowship, Bible reading, and sanctification. But what about motivations, goals, and pursuits? Below is a list of spiritual priorities that should help us see new opportunities for spiritual growth and usefulness.
– But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness… (Matt 6:33)
– Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mk 12:30-31)
– Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:16)
– As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1Pet 4:10)
– And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)
– Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share… (1Tim 6:17-18)
– This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. (Tit 3:8)
– If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. (Jn 13:14)
– Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Phil 2:4)

Spiritual Responsibilities
Do you fulfill your spiritual responsibilities after all your other responsibilities are taken care of or after you have had your “me time”? I ask this question because we all can expend most of our energy tending to the cares of our lives. Peter wrote, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care (merimna) upon Him, for He cares (melei) for you.” (1Pet 5:6-7) We need to throw all our anxieties, cares, and worries upon God. Then we would be less weighed down by them, giving us more focus and energy for specifically loving God by loving and serving others and doing good works.

God Cares
God cares for you. The word care (melei) means the care of forethought and interest (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). God has forethought about you and takes an interest in you. Our Father knows what we need before we ask. “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” (Matt 6:8) As we humble ourselves before God and confess our need for Him all the time, He will exalt us. God desires our dependence upon Him, and He allows trials to reconfirm our dependence on Him.

Good Stewards
We often hear sermons about how grace is free and unearned. But we don’t hear too many of them which promote the idea that we are good stewards of His grace. You might be asking, “In what way?” As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1Pet 4:10) We are good stewards of His grace by serving others using our gift of grace (charisma). Remember those questions I asked above? You do have spiritual gifts, you do have talents, and God has prepared opportunities for you to use them. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:10)

Explanations

1. Make a list of your spiritual priorities. How many of them are responsibilities shared by non-Christians?
   Most of our responsibilities are shared with non-Christians. But God has planned for you to fulfill spiritual responsibilities. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1Cor 2:9)
2. What are your spiritual gifts?
   Every child of God has gifts. You may know what they are. They are generally displayed when you are actively serving God. Others generally affirm them as they observe you. Don’t let fear or others stop you from using them.
3. What are your talents?
   What are you good at? God has given you those skills, and you are able to improve them. Sometimes, you become aware of skills you didn’t know you had. It isn’t uncommon to fail at something initially, but over time, you become better. Here again, don’t let fear or others stop you from using your talents for Jesus.
4. What are your desires?
   What do you like to do? God can use your enthusiasm. Sometimes what we like to do and what God has gifted us to do are two different things. You can figure this out with trial and error. God has given you some desires. By faith, fulfill them. “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps 37:4) It is for God’s good pleasure. “…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13)
5. What are your current goals? What have been your lifetime goals?
   Goals are tricky. In one sense, they guide us. In another sense, they can blind us. Do you have any goals now? Are they spiritual in nature? Do you have lifelong goals that you are working toward? God has purposes for you to fulfill. Ask Him for His input. He has a purpose for choosing you as His child. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Rom 8:28)
6. In what specific ways are you currently serving as a Christian?
   Are you serving in a local church or in a ministry? Are you doing good for other Christians? “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Gal 6:10) You have the privilege be a good steward of God’s grace.

One Final Question
Are you willing to do greater works than Jesus? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (Jn 14:12) No one Christian is is able to fulfill this prophecy, but together, we will. Meditate on Paul’s promise to us, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…” (Eph 3:20) God has plans to do things that far exceed what we can ask for or even think about. Let the power that is in us out by doing good works. We are designed by God to be Miracle Doers.

Miracle Doers Need Apply
Christians are enlisted into a waging spiritual war. But we are also meant to do great things in the name of Jesus Christ. Perhaps, you have confirmed that you are a Miracle Doer. Continue to bring glory to our Father. Maybe you have identified distractions to your spiritual responsibilities. Make the changes and shine as a Miracle Doer. For those of you who feel useless, you are vessels of God the Holy Spirit. Let God open doors for you to pour out His Living Water. Lastly, those of us who feel that our failures have disqualified us. David, Peter, and Samson are examples to us that failures don’t define us. Our trust in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ does. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:9) “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time…” (1Pet 5:5-6)

Jesus Is The Vine
Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit…” You and I are meant to bear fruit. In fact, we are supposed to bear much fruit. “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (Jn 15:8) Let us seek the kingdom of God first, and show our love to Jesus Christ by bearing much fruit!

Photo by Emily Austin