by Jacob Ninan
Jesus has explained to us very clearly that the only way we can bear fruit in our life, whether it is spiritual fruit in our personal life or results in our ministry, is to 'abide in Him', just as a branch clings to the tree (Jn.15:5). If we recognise our total dependence on Him and then allow the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us, only then can we bear fruit. But we all face the tendency to go forward according to our own ideas, depending on our own strength, knowledge, abilities, skills, etc. Some of us are shrewd, or street-smart, and we know how to wriggle out of difficult situations or to plan and scheme to get our way over the others, and then it may be that we go without any dependence on the Spirit. Some others are intelligent, have a powerful personality or skills of speaking, and they can manage very well in most situations. This tendency comes in even when we are studying the Bible, if we do not depend on the Holy Spirit to reveal His truths to us, but we use our intelligence and reasoning power to interpret the word of God.
False doctrines are many times presented by powerful speakers using their charisma, marketing techniques and clever use of media. Even when people are planning for evangelism or church planting, it is many times human ideas that are coming up, without seeking to be led by the Holy Spirit. Human plans or human strength cannot accomplish the purposes of God. In our individual lives also, we need to see if we recognise our own helplessness and lack of understanding apart from God and have learnt to cling on to God for everything we do.
One of the marks of spiritual growth is that we learn to depend more and more on the leading of the Holy Spirit in our heart (Rom.8:14). This is in contrast to walking according to our flesh, according to our natural instincts and depending on our natural strengths. We will seek to learn this when we see our mistakes and recognise how really helpless we are in ourselves to do anything right or to accomplish any lasting result.
Biblical examples of people making mistakes
At 40 years of age, Moses had all the training of the Egyptians designed to make him fit to be the next Pharaoh. He knew he was an Israelite and he thought that with all his expertise he could be the one who could deliver his people from slavery. He went among his people, and tried to intervene, thinking that they would recognise his special role (Acts.7:25). But he failed, and he had to flee from Egypt and spend the next 40 years in the desert, till he had become humble enough to listen to God.Rebekah, Jacob's mother, had been told them that she was bearing twins and that the elder was to serve the younger (Gen.25:23). So when she heard that her husband Isaac was going to bless Esau, the elder son, and to give him his birthright, she schemed along with Jacob to deceive Isaac so that Jacob could get the blessings. God did not need these kinds of crooked ways to accomplish His purposes. But what Rebekah and Jacob did in their human understanding brought great enmity among the brothers that continued even to the next generations.
After Judas betrayed Jesus and later hanged himself out of remorse, Peter thought that they needed to fill the place of Judas with someone else. They prayed and then took lots to decide who it was going to be. Many scholars are of the opinion that this was a human move without being directed by God. This was before the day of Pentecost when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
We can learn a lot if we look back at our own lives and see the blunders we have made when we acted out of our own zeal and self-confidence and how they affected not only ourselves but also people around us. That should prompt us to seek God, acknowledge our need for Him and to ask Him to lead us by the Holy Spirit. Let us also note that mere sincerity of intention is not enough to ensure that what we do is right, because our ignorance may still mislead us.
Difference between natural and spiritual
God has created us human beings with a body, soul (mind) and spirit, while animals have only a body and mind. Our human spirit became disconnected from God when Adam and Eve sinned, and now when we are born, we are born in that state with a sinful nature. It is when we are born again that our spirit becomes regenerated and we become alive towards God who is Spirit. If we live afterwards according to our bodily instincts we would be carnal, and if we live according to the Spirit we will be spiritual. But is is also possible for us to be 'natural' (soulish), if we live according to our own choices made by our mind. In this case, our reasoning, our feelings or our temperamental inclinations will be what are controlling our lives. Even though many Christians are aware of the need to avoid the works of the flesh, we may be unaware of this tendency to let our mind rule our life rather than to come under the leading of the Holy Spirit. We can see this in the way we make plans, deal with difficult situations or even read the Bible. Instead of recognising our own impotence to do the right things and trusting in God to guide us, we depend our own natural abilities and strengths."But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1Cor.2:14). Think of the chief priests and the elders of Israel scheming to kill Jesus while imagining that they were serving God! They used their natural reasoning, while their conscience was dull and they could not hear the warnings of the Holy Spirit. When we become spiritually minded, we humble ourselves and wait for what the Holy Spirit has to tell us, and then we depend on His anointing to carry out whatever He wants us to do. Whenever we are going to do something wrong, the Holy Spirit gives us a warning in our heart. If we ignore this warning and proceed to do what we like, then we will continue to be natural people.
David felt a pinch in his conscience after he had cut off a piece from Saul's garment. When people in Lystra prepared to worship Paul and Silas as gods after a lame man was healed, Paul had the immediate response to acknowledge that they were only men. When many people began to follow Jesus, He had enough discernment to know that He could not trust all of them (Jn.2:23-25). When His mother and brothers came to talk to Him while He was with the disciples, Jesus knew His spiritual priorities, and said that those who did the Father's will were those with whom He felt the strongest bonds (Matt.12:49,50).
Even if we have many theological degrees, communication skills or other natural abilities that can impress people, we must remember that it only by the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we can touch their lives. What is the point using all our abilities and leaving only an impression behind us, while people's lives have not been touched at all by God during our 'ministry'?
How to become spiritually minded?
1. Recognise and acknowledge in our heart that without Him we can do nothing. If we are not really convinced about this, just look at our past and see every blunder we have made and every good thing that we intended but which turned out badly! If we have been in the habit of putting the blame on others for everything that has gone wrong, we must get out of it immediately if we want to be saved from our folly. Learn to recognise the limits of our knowledge, abilities, discernment, wisdom, etc. If we are honest about it, we will be immediately be drawn to seek God not only for forgiveness but also the filling of the Holy Spirit in our life. We will also seek to learn to talk with God about everything we are considering in our mind and ask for His direction."Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil" (Prov.3:5-7). These are not just good verses for us to memorise, but words of wisdom that we need to follow. If we really want to become spiritual, we need to accept God as supreme in our heart and mind and submit to Him. It has to be a complete submission to His authority, knowing that He is perfect in His love and wisdom. We don't have the luxury any more of choosing to submit to Him on a case by case basis, where we make the choice to submit or not. We cannot become spiritual people without recognising who God truly is, and who we are in His presence. We are His creation, limited in every way, with a long history of actual failures, and He stands before us as infinite and perfect.
Let us examine ourselves whenever we make plans for the future. Do we make decisions based on what we think or how we feel, or we submit to God? That is what James tries to teach us when he tells us not to be so sure about where we will be or what we plan to do in the future (Jas.4:13-16). Even our next breath must come from God. Let us learn to lay aside our self-confidence and lean on God.
2. When we read what God says in His word, accept and believe it. We may have had different ideas, and the experts and even some so-called Bible scholars may tell us differently, but we can trust God. Of course, we cannot be blind in interpreting the Bible without understanding what it really means, the context in which it appears, its applicability to us, etc. But once we know what God has said, if we still defer to people's opinions, we dishonour God and lower His truths in our eyes. How can we be spiritual after that?
Jesus has made a stark contrast between people who hear and study His word and those who hear and study, and then obey it (Matt.7:24). We have the unfortunate possibility of being able to keep theological ideas stored up in our memory without letting them affect our actual life. Bible colleges may teach about what different scholars have thought about different subjects, and then people may graduate without having any conviction of their own, and not taking any specific action based on those convictions. How can we become spiritual like that?
Another secret of spirituality that Jesus has revealed is that without actually being willing to do what He says, we cannot even understand the true meaning of what He says (Jn.7:17). The problem is that when we have an intellectual understanding of ideas from the Bible, we may imagine that therefore we have become spiritual. But the fact is that we don't really get a spiritual insight into the truths till our mind is set on doing whatever truth God reveals to us.
After I was born again, one man challenged me about getting baptised in water in obedience to Jesus. My excuse was that I had already been 'baptised' as a baby and that the important thing was my faith in Jesus and not any external ritual. But this man asked me if I was willing to examine the Bible on this subject with an open mind after putting away my biases and prejudices, and if I would be willing to get baptised if I found that from the Bible. I agreed, I did, and I got baptised. Looking back I see how this was a major turning point in my spiritual journey.
3. Choose your inputs. What we read, hear and watch influence our thinking and form the foundation stones of our mind. Preachers we listen to and writers we read teach us their understanding of the truth. But we know that not every one who teaches in the name of Jesus or quoting the Bible are actually teaching God's truths. There is one important truth that Jesus taught, "Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt.5:19). If we are listening to someone who is wholeheartedly seeking to obey everything that God wants him to do, we will be strengthened in our heart to go in the same way. On the other hand, if the one we mostly listen to is a compromiser or someone who is just there to impress us or make us feel good, we are not going to receive any help from him to grow spiritually.
Paul warns us several times that there would be more and more false teachers and prophets as we draw near to the end. Then he tells us to see if what these people tell us is in line with godly lives. If what they teach is not going to direct us in the path of godliness, we would be safer if we avoid them in future (1Tim.6:3,4).
Jesus told us to find out false teachers by their fruit (Matt.7:15,16). Are they growing in godliness in their own personal lives, and are those who follow their ministry being led towards godliness? If all they teach are ideas and they have no godly fruit to show, we should not trust them or their teachings.
4. Introspect, and be open to correction. We must realise that the people of the world warn us against introspection, or looking inside our mind and heart, because we might feel guilty and lose our self-esteem in the process. But if we do not examine ourselves as we look at God's word and cleanse ourselves when we see something wrong there, we cannot hope to become like Jesus (Jas.1:22). It is a fact that we all make mistakes, and if we are not willing to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit as He points them out to us, how can we hope to get healed or delivered or transformed?
The older we become, the more aware we become about how small we are, and how we need to depend on God. If someone says that they do not have any regrets at all about their life, we can easily see that they have not been judging themselves. Of course there is forgiveness for us, and we can go on towards avoiding the same mistakes again if we learn our lesson well. A high school student may imagine that he knows everything about maths, for example. But if he goes on to do a PhD, he will realise how little he really knows! Let us not allow the world to make ourselves feel nice, while there is really so much for us to be transformed from.
Conclusion
If we are growing spiritually, our confidence will become less and less in ourselves but increasingly more in the grace of God. Our leaning on the Lord will become more and more natural for us. At the same time, we will be searching the Bible to understand more and more about what God wants us to do, and seeking Him for help. Prayer will become a major part of our life, and our boastfulness will go out.