Breaking New Ground Spiritually: How to Do It
Hosea knew something about breaking new ground spiritually and he probably had reservations. God told him to marry a harlot, Gomer. Through his marriage, God taught Hosea about the spirit of idolatry that existed in the people of Israel. The prophet told Israel to stop worshipping physical and heart idols and serve God. Here’s one message on this subject but there are other scriptures on breaking ground.
Hosea 10:12
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.
Anyone that strays from God fights the flesh, negative influences, and other dark pursuits that prevent them from breaking new ground spiritually for God.
What does breaking new ground spiritually mean?
The Israelites left Egypt for a land of promise except they didn’t get beyond a wilderness experience. Everything they’d gotten used to no longer existed. Their old life of making bricks was familiar, comfortable, and predictable. They knew what to expect.
Like me, do you recoil when God prompts you to step out of your comfort zone? He may ask you to chart unknown territory which represents breaking up your fallow ground. Feelings of uncertainty and insecurity flood your mind. That’s what happens when we disobey God just like the Israelites did. We trust ourselves first and God last.
God challenges us to go higher with Him and to make changes we’d rather not. To be honest, we may not want to take new ground because we’re just fine with where we are. Usually breaking new ground spiritually means leaving favorite things that take our eyes off of Jesus.
What if taking new ground meant living a better life? Would you be all in? I proved that point when I wrote: “God Prods: Personal Growth Reflections About Christian Living.”
Examples of Breaking New Ground Spiritually
Getting Healthy: God cares about ALL of you: your life, how you feel, your future and especially your health. You’ll notice in the New Testament that Jesus never refused to heal anyone. The only ones who didn’t receive healing were people in His hometown. They thought He was a local boy and couldn’t possibly heal someone.
The Holy Spirit may encourage you to make changes in your diet, find ways to reduce stress, or stop watching TV programs that fuel fear. What’s most important is to listen to what the Holy Spirit suggests to improve health and then do it.
Picking the Right Relationships: Think about which people in your life celebrate you and the ones that don’t. Then consider long and hard how to limit the time you spend with people that drag you down. Ask the Holy Spirit to put people in your life that want God’s best for you. They won’t mind suggesting to you ways how to succeed.
Reaching for the Stars: Is your job boring and unfulfilling? What if your dream job was just around the corner? God puts dreams in hearts but most people push down those thoughts as impossible. Ponder on words the Holy Spirit speaks such as “You’ll minister to thousands.” Then consider why you deep aborting God’s plans for you.
Eliminating Addictions: Unfortunately, all of us fall for Satan’s traps and choose something that binds our minds, bodies, and spirits. With God’s help, you can break free from smoking, lust, drugs, watching porn, or something else. Press through to God to find out how to overcome addictions. He loves bringing us out of darkness and into His presence and light.
Other concerns:
Is the Holy Spirit bringing to light areas where you need to take a closer look while you read this? Get serious about what He tells you to do. Don’t resist His help.
How Can You Break New Ground?
- Readiness: Many times Christians settle for less because they don’t allow the Holy Spirit to guide them. Likewise, they aren’t willing to make the necessary corrections whether it’s spiritual, physical, mental, or something else. Being obedient is a huge component to breaking new ground.
- Pathways: Taking new ground involves singleness of mind and accepting a more narrow path. A broad path seems easier when walking day after day in unfamiliar territory is harder.
- Courage: The Holy Spirit lives inside you and wants to lead and instruct. Don’t disregard Him because He’s the one who builds lasting courage and faith.
- Help: We all need people (influencers) to get on board with God’s plans for us. There are people who can provide answers for your specific situation. But you must position yourself to receive God’s help and doing that requires that you believe He wants to. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. He drops ideas into your heart but some people fail to follow through because it takes too much time and effort.
- Meditation: Getting a few words of scripture from social media sites isn’t meditating on scripture. You must purposely put scripture into your mind by reading it, thinking about what it means, and praying for fresh revelation from heaven. At the most unlikely moment, you’ll get an aha from heaven. That’s because scripture is alive and breathing and sharper than a two-edged sword. God communicates knowledge that isn’t available elsewhere. When you’re filled to the brim with the Word of God, it’s always in your mouth ready to come out. You can be a living testament full of God’s Word blessing people wherever you go.
There’s one other suggestion about breaking new ground spiritually.
You must see yourself actually doing that. And Jesus tells us how.
Mark 11:23-24 (KJV)
Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.
That scripture is mere words unless you believe that the images you put in your heart contribute to what becomes reality. When two powerful forces combine (God’s Word and His Spirit) along with belief, a believer is on a non-stop course to receive abundantly from God.
Breaking new ground spiritually isn’t so bad after all!