When the Christian life is not working

I’ve been continuing to think about different aspects of Christian life and growth.

On the evangelical spectrum, it can be all about the Word – just believe it, confess it, act on it and everything will be all right.

On the charismatic front, it can be all that we need is more of the Spirit – get filled, get anointed, and everything will be all right.

Well, you may have been there, I certainly have, and though both have there place, both can miss it, leading to disappointment and discouragement and even to departure from Christian life and the church.

You see each can miss the dynamic of our own interior lives, and end up with a super-spiritual and superficial Christian experience.

God in the business of saving us, isn’t simply interested in getting us to heaven, but transforming us here on earth, and no amount of believing the Word or anointing of the Spirit will do anything for us if we are not prepared for God to get on the inside of us, and deal with our interior lives.

For years I ignored my internal life, I believed the Word, I experienced the Spirit, I served, I ministered, but something wasn’t working, and the fault wasn’t God’s. Then I hit the wall. Got got my attention. I was a perfectionist. I was angry – it was suppressed. Most would never have known.

I slowly began to realise what was going on, and I didn’t like it, but I also began to realise that if I didn’t recognise and come to terms with my interior life, and allow God to deal with it, I was heading for a crash. For years I had lived as a kind of Christian ‘android,’ thinking and acting as a cool evangelical, knowing the power of God as a Spirit-filled Christian, but something was missing, something just wasn’t working.

Praise God that has changed, God is so gracious.

What about you, is your Christian life real and authentic and growing, or are you stagnated and frustrated and you don’t know why?

Have you ever checked your interior life?

Maybe the disappointment and pain you are experiencing is actually God wanting to get to you in order to change you -you’ve believed, you’ve prayed, you’ve been prayed for, you’ve sought more of the Spirit, but nothings changed – it’s time to let God speak and act through the disappointment and pain.