The Seven Facets - A Final Word
Hey, so I hope you enjoyed all of that; I hope you took it in; thought it through. And even joined in with that final time of prayer at the end. This is just a quick follow-up to encourage you with something.
When I was in college and I had my own moment of awakening with Jesus; it did not come with some thunderous voice from the sky. It was quite gentle and quiet, and yet it was powerful and life-changing as I said in the beginning. But in that moment I really didn't know what to do, so I prayed a prayer very similar to what we prayed in that final Facet, but it was even simpler. It was just like, "Ok God, I believe in You, but I need help." And that night, I very simply just felt God's love for me, plain and simple; just the fact that He loved me and that He was calling me home. And that changed everything for me. That was at the heart of that whole experience.
But in that moment, there was also this desire in me to see change in my life. I felt like I needed to take a step of faith. And that's really because faith looks like something. Faith is not just good ideas in the head. And I won't go into all the detail of what that looked like for me, I can share that another time, but I made some big changes in my life with God's help, and one thing that I did and did not delay on, was that I got baptized. And this was actually the third time in my life that I was baptized in my life, but the difference was with this time is that I meant it. It was from my own decision in my own heart.
So as I explained in the seventh Facet, baptism does not save you, but going into the water publicly like that is a sign of something real going on in your heart. A real awakening of faith that's happening. So if you watched this whole series, there's a good chance someone that told you about it, you were connected to this in some way, and that connection may be with a spiritual community of some sort. My hope is that you will connect with that spiritual community, and that you will ask for help with getting baptized.
You can contact us here as well at the Almond Branch, if you're local. You can reach out to us at almondbranch.church for help with that. But either way, I just wanted to say for this final part, to not delay with this, if you are feeling that pull, and you reached out to God. Follow up with somebody.
And remember that baptism is really about connecting with a spiritual family and joining the community of faith. So that's really the major step that we take from here.
Now maybe you've already been baptized in your life and you meant it, it was from your heart, and so God could just be calling you at this point to just go deeper with Him; to swim into the waters even deeper. So let Him speak to you about that. Let Him show you what that means. But again the same call goes out here to be connected with others who are following Jesus. So seek God for direction in that same bond of community.
And then finally, for those who watched this but are not feeling any particular pull to go further with this, I just wanted to still bless you and just thank you for watching this, especially if you watched this far. I appreciate you joining with us on this journey, and I just pray that God would speak to you, and would give you all the direction, all the clarity you need in your life.
So we're going to be having follow-up teachings and resources that come with Awake, that come after this, so you can look for those. But again thank you, and please know that you have an amazing journey ahead of you.
Hey, so I hope you enjoyed all of that; I hope you took it in; thought it through. And even joined in with that final time of prayer at the end. This is just a quick follow-up to encourage you with something.
When I was in college and I had my own moment of awakening with Jesus; it did not come with some thunderous voice from the sky. It was quite gentle and quiet, and yet it was powerful and life-changing as I said in the beginning. But in that moment I really didn't know what to do, so I prayed a prayer very similar to what we prayed in that final Facet, but it was even simpler. It was just like, "Ok God, I believe in You, but I need help." And that night, I very simply just felt God's love for me, plain and simple; just the fact that He loved me and that He was calling me home. And that changed everything for me. That was at the heart of that whole experience.
But in that moment, there was also this desire in me to see change in my life. I felt like I needed to take a step of faith. And that's really because faith looks like something. Faith is not just good ideas in the head. And I won't go into all the detail of what that looked like for me, I can share that another time, but I made some big changes in my life with God's help, and one thing that I did and did not delay on, was that I got baptized. And this was actually the third time in my life that I was baptized in my life, but the difference was with this time is that I meant it. It was from my own decision in my own heart.
So as I explained in the seventh Facet, baptism does not save you, but going into the water publicly like that is a sign of something real going on in your heart. A real awakening of faith that's happening. So if you watched this whole series, there's a good chance someone that told you about it, you were connected to this in some way, and that connection may be with a spiritual community of some sort. My hope is that you will connect with that spiritual community, and that you will ask for help with getting baptized.
You can contact us here as well at the Almond Branch, if you're local. You can reach out to us at almondbranch.church for help with that. But either way, I just wanted to say for this final part, to not delay with this, if you are feeling that pull, and you reached out to God. Follow up with somebody.
And remember that baptism is really about connecting with a spiritual family and joining the community of faith. So that's really the major step that we take from here.
Now maybe you've already been baptized in your life and you meant it, it was from your heart, and so God could just be calling you at this point to just go deeper with Him; to swim into the waters even deeper. So let Him speak to you about that. Let Him show you what that means. But again the same call goes out here to be connected with others who are following Jesus. So seek God for direction in that same bond of community.
And then finally, for those who watched this but are not feeling any particular pull to go further with this, I just wanted to still bless you and just thank you for watching this, especially if you watched this far. I appreciate you joining with us on this journey, and I just pray that God would speak to you, and would give you all the direction, all the clarity you need in your life.
So we're going to be having follow-up teachings and resources that come with Awake, that come after this, so you can look for those. But again thank you, and please know that you have an amazing journey ahead of you.