As believers in Christ, we all should be continually maturing or growing in our relationship Him. This growing process is something we come to realize in the early stages of our relationship with Jesus as a lifelong process.
As believers in Christ, we all have the same beginning, or we are all born again. Romans 10:9-11, 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. After which we begin our journey of our lifelong maturing process.
The maturing process of our relationship with Christ has many different and necessary aspects that should be considered by the believer in Christ as normal, which should always be constant in our lives. Here are a few examples.
Another often over looked aspect of the maturing process in our lives and relationship with Christ are spiritual paradigm shifts. Spiritual paradigm shifts are the events, instances or circumstances, both good and difficult, that God uses to change our perspective or understanding of a reality from our point of view to His. God’s purpose for using spiritual paradigm shifts in our lives are for us to see or understand an issue and or a situation from His point of view or perspective. “A paradigm shift is a change in one’s perspective which allows one to see things not previously seen.”
Every believer in Christ has experienced the first major spiritual paradigm shift in their life when we received, trusted or believed in Christ as our Savior. The second part of this spiritual paradigm shift is when we surrender or submit our lives to Jesus and make Him Lord of our lives. Ephesians 5:8-12, “8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
1 John 2:3-6, “3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
Of the twelve apostles, the book of Acts describes the apostle Peter experiencing the most life changing spiritual paradigm shift. Starting in Acts 1:15-26we read that Peter begins serving the church in the leadership role that Christ had called him to do. Verse 15, In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said…”.
On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-41 Peter address the crowd of thousands, preaching to them about Jesus being the expected and rejected Christ. As a result, three thousand received Christ and were baptized in water.
In Acts 3:1-26 God uses Peter to heal a crippled beggar then he preaches to astonished crowd and about two thousand more were added to the church that day.
In spite of the thousands who came to receive Christ through his preaching and the miraculous deeds that God did through Peter, there were still issues in Peter’s life that God needed to change through spiritual paradigm shifts. These were issues that were part of Peter’s life since he was a child which he learned from his parents and religious leaders. God needed to change Peter’s personal, religious and cultural perspective and understanding of what was his normal to God’s normal. There were religious and racial issues or prejudices in Peter’s life that were not in line with God’s point of view which is found in His Word of which Peter did not recognize.
In Acts Chapter ten the author Luke begins the story of Peter’s spiritual paradigm shift. The chapter starts with Cornelius who God is going to use to accomplish this necessary change in Peter’s life. In order for Peter to be used by God to minister to another racial group other than his own, first Peter’s perspective needed to be changed to understand and see God’s perspective and will for this other group of believers. When Peter realized this he would be ready to be used by God to accomplish His will with these believers. We see this in Acts 10:1-23.
Dr. Stanly Horton explains the important point about our obedience in the process of spiritual paradigm shift which is when God begins to move insituations in our life. “That God took the initiative in what follows “does not deny personal decisions or make Peter and Cornelius robots. As occurs throughout Acts, the divine initiative calls for human response. It is a matter of divine direction and human obedience, as Peter’s response to the words of the Holy Spirit in 10:19-20 illustrates.”
Acts 10:1-2 Luke introduces to Cornelius, his name, his profession and most importantly, his and his family’s relationship with God and Cornelius’ acts of worship.
Acts 10:3-8 God interacts with Cornelius through His angel. It was not Cornelius’ profession or social status that God recognized, nor was it that Cornelius and his family were “devout and God-fearing”. It was the result or his acts of because of his devotion that was noticed by God, “…he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.” Acts 10:2b
Many times, God uses people like Cornelius to change us. They do not need to be believers in Christ. Cornelius himself and those at his house needed to hear gospel message and receive Christ. Peter states this later on in Acts 11:13-14, “He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.”
When we are listening to what the Holy Spirit or even an angel sent by God tells us and obey, we will be ready for the needed change that God wants to do in our lives and also to be used by God in ways we could never imagine. We will see this next week in Part 2.
Pastor John
