On the weekend before last, our church held a men’s camp at Salisbury, a peaceful rural area south of Barrington Tops. We had a guest speaker from England, Roland Pletts, minister to us there.
Roland has some powerful and encouraging revelations about Jesus’ Second Coming, which he has shared and blessed us with at other meetings. I encourage you to read into them, but expect have your views challenged!
At the camp, Roland shared with us keys to growing as a Christian and developing a deeper relationship with God. They are:
- Bible
- Prayer
- Fellowship
- Holy Spirit
Here are some of my brief thoughts about these keys:
Bible
Reading God’s Word is essential to growth (Heb 5:12–6:3; 2 Tim 2:15, 3:16–17). It is our spiritual food—our daily bread (Matt 4:4). It’s our key to understanding God’s character, His will, His gifts and promises, His warnings, our world and its history, what and who we are, the future, how we should behave, what’s right and wrong, etc. It encourages and strengthens our faith (Rom 10:17). The Bible is our trustworthy guide to life.
Getting into a habit of regularly reading the Bible is a great idea. If you’re new to the Bible, there are many “devotional” books that will guide you daily with passages to read, and they provide helpful commentary and thoughts to meditate on. The more you read the Bible, the more it becomes part of you. God can use that to bring to your remembrance nuggets of truth according to your situation. We can rebuff the lies of the devil with God’s true Word (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12).
The Bible should be our most valuable possession. Do we treat it us such?
Prayer
This should be a genuine expression of our heart, not mindless repetitions of words. It also shouldn’t be for show—prayer is part of, and because of, our relationship with Father God (Matt 6:5–8). Don’t worry about the long prayers and fancy words of others, God sees and knows your heart. The fervent prayer of one person may be with loud shouts, yet for another person it might be with seemly quiet tears.
Prayer gives us opportunity to give God thanks for who He is and what He’s done; to bring before Him our needs, concerns and struggles, and those of others; to listen (yes, listen!) to His gentle voice; and to declare in faith His blessing and promises. If we don’t know what to pray for in a given situation, we can ask!
Remember, God can answer prayer with a “yes”, a “no” or a “wait”. Prayer is effective—it does have an impact on the world (Jam 5:16). Isn’t it interesting that God wants to partner with us in this way?
Fellowship
It is important that we fellowship with other believers (Heb 10:24–25; 1 John 1:7). We can learn from each other as we share our knowledge and experiences. We can encourage and support one another, not only spiritually, but in all aspects of our life. Our fellow Christians are our brothers and sisters. We should walk in love for one another in the same way Christ loves us (John 13:34–35; Rom 12:9–13; 1 Pet 1:22).
Church pastors our shepherds—they care for our welfare (Eph 4:11). It is a gifting they have received from God and carries heavy responsibility (Jam 3:1). Pastors are someone we can lean upon for spiritual counselling. Having a spiritual mentor (who might be someone other than our pastor) is also a wonderful encouragement. I feel very blessed to have had a number of spiritual mentors in my life.
Forgiveness is vital to maintaining any relationship (including marriage). Many people have been “hurt by the church”, but, as hard as it is, we still need to forgive. We forgive because God has forgiven us (Matt 6:14–15, Matt 18:21–35). Actually, unforgiveness can greatly hinder our relationship with God. It literally can be soul destroying. Keep accounts short and make the decision: I forgive.
Holy Spirit
God’s Spirit lives inside us (1 Cor 6:19). Wow, that is amazing! When we first take Jesus to be our Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us. He communes with our spirit; interprets the Bible and teaches us, giving us revelation; helps us in our need; counsels us with His wisdom and understanding; and comforts us in our times of distress (John 14:16, 26, 15:26, 16:13–14; Rom 8:16). He is our close companion.
The Holy Spirit helps us grow in Godly character—to become more like Jesus. In our interactions with people, we will begin exhibiting the Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22–23). These are not something we can do in our own strength.
The Holy Spirit also gives us certain spiritual gifts—special supernatural abilities. When we are baptised (clothed or filled) with the Holy Spirit, we receive His supernatural power (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). He enables us to speak in tongues, which is a special prayer language between us and God (Acts 2:1–4, 19:1–6, 10:44–46; 1 Cor 14:2). The gifts are given to help others. Gifts that He might give people include: words of wisdom, words of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:1–11).
What are your thoughts about these four keys? There is much, much more that can be said about each. I’ve referenced only a few Bible passages here, but what others do you know?
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