Hello fellow bloggers! How have your Holy Week journey been so far? I trust that you are drawing closer to Jesus and experiencing more of His incredible presence in your life. Since His invitation is always open, today let’s go even deeper with Him on this spiritual journey.
Someone may ask, “But what does it look like to go deeper? What does it really mean?” Going deeper means you make the commitment to go beyond the initial experience of salvation as represented by the cross and you enter into a lifelong course of spiritual growth in your relationship with the Lord Jesus. God has given us the Holy Spirit to take us step by step along the way in knowing and experiencing Him. The Bible says, “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God...We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:10–12).
Let me offer five great tools that will help you go deeper through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit:
1. Pursuing God in daily prayer
2. Practicing other spiritual disciplines (e.g. fasting, meditation, worship, serving, etc.)
3. Daily reading and studying of the Bible
4. Fellowshipping with other believers regularly
5. Sharing your faith with others who don’t know Christ
Partnering with the Holy Spirit as He takes you into the unfathomable depths of Christ will be the most exciting, unbelievable adventure that you will ever experience! You will discover not only who Jesus is but also who you are called to be in Him. And nothing in the entire world can compare to the grandeur of that!
Specifically, in response to Demetrisha’s questions, I offer this word of encouragement. The fact that you are feeling increasingly infatuated with the idea that God loves you despite who you are is NEVER a sign of wavering of faith. It is exactly the opposite. Because that is exactly how He loves you. He loves you unconditionally and eternally which means His love for you will never change no matter what you or I may have done wrong. Not only did He give His Son on the cross for us (Romans 8:32), He went a step further and gave us His Holy Spirit to teach us how to access all the wonderful things He has provided for us in Jesus (John 14:26).
As far as what to do, I encourage you to begin by simply accepting the fact that He loves you lavishly, exuberantly and unreservedly! Let the awareness of that truth fill your heart daily, and I promise you, it will change you forever in wonderful ways. Then ask the Holy Spirit to help you put into practice the five points I highlighted above and you will begin to see His marvelous plan for your life unfold in even greater ways.
Have a great day!
Is it spiritually healthy to continue to witness to others when you yourself are not sure of where you stand with God?
ReplyDeleteDemetrisha, I agree wholeheartedly that in order for us to witness effectively to others, we ourselves must first have a spiritually healthy relationship with the Lord. The Lord is not anxious over us witnessing to others if we ourselves are not enjoying fellowship with Him. He is first interested in our personal spiritual well-being before anything else. However Demetrisha, the more pressing question that we first need to look at is, Why are you unsure of your standing with God?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that I am unsure. I just feel like my relationship with God is at a stand still. It's neither shallow nor deep. That makes me uncomfortable. I look at how my relationships with other people have grown over time and it makes me wonder why my relationship with God isn't deeper.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few questions that I could ask that would help shed some more light on why these things are the way they are in your spiritual life and why you are feeling the way you do. But given the limited space and format that this forum affords, let me "cut to the quick" as the saying goes. Our relationship and fellowship with the Lord is based primarily on LOVE. When things are not going well with us, we must first remind ourselves that God's attitude toward us has not changed. He is always in passionate pursuit after us. That is the nature of His incredible love for us, on which all our salvation and God's dealing with all His creatures are based. The problem comes in on our part. And that's when we need to take a closer look at what we are doing or not doing that maybe contributing to the problem. I think you would agree with me, that as you stated, the relationships you have with others are healthy and fruitful because you invest quality time and take care with those relationships. Well, the same is true with God. The more time we spend with Him, the deeper our experience of Him grows. It doesn't make Him love us any greater; it only allows us to see more of what that love really is and that in turn will cause us to love Him more. But also remember that though He is our loving Savior, He is also the holy Lord,which means we must make sure there is nothing in our lives that is displeasing to Him. So remember Demetrisha, this whole Christian walk is a love walk; your experience with Christ is a symphony of love. Ask Him to reveal more of His love to you, to help you love Him more, then spend time with Him and He will take you deeper.
ReplyDelete