I find the idea that the physical world is all that there is to be quite disconcerting. Without spirituality I don’t see any hope for me or for humanity in general. Without a vision beyond the material a human life is just a highly complex machine that ends in annihilation — nothing more; nothing less — purposeless and meaningless.
I encountered and opened my heart to Jesus-centered spirituality when I was a freshman in college, and it began to immediately revolutionize my thinking, my perception, and my life. Cultivating and developing an ever-growing relationship with the risen Jesus continually fills me with hope, peace, and faith, regardless of my outward circumstances. I totally recommend it to everyone! How many stars do I rate Jesus-centered spirituality? Go to a totally dark place deep in the country and look at the heavens.
When God is set aside the following things happen to a person. This is based on Psalm 10 and on my observation of American culture.
When there’s no room for God in people’s thoughts, they begin to pridefully think: “I can run my own life, keep myself happy, and stay out of trouble,” “What I’m thinking and doing is hidden from God,” and “I’ll never have to answer to anybody for my thoughts, words, and actions.” Those people renounce God, embrace self-focus, and boast about cravings and compulsions.
If you will make room for God in your thoughts, open your heart to Him, and start to listen to and obey His still small voice, He will begin to direct you from within by His presence, and lead you to love, joy, peace, and all the rest of the fruit of His Spirit. Dare to prepare the way for God to continually work inside of you. Then you will inwardly begin to soar like an eagle.
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Being a Guide Receiver
My favorite thing about myself really has nothing to do with me except for my willingness to listen to and surrender to the inner Guide who leads me day by day. He is known as the Holy Spirit.
Are you an ever-tuned-in receiver of the Holy Spirit’s inner rivers? I woke up this morning with these words in my spirit:
“Instead of rivers of living water, Christianity is too often presented as a dried-up puddle. Without the experiential awareness of the risen Jesus, Christianity becomes a mere religious routine.”
What does it mean to receive? A wide receiver in football catches the ball and runs with it. A radio receiver picks up radio waves and makes them perceptible by letting them freely flow through it. A receiver of encouragement takes what is said to heart and puts it into practice.
As Christ-followers we need to catch the wind of the Spirit and let Christ take us wherever He wants. We need to catch the Spirit’s energy and run with it. We need to pick up the Spirit’s invisible signals and make them perceptible to our conscious awareness and to the people we encounter throughout the day. We need to take to heart the Spirit’s inner promptings and always do what He urges us to do.
How is your Holy Spirit reception? Is it loud and clear? Or is it rare and sketchy? To receive the Holy Spirit is to let the risen Jesus live and freely flow from deep within you as “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Holy Spirit reception isn’t a once and done deal. It is moment-by-moment reliance on the ever-flowing presence, power, and love of Christ living and working in and through you. All Christ-followers are called to be an ever-tuned-in Holy Spirit receiver.
Go with God’s inner flow. Avoid temptation’s turbulence.
The institutionalization of Christianity tends to put out the Holy Spirit’s fire and spontaneity. It can easily shut down people’s Holy Spirit reception. I saw this happen during the Jesus Movement. The Jesus Freaks who I was around in various places seemed to be far more excited about Jesus when they met spontaneously than they were when they began to focus primarily on regularly attending church.