Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity (2)
03
27
2013
Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place . . . —Revelation 4:1
A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, “Friend, come up even higher.” There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits. Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different. When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve. Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move. But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.
Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level. We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint. Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.
Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven’t turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually. Have you heard God say, “Come up higher,” not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing . . . ?” (Genesis 18:17). God has to hide from us what He does, until, due to the growth of our personal character, we get to the level where He is then able to reveal it.
- Today at work one of the workers who work for me asked me a question and before I even realized it I quoted a scripture to her and what ensued in manner surprised me. Not by what she said but what I did say. They were not my words that I spoke first, no they were words straight from the Bible. I spoke of a scripture that has come to mean a great deal to me. It is not mearly in our words but in our actions that we show who we are.
It is not always easy to be honest, sometimes honesty really hurts and sometimes folks are not ready to hear the truth. Sometimes they are stuck on their version of what they see they will turn away and not see the truth before them and we in our haste to be set free of what is upon our hearts well we may have stood in God’s way of working on the person. We spoke of how this can be so with the truth at times, how one must measure our own motivation to be heard, the truth that we see with what is truly before us. Sometimes it is not for us to say the truth, not to share what we know but if it is better for the person to hear it now, if it is better for them to know it now are we willing to jearpodize our relationship with the person by telling them the truth?
Compare this week in your spiritual life with a year ago. . . . .
I would be lying if I say I did not see a change. I would be lying if I did not admit that there were areas in my life that God has truly moved mountains within me. I fear this new found strength, I worry if it will be enough, will I be enough – no I will not without him. I look around and though I wish I did not compare I know the choices I made, the commitment I gave again has moved me forward. I know God has given me grace and peace, he has shown me mercy and love. I did not settle. The laws written upon my heart overcame any wordly wants of the moment. I do not have to fear falling for though I stumble he my hand is always reaching for him.
And I have to smile because in just an instant in time. . . . I saw a woman who feared what I represented come to grow so much in such a short time and discover strengths within herself. I had to smile because God let me be a part of that, a witness to that.
