The Spiritual Quest - Part 4
The Gospels are a good place to begin – but you can always ask the Lord to direct you where to begin. You can start with the Psalms and Proverbs they are also a good place to start. Another important place is in church every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m., Sunday school. We need to bring our children and begin this process for them as well. Now I understand if something is preventing you that is different, but everyone doesn’t have situations that are keeping them from being in Sunday school class.
Simply reading the Bible – You don’t have to start in some specific place, just start reading it. Reading it is better than not reading at all, don’t give yourself any excuse. If there is something you don’t understand, get someone that you trust and call them and discuss what you have questions about. That’s what I do for the different people; I let them know if you don’t understand something, call, e-mail, send notes whatever and I will answer your questions. No excuses!
Learn the Church doctrine – Let me just say this quickly, our Bible is our source, period. However, it is helpful to learn what we believe as a body and it also helps you to understand better the things you hear going forth from the pulpit. Many want to get rid of words such as Holiness, sanctification, repentance, glorification, etc. because they feel they are too hard for you to understand. I think this is wrong; instead we need to explain them, teach them and help build stronger disciples for the mission. Many do not know that early believers penned the very songs we sing in our hymns and they carry our doctrinal belief about God, Jesus, sin, sanctification, Jesus’ returning, and so much more. Learn people so that you will not be lost because of lack of knowledge.
Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. 1 Timothy 4:16
As we take the Spiritual process we are in fact allowing ourselves to be led by God’s Spirit and to learn from him so that we can grow and mature. We take the first step, of seeking, having a spiritual quest and then when God has shown us, then we must allow him to move us into action so that the process can begin to result in things changing. And once we know what to do, we must then take the next step. The next step is to have a discipline life to carry out this process.
So let’s review. Ask yourself some really deep questions to find where you are in the Lord. And until we take this quest and begin to question where we stand, we will not find true peace or rest in the Lord.
We also want to make sure that we understand this quest is a “daily” seeking to find. We never arrive on this journey, we simply allow God to help us discover more about him and about ourselves so that we can be changed to look more like him. God’s Spirit sanctifies us, and helps us to experience both an outward thrust or movement of his Spirit and an inward growth or realignment within our spirits.
When we take this quest, this searching ourselves or taking an inventory of our lives, we allow God to grow us and in doing so, God will then help us to face our circumstances in our lives. We can face them because of the connection we have with God and we are assured of his presence within our situations and us.
When also then have access to God. We can pray to him to change us, search our hearts and create a right spirit within us, so that we can grasp this promise, that when we pray in our inner room to the Father in secret he will answer us. May prayer for us today is that we allow God to have his way completely in our lives, much success to you on your spiritual quest, that turns into a life journey.
