1. Purpose of the Vow
The four components of Acts 2:42, “and they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine,
fellowship, the breaking of bread and in prayer,” are the ingredients for transformation. The vow is
a process in which to experience a new way of life. By devoting yourself to prayer, focusing
on your purpose, guarding your (and others’) consecrated heart, and willfully serving God
and people, true change begins to happen. The purpose of this process is to bring about a
community of love where all people can experience God’s glory and be set free.
The struggle we have been oppressed by our whole lives is this: ignorance to
distinguish right from wrong. Every cursing word, every negative emotion, and every deep
seeded sickness of the heart birthed because of a choice. When creation was formed, the
Bible says that God made every seed-bearing fruit bear fruit after its own kind, e.g. the seed
of an olive tree would bring forth an olive tree. What purpose does this serve? To paint a
picture of how simple God made it, when you sow blessings to another, you reap the same,
if you curse another, you will suffer curses yourself. Until we learn the difference between
the two, we live our lives in complete ignorance and wonder why life is so rough all the time.
Why would I be interested in transformation? Let me ask you this, do you enjoy
putting others down without meaning to and likewise being put down yourself? Perhaps it’s
your poor health, do you enjoy sickness and disease? All sickness is preventable in the name
of Jesus, be it physical, mental or spiritual, He came to bring you abundant life (John 10:10).
So how can I be transformed to believe I could never be sick or hurt again, that’s pretty bold
don’t you think? Yes it is, but the Lord is our confidence. He came to draw people to
Himself and toward one another in community (John 12:32). So, it begs the question, can
you continue in ignorance and expect the miraculous from God?
Love is a culture and a Person. As you’d travel to another country and the traditions
and customs are drastically different, so love is distinguished from indifference. The
attractive pull of Jesus to any person is this: His love is comforting and strengthening, it
empowers every good thing about you, because when God made creation, He looked on all
of it, including you, and said, “it is good.” The reason we respond to God in a vow is to make
that choice mentioned earlier. Actively recognizing the carnal nature we were born with, i.e.
outbursts of anger, shameful guilt, abusing people, arrogance toward instruction, etc.,
identifies the old way in order to recognize a new way. Jesus is the new way.
The new way is to be transformed in your very inner thoughts. The things that make
up what you think about God, yourself and others, must be changed in order for you to be
changed. The new way is to learn God’s blessing principles (apostle’s doctrine), share and
receive from others in laughter or tears (fellowship), hear God speak directly to us (breaking of
bread) and engage Love Himself in those inner thoughts (prayer). Therefore, this vow is to
deny that carnal nature and its consequences and pursue the new spirit nature, full of
rewards. Since, God is Family, He placed in our hearts a longing for acceptance and love,
these are found in Him only and He is in the midst of two or more gathered together. If you
have suffered, come to the waters’ edge of His presence, where more people than you realize
long to love you and bless you; “then fear (reverence) came upon all the people and many signs and
wonders took place,” Acts 2:43.