Additional Tools
You’ve completed Listening to Jesus Foundations. Following Jesus isn’t about finishing a course—it’s about cultivating a lifelong relationship with him. The Christian life begins with a decisive step into life with Christ, sometimes referred to as being born again. This new birth begings a maturing process as the new follower of Jesus—YOU—grows from a spiritual baby to eventual maturity in Christ.
Rather than waiting until you feel like you’ve “arrived” before serving, the maturing process is meant to occur alongside a life of ministry. As you begin serving, you begin discovering your spiritual gifts. Likewise, as you discover the gifts God has given you and begin using them more and more to serve him in the church and world, your growth in Christ is accelerated. Your call to a life of ministry may even lead you into a specific mission or job assignment.
As the Listening to Jesus creative team, we pray that you will remain connected to what God is doing in your midst and join him in it. We believe that Listening to Jesus Foundations will aid in your maturation, ministry, and even mission. Often, after the initial transformation, disciples are introduced to basic instructions in the Christian life, but then become so immersed in ministry that they neglect other spiritual disciplines. As a result, their maturity or growth in Christlikeness is stunted. This book and the Listening to Jesus process provides a lifelong track to follow for continued maturity and ministry rather than a one-time experience like most religious programs provide.
I’ve been through the readings more than forty times; each time, I gain ever-deepening insights from my time with the Lord. The more I practice listening for his voice, the better able I am to hear him. Additionally, the Listening to Jesus and Listening to Jesus Foundations devotional curriculum is not all I immerse myself with. In fact, I often use Listening to Jesus to compliment other devotional resources. I read from other parts of Scripture or from other spiritual writings, but the three daily questions are a constant as I seek to stay connected to what God is allowing in my life. Recognizing and understanding God’s plan for me helps me to discover my place in the world and the ministry purposes he’s calling me to.