Modelling Jesus’ Life

Photo Credit” Moody Publishers

I left it last time with this notion that Jesus came, not just to restore our relationship with the Father, but also to be the example for that relationship.

I’ve mentioned Dann Spader’s book, “Walking as Jesus Walked”, a number of times, so let’s get to its key elements.

Spader has based his message from a close study of Scripture. As one works through each chapter, he lets us examine many of these verses for ourselves, so we become familiar with Jesus as a man, who lives a life solely dependent on the Holy Spirit.

This dependence aspect is critical and I’ll explore that a little further in my next post on the weekend.

Six Foundational Priorities

Spader identifies Jesus’ foundation for living and ministry comprises six priorities. We spent one week in the book studying each priority.

So what are they?

1. Dependence on the Holy Spirit;
2. Prayer – A life of Fervent Prayer;
3. Obedience – to His Father’s kingdom agenda;
4. Word-Centred – the centrality of the Word;
5. Exalting the Father;
6. Relational Intentionality – with His disciples and the crowds.

You can already see the makings of an acronym by the way I’ve listed the priorities. I like acronyms as they make it easier to remember things and accordingly, implement them.

The acronym: Holy Spirit POWER

As I hope you can see, there’s nothing incredibly startling about any of them. I know I dabble in all of them to varying degrees. And that’s another key aspect to appreciate: Jesus was living all of them, all of the time, everyday.

I know I can grow tremendously in all six; ‘Prayer’ and ‘Word-Centred’ are probably my strongest whilst ‘Obedience’ and ‘Relational Intentionality’ are the two I’d suggest I’m weakest in.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the six and how you would assess your status against each.