Develop Yourself Spiritually

Develop Yourself Spiritually

Years ago when Pastor Mac and I first started pastoring Living Word, I knew a lady who had a terrible stomach disorder. She desired healing from this stomach disorder, but no matter what she did, healing never came. She asked me to pray for her. I laid hands on her for healing, but she remained unchanged. I began to lift her up to the Lord in my personal prayer time, and I began to sense by the Spirit of God that the reason why she couldn’t get her healing was rooted in her thinking.

I called her in and talked with her. I found out that her perceptions of God were terribly warped. Her background was that she was raised in a very religious home, and she thought the only way for her to get healed was to become a perfect person. Otherwise, in her mind, she didn’t qualify. She thought God was hard to please, and she could never be good enough for Him to heal her.

I told her, “You will never be good enough. You cannot make yourself good enough. But Jesus gave His blood so that you are good enough.” I then instructed her on what she needed to do. I said, “Now listen to me, the Word of God will bring health and healing to you. However, this situation is not going to change if you only come to church once a week and that’s all the Word you get. Just as you take medicine the doctor gives to you, you have to see the Word as medicine that will bring health to all your flesh. And you must take that ‘medicine’ on a regular basis.”

To make a long story short, I made her a study guide of the Word. I wrote scriptures down on paper and made her commit every day to read and talk about those scriptures. Why? Because she needed to change her perception about the nature of God.

She could not receive from God until she believed the truth about Him. At that point, she believed God could heal her but wasn’t willing to heal her. I had her read Philippians chapter 3, which says “My determined purpose is that I might know him and the wonders of His person.” Every day, I would check in with her and ask, “Did you read it today? Did you meditate on it? Did you talk about it?”

Over the next seven and a half months, I saw her begin to change. In fact, she was transformed. Why? Because she put the Word in her. When she first started, her spirit was weak. Until her spirit became strong, it would be hard for her to receive from God.

The same is true for all of us. Until our spirits become strong, it will be hard to receive from God.

Strong Faith=Strong Spirit

Proverbs 18:14 says, “The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear?” (Amp.) This is where this lady was. Her spirit was broken down and weak. She had to build her spirit back up.

Somebody said to me one time, “It’s up to God to heal people coming through hard places.” Well, that’s not quite true. If it was, everybody would come through because the Word is for everybody and God is no respecter of persons; however, it’s not always based on God’s will and His power. Most usually, it’s based on your own faith and your own receiving because with the heart, man believes.

Strong faith does not come out of a weak spirit. Strong faith comes out of a strong spirit. Second Corinthians 4:16 says:

Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day. (Amp.)

The inward man (your spirit) is renewed day by day. Well, if you can be renewed day by day, then that means you can be depleted day by day. So we can say that the condition of your spirit makes all the difference whether or not you overcome what you are facing.

How do you develop a strong spirit? The same principles we use to develop our physical bodies are the same principles we use to develop our spirits. For instance, if you’re going to develop physically, you’re going to have to eat properly and exercise. What would happen to you if you didn’t eat for a month? You would grow weak. What would happen if I taped your arm down to your body so you couldn’t move it for six months? The muscles in your arm would grow weak and atrophy. Until the tape is removed and you start exercising your arm, it will remain weak and ineffective.

It’s the same spiritually. Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone, but he lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). “Chewing” on the Word of God by meditating on it brings strength to our spirits, and a strong spirit is what produces strong faith.

Also, your faith is very much like a magnet. The larger and stronger that magnet is, the more it will pull in. I remember in my high school science class when the teacher would have us take different sized magnets and put them close to little particles of metal that looked like sand. Depending on the size of the magnet, it would pull various amounts of metal to it. Faith is like that. It pulls things from the unseen realm. Little faith does not pull big loads; strong faith does.

Say this: “I’m a victorious Christian. I refuse depression. I refuse oppression. I refuse fear. I resist disease. I refuse to have sickness or disease in my body. I am prosperous. Lack cannot stay in my house. I am healed and whole in Jesus’ name.”

 

Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this teaching on developing a strong spirit. I have been meditating on this for weeks and it has been a hope and life giving revelation. God Bless!

  2. Would you include me on your email list? Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you ~ God is so good to us ~ He was dealing with me about this very subject very early on this very morning and I just opened it up and read it! I have been praying and asking Him, what do I need? This morning He let me know that I only had need to eat, partake of and enjoy with a passion the Living Bread of Heaven whom He sent for me! By eating this bread, I am made strong! To be passionate about the Bread God has provided is essential to a healthy spiritually successful life!
    Thank You so much! God richly bless you ~

  3. Thank you for providing nourishing food (meat) for people to partake of when they come to your website. What you have shared in your writings were great reminders and exhortations. We certainly do “leak” and need to continually partake of good food. I have been out of contact with your ministry for a long time, and it’s been so refreshing to partake once again of the anointing that’s here! Thank you so much!

  4. Glory to God! I am so grateful the Lord sent me your way! I have been hanging out on this site some this morning and with the Book The Lord gave you , The Master is Calling and of course with Him:) WOW! He is changing me more and more, Thank God. Every time I step toward Him, He shows me more, meets me:) Thank you for your obedience and sacrifice to Him so that you can help lead us into a higher prayer life! I had been asking the Lord about something and He showed me through your message called ‘ A Place called in the Spirit” so He is taking me higher !!!! I found your book at the Autumn Prayer Assembly last year in 2012 and am re-reading it of course and have begun buy it for others with great expectation:) How precious and priceless it is to be learning how to go to that Place called in the Spirit:) May the Lord Bless you and keep you and continue to make His Glorious Face shine upon you and all of yours, Much Love in Him

  5. Thank so much for this. truly am Bless.

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