Towards Spiritual Mastery – A Durable Freedom

From last time, I presented the concept of spiritual power and strength. We conflate the two, but they follow different paths. Power is a force that causes movement, it includes distance and time. Power equals progress, the ability to move the needle in our lives. Through Jesus we have access to power through the Holy Spirit. Building spiritual mastery puts us in touch with the power and the person. If you can’t accept the person, we can’t move forward.

Strength on the other hand involves force but not distance or time. It includes area, space, volume. Strength sustains force, it holds, it remains. Power takes ground, strength holds ground. The Lord’s goal for us is spiritual stability – a durable freedom.

Durable freedom speaks a different language, enjoys a different diet. Passionate groups both religious and nonsectarian espouse a fragile freedom. Stay together, hold hands, watch every thought, for one wrong step leads to an abyss. And on the surface, some of these groups have measurable success. But…

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Colossians 2:23

But this philosophy never moves the needle, never gets us to a place of a durable freedom. A lifetime of discipline, and accountability groups, and confessions that can be lost in a blink – who wants that? Who convinced us to set the bar of what’s possible so low?

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

This is God’s goal, without apology. Core changes. A durable freedom.

Entertain the possibility, contemplate the differences – then ask for it, be a seeker, appreciate the Lord’s big ideas. Buy in.