Journey into Lightl

Living godly from the heart begins with carefully reading and meditating on the Bible and listening to good biblical teaching. God then uses it to transform our minds as we slowly gain the mind of Christ. And knowing goes beyond just knowing about God but experiencing him as we learn to trust in him from the heart. The Spirit uses the word to change us to be like himself. And it’s God that changes us; not our beating ourselves up because of a lack of faith or redoubling our efforts to live the supernatural life without connecting to God.

One of the most important things we can do to live godly from the heart is to know what is going on in there. And that is not easy. So much of our hearts are filled with the lies, deceptions and evil from our old lives that still influence us. These things often unconsciously wage war with the truth we know. “The heart is deceitful above all else and is desperately sick, who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NAS)

We can understand our hearts by inviting the Holy Spirit to search them for any ungodly thoughts, motives, desires, or actions and to reveal them to us. This helps us detect any hurtful ways (Psalm 139:23,24). Only the supernatural power of God can penetrate our layers of deception and defenses that harden our hearts to correction. As God reveals our hearts to us, we can turn the things we can’t change over to him to work out, and act on the things we can change with his help.

The Holy Spirit uses the truth sown in our hearts to enable us to detect the false ways in there. Our role is relying on God and his word to attack the lies when they are exposed. We are powerless to live the Christian life if we don’t do battle with Satan by using God’s word.

For example, a lie I tell myself is that the world is watching to judge me. And that scares me. I meet this lie with the truth that in God’s eyes, I am precious, honored and loved (Isaiah 43:4). And his judgment is what is true. This truth sets me free from being a slave to what others think of me.

But Satan can use our hearts to lead us astray if we let him. We can reduce our exposure to his devious ways if we pay attention to what we put into our minds and rely on to be true. I had to recently cut back on listening to cable news because of its negative bent which violated God’s word about focusing on what is positive (Philippians 4:8). Instead, I watch positive shows that display human nature and reality in a more positive light. But even then, I need to be careful of the messages that come through the story line.

May we all watch over our hearts with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life (Psalm 27:4) and learn to live godly from the heart. What goes on in our hearts determines our destiny. May we all have the wisdom to cooperate with God as he transforms us from the heart out.

Recall an area of your Christian life in which you struggle to be victorious. Ask God to reveal to you any lies or anything else you are relying on that is hindering you from trusting God to give you that victory. Commit this struggle to God and thank him for the victory he will enable you to have (Psalm 37:5).

What It Means to Rely on the Spirit

When we become Christians by relying on what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross, we are given God’s Spirit as a pledge of our salvation and to enable us to live a powerful life. However, we often don’t lean on him and instead try to muscle our way through the Christian life in our own strength. We must choose to rely on this Spirit to help us to love the unlovely, serve the needs of others sacrificially, and let others get the credit instead of us seeking it for ourselves. We often think we can do all these good things just by trying harder. But we can’t.

As a Christian, we have “become a new person. The old life is gone: a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT). But we don’t become a new person in our experience if we continue to rely on our human efforts and not the supernatural power of the Spirit. We don’t want to try to live the Christian life without Jesus’ help. For our Christianity will be fake and powerless.

Why It’s So Hard to Rely on the Spirit

My background emphasized knowing the Bible. But it did not emphasize as much relying on the Spirit to live the Bible. To some extent, I was left on my own to figure out how to obey it from the heart. As a result, my spirituality had a lot of legalisms in it, which is trying to live the Christian life without relying on the Spirit.

I realized this about myself 17 years ago when I started seminary. I seemed to think that all I needed was to know the biblical principle and then I could do it. However, at that time I began to trust in a deeper way that apart from God I could do nothing of eternal value (John 15:5). Nothing? Are you kidding? That’s right. Nothing of eternal value.

So, I was motivated to learn how to do live more with Jesus instead of just for Jesus. I had to humble myself and learn to let Jesus into my day to help me with whatever came along. But where’s the glory in that? If God and I are doing life together, how can I take credit for what happens? I would have to die to myself (John 12:24)– and that is one major reason few of us walk in the Spirit because we are too proud to live in the reality that apart from Jesus, we can do nothing that counts.

Another reason we often choose to live without God’s power is it is hard to live by faith. Up until the time we became Christians, we always relied on something we could see. That was usually us or good circumstances. If we couldn’t see it, it didn’t exist. And this bent carries over into our life after we become a Christian. We like to see, feel, and touch what we put our faith in. But in the case of trusting God, we never see him, feel him, or touch him directly. But through the eyes of faith, we experience his love and power through a loving wife, compassion living through a godly person and wisdom through a Spirit-filled teacher.

Many of us are high-control people. We don’t feel safe unless we control our circumstances. It is very difficult for us to trust others. Instead, we strive to understand so we don’t have to trust an unseen God. But God says, “Trust in Me with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge me and I will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5,6, NLT). But that is scary. We have less anxiety when we trust in something we can see. But the truth that often escapes us is that our circumstances are never under our complete control.

As a result, many of us opt for a safe Christianity that lacks God’s presence and power. We miss the exciting adventure of allowing God to transform us and use us to make this a better world. We fail to live life in the Spirit, in God’s power. We miss much of the joy and peace of living in partnership with the living God. We refuse to pay the price. It takes work, perseverance and trust in God. It can be uncomfortable and painful and not for cowards. Few Christians live this way.

One of the shocking things I learned when I became more aware of my thoughts, feelings and motives of my heart through spiritual formation disciplines was how depraved I was. For example, I was trying to earn worth by serving God. Being a leader in the church sometimes was more about trying to be important to church people than pleasing God and doing what he wanted me to do for his purposes. I pretended to be what I thought would get the approval of others, instead of what was right for me. And trusting in good circumstances rather than a good God to keep me safe.

A reason it is hard for us to rely on God is that we often want to rely on lies more than the God of all truth. We don’t want to believe that we can’t do anything of eternal value without God doing it through us. We don’t want to believe that God’s plan for us is better than our plans for ourselves. We don’t want to believe that what others think of us has no value in who God thinks we are. We want control and we want to cling to the fantasy that we have it. But in order to rely on the Spirit, we need to be trained to turn away from lies that contradict God’s truth and promises. We need to develop the skill to identify and validate the accuracy of what we depend on.

How to Rely on the Spirit

To rely on the Spirit, we must trust what the Spirit says is true. It’s not something to file way on the bookshelf of our minds, but something to be used today to live our lives. Unless we step out and depend on the Spirit to make his promises active and alive in us, they are powerless. “And without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6, NAS). God wants us to be a doer of the Word and not someone who knows but doesn’t trust or do.

When God says to us, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely, I will help you, surely, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10, NAS), he doesn’t want us to go on acting like we are at the mercy of our wits and wisdom. No, he wants us to act on the truth that we are never alone, and God’s powerful and faithful help will get us through whatever challenges we are facing.

Meditation on God’s word helps us to stay focused on God’s truth instead of Satan’s blizzard of lies. For example, I recently had a delicate procedure done by a vascular surgeon. The procedure did not go perfectly when he made an error in judgment on the size of the stent and left a pinhole leak. He also let the incision get infected and prescribed an anti-biotic that I was allergic to. After a couple of other expectations that were not met, I began to feel like I wasn’t safe. Then God reassured me through meditation on Isaiah 41:10 that he was with me and was my reason to feel safe. He impressed upon me that all the human errors were under his control, and he still would work these mistakes together with other things for my good. Without relying on Isaiah 41:10, I would have been much more anxious than I was listening to Satan’s lies that I was in danger.

Final Thoughts

Finally, the dirty little secret is that we can’t live the Bible by just knowing it. We can know and want to do but still not do. God must live his life through us to live according to God’s incredibly high standards. Standards such as loving our enemies, forgiving those who have hurt is, and loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.  We can’t do this through human strength. We always must lower the standards to make our Christianity work when we refuse to depend on the Spirit.

God tries to persuade us to try his Spirit out to live by his standards of perfection. We need to get out of the way and let God live his life through us. We need to rely on the fact that Jesus has rendered powerless our sin nature. When we rely on this reality, God gradually makes it true in our experience as we follow and trust in him. When we don’t depend, we continue to not be transformed and fail to connect to the life of God and his joy, peace, and love. May we all persevere, never give up, and try again even if we fail a thousand times. To experience God’s intimate love for us and his power, makes it worth the effort.

Application Questions and Exercises

1. What about you makes it difficult to rely on God to do his will? What are some reasons you think you need God’s help? What is one lie you believe that keeps you from trusting God to live through you?

2. Ask God to help you see some alternatives you have trusted in instead of placing your faith in him to meet an important need. Why did you do this? How did it work?

3. Imagine what this week would look l like if you lived it in God’s power. What are some differences you see in your feelings and actions from your usual week?

4. What has helped you to live by reliance on God? Why? What has hindered you? What action(s) are you going to take?

5. Think of a truth you sense the Holy Spirit is wanting you to trust God to make real for you in your experience. Picture what it would look like in your thoughts, feelings and actions if you acted and trusted God to provide what he has promised.

6. We are given God’s precious and magnificent promises so that our life can become supernatural as we rely on Jesus to make them real in our experience. Ask him to show you one of those promises to rely on today. How do you expect your day to be different as he keeps his promise to you?

7. Do you passionately desire to live a supernatural life experiencing daily God’s power and intimate love for you? Why would you want this? Why wouldn’t you want this?

When COVID first hit, it took some time for me to grasp that I would need to alter my life in many ways. I did not know I would have to deal with a “plague of biblical proportions.” For a long time, there were no trips to get my hair cut, no Fourth of July as I knew it, no birthday parties, no church as usual, and few friends to spend time with (I am retired). I often felt bored and lonely

There also were no vacations, Writer’s Conferences, or times to mentor men to help them grow in their faith.

Zoom helped me reach out to some extent, but it never was as good as being with them.

I did keep the hope alive for a long time in 2020 that we could still have a family reunion at Yellowstone National Park. But often the parts of the park we liked weren’t open.

But we did finally go. We went by car because we felt it was safer than by air to avoid COVID. It was a great time both going to and coming back from Wyoming. It was one of the best times of the year. There was white water river rafting, sights that awed us, and good times with brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces and in-laws.

Nature gave a lift to my spirit in the springs of 2020 and 2021 and at other times of the year. This brought some joy to my life. Also, I often took a drive in the car to lift my mood. I felt less lonely as I saw people going about their lives.

I often looked to God to feel safe and to not be so lonely. I also told the Lord “Thank you” often for my wife being in my life to bring some human warmth to me in the sad and empty days I had to face.

I think I felt more fear than most since the start of the pandemic due to being over seventy and having pre-existing conditions. Many were dying who had my characteristics.

Getting the vaccines gave a great boost to my confidence and peace of mind.

I often asked God for his safe path as I tried to be wise about the risks I took to be out in the world. I grew in my trust in God to keep me safe. So far, I have not had COVID.

I also felt fear due to riots, chaos with the elections, lockdowns, and bad health news in the media. These fears often drove me to my knees to pray to gain some peace.

God has been a rock in a scary world.  He has been a place to go to in order to feel safe, as the Bible says, “He alone is my refuge, my place of safety” (Psalm 91:2, NLT).  When the usual things I would rely on to meet my needs were not there, like friends and going out and doing things, I would experience God’s help to get me through the day. My focus grew to only want to do what his will was, in his power, and for his glory.

The verse I most clung to during this time was in Isaiah, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10, NAS). I still lean on this promise of his as I face the uncertain times ahead and the COVID threat that never seems to end.

I have struggled with low self-esteem since childhood. I have tried to overcome it by impressing, achieving, and conforming. But I couldn’t seem to impress or achieve enough to rest in just being me.

When I became a Christian in my twenties, I heard about how much God loved me and how important I was to him. But it seemed that a lot of this teaching just lodged in my head and did not seem to penetrate to my heart.

Meanwhile, I continued to strive for worth, approval, and achievement, but in Christian ways now. At the heart-level I still did not have a strong sense of being loved and important to God. One idol I adopted was to substitute the identity I got from the church, for the wonderful identity God gives me from being his child.

My Christianity was knowing the truth and then doing it, largely in my own strength. I was unaware of whether I was trusting God and his Word to do it. 

As the years went by, I was alert to anything that was useful in growing in my faith and helping others to grow. One day, a friend introduced the idea of going to seminary and studying Spiritual Formation.  It soon became apparent this was God’s leading, so I enrolled.

One of the first things I discovered was that I had a heart. Up until that time I assumed that if I knew the Bible, and applied it, then I would trust it. But no. Many times, I was surprised that my head and my heart disagreed. I was introduced to a new world of my heart and discovered idols and lies that were holding me back from growing in my faith.

Some of those lies included that I am what the church thinks I am, not what God thinks I am. I am only as important as my achievements are in the eyes of man. And I am only safe when I have good circumstances, not because God is with me.

I was fascinated by the unseen world of my heart and surrendered myself to learn to live in the truth at that level, no matter what the cost.

By this time, I had gotten pretty good at getting my needs met through the lies and idols in my heart. So, it has been particularly hard for me to die to these sins. In my desperation, I have experienced new life as I have earnestly prayed and leaned on God to show up in places where I have died to the old ways of getting my needs met.

Evidence of the resurrected life includes my growing desire to only do the tasks God gives me, in his power, and for his purposes. Another evidence is that we do life together now. I not only live life for God, but also with him. And I’m growing in finding my security through God’s presence, and not in good circumstances.