THREE STEPS TO SPIRITUAL SUCCESS OR THE WINNING FORMULA

Ephesians 4:1 KJV (WS)

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

ILLUSTRATION:

It has been called the greatest rescue mission of World War II.

Late in that war, American bombers were sent on dangerous missions over southern Europe to cripple the Nazis’ oil supplies. Hundreds of crews in flying tin cans soared through storms of anti-aircraft shells. Many American pilots were forced to bail from their shot-up planes. The injured airmen drifted by parachute into occupied Yugoslavia, expecting to be captured or killed.

Instead, on the ground remarkable rescue teams were already in place. Serbian peasants tracked the path of the floating flight crews. Their sole mission was to grab the flyboys and bring them to safety—before the Nazis arrived.

Risking their own lives, the peasants fed and sheltered the downed solders. These rescued men were in friendly hands but on enemy soil. They still needed to escape.

The story of what became known as Operation Haylard builds toward a daring mission, a secret landing strip, and a clandestine evacuation plan. Amazingly, those Serbian peasants rescued every single American airman—over 500 in all.

Here’s the fascinating subplot to the rescue. To travel to the evacuation site, the airmen had to spend weeks following the Serbian freedom fighters, who alone knew the path to the evacuation site. Despite the profound language barriers, the direction, the pace, and the destination were in the hands of their rescuers. The men had been saved from their enemy, but the journey had just begun. They still had to walk to freedom.

The story of Operation Halyard sheds light on an important spiritual reality: to be rescued from something sets us on the path toward something.

For the airmen it was a journey of survival. For us it’s a journey of faith. The One who saved us is now calling us to walk. It’s nonnegotiable. Though snatched from spiritual death, we soon discover that the Christian life isn’t an arrival; it’s an adventure. Christ rescues us then he points us to the path of following him.

The apostle Paul describes this active view of the Christian life in his letter to the Ephesians, urging them to “walk worthy of the vocation to wherewith ye are called” (4:1).

THREE STEPS TO SPIRITUAL SUCCESS

OR THE WINNING FORMULA

1. SALVATION, BEING RESCUED BY GOD

Romans 1:16 KJV (WS)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

1) Salvation is Emancipation from Sin’s Practice.

Ephesians 2:2 KJV (WS)

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Luke 4:18 KJV (WS)

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

2. SANCTIFICATION, BEING SET APART FOR GOD

Hebrews 10:12 KJV (WS)

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

2) Sanctification is Separation from Sin’s Pollution.

2 Peter 2:20 KJV (WS)

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

2 Corinthians 6:17 KJV (WS)

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

3. SERVICE, BEING DEVOTED TO GOD

Romans 12:1 KJV (WS)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

1 Corinthians 3:6–9 KJV (WS)

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

3) Service is Subjection which is the action of subjecting a country or person to one's control, or the fact of being subjected to Gods Plan.

This will bring success to any believes life.