Moving to the Next Level Spiritually: Going Higher
Moving to the next level spiritually is symptomatic. It means you pursue God. You aren’t satisfied with two-minute sermons, tiny bites of scripture, and Christian bumper stickers.
You have no intentions of falling back but moving forward. Having depth in your spirit is important and you want to connect with God often. You’re the current or next spiritual powerhouse causing demons to cower everywhere you go.
If you plateau spiritually, your goals become loftier when you desire to stay in lockstep with God.
So, where do you start in your pursuit of taking higher ground? You get on your face before God and become totally honest about your spiritual condition.
Moving to the Next Level Spiritually: Questions to Ask Yourself
- Have you mastered the basic requirement of love? Everyone knows or should that a Christian’s love walk reveals their spiritual maturity. Love God and love others are two commandments that mold a Christian’s life and identity. According to Jesus, they are the greatest commandments (Matthew 22:36-40). Love is the first fruit on the fruit of the spirit list. All other fruit follows love. “Love is the single most important key to growing up in God. If we don’t grow up in love, we don’t grow up at all” – Gloria Copeland. Bringing up another’s old sins, pushing your way to the front of the line, and being unkind to family members and strangers means you haven’t mastered love.
- Does adversity from the evil one still stop you in your tracks? Stand in the gap for others, pursue God’s will, honor God above man, praise and worship God—all of these things irk the devil. The only thing he knows to do is to come at your flesh like he did Jesus in the wilderness (see Matthew 4:1-11). God must be bigger inside than you than the adversity. If He isn’t, then you’re “easy pickins” spiritually and will habitually respond to trouble through your emotions. Your flesh and mind rule you instead of your spirit. At that level, you shouldn’t expect anything else. On the other hand, a believer who pursues God stays in His presence, improves their spiritual hearing skills, and casts down every evil imagination. You get and stay bold. Your words reflect how spiritually strong you are. In everyday vernacular, you say to Satan, “Nana-nana-boo-boo!” Spiritual transition isn’t easy. Expect opposition. When I moved to my current level, loved ones seemed to come at me with pitchforks. Looking back, it felt awful but setting my face like flint not looking to the left or right allowed God to change me. I let go of a lot of things that deterred my walk with Him. I am learning how to close doors to the enemy. The Holy Spirit is my protective shield and lets me know how to bolster up a weak area.
- How quickly can you shift? When God says do this, do that—how quickly do you obey? A minute or hour response is better than days, weeks, or months. God is forward-thinking and knows how to advance you to the next level. Stay in His flow.
Five More Questions
How important is God’s wisdom to you? Worldly wisdom isn’t the same as God’s wisdom. Knowledge He imparts discerns truth and always reflects His character, spirit, mercy, and grace. If you continually rely on your five senses, that’s earthly wisdom which has a rebellious nature and contradicts God’s heart. Spiritual wisdom enables you to see circumstances in a different light from an eternal rather than a temporal perspective.
- Do you always feel spiritually stuck? If you do, it isn’t the first time. You keep going around the same mountain, on the same path, to nowhere new in God’s Kingdom. If that describes you, it’s time to get on your knees.
- Do you ever truly connect with God? You can be involved in a whirlwind of Christian activities that God never told you to do. Can you intentionally stop, get quiet, and listen for God to speak to you or do you recognize His voice when He does? Turning toward God as the only counselor has been one of the most important steps for me to go to the next level.
- Do you accept God’s calling for you? That may seem like an odd question but many Christians don’t believe God can use them and when He does they’re uncomfortable. You will use everything you’ve learned so far to move up to the next spiritual zone. If you aren’t convinced of how God wants to use you, you’ll keep falling backward.
- Do you hang on to the wrong people and lifestyle? Your current friends won’t be happy when you start to change. Ungodly influencers hold us back. It’s where the rubber meets the road when going to the next level—you decide if God’s more important or something else.
Keep Moving Up!
My calling is to take people from religion to relationship by His spirit. I write and He anoints my words as long as I keep hearing what He says. As is true with any calling, some people receive, some don’t.
That happens to anyone intent on walking in God’s will for them. They don’t focus on the naysayers and keep trudging forward one step at a time. You purposely wake up to what the Holy Spirit stirs up inside you.
You’re moving on to the next level spiritually every time you respond affirmatively to what God puts inside your heart. As long as you don’t rebel against Him, He keeps telling you to come up higher!
Just remember to doubt your doubts when God grows you. The enemy of all mankind makes it his business to put distractions in your Christian path to get you off course. Tell him to move out of the way as you concentrate on fulfilling God’s awesome plans for your life. Plus, you can count on God to give you grace for the next level.