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I often wonder why so little is spoken of interpersonal communication in Christian circles when the need is so great.
That transition from unbelief to belief or from eternally lost to eternally saved does indeed turn our heart of stone into flesh, (Ezekiel 36:26) but we have to know that our precious bundle of flesh is now simply the raw material that God will mold and shape into the likeness of His Son Jesus Christ. Much of His early work in us is about changing our fleshly thinking, feeling, and choosing so we communicate interpersonally in a way that will draw other people to Him. The Lord has to help us abandon the old and take on the new.
Clearly everything we need for life and godliness is found in relating to Jesus Christ the way scripture says we should. He stands at the door knocking at the time of our salvation; we let Him into our hearts and he promises to fellowship or sup with us. (Revelation 3:20)
The problem is that fellowship is a learned behavior.
The other problem is that after we invite the Lord into our lives, along comes a whole host of people for us to relate to. Some of those people are dead set on confining us to the image they had of us before we came to Christ. Others may be wrapped up in working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Our growth in the Lord or lack of it may be a wee bit scary.
I will never forget my first few days of walking with the Lord. I brought all of me to the Lord and I was quite a handful. People who only know the mature Teirrah McNair marvel at my stories of bringing a tap board into service and tap dancing during praise and worship. They literally gasp for breath when I add that I had neither the skill nor talent nor anointing for dance of any kind. Now that was scary, but to God be the glory.
In any event, our success in relating to our Lord and to people depends almost solely on our willingness to let God manage all of our relationships. He is a master at relationships. Just examine the scriptures. And what is really exciting is that with our cooperation, He can transform our self-concept, our perception, our listening, our verbal and non-verbal communication into tools for converting the world to His way of living. God can even separate us from flesh- filled, unhealthy expressions like "he gets under my skin; :(
she works my nerve; 
he makes me sick; 
I wish he would get off my back; 
The final note here is that what God can't do in conflict resolution simply cannot be done I invite you, even dare you to partake of every drop of information in this series of blogs. You'll be so glad you did.
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