Words by our Priest-in-Charge:

Spiritual Man

“you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  1 Peter 2:5

A pastor friend of mine recently shared with me about his own journey in the ministry. He started to build a church many years ago and has been faithfully laboring in the ministry. Along the way, he also discovered many essential church growth principles. As a result, he was able to establish a big church of thousand. Yet, he has come a point that he found himself burning out. He realized he could not go on anymore. The Lord took him aside to rest, as Jesus would do with His disciples. In those times of rest, the Lord spoke lovingly to him. He then realized that he has been laboring, though with honorable intention, with his own strength and even his God given talents. Yet, his service was not, at times, out of his deep spirituality in the Lord. The Lord needed to transform him to a man who would serve Him out of the Spirit, rather than from the flesh.

We have come to the beginning of a new year. Perhaps we have been laboring in something or our work tirelessly in the past one year. We may have seen some results yet at a great price. Perhaps we feel a bit tired. One of the possible reasons could be because we have been laboring in our own strength. Perhaps we have responded to circumstances in our lives out of our flesh rather than in a godly manner. It is important for us, at the start of a new year, to take stock and determine that we will live our lives this year in a godly manner. Only when we live in this manner, we could experience the rest and joy that Jesus talked about.

The Bible tells us that we are meant to be spiritual beings. The Church is compared to a spiritual house. Our service and worship are to be spiritual, rather than fleshly. Unless our service and worship is spiritual, it is not pleasing to the Lord. How then, could we attain what the Bible describes? We need to focus on developing a deep spiritual life in the Lord. We need to allow God to take us to a place where we know what it means to trust Him and rely on Him in all things. It is a journey. Unless we start walking, we would not know how exciting it is. Unless we start walking, we could not experience the transformation it could bring us.Start by spending time with the Lord regularly, delving into His words diligently, pursue Him and His Kingdom passionately.

Determine this year, to be first and foremost, a “Spiritual Man”. When the change begins “in” us, we will see the change “around” us. Wishing all of us a very blessed New Year!