Critical journey 1
Last week we looked at personality and how counselors, including Christian counselors, use psychology to diagnose and advise their clients. Another test used by many churches today is a spiritual gift analysis. This test is similar to the one we took last week and comes in seven gift, twenty gift, and 27 gift varieties. Your doctrine of the gifts of the Holy Spirit would indicate which test your congregation would take.
Again the intent here is to determine the members place in ministry within the church. this test is more subjective than the one we took last week. Participants are asked to answer a series of questions using the answers: almost always, occasionally, or not very often. Example:
I have a consuming passion, strong desire, great concern to reach lost souls.
That seems straightforward to me, a person who would indicate positively and this type of question might be selected for the evangelism team.
How about this one?
When I speak, I desire to stir other people's consciences (make them think, and convict them to act).
Well I suppose in a broad sense you might say that someone destined for the pastorate would respond affirmatively to this question. Or maybe a busybody? Or a goat and not a sheep?
Let’s take a look at one more,
I can spot, discern, and recognize sin when others cannot.
Let me ask you, do you think that’s a mark of discernment or judgment?
I have rarely found a believer who is unaware of his spiritual gifts. If the person is a new Christian and unfamiliar with the church speak of Spiritual Gifts, let him be reminded that God has supplied the church with everything it needs to accomplish the work of the kingdom.
1 Cor 12:27-28 assures us
27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
Do you think the God would appoint people to the fivefold ministry and not charge them to bring up all others behind them to perpetuate the work? We have prophets and teachers and apostles and evangelists and pastors with the discernment and commitment to seeking God’s face before placing a person in the ministry. Again it is my opinion that tests such as these are another way for the church to be lazy and adopt the means of the world to get things accomplished.
Before I get off this soapbox, let me say that formal testing that determines a person’s spiritual growth does not make allowances for move of the Holy Spirit. These tests deal in absolutes. They say a person is this and nothing more. Or not this and disallows the potential to become anything other that they are at the time of the test. Being urged by someone in authority over you to accept the limiting parameters of the test is to set yourself up for unfullfillment.
Unfulfillment is not the road God wants you to walk.
All of the tests that we have been looking at this week and last, have been devised to identify where people are at. To measure success and maturity. To label people and put them in boxes, and to give the person administering the tests control over another person’s future.
Depending on a person’s self worth, that box leads to pride.
I’m at a higher level than he is.
When you get to my level than you will understand.
I’m just a baby Christian I will never be a spiritual giant like Sister holy water and so why even volunteer?
We must remember that God equips. God directs and God appoints. Its all part of the journey.
let me share a practical example with you: Spend time in this place for a couple weeks and you will know that Ingrid has the gift for leading worship. Did you think pastor needed a test with 400 questions to determine that?
We all know that Ingrid can sing. We know that Ingrid has a vast collection of CDs and listens to Christian music all the time.
What about Pastor? Does she have directives for putting Ingrid in this crucial place?
In 1 Tim 3:6-7
6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.
7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
What is pastor looking for in placing anyone in ministry here at Ekklesia?
Faithfulness,
Loves the Lord,
Desire to be more intimate with God
Spends time with God
Seeks God’s input on what you’re doing
Taking the job seriously
Most important, someone who submits to Pastor’s authority, and is not out building his own kingdom
So, where are you in your spiritual journey?
The purpose of the study we will conduct for the next couple weeks is to chart our individual responses of faith to God and see where that interaction has caused us to change and become more like Christ.
A new Christian is like a baby in many respects. Babies go through stages of development. From the time they are born their mothers feed them with milk. Babies drink milk for a couple months and seem content, until one day their mother notices that the child seems hungrier. The milk they had been accustomed to no longer satisfies.
The mothers will add a little cereal to the milk. The thickened mixture works for a while, until the mother discovers once again her child is not satisfied. A mother will begin baby food. Suddenly a variety of nourishment options are available. Mothers soon discover their child’s likes and dislikes – what the baby can tolerate, and what he is allergic to.
When a baby discovers table foods: cheerios, cookies, pretzels. He experiences the sweet, sour, and salty. His body has many more options for sources of nutrition, vitamins, minerals and enjoyment.
When a child is introduced to meat, he experiences that eating requires work. To consume meat, you must chew. At this point although the mother continues to prepare the food for her child, by the time he is eating meat, he is feeding himself. Nutritionists tell us it can take the body up to 3 days to digest beef. We’ve all witnessed a baby filling its diaper and watched the expressions on its face. Its hard work.
Now compare your spiritual journey.
As a new Christian, you a given the milk of the word. You attend new member’s classes and learn basic bible doctrine. Cereal added to your milk may take the form of Bible study, or a mentor. Baby food comes in conferences and small study groups. Table food is the introduction of a prayer partner, ministry team, or daily devotions. The meat comes when you reach a place in your commitment where you have to know the truth. This could be School of the Profits, seminary, or intercession.
And like the path of digestion, not everything we consume or partake of on the journey tastes good. Some of it doesn’t agree with our theology. Some things like false prophets can make us sick. Some life experiences in the church or in ministry can add bitter to our ranges of tastes. Sometimes we even require a spiritual laxative or cleansing to go forward. For some the point for healing of harmful religious experiences must occur in order for wholeness to be realized.
Let’s lay a little foundation and let me introduce to some terms we will be using in the next couple weeks
Definitions:
Faith: Way we live our life out in response to God.
Letting God direct our lives
Letting God be God
Journey is the process and the passage.
6 Stages in the journey of Faith.
1. Recognition of God
2. Life of Discipleship
3. Productive life
4. Journey inward
5. Journey outward
6. Life of love
Stages are fluid. We move back and forward between them regularly, and we can experience more than one stage at a time.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Say there is a longtime Christian in the church, Sunday school teacher, intercessor, prayer warrior. This person is known for their great faith. By all appearances you would think that he was in stage 5 or six of his spiritual journey.
Now his wife dies, and he doubts and blames God for taking her away. He regresses back to stage 1 or 2 and needs to learn to trust God again.
Now at this point I want to emphasize is that the purpose of charting our spiritual journeys is not to identify who is at stage 5, or stage 6, or stage 2. It is not meant to put people in a box. It is intended to allow people to see where and how they have responded to God in the journey of faith. In the example of the saint losing his wife I demonstrated that we all move throughout the six stages during our journeys. We move forward and back.
Stages are not goals to be achieved. Stages are resting stops to evaluate where you have come, and to give you a heads up on where you are going. You do not mysteriously move from stage 1 to stage six or skip stages. We may spend years moving back and forth between stages 1, 2, and 3. Then in one event move to stage 4. Then re-experience all four stages – they are cumulative. Each builds on the others preceding it.
Everyone experiences each stage differently!
A home stage is where you operate most of the time and which best characterizes your life of faith. For example someone who spends lots of time in Bible study or research might be home in stage 2 – life of discipleship. Or someone who works full time in ministry might have a home stage of 3 – the productive life.
Cages are places we get stuck along the way. Not resting spots, places where we find it more comfortable to sit rather than to move. Most of the time it is unconscious. We often do not see that we are stuck; to others (5-fold ministry) it is apparent. When we are stuck we are caged. No longer growing in faith. Cages come from fear and circumstance.
An example might be a prophet chaser. Someone who runs after prophets for a word. When the word comes and the person is told to act, rather than following the directive and moving to the next place in the journey, he runs to another prophet for another word. They are stuck or caged.
One more definition: crisis. Crisis is the time to move. It is a circumstance that requires our faith in God. It is often frightening and makes us feel vulnerable. If we resist, we will get stuck. If we allow god to move and change us in the crisis we will grow.
One more thing to consider is that the spiritual journey is not a solo act. Yes, your journey is your journey, but it affects everyone you around you. We all have family members who think we’re wacky because of our faith. Our journeys have affected their loves too. Some stages of the journey also involve solitude. There are times when God will call us apart to himself. We can’t go to that Birthday party because we need to be in church. Not we want to be in church, we need to be in his presence.
Before we go any farther, I’d like us to share a couple minutes each about how we would characterize our spiritual journeys. Can you determine if there were distinct stages in you walk so far?