Category: Interior Life

glorious person man

Motivated By Our Future Perfection

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What motivates you to holy living? When you are tempted by something that others think is okay, but you know it is unholy, what do you think about in order to strengthen your will and resist temptation? Scripture mentions several different motivations; one of them is the promise of our future perfection: being thoroughly holy and perfect one day. This might not seem logical at first. If God is going to perfect us anyway, why should we make a lot of sacrifice now in order to be holy? Why would the promise of our future perfection and holiness motivate me to be more holy now? We can learn about this from John: “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” I Jn. 3:3 (NIV) Here God Continue Reading →

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The Trap Of Seeking The Presence Of God

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The greatest blessing in the New Creation will be to see God and be close to Him. Nothing will be better than being in His presence. We long for this and endure sacrifices now so we can present ourselves as pure when Jesus returns and we see God. So, shouldn’t we also be seeking the presence of God (the felt presence of God) in this mortal life? Shouldn’t we desire as much of God as He is willing to give now? Shouldn’t we always be seeking the presence of God? Of course we should. But there is a question as to priority. How high should we prioritize seeking the presence of God? First, we need to ask what we mean when we say the “presence of God.” If someone asks us what this means, we might say we just want whatever He wills. But the reality is that we want Continue Reading →

spiritual pride

Exposing Spiritual Pride

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Have you noticed that as you grow you run into new kinds of sins that are more subtle and hidden? As we mature we don’t wrestle as much with obvious sins like lying and ungodly speech. This can trick us into thinking that we have conquered the major sins in our lives. Yet growth brings with it a whole new set of vices. The 16th-century Christian teacher John of the Cross called these spiritual vices. They are spiritual versions of the seven deadly sins. These vices block our spiritual growth and oneness with God. Thus, they are spiritual enemy number one! The first spiritual vice John describes is spiritual pride. We develop spiritual pride in our spiritual accomplishments and spiritual growth. This can especially apply to our spiritual disciplines. We find ourselves being critical of others for not having enough devotion. We may also dislike praising others for their maturity because Continue Reading →

discernment

Discerning The Voices In Our Head

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“Whose voice is that?” An area that trips up many of us is whether a voice in our head is ours or God’s. Quoting from a previous post: “Our own inner voice is very capable of speaking many things to us! Many confuse it with the voice of God. It can sound like another person talking. It can answer our questions, give direction, give long prophecies, teach us ideas – but none of it is from God. We should never underestimate the power of the human soul to generate all kinds of impressions that may seem like they are not from us. We need to be humble and seriously consider this possibility when doing discernment.” We need to be very honest when discerning the voices. God’s voice usually feels separate from us and produces the fruits of the Spirit. But it is easy to confuse his voice with ours. Discerning the Continue Reading →

two roads discernment

Overcoming A Fault That’s Beyond Your Character

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Have you noticed that sometimes the reason we aren’t overcoming a fault is that we haven’t fully intended to? We make some mild efforts to change but they don’t work. Then one day we decide to put our full effort into it and presto – the fault is gone! But we also have another kind of experience with overcoming a fault: failure, in spite of all our efforts. “I keep trying to stop doing this, but it doesn’t work.” We’ve probably all said this at some point. We ask God for help, read books, study Scripture, and exercise our willpower, but nothing works. And the fault lives on. Why do we have such different experiences with becoming holy? Because some changes are within our character, and some are not. What do I mean by this? There are some changes that God has already equipped us to make, and success is Continue Reading →