What Is My Spiritual Temperature? (pt. 5 of 7)

Having a true witness of Christ in my life (step four), one that flows from faith produced by the rhema of God (step three), draws me closer than I’ve ever been to the heart of the Lord. I’m no longer merely going through the motions of faith, but living it as though He were living through me, which is exactly what’s happening. This intimacy with God begins to create in me a burden for the things that burden His heart. It’s this burden that leads me into step five, as the burden becomes a heavenly calling on my life to enter into the ministry that has always been my destiny.

Many have entered ministry thinking it to be the right thing to do without ever considering God’s timing or they’re own spiritual readiness for the task. There are ministers today who have entered the field without any thought to the state of their personal witness, marriage, relationships with family etc., and many have fallen hard because of these things which became easy inroads for satan into their lives.

God has one path to ministry and there are no shortcuts. If my life evidences the love, mercy, intimacy, conviction and faithfulness of my King (step four), then my heart will begin to feel the compassion of His burden for a specific ministry, one that He has spent my entire lifetime preparing me for. This is the fifth step of my spiritual journey, but there are yet two more steps the Lord wants me to take to reach the place He has for me in His Kingdom on earth…

To be continued…



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What Is My Spiritual Temperature? (pt. 4 of 7)

As I spend quality, set apart time at the feet of the Lord, hearing His rhema, letting His word renew my mind and heart (third step), I find myself moving inexorably into the fourth step – the witness of faith.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema) of God.” Romans 10:17

Hearing God produces true faith in me, and since I know that “faith without works is dead”, I find myself being increasingly led by His Spirit to live a holy life that’s pleasing to Him.

“I must decrease, He must increase.”

This holy life that results from hearing and obeying God, now projects itself into everything I do. No longer is my witness of Christ merely mechanical, based on blind obedience to the manners of Christianity. My faith has been made alive by the rhema of God. Every relationship, every task, no matter how great or trivial, as well as every trial and tribulation I encounter is now governed by this rhema-born faith in the word of God. This becomes a witness to my little sphere of influence that Christ is both the Lord and strength of my life, which produces the evidence to convict me of being a true follower of Christ, and no longer a mere professor.

Once the fruit of my intimacy with God begins to show itself in a living witness, I am ready to proceed to the next giant step in my journey of spiritual growth…

To be continued…


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What Is My Spiritual Temperature? (pt. 3 of 7)

The third step on my path to spiritual growth is one that, like the others before it, must be continually practiced in my life to receive the fullest benefit. Having made Christ the true Lord of my life (step one), and pro-actively set myself apart to Him (step two), I’m now able to receive His Holy rhema into my heart. Though I may have read and re-read dozens of scriptures from the beginning of my walk with Christ, it’s only now, when I’ve consciously set myself apart from the distractions and hindrances of my life, that I can truly begin to “hear” His voice through the scriptures.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (Joh 10:27)

There is no greater blessing than to hear the Master’s voice as He becomes my teacher, leading me through the scriptures, bringing to mind both old and new testament verses in ways I could never have imagined. What once was dry and dusty “manna” has now become the precious “fruit of the promised land”. The hidden mysteries of God begin to unfold like a flower as I sit at the Teacher’s feet. This is true discipleship and an absolute necessity to both achieve and maintain true spiritual growth.

It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
(Joh 6:45)

If I’m not “hearing” God in this way, it’s likely because I still have some spiritual “white noise” in my life -- something that doesn’t belong -- and it’s effectively drowning out the Lord’s voice to me. I can cry out in prayer for God to speak, but the truth is, He is already speaking. I just can’t hear Him through this “white noise”.

When I begin to receive God’s “signal” my spiritual temperature reaches fever pitch. But there is yet a higher place to pursue in my life’s journey with Christ…

To be continued…


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What Is My Spiritual Temperature? (pt. 2 of 7)

The second step on the path of spiritual growth is probably the most crucial of all and one I have repeatedly overlooked in my walk with Christ. Having made the conscious decision to submit my life to Christ as Lord (first step) I must now make a concentrated effort to separate myself to Him.

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1Pe 1:16)

When I make a determined effort to strip away everything in my life that holds me down; old ways of thinking, old habits, old desires, worldly relationships etc. I am, in effect, clearing away the darkness and debris that insulates me against the light of Christ that desires to shine on and through me. This light is the essence of true holiness, and holiness is the armor that guards us against the enemy’s temptations. When I get myself clear of the “white noise” of my former way of life, I find myself positioned to receive the Lord’s “true signal”, a signal that’s always being broadcast, but rarely received because of the spiritual interference I’ve allowed in my life.

Setting myself apart to Him certainly raises my spiritual temperature. But there is more to learn that will take me higher still…

To be continued…


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What Is My Spiritual Temperature? (pt. 1 of 7)

When I was first born again I was on fire for the Lord. His Spirit was working overtime in me. It was as if I had been transported to another realm of understanding. This stirred up all kinds of feelings, joy, repentance, hope, and a desire for the “more” that was promised in the word. If you were to take my spiritual temperature at that time I’m sure it would’ve read off the charts hot. But, as often happens in the lives of believers, it would not remain so. After awhile I found myself just going through the motions. I had become “lukewarm” not because I consciously chose to, but because I had no real compass to keep me on course. I thought, if I just kept reading my bible and faithfully going to church I’d just naturally grow into the greater things God has for me. I was wrong. I’ve since learned that spiritual growth follows a path, and that path must be known if I’m to have any hope of staying on it.

That’s when the Lord showed me that the first step of the path is to make Christ my Lord. This means more than simply accepting Christ as my savior. I must make the conscious choice to put Him above everything else in my life. I must be willing to submit every problem, anxiety, or concern directly to Him. I must be committed to going anywhere or doing anything He calls me to do. Until I’ve made this choice and declared it out loud, I will remain off the path of spiritual growth. And in that place, all the prayers and bible reading and church going I can muster won’t move me beyond square one.

But once I make this commitment and begin to take action towards it, my spiritual temperature immediately begins to rise.

To be continued…


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The Tears of Heaven

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes... (Rev 21:4)

Ever wonder what we could possibly be crying about in Heaven? Until recently I believed this probably referred to saints with loved ones who did not know the Lord and were, consequently, not with them in the hereafter. That would certainly necessitate the drying of a few tears. However, I believe there may be a better answer to this mystery and it’s one that should give pause to everyone reading this.

I believe that Genesis chapter 1 is an account of God’s restoration of creation after satan had corrupted it by making it “formless and void”. God’s first act of restoration was to speak light into this darkness of corruption, just as He spoke the light of His gospel into my heart filled with the darkness of sin and satan’s lies. Once I believed and received that gospel, light came into my darkened soul, forever negating the curse of sin and death and opening a door to a relationship with the living God.

But that was only the beginning. On the second day, God began realigning things to put them back the way He always intended them to be. Satan had mixed the waters, the holy with the profane. God’s second work was to separate them again. This speaks of His second work in me, to separate the new me from the dead weight (thought patterns, behaviors, values etc.) of the past and present me. He does this to set me free from the hindrances and distractions that would keep me from reaping the full benefits of a right relationship with Him.

On the third day, God causes the hidden soil of my heart to come into view. It’s here He begins to sow in me the deep things of His word and Spirit as the reward for my diligence in setting myself apart to Him.

On the fourth day, the fruit of the seeds sown in intimacy with God begins to manifest as a witness, a “greater light” to the world. It’s here I begin to develop the “evidence to convict me” as a true, born-again Christian.

On the fifth day, God lets me begin to see with my heart the “fish” that will become my ministry to the Kingdom. It’s here I receive my “calling”, “burden” and “vision” for the “greater things” the Lord Jesus said every believer would do.

On the sixth day, the “beasts and creeping things” also known as MY motives and MY agendas, for MY ministry, begin to rear their ugly heads. The Lord must show me the corrupt and hidden motives of my heart and purge me of them before He can fashion me into “the image of God”.

By the seventh day, He has taught me how to rest completely in Him. My own agendas have been nullified. I understand it’s not my ministry but His. He is responsible for the bills and expenses. He is responsible to deal with the false witnesses, allegations, persecutions etc. It’s in this place, where my motives have been purified, and my only reason for doing anything is TO BE WITH HIM, that He can use me to slay any giant, raise any corpse, champion any cause, and fill any void in the Kingdom where a saint of God is needed.

The bottom line of all of this… When I get to Heaven I can either stand with the saints who have “stayed the course” through all seven days of God’s work of restoration… or I can stand with those who simply heard and received the gospel on day one, those whose works of “wood, hay, and stubble” will not make the trip with them, those who “cast out devils in Jesus’ name” but never took the time “know” Him.

I choose the former because I’m convinced that when God lines us all up and shows us the incomprehensible destiny He’s had for each and every one of us in this life…

That’s when the tears will start to flow.

David and Goliath

I know what you’re thinking, “not this story again”. But indulge me a bit because I believe the Lord has something more to say on this subject.

First of all consider that, though the scripture is silent on this, Saul and all of Israel had to have been praying to God, night and day, for deliverance from the Philistines and Goliath in particular. Consider also that David became the answer to their prayers only because he ACTED in faith while the others were merely PRAYING in faith. There is also no account of David, himself, praying before he acted. There was nothing more to pray about. Saul was the anointed king and he had prayed for God’s deliverance. What could David’s prayer possibly add to that? Action, not prayer was called for, and David stepped up to be God’s instrument of deliverance for all of Israel. God worked a miracle through David because David trusted in Him enough to act.

We know that “faith without works is dead”. But often we substitute prayer as the work, believing that somehow the act of praying to God is sufficient to trigger God’s response. I don’t find this evidenced anywhere in scripture. Hebrews 11, the great “hall of faith” chapter, gives us dozens of examples of men and women of faith throughout old testament history, and every one of these accounts reveals faith in ACTION, God moving miraculously through men and women who didn’t merely pray for deliverance, but became the vessels of it.

This is in no way an attempt to diminish the role of prayer in the church. Rather it is an exhortation to take prayer to the next level by learning that it isn’t the end of our work of faith, but merely the beginning of it. David could easily have dropped to his knees and began to pray along with Saul and all of Israel for God’s deliverance. He could’ve waited day after day, sacrificing animal after animal to try and move the heart of God. We would call this “waiting on the Lord” but I believe God would call it “waiting on us”.

And why does God do this? Why doesn’t He simply take action based on our prayers? Because He has given all authority and dominion on earth to mankind, and what He has established with His word, even He cannot take back.

My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
(Psa 89:34)

This means, like it or not, the red sea doesn’t part unless Moses stands and raises his staff over it; the walls of Jericho don’t fall unless Israel marches around it for six days; Lazarus doesn’t rise from the dead unless Christ calls to him… and our individual, personal destiny remains dormant until we DECLARE AND ACT on it in faith.


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