What we have established so far is that God, who is Spirit – is defined by His Word. And that true spirituality or Christ-likeness is measured by an understanding and application of the principles of God’s word.
John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. NIV
To become spiritual is therefore to come to a place of conformity to the authority of God’s word – not just to perform it on the outside but to conform to it internally first, through inner attitudes, motives and mentality.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. NIV
The word clearly confronts the nature of our inner life in order to produce Christ-likeness from within. The danger is to “externally perform” the commands of God when the inner life has not been aligned correctly to the nature of Christ. Jesus likened this to the “washing of the outside of the cup” when the inside is left unclean (Matt 23:25&26).
Spirituality is not something that is confined to Sunday morning worship, it is a real, pragmatic issue that is primarily established internally and demonstrated on the outside (through behaviour, character and lifestyle). The word must become flesh in our lives. We must be a letter written by the ink of the Spirit. Spirituality or Christ-likeness can therefore be measured through someone’s motives, attitudes, mentality, behaviour, character and lifestyle. There is a real need to take our Christ-likeness outside of the four-walls of the church and or outside the Sunday morning service to the daily conduct of our lives and the structure of our lifestyles. We have to be real and pragmatic in the way we follow Christ.
There are therefore two issues that I want to re-emphasise in tracking our spiritual advance as believers:
(1) Spiritual life is measured through our Progressive Understanding of Christ and His Kingdom
Matthew 13:19
19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. NIV
Heb 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.
Heb 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
Heb 5:13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation…
The phrase, “we have much to say” represents the Lord’s desire to unveil or reveal more of Himself and His purpose to the church. And yet in the same scripture we realise that the Lord will not reveal more if people are still struggling with understanding things that have been taught in the past. There must therefore be an emphasis on teaching and testing understanding of believers. There is a “pastoral temptation” to always confine the issue of growth to “numbers”. Any leader of church will be familiar with the issue of being asked the following questions: “is your church growing?” How many members do you now have in the church?” The assumption always is that the more members one has is the more there is God’s favour, blessing, prosperity and anointing. While I appreciate the desire to know numbers I however always get concerned that few people ever ask about the spiritual state of the church and people’s growth in terms of understanding issues of the kingdom of God. Jesus used to have all kinds of followers. Some followed Him because of their personal needs, some because of the miracles and very few followed because they wanted to learn something. One day after teaching, Jesus began rebuking His own people:
Matthew 13:11-15
11 He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
"'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.' NIV
We therefore have to keep a good balance between a burden for numbers and a burden for true and real spiritual advance or growth in people’s lives.
God does not only want people getting saved but He also wants them to come to the knowledge of truth.
1 Timothy 2:3
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, NIV
1 Timothy 2:4
4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. NIV
God is pleased when people are not only getting saved but are also progressively being brought to truth. So therefore a true and balanced pastoral conversation is one that captures both the issue of evangelistic advance and the building of the lives of the people.
Heb 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.
The church’s advance to perfection can only be tracked through church’s advance in the area of understanding of knowledge and truth. We can build huge churches (numerically), have numerous activities and programmes and yet if the people are not advancing into new positions of understanding, all of the activities and programmes constitute nothing but “walking around the mountain” like the generation of Moses that died in the desert.
(2) Spiritual life must be Pragmatic
John 4:24
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
NIV
Psalms 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
NIV
Romans 1:20
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
NIV
Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
NIV
John 1:14
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
NIV
The nature of God can be seen in the cosmos – it can be seen and even be understood through that which is visible and tangible. Spirituality for us is therefore not some mystical reality that can not be defined and manifested. Spirituality is a pack of principles that can be manifested in real time and space, “the word became flesh”. Unless we capture this performance imperative in our Christ-likeness, we cannot walk in the power of the kingdom of God.
John 3:8
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
NIV
Based on John 3:8, there are two very important characteristics of a Spirit-birthed or Spirit-led life:
- (a) It is governed from within: you can hear the Sound of the Spirit governing your character. A true spiritual believer does not get seduced by the drama of life but responds to life from the premise of the inner government of the Spirit. So therefore when one is engaged in a situation, e.g. conflict, one is not merely responding to the words and actions of the other party but to the inner impulses or government of the Spirit. This is a key principle of Christ and of the Cross: “when they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate” (1 Pet 2:23).
- (b) It manifests itself on the outside: even though you do not see the wind but you still see the manifestations that are produced by it. For example, you see the trees move. So therefore a spiritual life is not invisible, it has a manifestation power. The word truly can become flesh.
Matthew 7:23-25
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. NIV
The word of the Lord uses a lot the metaphor of “building” to capture the reality of spiritual life. Building is a pragmatic process. So therefore true spirituality does not begin and end with an “amen” during the church service but focuses on real construction of the principles in the daily conduct of life.
Proverbs 9:1
Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn out its seven pillars.
NIV
This pragmatic spiritual orientation is captured throughout the scriptures. Ever since the church entered into this Apostolic Age, there has been an emphasis on building and construction of human life. Apostles and Apostolic people are builders:
1 Corinthians 3:10
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder (a wise master builder), and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. NIV
Apostles are wise men, builders and master-craftsmen. The Apostolic Anointing is very different to what the church has been exposed to in the past. It is building oriented. This grace (apostolic) is not merely a pulpit grace; it is hands-on, pragmatic and strong in the area of construction of life.
So therefore it is clear that God is altering our spiritual orientation in this Apostolic Age. We are becoming more pragmatic in our conformity to Christ.
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