Do we have to be stuck in our faith walk?

Knowing we are not growing in our trust and reliance on God can be a sad place to be for any length of time.  Fortunately, we don’t have to park ourselves there forever.  We constantly run up against situations that stop our walk because we refuse to deal with the fear we feel.  Somehow we can feel that doing nothing is more comfortable that stepping over our fear to continuing to walk in faith.

Here are 5 practical ways for spiritually kicking ourselves in the pants so we can continue our faith walk to our final destination.

1 – Step out in faith

The first method of increasing your faith is just to step out and take act as thought you had the faith for the situation.  It seems like a pretty self-evident method, but unfortunately, it is also the most difficult thing to do.  If it were easy always to walk in faith in every situation, we wouldn’t be having this blog article talking about methods to grow your faith.  There are times when your head DOES NOT get in the way of your certainty in God.  Sometimes just step out in faith and you didn’t even know it,

Think of the times where you helped someone financially without giving a second thought about how that decision would affect your finances.  Or how about the time when you spoke some truth to a friend and in retrospect you would have never said that in other circumstances.  So what just happened, you just walked in faith, and did, or said or decided what was needed at the moment.  You walked through the situation because the Spirit of God pushed through your fears and thinking and just did it for you.  When you are given the time to reflect on what just happened you are amazed that the decision to act in a particular situation was so easy.   To your surprise, all that stress wasn’t needed because you just acted in faith at the moment.  I suspect that the more we practice this “stepping out in faith,” the easier it will be to do it again and again.

 

Stepping out in faith also has a passive side to it.  There are circumstances where it takes an equal amount of faith NOT to do something (talk, act, think, do).  These are the times where instead of doing something we are called to rest in our faith, trusting that God is working behind the scenes to fulfill a bigger plan we not aware of yet.

2 – Read books of faith

There is nothing like reading the stories of other people’s faith journeys.  Starting at Genesis and going through Revelations we read about the men and women that stepped out in faith to follow after God.  Make it your goal to immerse yourself in the stories of each Bible individual.  Live the stories of their struggles by using your holy imagination.  Feel their fears, thoughts and temptations at the moment of their faith decision.  Feel their victory when they trusted in God despite the opposition of themselves and others.

 

I would also suggest building a library of biographies of faithful men and women on there faith.  Stretch yourself by finding the stories of people that had extraordinary situations to live through.  Not only in the trying times they experienced, but also in their miracle experiences where God overwhelmed them to do great things in His name.  Don’t be afraid, stretch your theology when it comes to the miracles.  If it is recorded in the old and new testament and there are multiple witnesses that testify to it then expand your belief to believe that God can do the impossible in you today.

 

3 – Attend conferences and retreats that stretch your faith

Keep your eyes open for Christian conferences and retreats that focus on your weakest areas.  How do you know if you are weak?  Monitor your fear levels.  Think about your thinking when you try to talk yourself into attending a conference related to marriage and family relationships, finances, witnessing, miracles, addictions, and others.  Do you come up with excuse after excuse why the conference is not for you?  Do you start getting stressed when your spouse or best friend casually suggests that you attend the conference?  Monitor your internal emotions and thoughts, they will be a good indication of where you are struggling in your faith walk.  Faith can grow and mature when you are placed in a situation that presents the biggest fears for yourself.  These situations force you to confront your fear head on and by doing so will help you grow in faith

 

4 – Hang out with friends that hanging out with Jesus Christ.

What a blessing it is to find friends that not only shares in your love for Christ but are themselves, desperate to grow in faith towards Christ.  Now spiritual growth in a believer is not something you necessarily go about measuring.  The temptation is that you create for yourself a spiritual “ruler” that you apply to those around you.  It can be dangerous both yourself and others.  Best to continue to grow your relationship with Jesus Christ and leave the power of the Holy Spirit to direct others in their faith walk.  Having said that, you can still observe without judgment the works and words of others.  The truth is we want to be around believers who have caught the fire of desire to be continually in the presence of Christ.  We also enjoy and love those who declare themselves as believers yet rarely mention the name of Christ or testify of what He is doing in their lives.  We know that each believer is on their own spiritual journey, and we recognize that we struggle at times, yet we have a longing to fellowship with those that are growing in love and good works towards God.

 

Are there some guideposts that can help us find spiritually driven friends?  Here are some possible observations you can make about believers that might help you choose those you want to build deeper relationships with?

 

Here are a few ideas:

 

1. Purposely interact with other believers and observe their works and words. This might sound a little funny, it seems so obvious, that if you want to find a friend you must be around people and be friendly yourself. The encouragement is that you do this with intention.  You purpose to prepare your heart for a relationship.  You place your need for fellowship with other believers in your soul while all the time asking God to make you aware as you interactions with others. What happens is that during your conversations and observations with the person, the Holy Spirit can signal you with a sense of peace to proceed.  Trust that the peace you feel is coming from God, yet don’t be too hasty.  Give the relationship time, don’t necessarily rush into it.  It happens, at times, that we get too eager and begin to open up about private things in our lives only to find out that we have placed undue trust in the person.  Be cautious in your trust yet stay the course in your desire to build the relationship.

 

2. Listen to their testimony. The testimony of a person about how they came to a living relationship with Jesus is a powerful word that can encourage you to build a stronger relationship with them. A clearer way is to listen to how God is working in their everyday life with their family, friends and work situations to name a few.  Listen carefully to what they are saying about their faith walk.  Do you get excited when you are hearing how the person is being challenged, yet is remaining faithful holding to the promises of God?  These are the ones that will stir your own heart to be stronger in faith yourself.

 

3. Do they challenge your thinking? Are they asking questions that make you think and consider your faith walk? Do they see this life and the life to come in a big picture?  Are they able to say things in a way that help you have a deeper understanding of the work and purposes of God in your life?

 

4. Do they live an intentional life with Christ? Do you sense they have defined a purpose in their life, and that purpose is to point other to Jesus Christ and to make them disciples? Do they share how God has called them to use their gifts and abilities in a particular way?  Do you sense an urgency about them to do the Fathers business in this life?

 

5 – Find a coach, be a coach

A coach is someone whose intention is to help you discover where you are on your journey, where you want to be and then will help you get there.  They don’t necessarily have more experience or richer spiritual life.  They are not mentors; they are fellow workers that are your spiritual friends.  They are the ones that love you and want to help you grow in Christ as they want to grow.  They will not necessarily give you the answers but will help you discover them through the Holy Spirit.  They will help you set up goals and will be accountable to meet those goals.  They are your friends that will follow coaching practices to help your faith walk in Christ.  The flip side of this is that you will be a coach to them.  You will listen to their heart, ask those questions, help them to define areas that need change and will be accountable to you.  There is nothing like a spiritual friend; they can be closer than an immediate family brother or sister.  Cultivate your relationship with these friends, they will be a lifelong anchor in the storms you will face ahead.

Want to know more about spiritual coaching? Email me and I can point you to some resources.

These are just some of the guideposts to help you find friends that are walking in faith.  Remember you become like those you hang out with so make the right choices.