Journey into Lightl

As I studied spiritual formation in seminary, I became excited about how this information could revolutionize the spiritual lives of my Christian brothers and sisters.  That is, if they practiced it.

Before seminary, I wondered if I even knew I had a heart. Now, I was learning that from my heart “flowed the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Thus, the condition of my heart was vital to my life.

I learned that my heart is what God wanted to change the most. “This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me” (Matthew 15:8). God did not want me to just look good at the surface, but also wanted me to look good in the deep. He wanted to change my heart (Psalm 51:6).

Therefore, you can understand why I have been disappointed over the last few years as I have discovered that few Christians want to go deep. Do they know what they are missing?

I knew how my life had gone deeper, and I knew that theirs could too! This would be for their great benefit, and God’s honor (Luke 18:29).

So, why do so few of us want to go deep? Why do we cling to the surface, even if it isn’t working very well?

One reason that we do not go deep is that we are scared. We would have to give up some of our idols. We are not like Moses who “chose to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25).

We have often settled for a largely legalist, comfortable Christianity. We “are already filled, we are already rich, we have become kings” (1 Corinthians 4:8).

Little do we know that we could be  “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelations 3:17) like the church in Laodicea. The reason we may be deceived is that we do not dare go deep.

We need to go deep with God to get to the root of our sin and false beliefs that keep us from living a powerful life. We have deep internal structures that are hell-bent on opposing any transformation God wants to bring to our lives. These include false beliefs, bad feeling habits, and substitutes for trusting God that we have had for many years.

If we ignore this deep structure, we will be constantly tripped up in living the good truth that we get Sunday after Sunday in sermons. “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).

Jesus is who sets us free from this body of death and fills us with his joy, peace, and love. But we have to go deep with him. We have to “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling” with him at a deep level (Philippians 2:12).

We will need to do more than just know truth. We will also need to become doers of the truth at a deep level (James 1:22).

We can dare to go deep because we are not alone. In the deep, Jesus’ Spirit reveals our sin to us and then empowers us to live the truth that we often already know. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23-24).

Therefore, I encourage you to go deep with God today by sincerely asking him to reveal what is going on in your deep. Then, ask him to help you live his way in the issues that he reveals.