Abundant Life

We had a discussion the other night in our small group about the topic of Abundant Life. I wrote this note below after I got home and had thought about it some. I thought I would share it here on facebook to see what others thought.:

"I had some thoughts about our small group discussion this past Wednesday on abundant life. Though I didn't say anything in particular that night, I was listening and thinking and pondering what was said. Sometimes it is hard for me to verbalize what I am feeling/thinking until I have mulled over it some.

This is probably a given but I think that the abundant life Jesus talks about and that we deeply want has nothing to do with intellect, success, stuff, status, circumstances, what friends we have, earthly possessions or earthly happiness. It only has to do with knowing Jesus on a very personal level. When Jesus offered abundant life to people, he offered himself. Nothing else. The woman at the well- himself= living water. The demon possessed man- himself = sanity. The leper- himself = healing. The woman who poured the perfume on his feet- himself = wholeness. i could go on and on. Jesus IS the abundant life and when we have him, we therefore have abundant life.

I used to wonder how to know God. I would see people and think, wow they act like they really know God and Jesus personally. How do they get there? Can I get there? I want what they have. A relationship. Yes, I say I love God, but my words seem empty without feeling. I want to love Him but it is weird loving something I don't see or feel or experience. Maybe this relationship is only set aside for those in the ministry. I thought for me , that it was unattainable. But my heart was so intense on wanting to know if I could have it that I kept seeking. I simply asked God and told God. Can I know you really like that? His answer was yes!
I kept asking God to let me know him more. Let me know Jesus more and after a long Journey I realized one day that I was sensing God as real and that I truly deeply felt his love over me and I was truly and deeply feeling and giving that love back.

So I said all of that to say this, that to live the abundant life, there must be a personal relationship with the one who is abundant life. Jesus. Because if you are living arm in arm with Jesus then you are intertwined and locked into The Abundant Life. You hear his voice. You feel his touch, you see what he sees.

Which leads me into the question that Todd asked a few times, "so how do we minister to people who are going through stuff? How do we know what to say or do when we have never been in their shoes? " We do not have to have been in anyone's shoes to be able to minister to them because Jesus has already been in their shoes and suffered with them. If we are relationally linked to Jesus, then he will minister to them and we will only be the pathway that he used.
I think we as the church or christians have stressed over this too much. What can WE say or do to help this person? WE try to brainstorm or problem solve too much when the answer is pretty simple. WE can do nothing. Not one thing to help them. We can say words and give hugs but they are really earthly if they do not have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in them. The hugs and touch are only temporarily comforting instead of life changing if they do not have abundant life in them.

Sure, sometimes God takes those who have been through things and have came out victorious and uses them mightily in His kingdom to help others in the same area, but he can also use a "raised in church gal" to help bring a drug addict to healing. But only if that "gal" has one vision, one goal, one mindset. One relationship. Jesus. If she is in Jesus and Jesus in her they are one and He is the source of THE LIFE. If that is the case, then they have to do nothing but be a vessel. They don't even have to speak. Jesus will speak volumes. His Presence will "ooze" out and spill out to be living water to that person, to be sanity to that person, to bring healing to that person, and to have that person become whole.
So no striving, or fretting is necessary. Jesus will take care of it. If we seek The Trinity only, we gain abundant Life and abundant life becomes the norm to us no matter where we are or who we are with or what our circumstances are. If we live Jesus and hear his voice, we live abundantly. We need to be the ones, that wherever we show up, an open heaven is there, Jesus is there and Abundant Life is there. Will we be willing to be the ones?"
Melissa