{"id":4237,"date":"2011-12-31T13:25:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T13:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4237"},"modified":"2011-12-31T13:27:15","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T13:27:15","slug":"following-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4237","title":{"rendered":"Following Jesus….."},"content":{"rendered":"
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This mornings In Touch Devotional was great, I’m sharing it in it’s entirety! \u00a0Thank you Charles!<\/p>\n

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Matthew 4:18-25 \u00a0\u00a0New Living Translation (NLT)<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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The First Disciples<\/span><\/h5>\n

\u00a018<\/sup> One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers\u2014Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew\u2014throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19<\/sup> Jesus called out to them, \u201cCome, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!\u201d 20<\/sup>And they left their nets at once and followed him.<\/span>\u00a021<\/sup> A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22<\/sup> They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowds Follow Jesus<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a023<\/sup> Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 24<\/sup> News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed\u2014he healed them all. 25<\/sup> Large crowds followed him wherever he went\u2014people from Galilee, the Ten Towns,[a<\/span><\/a>]<\/sup> Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.<\/span><\/div>\n
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When Jesus called His disciples, they immediately dropped everything and followed Him. We might think, The Christian life must have been simpler for them than for us. When Jesus started walking, they fell in line behind Him. As He taught, they heard His voice. By watching His interactions with people, they learned from His example. But how are we to follow Jesus, since He\u2019s no longer on earth? We can\u2019t touch, see, or hear Him the way they could.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Christ was about to leave this earth, He promised His disciples that He would send them a Helper who would never leave them. In fact, this Helper would actually live within them (John 14:16-17<\/a>). Today we follow Jesus by hearing and heeding His indwelling Holy Spirit\u2014that\u2019s the closest guidance we can ever have.<\/p>\n

The Spirit does for us all the things Christ did for His disciples. He guides us each step of the way and teaches us the truths of God. But His work actually goes beyond that. The Holy Spirit transforms us from the inside out and enables us to serve and obey the Lord. He helps us discover God\u2019s will for our lives and then give us the desire and strength to follow the path He\u2019s planned for us. All we have to do is follow.<\/p>\n

An essential requirement for following Jesus is sensitivity to the Holy Spirit\u2019s voice. The more yielded you are to His guidance as He speaks to you through God\u2019s Word and during prayer, the greater your spiritual hearing will become. Hearing Him is the only way you\u2019ll ever progress in your Christian life.<\/p>\n

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I encourage you to ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, to make you fully aware of His presence…..<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This mornings In Touch Devotional was great, I’m sharing it in it’s entirety! \u00a0Thank you Charles!   Matthew 4:18-25 \u00a0\u00a0New Living Translation (NLT) The First Disciples \u00a018 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers\u2014Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew\u2014throwing a net into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4240,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237\/revisions\/4240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}