(Long post - get comfy
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I caution you against anything that purports to be a quick fix. Avoid fads that promise a deeper, richer, fuller Christian life.
(For example: Power in praise; the "second blessing" as key to the powerful Christian life; speaking in tongues; heavy-handed submission to church leadership; binding, loosing and rebuking of demons, name it and claim it, the School of the Prophets, hearing the voice of God, power evangelism.)
That's not to say all of these are bad or entirely unbiblical. They each may emphasize something that has biblical merit, but they do so in an
unbalanced way, and each fails utterly as a panacea, as the one particular and principle thing that makes your Christian life "work."
It is uniquely American (or Canadian) to want an easy way out, especially a way out that is not painful and requires no work. That American (or Canadian) value has crept into our American Christianity. So we have these seminars to get it all taken care of in a weekend. Want mental health? Get hands laid on you and you'll have mental health overnight. Want spirituality? Have a vision, get the baptism, or speak in tongues. Want your problems to disappear? Simply praise the Lord. Want to be rid of temptation and sin? Have the demon cast out. Want to be done with the aggravation of decision making? Let God speak to you.
Instead of being devoted to developing spiritual maturity and attaining Scriptural knowledge, we want the quick fix.
People confuse emotional intensity with significance. We move from one experiential high to another and call that spirituality. In the meantime our lives are chaotic and we wonder why God seems to be right next to us one minute and then the next minute He's gone. The Spirit has departed. The anointing has left. Now what?
No, there are no shortcuts. But there is a secret to long-term to stability and genuine maturity. I say "secret" with tongue in cheek because it's no secret at all, that's one of the reasons it's often ignored. This is the antidote to the quick fix: stick with the basics, the dull, ordinary disciplines that have been around for millennium and have served a very good purpose, to build solid Christian people over time.
How do we attain a deeper, fuller, richer Christian life? By following the fundamental, basic disciplines of Christianity God has given us, revealed in the Bible. Prayer. Fellowship with accountability. Bible study. Meditation and memorization. Practicing Christian virtue. Obedience. Repentance. Worship. Fasting. All of these ordinary, every day type of things, that every single Christian person can do.
It's the practice of these things in a consistent manner over a long period of time that builds deep spirituality. Not some power encounter with God or the devil. I'm not disregarding powerful spiritual encounters people have with God. Those are valuable and God determines when they happen. But people who seek those sometimes get other kinds of experiences besides God. Not only that, it often substitutes a dramatic emotional experience for substantive, real, genuine transformation of character.
The point that I'm making is that you don't have to plug into some deep, hidden, specialized, higher knowledge in order to be a profound Christian. You don't have to "hear the voice of God" to live the optimal Christian life. There are times when one can say God "speaks" to people with special guidance, but it isn't the kind of thing that is the ordinary part of the Christian's walk. And those who pursue that kind of thing end up frequently on the junk pile of Christianity. That' doesn't mean they all become apostate, but what does happen is a serious time of disillusionment and ineffectiveness.
To keep from becoming spiritually weird is to stick with the basics and don't go for the quick fix. Stick with the old tried and true. Don't go off on these tangents. Usually the new stuff is just an alleged short cut to a destination that has only one route: the simple, persistent application of classical spiritual disciplines over time in the power of the Holy Spirit.
