Traits of a Christ follower

Walking the walk

What better way to start your walk with Jesus than to read about the lifelong transformation that changed the lives of His earliest followers as recorded in Scripture. As you begin spending time digging into the collection of historical documents and personal letters preserved in the New Testament you’ll be able to draw out the transformational traits that developed in their lives. You’ll find as you spend time here that the inner working of the Holy Spirit in their lives, through their intentional and repeated responses, resulted in related external actions. Their inner responses and changes always preceded their actions.

This is where the rubber meets the road. As we said earlier…

For it is God who works in you

One of our favorite theologians, Oswald Chambers, writes this passage that bears repeating:

…When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life… work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf… When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him… at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power. – Oswald Chambers

This interaction within your soul – willing and then acting from your secret place – is walking the walk. And what a miraculous, life-changing walk it is! This process is as natural as planting seeds, watering them, and watching them grow. The transformation is inevitable. Of course, your intentional and repeated inner-life responses should continue daily over the rest of your life. Over time, the natural outcomes will include actions that are scripturally expected in the lives of authentic Christ followers. These include regular study of God’s Word, surrender of habitual and destructive behavior choices, faithfulness in marriage and other significant relationships, financial integrity and stewardship, involvement with a body of believers, and discipling of others, to name a few.

Position your heart to receive and respond

As you read the narratives and scripture passages under each trait, draw out of the text the inner-life responses that lead to the behaviors and traits. As you’ve read earlier in our series, these responses of the soul (the heart and mind) to the promptings of the Holy Spirit are internal, intentional, practical and repeated throughout your life as you grow in discipleship. Of course as you mature in Christ these responses become the Christ-centered behaviors, and ultimately the traits that govern your life.

Do you remember some of the possible inner responses to the Holy Spirit that were suggested previously? Although there will be countless ways in which you respond, here are just a few that we’ve gathered from scriptural examples:

Believing what scripture claims about your identity in Christ (Ephesians 2:10)
Surrendering your will to His in your choices (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Humbly examining, confessing and surrendering thought patterns, mindset, intentions and motivations (Romans 12:2)
Returning your focus to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2)
Seeing everything you do as an offering to God instead of seeking praise or recognition (Colossians 3:23-24)
Going to God in personal prayer, intercession, praise, or worship (1 Timothy 2:1-2)
Waiting intentionally and expectantly for Him to act in a tangible way (Romans 8:24-25)
Taking time to be quiet and still before Him (Philippians 4:6-7)
Inviting Him to act in your life (James 4:8)
Referring to Scripture to affirm what you believe is a call from Him, or to determine a further response (Matthew 7:7-8)
Applying your prayerful study of Scripture, within proper context and meaning, to your daily life (James 1:22-25)

When you go through the traits of a Christ follower on the next few pages, it’s a powerful exercise to also speak aloud these traits (the title of each page) and related scripture passages (with the pink backgrounds). The effect of speaking aloud these developing qualities about yourself is that you’ll hear yourself proclaiming the truth!

Before you move on to the traits of a Christ follower remember that in this life you will always be in a state of becoming. You will not “arrive” in this life. You will finally be “perfected” in heaven. Even as the great apostles matured but never arrived at sinless perfection, you will continue towards maturity as well. You have need of only one thing, and that is Jesus. In that sense you are complete in Him, fully equipped for the road ahead of you. Now consider these key passages below to position your heart to receive from the Spirit of Christ.

Christ is becoming more fully formed in you.
“Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.” – Apostle Paul, Galatians 4:19

You are complete in Him.
“…so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power.” – Apostle Paul, Colossians 2:10

Taking steps…

On every page of the Traits of a Christ Follower section, you’ll see a few “Taking Steps” questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion. Hopefully these questions will help you dig deeper and apply what you’ve read in a more impactful way.

Related to the opening paragraph above, and thinking back about people in scripture you’ve read about in the previous pages, is there one that comes to mind as a good example for you to follow? Share his or her name and what you learned from them and how they walked with Jesus.
In the analogy of comparing walking the walk to planting seeds, how are these two activities similar? Can you come up with at least three ways? Dig deep here. Perhaps you can write a short poem that illustrates this analogy.
This inner transformation being a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Christ), over time as you respond to the Spirit what are some of the natural outcomes that will occur in your life that are in line with the expectations of Jesus for His followers as they grow in maturity?
Think about some of the ways you can respond to the Holy Spirit. The bulleted list above is just a start. Can you think of additional ways you are responding in your life now?
As a result of this inner transformation that we’ve covered in detail in the first section, the character traits that will develop in your life are discussed in more detail on each of the following pages. Together, the pages of this section will help you visualize what the life of a Christ follower looks like. Preview those pages now and discuss which ones, if any, stand out to you.

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