Secrets to Imitating God by Bill Johnson

Author:Bill Johnson [Johnson, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, Spiritual Growth
ISBN: 9780768428285
Google: aoBFPgAACAAJ
Amazon: 1850789533
Publisher: Destiny Image
Published: 2009-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

The Practical Side of Things

If it matters to you, it matters to Him.

Perhaps you’ve heard it said, God is number one, the family is

number two, and the Church is number three…. That unoffi-

cial list is important as it outlines a few of the priorities in a

Christian’s life that have become confused through the years. I know

of many tragedies in pastor’s families because they ignored these pri-

orities of Kingdom living. Yet, as good as this list is, I don’t believe it

is technically accurate. When God is number one, there is no num-

ber two.

Out of my love for God I give myself to my wife and kids. It’s

not separate from the Lord, but is unto Him. It’s not that I can’t love

my wife without loving God—many unbelievers do that well. But

in knowing and loving God, I am released to a measure of supernat-

ural love that is unattainable apart from God. It should be said that

anyone who is completely abandoned to God should love others

more than they thought possible. It is because of my passion for

Jesus that I love the Church the way I do. My love for God is my

love for life. They cannot be separated. Loving my family, church,

— 1 1 1 —

S E C R E T S TO I M I TAT I N G G O D

ministry…is an expression of my love for God. God being number

one, the only One.

Religion is what destroys this process because it implies that

only overtly spiritual activities are acceptable as service to God and

that anything that doesn’t have to do with Bible reading, witnessing,

church attendance, etc. is not true Christian service. Religion takes

us back to the concept of spiritual and secular parts of the Christian

life. The person living this dual life needs a list of priorities to sur-

vive; otherwise they will not take care of other matters of impor-

tance. Their concept of God doesn’t allow them to actually have a

passion for something that is not viewed as a Christian discipline.

What may appear to be semantics for some has purpose for this

reason: we must have a shift in thinking whereby we recognize that

passion for God gives birth to a passion for other things. And it’s

those other things that are often to be pursued as unto the Lord. We

shouldn’t experience them as something in competition with, or sep-

arate from, our devotion to God. Perhaps the best example of this in

Scripture is found in First John 4:20. It says that if we love God it

will be measurable by our love for people. This is such an absolute

principle that God says if we don’t love others, we don’t actually love

Him. The point is this: in the wake of our passion for God, passion

for other things is created. It is often in giving ourselves to those

things that we prove and manifest our love for God.

In my case my love of the outdoors is part of my devotion to

Christ. While some worship nature, I worship the One it points

to—the Creator. My love for my family, for hunting and

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