Towards Spiritual Mastery – Destinations II

1 I waited patiently for the Lord;

    he turned to me and heard my cry.

2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

    out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock

    and gave me a firm place to stand.

Set my feet on a rock – Spiritual Stability

We all know about slimy pits. We implicitly understand struggles, and helplessness and bondage, but a rock of spiritual stability eludes many of us, simply because the Lord gets us there.

First, we digest the idea that spiritual stability exists, a place we can occupy. I always say there are a couple skills to master for freedom – spiritual power and spiritual strength.

Spiritual power through the Hoy Spirit allows us to overcome addictions and the learned weaknesses that debilitate us. Helpless to free ourselves, we get infused with additional capacity to alter our narrative – think, pray, and ultimately act different – against our own tendencies, our own history. That’s spiritual power through the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Lord wants to help us in this area. He wants us to ask for his help.

Spiritual power gives way to a new skillset that we also acclimate to – spiritual strength. Spiritual strength is enduring freedom, getting comfortable with new freedom. Spiritual strength is no joke and maybe more rare than spiritual power. For example, we call it recidivism when former prisoners return to prison. For a complex set of reasons, they do not hold onto their freedom. One long-term study of 400,000 prisoners found that 44% were re-arrested within the first year while a discouraging 83% (almost all) had been re-arrest within 9 years. I would not be surprised if Spiritual recidivism had similar rates, because, again, spiritual strength is a completely different animal. Like in war, it takes one skill set and toolset to take a city, and a whole different set of each hold one. The examples are numerous. Most alcoholics or drug addicts can clean up in the controlled environment of a rehab center, while only a smaller percentage survive the return to real life.

Spiritual strength simply means we get accustomed to living a life of freedom. We ask the Lord to get us there (power), and we trust the Lord to keep us there (strength). Again, we do the work of asking and then the work of believing something new that we didn’t think possible.

Purpose – Re-crafting a life

And then the hard part. We re-craft a life with spiritual freedom.

Consider being delivered from any addiction. By definition, the addiction has defined us and shaped our worldview.

I remember a friend once told me that even though he had been delivered from alcohol, he no longer knew what to do. He had lost his life – so to speak. He didn’t have the same confidence. He no longer knew how to act. So much of his life had been shaped by alcohol, so many of his good memories, he had to rediscover who he was. He had difficulty seeing a future. He no longer knew how to enjoy himself. He had forgotten the pain and destruction that alcohol had been to him and began to weigh whether he had given up too much. In essence, was freedom worth it?

My buddy needed purpose. What was he going to do with his freedom?

What a crazy concept.

Can you imagine a life with freedom?

How would you live?

What would you do?

Who would you be?