I believe a lot of people are asking in this season, “Where is my spiritual inheritance?”
If you are seeking spiritual leadership and nourishment in the body of Christ, your introduction to a local ministry should be based on a divine connection, communication and relationship that you have with the leadership of that local ministry. Your connection to the church should not be based on the choir, the praise and worship team, the basketball club or the usher’s board. In short, you should not join a church for its activities.
Too many people have done this. They haven’t linked to the divine portions of their spiritual fathers and the deposits of their spiritual mothers. God’s Word gives us this advice:
“My son, hear the instruction of your father; reject not nor forsake the teaching of your mother. For they are a [victor’s] chaplet (garland) of grace upon your head and chains and pendants [of gold worn by kings] for your neck” (Prov. 1:8-9, The Amplified Bible).
People–like sheep–must be led. Why? People can easily become entangled with their peers in situations that magnify issues they have not dealt with. They come to church, but their hearts are not in the right posture.
Leaders have been called to feed, which means those being led must eat. The Bible’s pattern is clear–spiritual leaders are to lead, and we are to submit to them for spiritual direction.
Jesus addressed our need for spiritual leadership when He talked to His disciples, who were future leaders. In the following verses we can identify the posture we must have as believers if we desire to obtain our Father’s portion.
“Jesus said to them, Come [and] have breakfast. But none of the disciples ventured or dared to ask Him, Who are You? because they [well] knew that it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so also [with] the fish” (John 21:12-17).
The Father’s portion is a meal that satisfies, and it must be digested in order to work in our lives. So when we walk through the doors of the church, we should be prepared to worship the Father and receive a meal from His table.
EATING WELL A dietician will tell you the best time to eat isn’t when you’re starving–because you will eat anything. That’s our problem. Too many in the body of Christ are starving because we eat a healthy meal only once or twice a week.
In other words, we don’t maintain intimacy with God on a daily basis, so we can’t even digest properly what we receive from Him. We are malnourished.
Recently I have been changing my diet and lifestyle. The first time I went to the dietician’s office, they inquired about what I had been eating. I told them I had been eating one big meal each day, though I snacked on potato chips and other quick foods throughout the day. When I wanted to lose weight and started removing snacks and sodas from my diet, I couldn’t lose the excess pounds–even though I was still eating just one meal a day.
After I described my eating habits, they told me why I hadn’t been able to lose the weight. My body knew that it would get only one full meal a day, so it kicked into survival mode. In other words, it held onto that one meal and turned it into fat reserves. Therefore, the meal wasn’t giving me the energy I needed to do what I had to do.
They told me to start eating at least six mini-meals a day, and along with that to increase my water intake. That way, my body would know that it didn’t have to turn each meal into fat storage. It would understand that another meal would be coming in two hours, so it would turn each meal into energy.
As I was faithful to the new diet and lifestyle, my metabolism started kicking in.
And when this happened, everything began to change, including the appearance of my skin. Even better, the excess weight started dropping off.
This same dynamic happens in the spirit realm. If your spirit man knows that it’s going to get only one meal, you won’t be able to lose the “excess flesh” you’ve been carrying around. One meal a week is not enough to make your spiritual metabolism kick in and burn off everything that is not pleasing to God.
You must increase your intake of balanced meals in order to digest the Word of God properly. Through this consistent intimacy with the Father, your character will begin to change. You will become a mature Christian.
