Esential Spiritual Inteligence

 

When I listen to their responses it often becomes clear that their perspective on their faith in Jesus is strongly based on time spent with motivational teachers or speakers. They sound quite charismatic when they speak and are eager to share their testimony of encounters with Jesus. It is incredibly easy to be drawn in by their enthusiasm for Jesus.

How important is it for a child of God to understand or grasp the meaning of scripture? Often I come across believers when I reach out to promote Spiritual Maturity in their hearts. So often I come across people that are hyped up and zealous for their faith. I love seeing people energised about their faith and when they share their experience it is often with joy passion and even with a spring in their step so to speak. In the presence of such energised people, it is very easy to feel they are in a good place and doing well spiritually. 

 Just recently I was in a store looking for a specific bible when I engaged with the shop assistant. She was pleasant and had a passionate love for Jesus and her life with Him. In keeping with my habit, I make a special effort to engage people and these zealous people I find to be very special. I love their energy and excitement around their faith and their walk with the Lord. Experience has taught me that one should look deeper into matters in scripture to see how much substance there is to get a sound insight into it, and so I will usually draw them out with one or two probing questions. 

The sad thing about those discussions is that far too few people that I have personally engaged with can definitively explain the teaching in other words. They use all the right words and on face value, one could think of them as dynamic apostles of the faith. The sad thing is that a lack of clear understanding limits our spiritual inelegance or capacity to apply what we learn.

 
I do believe that we are required to be able to grasp and apply what we learn from Gods word as we live in His Kingdom because we are growing toward and eternal goal.We are al on a journey to eternity and for the bulk of us, earthly life’s challenges will end when our bodies pass on and we enter into a blissful eternity with our Lord Jesus. I believe that the skill, character, understanding and maturity that we develop in this life will be carried over to our next life and that heaven will be a whole lot like earth as we know it with one important difference. Our work will not be a burden. We will still be required to work. 

This notion of working in heaven goes against mainstream perspectives of heaven but I have found it to be biblical. Since we are growing not just to get to heaven but to mature into service in heaven we need to embrace the fact that we need to grow with an after-life-mind-set. Our growth does benefit us in this life but will only really come into its own when we enter into paradise to be with our Lord. The application of biblical teaching is what makes us effective believers. It’s inspirational when people can make statements like “I am saved by grace and not by works so I am free from works.”

 
A statement like this sounds very spiritual and seems to be in tune with their faith, and they are. The sad thing is that their faith is based on what they were taught and not necessarily on a sound scriptural foundation. Without getting into the specifics of this quoted phrase I feel it fair to say that as much as we are not saved by works I must emphasise that for those who are saved (God’s children), good works are required. (Matt 25/ John 15)When I ask people what it means to have eternal life I often get an answer like... “it means I go to heaven”, or “it means that I will live forever with Jesus.” 

Too many people have separated this life on earth from the next one in heaven and believe that heaven has a lot to do with blissful feasting and celebrations. Heaven is by far more intricate and much broader than the average person may think. Without an understanding of the biblical content we read, our society has become inspired junkies that hang on the lips of charismatic teachers who in many instances have a limited understanding of God’s word. It's all good to know how to copy and paste from powerful teachers, but ultimately God will call every individual to give their account for their life lived. On that occasion, we are hardly able to say that we lived a life based on my pastors teaching. 

Everything I know about scripture reinforces that God will expect us to give an account of our lives against His word and not against third party seminal teaching. The Lords return is hardly the time for us think we can afford to sound like a motivational speaker. We must be able to say Lord I did this because your word said so. Or I did it that way because I understood your word in this way. Understanding of the Bible comes from an intimate knowledge thereof. There is no way that there is a bible verse that addresses every possible situation we may face in a lifetime. Perhaps it's safer to say that the Bible acts as a guideline, and teaches many principles. 

Jesus often refers to his teaching by saying that the kingdom of heaven is like... before He expands his teaching in a parable. To me, this means that Jesus provided all of his sermons to help us UNDERSTAND what God wants us to know. Comprehension empowers us to interpret and also apply what we have learnt. It gives us personal power to develop our spiritual intelligence. Bearing spiritual fruit is not just the ability to copy and paste teaching from our favourite pastor or online teacher. It's about applying what we know and making smart choices as we grow in the Fathers grace. 

 God rewards those who earnestly seek him. Seeking His presence speaks of a personal investment to our spiritual journey to get close to God. Because we are uniquely created there can not possibly be one bible with absolute guidance on every issue. This is exactly why we require faith. God is good and has set us up to become every bit as amazing as He had intended for us to be.