Winter 1995

Becoming Spiritually Stable
Wade E Taylor

In my early days of being a Christian, there were times when I became spiritually stirred and promised the Lord all kinds of things. I felt that I had received direction and purpose and thought, "at last I am on my way." The next thing I knew, I had fallen apart, and all spiritual vision and inspiration was gone. Then I picked myself up, shook off the dust, returned to the starting line and began again.

This pattern may also have taken place in your spiritual experience, or, it may be a present problem that you are trying to overcome.

Life is never easy. We all have our ups and downs. There have been times when I told the Lord, "I will never doubt you again." Soon, I was saying, "Lord, where are you?"

It is time for us to grow out of these patterns, and begin to move upward and onward without vacillation. It is very important that the foundation upon which we stand is the Rock, our Lord Jesus Christ and that our life is hidden "in Christ." If our spiritual experience is resting on sand, that is, if we are trusting our own abilities, we will fail when the pressures of life increase.

When difficulties affect us and we begin to lose our spiritual direction, if we will become quiet and look to the Lord, we will recognize that beneath our vacillations is a layer of spiritual strength and hope that had been deposited within us through our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection and in the peace that came when He took up His abode within us.

If we will meditate upon our past victories which we gained through placing our lives in His hands and allowing Him to work out His purposes through the pressures that we were facing at that time, we will be encouraged by realizing that He is well able and willing to bring us through our present difficulty.

This ability to rise above our present difficulty had been there all through our time of gradually slipping towards darkness. We needed only to realize that we are a new creation; that old things have passed away and our life is hid in Him, and that our strength comes from Him. With David, we can say, "The LORD is my light and my salvation" Psa 27:1a.

Paul said, "I press towards the mark." The Lord looks through our vacillations to see if there is within us "a deep inner determination" to press through to the place where our responses no longer emerge from our Adamic nature, but from the new creation that we have become.
Many of us have within us a settled "knowing" that we have gone too far to go back and that at any price, we have no choice but to press upward and onward. Once we realize that we have gone beyond the "point of no-return," we can only say, "Lord, for better or for worse, my life is Yours." The Lord is pleased with this, for He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." That is, "Blessed are those who have come to the end of themselves, and of their own abilities."

We are called to be "overcomers." However, we cannot overcome unless we have something to overcome. Thus, when one of these "spiritual lows" hits us, we have a choice opportunity to deny our feelings, refuse to feel sorry for ourselves, and rise above our circumstances as an overcomer.

"Overcoming" is not seeking to defeat the enemy in our own strength, but rather to recognize that our Adamic nature is dead and buried, and that we are a new creation in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Then we enter into His life and overcome in His strength.

The varied struggles that each one of us face are very real. However, it is not the "struggle" that is important, but rather the way we view and respond to it. We live in a worldly environment where all sorts of things war against us, and many times, it seems that there is more against us than for us. This gives us ample opportunity to either feel sorry for ourselves and fall into despair, or to rise above these things and meet our Lord as an overcomer.

"Deep calleth unto deep. At the noise of thy
waterspouts, all thy waves and thy billows are
gone over me" Psalm 42:7 (Punctuation changed).

There is a desire in the heart of the Lord for a people who will stand on the bedrock of the full redemption that He accomplished in their behalf and trust in His faithfulness alone. This requires of us a breaking out of the mold of our past insecurities and an entering into the security of our being seated with Him in His Throne, at the right hand of all power and authority.

Here, as we rest in His victory, the Holy Spirit who brought Him forth from what seemed to be a total defeat, will also lift us from our place of discouragement and vacillation into an overcoming victory in His presence.

Each of us desires to be wanted, appreciated, and understood, as this is built within our makeup. Since we were created in His likeness, this desire is also in the One who created us. Thus, the Lord desires that we come to Him alone in trust and appreciation for His redemption in our behalf. The vacillations in our faith can rob us of our being able to give this satisfaction to our Lord.

Have you ever felt, when others are entering in or being blessed, that "this" is for everyone but me? If only we could realize the potential that rests within us in relation to our new creation life, we would be able to rise above the limitations that we place upon ourselves, and enter into all that the Lord has made available for us.

During the times when the Lord is able to lift us into His presence for even a few short moments, when "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened," sense that there is a far greater potential within us than we had realized. The Lord greatly desires to open this buried treasure and fill it with Himself. Thus, "Deep calleth unto deep."

There is a higher dimension of communion with our Lord that He seeks to bring us into. It is not only our sin nature with which the Lord is dealing, but also He is dealing with our willingness to settle for less. The seemingly "good things" that rob us of the highest to which He is calling us.

There are three areas by which we move into spiritual stability.

First, "That I might know Him."

This speaks of information about the Lord, but beyond this, it speaks of an intimate "knowing" the Lord as a person. We are to come to a recognition, not only of His presence, but of His person and feelings, and thus respond to Him accordingly. Through regeneration, we are made a member in particular of His Body, a part of the corporate Christ, and we should relate to and respond to all that is in the Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Next, that I may know "the power of His resurrection".

This entails a process of testing and proving. Those who have a proven testimony, in which there is a demonstration of His life and power, have had a deep personal experience with the Lord. They have gone through severe testings and have personally experienced deliverance through the power of God. They have paid a price for what they have.

God is not a respecter of persons. If he were to arbitrarily hand out power ministries, then He would of necessity need to give these to all who came and asked. These are reserved for those who have paid a high price in their identification with Him. The Word tells us that "Many are called but few are chosen." Another way to say this is, "Many are called, but few will pay the price in order to be chosen" (Matt 22:14).

Then is the "fellowship of His sufferings."

This is not the fellowship of our sufferings, but our fellowship with Him in His sufferings. The Lord suffers over our spiritual dullness. He has so much to give and so few who are willing and sensitive enough to receive.

There is a longing in the heart of the Lord for a people who will relate to Him in each of these areas. There is a "deep" that is crying out to a "deep" within us, that He might find the satisfaction which He anticipated when He created us.

As we become able to rest in His presence, and allow Him to bring us into this deeper identification with Him, He will lead us through experiences which previously would have thrown us into fear and confusion.

Now we can walk in confidence with Him through these, in communion with Him as we see Him alone.