Q4. He Must Increase

[Rosesam]

Q4. (John 3:30) In what sense, in order to be successful in your Christian life, must you decrease and Christ increase? How can you facilitate the shift necessary for this change to occur? What steps might help you do this?

Dying to self and giving Him the Lordship over my life. Know that He is not a co-pilot with me, but that He is steering my life, in the way He wants to do it. So, I need to let go of my rights, and allow Him to take the rightful ownership of me. Jesus said, to learn from Him and that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Jesus being a carpenter, may have specialized in making yokes. Yokes are custom made. A novice ox is usually yoked with an experienced one and they both plow together. If the novice becomes rebellious and does not step in with the experienced one, the novice suffers from the yoke upon the neck. It can’t go ahead or fall back in step with the other. That’s what Jesus wants of us. Step by step allow Him to lead our lives and we humbly and willingly follow Him. This requires surrendering of our wills, letting go of our ego, stubbornness, and rebellion and allow Him to take the rein of our lives.

[theoldveteran]

On 8/7/2014 at 2:19 PM, Pastor Ralph said:

Q4. (John 3:30) In what sense, in order to be successful in your Christian life, must you decrease and Christ increase? How can you facilitate the shift necessary for this change to occur? What steps might help you do this?

(1)  Christ must be first in our lives and ministry!  He won't share His glory and His Holy Spirit won't work in our lives, which is necessary four life to succeed.

(2) By surrendering the control of my life, my heart, and my desires to Christ.

(3) By spending more time in Bible Study, prayer and meditating on Christ.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

This summer I am studying the book of Ezekiel and St John's Gospel.   By prayerfully studying His Word,  His Word cleanses me from hidden faults that I am not aware of; my consciousness is further enlarged as well.   In prayer time, I am being renewed by the Holy Spirit.   A renewal of grace to preach the Gospel.

Facilitating this would be deepening of my altar time each day.   Praying outdoors, studying the Bible with more diligence and more frequent outdoor evangelistic trips. Facilitating this shift is a matter of methodology.   Proper planning of daily schedule would solve any problems.  My career in the telecom world of fraud investigation has given me much wisdom !

[Daniel R]

1. In what sense, in order to be successful in your Christian life, must you decrease and Christ increase?

Personally, in my life, I need to decrease in trying to do it all by myself and instead let Jesus take full control. The farthest I have and can get myself is nowhere, but if I let Jesus increase and begin guiding and leading me, I will get to a place where God (The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit) is honoured to the full extent.

Another thing in which I can decrease and Jesus Christ can increase is in my (very wrong yet very real) belief that if don't do a specific thing, I'm a bad Christian.

2. How can you facilitate (start) the shift necessary for this change to occur?

Well, for my first struggle, I need to stop worrying about everything and just give God my full and undivided trust. For my second struggle, I need to remind myself that just because I do something wrong doesn't mean God doesn't love me, and that my works aren't what saves me in the long run, it's the grace of God that came through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that does!!!!!!!

3. What steps might help you do this?

Personally, I believe that the main step I need to take is really practice self-control. As soon as I get either one of those thoughts, I need to control myself and put those thoughts away and rather focus and look to/for Jesus for help, guidance, and direction!!!

 

THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!

[Irmela]

(John 3:30)

In what sense, in order to be successful in your Christian life, must you decrease and Christ increase?

How can you facilitate the shift necessary for this change to occur?

What steps might help you do this?

By yielding my will over to Him. In fact by yielding my mind, will, emotions, my all to Him. Allowing Him to have full control. Letting Him sit on the throne of my heart, of my life. Whatever I do, doing it with and ultimately for Him. 

[Ludmila Kosenko]

The shift?...Die to self. That is the key to decreasing self and increasing Jesus Christ. Be Christ-centered in thoughts and actions NOT self-centered which is powerless to create a successful Christian life. Follow and perform HIs will not your own. It glorifies God!

[Krissi]

I don't think answering these questions is as easy as first appears.

In the Christian life, we increase, not only spiritually but in our abilities and accomplishments. As persons, we become bigger and, hopefully, have more to give as we mature, make mistakes, grow from those mistakes, become more proficient at particular skills or abilities, etc. Secular people also increase for the same reasons, so there's nothing particularly faith-filled about increase. Healthy cultures revere the elderly by assuming that older individuals function as cultural repositories of knowledge and wisdom. Older, wiser people point not only to the past, but to a way of living well in the future. What they say matters in every generation because true wisdom is timeless. 

But ... and this is decidedly Christian, we also shrink in ways that have to do with volition or self-will. We opt not to do/think things that we would, left to our own inclinations, prefer to do, and, conversely, we do things that we would have avoided in the past. Our will submits to His will in this way. We change essentially. Deep within. We decrease. This decrease is decidedly Christian. Seculars can't do it. The way we decrease, that is, is a Christian way. We decrease our will, the motive force within. 

The will is not superficial but defines who we are. In a very real way, our will IS us. It defines us. Makes us. To decrease in our ability to will independently of God is to change our inner selves. The irony, of course, is that we must will to not will! We must decide/will to cease willing before we can decrease.

At this point, a miracle occurs. As we choose/will to not will, which is humanly impossible as well as makes little sense philosophically, He enters. He does so because we can't un-will our own wills! It's impossible. So God steps in and begins the unspooling process of unwilling our will. He hears our plaintive bleats, that of his sheep. He knows we don't understand what we're saying when we ask to be "unwilled." And yet, He answers our silly prayer. Always.

As we age, then, we more quickly and thoroughly give up our will. Practically speaking, this means a "willingness" to be/do somehting foreign to us, to be like Him. Though we were created in His image, we are also fallen. Such fallenness impacted the will. Thus, our wills have to be redeemed. Made right. Set on a new course. And that's sanctification, as I now see it --  the process of willingly un-willing before a God who re-wills us in His image. 

 

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