The following concept is placed before us for our consideration. Spiritual life is not stagnate. The beginning point is where the spiral to a better life begins, which comes as we desire God and commit to following him with heart, mind, and soul. The spiritual spiral ascends similar to going up rungs of a ladder, though less noticeable. When you look back, from where you’ve come, you realize you are not standing immobile in one place.
Seeking God in order to know him facilitates a process that takes Christ-followers upwards into new heights. Each individual can have a defining moment, one that impacts their future with an intensity beyond the scope of their limited spiritual imaginings.
A defining moment comes when that person wants more in their relationship with God. They want to know God in a personal way and they put their all on the altar. Sounds extreme, doesn’t it? But it’s not. God wants to be known. The more we know him the more glorious life becomes.
When a person develops a keen awareness of God and initiates an honest relationship with him, one that is real, really real, so real that the relationship turns into a keen friendship–a friendship that grows stronger day by day–is when their friendship with God becomes the source of inner joy and happiness. Life has changed its trajectory. Something unique has begun in them, unparalleled in its intensity and duration.
This is a strange and wonderful fact. The seeker becomes a finder. They begin to find God. They awaken to an active hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Their desires are converting to godly ambitions. They begin to experience an increase in knowledge and spiritual understanding. Wisdom soon covers them as a garment and goes everywhere with them.
Passion for God will define this person down to the innermost details of their interior life. The world, as a consequence, loses its pull and attraction. Material possessions lose their gloss, glitz and glamour, attraction and importance. Status and power are no longer of any consequence; a radical ‘about-face’ is occurring. They have spiraled upward and found it beautiful and full of all joy.
God is what matters. Love for God and his love for them, becomes a powerful force that has a multiplied effect as seen in the great martyrs of the faith, who counted it a privilege and a joy to suffer unjust treatment in identification with Christ’s suffering and even tortuous death for the glory of God. That’s a hard concept to wrap around one’s mind, but there are many examples of such people.
Spiritual delight is experienced when your emotions, will, and intellect have combined in a set pattern that fully functions during a day’s activities. Spiritual living continues to go deeper and richer within the bosom of Christ. Christ is their hope and glory and daily reality.
There is a danger even in this. Some seekers get off track when they become enamored with what God is doing in their lives and, as a result, they quite naturally create a following. One need only take a small leap to exchange truth for self-honor. This morphs into misleading others into following the person rather than the Christ of the person. A cult or bondage may be the end result. One must keep focused on Christ and remain humble in the same spirit as Christ Jesus.
Christ fills thirsty people to over-flowing from out of his well of abundance. The discipline of keeping centered in Christ is one of the keys to spiritual living. This changes everything and leads the finder into heights of joy.
Well said, Norma. Like the song about Jacob’s ladder: “Every round goes higher, higher.”
“Every round goes higher and higher,” lovely and true. Thank you! “O to be like him, blessed Redeemer, living Word.” I wish you the best, Shirlee.