Make Way Ministries

Three Keys to the Deeper Life

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus states that we are to, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.” If we do this, He assures us that all of our needs will be provided. Most of us can quote this verse from memory, but I wonder how many in the Body of Christ actually live this way.

When Jesus spoke these words, I do not think He was merely providing a theological concept for us to memorize. Rather, Jesus is challenging us to develop a practical lifestyle of seeking. He is referring to a much greater commitment than that of the average “Sunday” Christian. To profess Christ in church, yet live for ourselves elsewhere, is far from the lifestyle Jesus is describing here. The word seek in this passage is the Greek word zeteo which can be defined as, “to seek in order to find,” or even “to crave.”1 Zeteo denotes an active search for something, which in this passage is referring to the kingdom and righteousness of God. The type of spiritual life that Jesus is encouraging us to develop is such as contrast to the spiritual passivity that is all too common in our lives. In fact, this passage is describing the type of person who is passionately pursuing the Lord above all else in life.

In this verse, Jesus not only references the intensity of our seeking, but also deals with priority. He does not say that we should seek God’s Kingdom after we have fulfilled our own desires or when we have the free time to do it. Nor is He implying that we should seek his righteousness only when it is convenient. He says to seek first. It causes me to ask myself, “If I examine my current lifestyle, what place does Kingdom-seeking really hold?”

Just like everyone else, life goals are important to the Body of Christ. If we were asked about our plans in life, we could easily articulate them. Life goals might include plans to pursue a higher education, get married, build a family, purchase a home, eliminate debt, lose weight, eat healthier; the list goes on and on. There is nothing inherently wrong about any of these desires. However, the unfortunate reality is that many never take the time to set intentional goals in their spiritual lives. Often, we have the attitude, “I’ll just keep praying and reading the Bible, go to church and try to live a good life.” While this lifestyle may be an adequate start, it certainly lacks any sense of drive or passion. Is that really all that it takes to grow in our faith?

Matthew Henry wrote, “You have greater and better things to take thought about, the life of your soul, your eternal happiness; that is the one thing needful, about which you should employ your thoughts, and which is commonly neglected in those hearts wherein worldly cares have the ascendant.”2

One characteristic that all true believers should share is a desire to grow in intimacy with the Lord. We all have aspirations that, one day, we will become mighty people of faith, intense prayer warriors or David-like worshippers of God. However, the reality is that if we do not take the necessary steps to move closer to that goal, we will never arrive there. Spiritual growth never happens on accident. What if we were just as intentional about our spiritual lives as we were about taking care of our physical bodies or advancing our careers? What if we began to prayerfully make spiritual goals for ourselves in an effort to grow in character and intimacy with Jesus?

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Living our lives with intentional spiritual goals is the most effective way to go deeper with the Lord. We all want more of Him in our lives, but only those who do something about that desire will obtain it. Where might we be a year from now if we took the time to pray about practical steps to growing closer to Jesus today?

The next obvious question would be, “What do I do?” While there is no magical formula and no easy short-cuts to spiritual growth, there are principles that I have found to be extremely powerful in bringing us into the deeper life in God. Here are three of them to consider:

1.) Spiritual Nourishment By nature, human beings are consumers. We consume both physically and spiritually. Have you ever heard the saying, “Garbage in—Garbage out”? This statement is absolutely true. Whatever we feed our hearts with has a great influence on who we become as people. Only a fool tells himself that what he sees and listens to does not affect him.

We live in a world system that is calling out for our attention in every direction. We are bombarded every day with messages: some good, some bad and some neutral. The increase of technology has only amplified the voices that try to influence us. A half a century ago, the newspaper and radio were our chief sources of information. Today, the world is at our fingertips with the invention of Smartphones and the internet. Social media gives a platform for anyone with an opinion to have a voice that can be heard around the globe. Too many in the church have allowed themselves to be caught in the torrent and pulled under along with the rest of the world. To put it simply, for the people who are hungry to consume the things of this world, there is a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet available at their fingertips whenever they desire it.

Over the last several years, I have discovered that consuming the right things can have a tremendous impact on our spiritual lives. I suppose it should go without saying that feeding our spirits with the Word of God is the most important element in our spiritual diet. If a believer desires to go deeper with the Lord, but neglects their reading and study of the Bible, that longing will never become a reality. However, I am going to assume that most people who are reading these words are already aware of the quintessential importance of spending daily time in the Word. What I want to discuss here are a couple of practices that we can add to our devotional life as spiritual nourishment.

My journey into the deeper life began several years ago, when I began the habit of reading about the lives of men and women who have been used powerfully by the Lord in church history. I read the journal of George Muller and heard about the bountiful miracles that he saw in his life and ministry. I consumed the biographies of great missionaries like Hudson Taylor and Amy Carmichael, who risked their lives to see people in other nations come to Christ. I studied the writings of prayer warriors like Rees Howells and John “Praying” Hyde, whose lives of deep prayer and intercession are an inspiration to anyone hungry to go deeper.

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Something happens inside of me when I read about these great heroes of the faith. The best way I can describe it is that I am overcome with a godly jealousy. Suddenly, I am no longer satisfied to sit on the sidelines and watch the Lord work in the lives of other people; I have to experience more of Him for myself. This began a spiritual trend in my life. Whenever I consume the biographies and autobiographies of people who have burned passionately for Jesus, it creates a spiritual hunger inside of me that causes me to press into the Lord. As a minister, when people ask me how to reignite the flame of passion in their hearts, this is one of the areas that I always direct them to because I know how powerful an affect it can have.

By reading the writings and stories of mighty men and women of God, something can be imparted to us through their lives. It is important that we study the lives of people who have gone deeper in the Lord than we have, because it gives us a sight of what is possible for us. It creates a spiritual hunger in us through a holy dissatisfaction about our current spiritual condition. Then we begin to cry out for more of Him!

Another area of spiritual nourishment is worship. For the first several years of my Christian life, worship was just another genre in my extensive music collection. From time to time, I would listen to a worship album, but there were so many other styles of music vying for my attention that I never learned what it meant to create an atmosphere of worship in my life. I have always been a lover of music. After giving my life to Jesus, I realized that I had to change my musical preferences, so I began to search out bands that played the types of music that I enjoyed before coming to Christ, but made sure that they were “Christian.”

I quickly noticed that there was a big difference between these worldly Christian albums and the worship music in my collection. When I listened to the music of these bands, I could tell that it fueled my flesh through emotional lyrics that inspired anger, depression and even covetousness. Yet, worship fed my spirit and drew me closer to God. In spite of this, I chose to increasingly listen to this edgy music and my times of personal worship became more seldom. Despite the negative spiritual impact it had, I justified it to myself because the music at least carried a “Christian” label. Several years ago, while examining my life and learning how to live a more passionately for Jesus, the Lord challenged me to make a sacrifice for Him: to listen to worship only. For someone who loves music as much as I do, this seemed like a high price to pay. However, I responded to the call, and I would not trade the lifestyle of worship that the Lord has established in my life for anything. Consider creating an atmosphere of worship in your home, car and any other place where you listen to music. You will not regret it!

Take a moment right now and ask yourself a couple of questions:

How much of the entertainment, music, media, books, articles, hobbies, etc. that I consume cause me to connect with Jesus on a deeper level? How much time do I spend in the Word of God? When was the last time I read a book that left me crying out for more of Him? What place does worship have in my music collection?

Pray about making some adjustments to increase the quality of spiritual nourishment in your life.

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2. Consecration

In the same vein, what we feed our spirits can also have a negative impact on our spiritual lives. There is no more effective way to dull our spiritual sensitivity than by joining ourselves with the spirit of this world. The Word of God says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4 NIV)

This Scripture alone should at least cause us to seriously consider how much of the world we allow into our lives. However, many Christians in our American church culture seem to be completely oblivious to the reality of the spiritually detrimental effects of worldliness. This can be seen in their lifestyle choices, especially in the area of entertainment. Holiness has become taboo in many church circles, under the guise of a false understanding of grace. Many believe that if we take time to analyze our lifestyles, we become legalists. But through my own experience, I have found the beautiful freedom in Christ that can come through separation from the world.

When examining lifestyle choices, many professing Christians live in such a way as to try to get as close to the world as possible, but without sinning. They will reject certain television shows, movies and music based on their content. However, they still choose to be entertained by media that contains things that Jesus had to die for, without much guilt. This often leads to great compromise with the spirit of the world.

I want to propose to you that asking the question, “How close to the world can I get without sinning?” is the wrong question. A true believer should be asking the question, “How close to God can I get?” The difference between the heart motives of those two types of people is night and day. One is dangerously compromised and the other is going to be richly rewarded in the spiritual realm when he gets more of the One Whom he seeks.

To those who are focused on fully surrendering their hearts to the Lord, allowing the Holy Spirit to prune their lives is not a miserable experience. It may be difficult to cast down idols that have had their attention for some time, but the trade-off makes it worth all the effort. However, to people who are not truly interested in surrendering their hearts fully, the idea of separating from the world in areas such as technology, sports and entertainment are appalling. They will write that off as legalism, even when the Holy Spirit brings conviction in areas that are blatantly sinful.

The journey into a consecrated lifestyle can begin with a simple prayer. Ask the Lord, “Is there anything in my life that is offensive to you?” Then, when He answers, be willing to do what He says. There is nothing in this life that is worth holding onto, if we get more of Jesus in the exchange. Separation can be a painful process, but it is a good pain. Just like the temporary pain a weightlifter feels when he is working out, or a runner feels when they press past exhaustion, the pain of separation will reap rewards greater than the temporary discomfort that we might experience.

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Here are some questions to ponder in regards to consecration:

Are there any areas of my life that are offensive to the Holy Spirit? Is there any area of my life in which I am knowingly compromising? When was the last time I went through my movies, magazine, web links, music, etc. and ridded my life of things that aren’t honoring God?

As the Holy Spirit leads you, take the necessary steps to bring your life into greater levels of consecration. Separation from the world and unto God will reap eternal rewards.

3. Fasting

One of the most powerful spiritual disciplines that I have discovered is fasting. In our modern, convenience-driven culture, fasting is a sharp contrast to the lifestyle of most Western Christians. Fasting is a discipline that runs so much against the grain of our culture, that many Christian circles have completely ignored it, or only practice it corporately a couple of days a year.

Biblical fasting, which is going without food or only drinking water for a designated amount of time, has almost become a lost art. Certainly we can “fast” certain things like entertainment and social media, but that should never replace true biblical fasting in our lives. I believe the Lord is reawakening His church to the practical discipline of fasting because of its dynamic impact in the spiritual realm.

When I learned about the attitude of the early church toward fasting, it made a permanent impact on my life. I discovered that the Pharisees practiced fasting on a regular basis. They fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. This is why the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable said, “I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” (Luke 18:12 NIV) After the birth of the early church, Christians did not discontinue the practice of fasting. Instead, they practiced the tradition of fasting two days a week, but chose two different days to fast so that they would not be associated with the Pharisees.3

Through this discovery, I realized that the early church saw fasting as a valuable experience and that they practiced it regularly. I believe that God intended for those who follow Him to continue with the practice. Unfortunately, at some point in history, fasting was de-emphasized. I am not suggesting that we need to pick two days each week and dedicate them to fasting. One should seek the Lord for direction in this area. However, embracing the spiritual discipline of fasting is an incredible way to go deeper with the Lord.

To explain what fasting accomplishes in the spiritual realm is impossible. It is one of the disciplines that is better understood through experience. What I can say is that the most valuable benefit of biblical fasting has been in my relationship with the Lord. There is something that sparks intimacy in a unique way when you say, “God, I am going to set aside a certain period of time without eating as a sacrifice to you.”

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Another great advantage of fasting is learning to control our bodily appetites. Too often, we allow our flesh to control us. Many times, we are guilty of not obeying the Scripture, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24 ESV) How often do we deny ourselves anything? For many Christians in Western society, the only things that we deny ourselves are those we cannot afford. The thought of learning to deny our flesh for the sake of knowing the Lord more can be foreign to us. Fasting has a way of teaching us to say “No” to ourselves. It creates self-control and combats self-indulgence.

John Calvin once wrote, “Let us say something about fasting, because many, for want of knowing its usefulness, undervalue its necessity, and some reject it as almost superfluous; while, on the other hand where the use of it is not well understood, it easily degenerates into superstition. Holy and legitimate fasting is directed to three ends; for we practice it either as a restraint on the flesh, to preserve it from licentiousness, or as a preparation for prayers and pious meditations, or as a testimony of our humiliation in the presence of God when we are desirous of confessing our guilt before him.”3

Beyond that, there are numerous other benefits to fasting, such as setting aside a focused time of praying for specific needs, the breaking of strongholds and seeking provision. The benefits to our spiritual lives are numerous. I believe any believer’s life could be radically changed by embarking on the exciting journey of learning to live a fasted life.

Examine your life by asking the following questions:

When was the last time I fasted? How much of a priority has fasting had in my overall Christian experience? Is the Lord leading me to make this area more prevalent in my spiritual life?

Disclaimer: I would advise you to allow the Lord to lead you in this area. It is important to make sure you fast in a safe way. Do some research before attempting prolonged fasts, as there are physical factors to consider. Ask a health care professional if you have health issues that might interfere with fasting.

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Certainly, there are numerous other principles that we can discuss in the journey of growing deeper in our relationship with the Lord, but these three would be a perfect starting place. Begin nourishing your spirit with things that cause your heart to burn with passion. Consecrate your life from everything that is not helping you to grow spiritually. Consider establishing a fasted lifestyle, or increasing the fervency of the fasting routine you have in place. I guarantee that just implementing these three principles alone will have an extraordinary effect on any believer’s spiritual life.

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Call to Prayer

Is your heart crying out for more of the Lord? Consider praying a prayer like this:

Jesus, I want more of you. I recognize that you are calling me deeper in my relationship with you. Create an insatiable hunger in my soul for the things of God. Take away anything in my life that is a hindrance to my walk with you. Lead me into deeper places, and give me the willingness to follow you there. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/zeteo.htmlhttp://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/matthew/6.htmlhttp://www.desiringgod.org/messages/when-the-bridegroom-is-taken-away-they-will-fast-with-new-wineskins

Copyright © 2016 by Dustin Renz of Make Way Ministries

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Dustin RenzFounder

Make Way Ministries

Make Way Ministries

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