Jesus was and is all about life. “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) When you said Yes to Jesus, what did you expect would happen next? What were you saying Yes to? Have you experienced that life?

Forgiveness of sins and living eternally are incomparable gifts beyond anything we could do for ourselves. That would be more than enough for us to love and worship Jesus forever!

But what does that mean for right now? How does saying Yes to Jesus affect your life today?

Jesus’ primary message during His earthly ministry was, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” (See Mark 1:14-15) As great as eternal redemption is, you don’t have to wait. It’s here now!

That means you don’t have to wait for heaven to experience the freedom, joy, peace, victory, love – the LIFE – that’s available to you as a follower of Jesus.

You don’t have to stay addicted to unhealthy substances, pornography, dysfunctional relationships, or sex.

You don’t have to exist paralyzed by fear, anxiety, depression, or unhealed trauma.

You don’t have to be isolated from true authentic loving relationships, whether single or married.

You don’t have to keep engaging in the same sinful destructive thoughts and behaviors over and over again.

You don’t have to remain in the broken down, miserable condition in which Jesus found you.

You don’t have to live like this!

Saying Yes to Jesus doesn’t automatically change your circumstances. But Jesus always changes YOU if you give Him that chance.

God doesn’t usually “zap” you from “here” to “there,” instantly mature and fully transformed into the person He created you to be. Most change happens over time. God invites you into a process of becoming, a process through which you become more and more like His Son Jesus.

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)

Our spiritual growth is not for the purpose of making us nicer people (who wants to be “nice” anyway?!), healthier and wealthier, or more successful. It’s not to make us into model church members. It’s all about becoming more like Jesus.

Are You Growing Up?

Think back to when you first said Yes to Jesus. Are you looking more like Him then when you first believed? How about compared to a year ago?

The Holy Spirit will not stop working with you as long as you give Him any room in your life. Regularly He will reach down into your soul, grab onto something, pull it into the light and say, “This right here; it needs to change! Let Me have this!”

If the enemy can’t get you to completely walk away from God, He will keep shouting lies that your sin is too big to change, your problems too ugly for God to do anything with you, the transformation journey too difficult to go through. The sense of failure, guilt, and shame will sound like your own thoughts, but it’s the enemy’s lies instead.

Jesus had a two-part message for those who were caught in troubles, even if they caused those troubles themselves. And both parts are vitally important.

• “You’re free and forgiven! I’m offering you LIFE!”
• “Now let’s deal with your stuff.”

“Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”” (John 8:10-11)

The person God created you to be is an original, built uniquely for a specific place in His kingdom both here and now, and in eternity. In that journey there are certain common challenges most of us face, and there are common steps we need to take.

You really DON’T have to live like this! But if you want things to be different, walking this journey of transformation is important. And we’ve got some free tools to help you do that.

Three FREE Tools

1. Spiritual Maturity Assessment

In going for the LIFE that Jesus has for you, it helps to take a snapshot of where you are right now. This short Spiritual Maturity Assessment will help you examine how much the life of Jesus is impacting the various dimensions of your experience.

Take the Assessment Now

You’ll have opportunity to insert your email address at the end to get your personalized assessment results.

2. 30 days of Positive Spiritual Growth

This kind of change involves daily actions. We have a 30-day email devotional series available that will help you:

• See what Jesus and those who followed Him had to say about this kind of life.
• Know how to apply these growth truths to your own life.
• Experience how to pray in a way that facilitates your ongoing transformation.

Why not start this 30 day series right now?

I hope you take advantage of these free resources, and enjoy the next step in the process of growth God has for you.

Tweetables: why not share this post?

• Jesus was all about LIFE! How are you doing in experiencing that life? Change is available NOW. You don’t have to live like this!  Tweet that.

Podcast Available:

• On this week’s podcast I unpack more of these ideas about the LIFE that Jesus came to give, and what it means to experience that life NOW.  Listen here.