3 Reasons You Need A Strategy For Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth doesn’t just happen.

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You and I need a strategy for spiritual growth. But some Christians act like planning, strategizing and systems are ungodly. They seem to think that if we’re led by the Spirit, there will be no plan or system. We’ll just “flow in the Spirit” without any thought to where we’re going and how we’ll get there.

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Indeed, the Bible says the Spirit is like a wind, and we don’t know where it’s going:

“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.” (John 3:8 NIV)

What’s misunderstood is that Jesus was not saying we shouldn’t have strategies and plans. He was saying that we should allow planning to be Spirit-directed. Then we must also allow the Spirit to alter our plans when He desires.

But since many don’t plan, what often seems to happen is people don’t mature in their faith. This is a problem needing to be overcome and described by another depiction of wind: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Ephesians 4:14 NIV)

Here are 3 reasons you and I need a strategy for spiritual growth:

1. Strategies answer the question: what’s next?

In most of life, we have strategies that have been clearly laid out to tell us what to do next in order to achieve our aims:

• In school, we know what is next through the tests, grades, assignments, deadlines, and graduations.

• At work, we have what’s next clearly designed for us.

• In athletics, we have coaches to give us guidance for the steps to take for a winning strategy.

Likewise, we need to know what is next for spiritual growth. If not, we’ll flounder.

Carolyn’s and my good friend Lisa Sales was led to Christ by a fellow student in college she had never met. He was given an assignment to share The Four Spiritual Laws booklet with a student before the next day.

So late in the evening, in order to complete the next step in the strategy, he asked Lisa if he could share the 4 Laws with her. When she learned that God loved her, tears flowed. She prayed to receive Christ and today is a partner, along with her husband Carlos, in a ministry called Reaching the Hungry.

A wonderful conversion happened because Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) had a strategy for “what’s next!”

2. Strategies give us motivation.

As illustrated in the story of Lisa, strategies for spiritual growth also keep us motivated. If we don’t know what’s next, we can easily lose motivation to make progress.

When a person becomes a Christian, often they’re simply told something like this:

• Go to church

• Read your Bible

• Pray

• Give

• Serve

These are great spiritual disciplines, and certainly God’s will for every believer. But some kind of strategy is needed to go with them, or else there is little motivation. When we have a Bible reading strategy, a prayer plan, a giving strategy and a plan to discover and use our spiritual gifts, we have increased motivation.

Earlier in my Christian life, I remember the thought of praying for 5 or 10 minutes seemed daunting. What would I say? What was I supposed to do? I tried, but would quickly run out of things to say.

But after receiving some training in prayer, I now have no problem praying for more extended times, oftentimes for hours. I wrote about this process in my free eBook 10 Prayers to Unlock Heaven on Earth.

You can get it free when you subscribe to my email updates HERE.

3. Strategies are easily reproducible.

McDonald’s hamburgers are known around the world. Why? Because Ray Kroc saw the success of the McDonald brothers’ strategies and that they could be multiplied in many other locations with an ever-greater effect and financial profit.

The McDonald brothers (Richard and Maurice) founded McDonald’s, but later sold their name and portion of the business to Kroc who built the McDonald’s empire. It could have been the McDonald brothers who developed the  business. But apparently they didn’t have the vision to reproduce in multiple locations resulting in a faulous return.

Whether you like McDonald’s hamburgers or not isn’t the point. The point is that strategies are reproducible and if utilized, can result in remarkable returns for the Kingdom.

What’s needed in the Christian community is to discover strategies for disciple-making and then begin to reproduce them in making disciples of others.

Jesus’ commanded: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” (John 20:21 KJV) Jesus reproduced Himself in the Disciples and then expected them to reproduce in others through the strategies He had used.

Knowing the importance of having a strategy for spiritual growth is why we’re creating Discipleship Journeys with Jesus. Please go to our website HERE to learn about us. Subscribe to our updates to keep in touch with developments of our materials (strategies) for spiritual growth by clicking HERE.

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What do you think? Are these good reasons to have a strategy for spiritual growth? Are there other reasons why you need a strategy for spiritual growth?

Your thoughts are welcome! Please leave your comment below.

Help Spread the Word! If you found this article helpful, we’d love for you to share it with others on social media or otherwise. This will help get the Word in front of more people who need biblical guidance. Thanks for your help!

Additional resources about related subjects on this site:

• The Goal of the Great Commission is Disciples

• Podcast: What’s the value of 1 to 1 discipleship?

• The Power of Mentoring

• Video – the Great Commission is for ALL Christians

• How to Rely More on the Spirit for Life and Ministry

• Podcast: Is it necessary to pray to be filled with the Spirit?

NOTE: Facebook is random. Email is reliable. Subscribe via email and you won’t miss any of my articles, podcasts or videos. You’ll also get my eBook: 10 Prayers to Unlock Heaven on Earth

Don’t Live The Same Year 75 Times…

… and call it a life.

We can live the same year 75 times and call it a life if we never change or try new things. It is easy to wake up one day and find ourselves living on auto-pilot and stuck in a well-worn rut.

This is a guest post by Beth Harris. She is a wife, mother, Bible study leader and volunteer editor for markalanwilliams.net.

I usually do not enjoy change or surprises, but my husband and I have always talked about visiting Washington D.C. and New York City. However, we kept visiting the same familiar places. We were kind of stuck in a comfortable rut.

So, a few years ago we took the opportunity to visit these cities in the fall. The first week we saw historical sites and museums in Washington D.C. The second week we visited Times Square, Central Park and the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. We rode the subway, met new people and experienced new places. As a result, we created wonderful memories that we will never forget.

But, we had to step outside of our comfort zone, make plans and reservations for the two weeks. We had some pre-flight jitters and fear that comes with staying in unfamiliar cities. Yet we had the most wonderful time.

Living life on repeat means that we could live the same year over and over, thus forfeiting opportunities for change and growth. We may even be missing out on the real meaning of life.

Would you like to make sure that you don’t live the same year over again?

Here are 4 steps to break out of a rut so you don’t live the same year over and over:

1. Accept God’s Purpose for Life

Isaiah 43:19 says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (NIV)

God does new things and so should we! After all, He did a new thing by making a way for us to be redeemed and reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (NIV)

What good news that we don’t have to wait for New Year’s Day to do new things and become new people. 

We can begin to change today. In Christ, we are not the same. We become new creations and we begin to live by faith.

With Jesus in control life can be filled with adventure.

2. Seek God for Dreams, Visions and Goals

If we feel like we’re stuck, doing the same thing the same way, we can seek God in prayer and through His Word for fresh dreams, visions and goals.

The idea is that we should be prayerful and thoughtful in considering change and trying new things.

3. Invite God to Interrupt Plans

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (NIV)

As Christians, it is wise to plan but then submit our schedules to God. We can invite Him to interrupt our agenda and trust Him to guide us. He may shake things up and lead us to take a different route, speak to a different person or try something entirely new.

We will be blessed if we make ourselves available to be used by Him.

4. Embrace Change

Once we accept that change is necessary and inevitable, it may be less traumatic when it happens.

We can begin to embrace change and trust that God is in control.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV)

Even when change is hard, God has a purpose for it and He promises to work for our good in all things

This topic reminds me of another quote:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Most would agree that we don’t want to live the same year 75 times and call it a life. Trying new things and embracing change can lead to different results.

What change would you like to make?

Your thoughts are welcome! You can leave a comment below.

Help Spread the Word! If you found this article helpful, we’d love for you to share it with others on social media or otherwise. This will help get the Word in front of more people who need biblical guidance. Thanks for your help!

“Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.”—Robin Sharma | CLICK TO TWEET

Additional resources about related subjects on this site:

• Setting Goals and Solving Problems

• How a Life Vision Helps You Reduce Stress and Accomplish More

• Quotecard You will never change your life…

• What is the Meaning of Life?

• How to Tackle a Mountain-Sized Goal in Faith

• quotecard We Make Our Decisions…

NOTE: Facebook is random. Email is reliable. Subscribe via email and you won’t miss any of my articles, podcasts or videos. You’ll also get my eBook: 10 Prayers to Unlock Heaven on Earth

5 Fantastic Spiritual Senses That Lead to Faith

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God has given us spiritual senses by which we can know Him. Just as we have five physical senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching) by which we discover the physical world, each person has five spiritual senses that can lead us to discover the spiritual realm, if we allow them to.

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Sometimes those who lack physical senses are the best at discovering God through their spiritual senses. My friend Dave Yager had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He gradually lost feeling and control of most of his body. Yet as he lost his physical senses, he developed keen spiritual senses.

Likewise, those who are dying and losing their connection with the physical world are often those who have the keenest understanding of the five spiritual senses. My wife Carolyn’s sister Gwen died of cancer in 2007. But she thanked God for the cancer, for through it she really came to know the meaning of life through Jesus Christ. Amazing.

So, what are the five spiritual senses?

Here’s my observation of the 5 spiritual senses that lead to faith:

1. Consciousness.

Consciousness is defined as “the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.” The marvel of the existence of this first of the five spiritual senses is starting to be addressed by the academic and scientific community.

Richard Dawkins has confessed that as an atheist, he has no solution for the “Hard Problem of Consciousness.” In Scientific American magazine, he admitted that “…maybe the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness is forever beyond us, just as calculus is forever beyond the mentality of a chimpanzee.”

But just what is this Hard Problem of Consciousness? An article in The Guardian by Oliver Burkeman describes it this way:

Why on earth should all those complicated brain processes feel like anything from the inside? Why aren’t we just brilliant robots, capable of retaining information, of responding to noises and smells and hot saucepans, but dark inside, lacking an inner life? And how does the brain manage it? How could the 1.4kg lump of moist, pinkish-beige tissue inside your skull give rise to something as mysterious as the experience of being that pinkish-beige lump, and the body to which it is attached?

This sense of consciousness is a God-given spiritual sense. Scripture says that we’re made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). Like God, we are conscious beings, created for fellowship with Him. This spiritual sense should lead us to God.

2. Morals.

Along with consciousness, human beings have a sense of morality—of right and wrong. This second of the five spiritual senses distinguishes us from animals, who don’t worry about issues of morality such as:

• Covering their bodies with clothing.

• Not eating their own kind or cannibalism.

• Not stealing from each other.

• And so on.

If naturalistic survival-of-the-fittest were the only objective, why would any of these moral issues matter? They’d be moot points. But instead, we have a sense of right and wrong, an internal moral compass, a spiritual sense that tells us there are moral laws and a Lawgiver.

3. Emotions.

This third of the spiritual senses is an incredibly powerful indicator of the spiritual realm. Human beings experience such strong emotions, they are often even more powerful than our physical sensations:

• The joy and ecstasy of deep love.

• The intense pain of rejection.

• The overwhelming power of anger and rage.

• The seething churning of jealousy.

• The agony of grieving.And so on.

Once again, each of these is a powerful indicator that there is a spiritual realm. In fact, each of these are emotions the Bible says that God experiences. Since the Bible indicates we’re created in the image of God, we know the spiritual realm through these. We’re not simply physical matter, we’re spiritual and emotional beings.

4. Beauty.

This fourth of the spiritual senses is wonderful because it has virtually no downside.

As I write in my office looking out the window, it is a gorgeous sunny day with a blue sky, green trees and beautiful hills in the distance. Every few minutes a handsome bird flies by—I especially enjoy the amazing hummingbirds. There are gorgeous flowers blooming—an array of stunning colors, shapes and sizes.

At night, we look at the sky, the moon, the stars and the vastness of the universe.

When I see such beauty, I’m inspired! Part of my inspiration is to know the One who created such beauty.

This fourth of the five spiritual senses is well-documented in the Bible which says:

They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God.” (Romans 1:19-20 NLT)

5. Intelligence.

Intelligence is a wonderful blessing. Through it we’ve been able to develop magnificent inventions like computers, jet aircraft, and life-saving medical devices. However, this last of the spiritual senses is a two-edged sword. Why? Because some use their intelligence as a weapon to try to invalidate their spiritual senses. Imagine that: using a spiritual sense to quash spiritual senses!

Of course, those who do this will vehemently (and condescendingly?) argue that they are doing so. But those who are open-minded and look at the evidence using their intelligence, have ample evidence for faith. Not just faith in God, but in Jesus Christ and the Christian faith.

The story of Lee Strobel told in the movie and book The Case for Faith, is a great example. Lee was an atheist who came to faith through studying, as a lawyer and a journalist, the evidence for the Bible and Christ.

Many others have come to faith by utilizing their intelligence to examine the evidence. For more resources check out the apologetics websites on my Recommended Resources page.

In summary, our 5 spiritual senses are a big part of the reason that 90% of all human beings believe that God exists.

What do you think? Did I correctly identify and describe these five spiritual senses?

Your thoughts are welcome! Please leave your comment below.

Help Spread the Word! If you found this article helpful, we’d love for you to share it with others on social media or otherwise. This will help get the Word in front of more people who need biblical guidance. Thanks for your help!

Additional resources about related subjects on this site:

• 4 Powerful Proofs that Jesus Lives

• 4 Reasons You Can Love and Trust the Bible Today

• How Digging in the Dirt Proves the Bible is Reliable

• What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

• Podcast: Where do dinosaurs fit in the Bible?

• Podcast: How do we know we have the right books in the Bible?

• vlog: Creation demands a Creator

• 4 Reasons Why 90% Believe God Exists

• My Classmate Bart Ehrman’s Hopeless Response to Suffering

NOTE: Facebook is random. Email is reliable. Subscribe via email and you won’t miss any of my articles, podcasts or videos. You’ll also get my eBook: 10 Prayers to Unlock Heaven on Earth