by Talisa Shannon

Created on: November 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 20, 2010

God sent his son, Jesus, to give people life more abundantly. Jesus was the ultimate example of how a person should live life. There is a process that a person goes through so he can live that life. Receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior is the beginning of the journey of living life abundantly on earth. A person must acknowledge that he is a sinner and confess the sins in a prayer to Jesus. In the prayer he should ask for forgiveness for sins and ask that those sins be removed from his heart. Then the person can ask Jesus to take over his heart, life because of love and believing that Jesus died on the cross then rose again on the third day. The person must also believe that Jesus is alive sitting next to God at His right hand interceding for him. The person will be filled with peace that surpasses all understanding and joy.

The person is filled with so much zeal that it is like in his bones. He has a burning desire to be in the presence of Jesus at all cost. He is at every church service, every choir practice, every church meeting. Every time the church is open he is there to learn more and more about being a Christian. At this stage there is a war for the person's attention. Satan wants to distract the person from pursuing Jesus by trying to tempt him. The temptation can be strong sometimes but Jesus will always give a way out of temptation. The person has to choose to stay focused on his relationship with Jesus. This stage can last longer when a person chooses to give in to temptation. The stage is on hold until the person gets their heart back in line with Jesus. At times during this stage the person may feel like everything around them is falling apart but it is a pruning process. Pruning is when Jesus takes away all of the bad characteristics to make us a person of love the way He was when He was on earth. During this process the person has to learn that Jesus is first in everything in order to make it to the next stage. Psalm 37:4 says to "Delight yourself in the the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart." The person has to learn to seek Jesus no matter what is going on around him because He is in control. When Jesus sees the person is truly seeking Him and not paying attention to distraction then He will continue to pour out His blessings.

The next stage is receiving the meat from Jesus. The meat is the discovering spiritual gifts and how to really be used in God's kingdom in a greater way. The spiritual gifts include speaking in tongues (another language) while praying, understanding the tongues, the laying on of hands, and prophesying. The person will also be more confident in what he believes and be bolder in witnessing to people about the love of Jesus. He still start to have visions and dreams of things Jesus wants to do in his life. He is living the life of righteousness, nothing can distract him from the love of Jesus. There is still going to be trials, tribulation and temptation but he knows that the same power that rose Jesus from the dead is in side of him. He is living the abundant life that Jesus came to give.

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