How the River of Your Spirit Flows
How deep and wide does your spiritual walk go?
Have you ever asked yourself this question?
Do you notice your journey doesn’t get shorter? It just expands in width and length.
As your spiritual life grows, so do your spiritual attacks.
How do we continue this walk as it becomes overwhelming?
Consider this:
As a river flows, it picks up bits and pieces, washing them away with the growing current. As our spiritual life grows, it too is picking up bits and pieces, growing faster, wider and with momentum gets longer. The only true spiritual arrival per say is upon physical death: when we look upon our Saviors’ face and are made spiritually whole. Until our physical death, we will never quite have our spiritual thirst fully quenched. Satisfaction will only come when we lay our eyes upon Jesus in another realm, created just perfect for that moment.
Just like the river, we must continue to grow and be fed. There a few things we can do to keep moving forward. Our spiritual education is multi-faceted. One way we can grow is to continue reading the word. We can participate in studies on different books of the Bible or just copy scripture each day, committing some to memory and getting ourselves acquainted with others.
We must surround ourselves with people who want to grow spiritually and strive to find wise council, based on biblical principal. (* If you are looking for a place to start, Titus 2 is a great resource.) Learning from older and wiser Christians gives us an edge. We can learn from their experiences and grow from our own. Having a mentor is important, not only for education but accountability. We must follow our spiritual journey through valleys and peaks and know we never walk alone. We must never be afraid to follow God’s direction, even if it is unknown and unpaved.
Our prayer life should be full, spending some of our days in a state of meditation. Improving upon this is challenging for most of us- it’s hard to stay focused enough to pray for any length of time when we aren’t taught to practice it. We must continually listen and speak to the movement of the Holy Spirit. When it moves, we need to follow its lead. When the Holy Spirit stirs us, we need to be ready to jump. When it requires, we stay still and pray.
As the river moves, it happens upon obstacles and finds a way around them, continuing to feed itself and grow downstream. As we grow, we must also maneuver around obstacles and circumstances to continue growing.
We need to avoid comfort, complacency, and the illusion of spiritual contentment- these things do not allow for growth in any direction. We should be thirsty for more experiences, hungry for more bits and physically rested for more journeys. When you invite the spirit in, many great things can happen. The Lord does not make your journey fast, or even show an end in sight- He makes it full, long and wide.
Growth also widens the path for spiritual warfare- the enemy will stand at the gates waiting for them to broaden. He will make you feel weak, alone and afraid. He will create the illusion the path is overgrown. The path is never overgrown, just filled with things the Lord needs you to take care of. The path will seem daunting at times, yet the Holy Spirit will continually guide you, ever lengthening, ever widening the path you are to take. When it is dark, he provides a light, when it is raining an umbrella. When the enemy stands at the gate, he provides a shield to protect your soul, because it belongs to only one master, the Lord Jesus Christ.