3. Foundations for Development

We have seen that the Bible says that all human beings are made of three distinct natures and that it logically follows that each natures needs to be developed in its own way. The question now is what do we do about it? In order to answer, we will first need to take a look at some of our own foundational beliefs to see if there are beliefs or models that get in the way of us developing our potential - and by the way, this applies to any kind of potential, not just our spiritual potential. Knowing that our models are OK will help greatly in ensuring our success in this journey of developing our potential.

Principles

The first foundational belief we need to look at is our belief about principles. What is a principle? Simply put it is a law that works every time for every person without exception. An example is gravity. Whether you believe it or not, whether you know about it or not, it works. Principles are very concrete. If you walk off the edge of a cliff, you will experience the law of gravity regardless of any beliefs you might have about it. This is the same in a spiritual endeavour - there are principles that if you violate them, you will experience the consequences, they function just as certainly as gravity.

How does this apply to our Christian walk? For many of us the way God works seems to be totally mysterious (if we are being polite) or random (if we are being candid). One of the reason things can seem this way is that very few of us have been taught just how important principles are to God. In fact the longest passage in the Bible by far (Psalm 119) is one-hundred-and-seventy-six verses dedicated entirely to the power of principles (called “ways”, “statutes”, “precepts”, “decrees” or “laws”). God has designed every aspect of existence to run according to principles. He has established a system of principles to governs the natural world (science), the human world of relationships (family, business and society), and the spiritual world (spirituality, faith and religion). These principles are grounded in his very nature

Col 1:17 - He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together; Heb 1:3 - He .. upholds all things by the word of His power)

In order to intentionally develop our spirit it is important that we know without a shadow of a doubt that God is not random. He is actually so consistent that in His Word he is described as changeless (Jas 1:17 “coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow”). That means that the laws that govern the development or our spirits are not random but extremely consistent and predictable - they will work for every single person every time. It is vital we acknowledge this. Fortunately, God is not only consistent, but he is also transparent. His ways are open to all - nothing is hidden. It does not matter if you are a Christian or not, anyone can take the principles that God and apply them. History is full of examples of individuals and governments that have taken Christian principles and applied them to achieve great success without ever becoming Christian.

At this point we are likely to hit some internal objections. We can all remember unpleasant things that have happened to us in life, or tragic and awful things we have witnessed. Either in our present or our past, we have either secretly or openly asked “where was God?”. And without any answer we have formed limiting beliefs, beliefs not based on reality. What I am going to ask you to do is to consider the possibility that so much of the pain and suffering in our world could be avoided if we had a better understanding of the principles our Father put in place to help us, and that if we applied ourselves to discovering and leveraging those principles, our world could be a vastly better place.

In summary, God is a god of principles, and he has established principles to govern all areas of existence, including the spiritual. If we want to partner with God to develop our potential, we are going to need to learn to appreciate the importance of principles in His design, and learn how to work with Him to leverage these. If somewhere along the line we have picked up some limiting or untrue beliefs in this area, now would be a good time to clear the air with Him and clear up any misunderstanding that might have broken your fellowship with Him in this area.

Work

The second area where can experiencing limiting beliefs is the area of work. God has generously provided principles that anyone can learn to apply to live a fulfilled life, why then are we not doing it? Apart from a lack of understanding and application of principles, the second reason for a lack of progress has to do with attitudes and beliefs about work. Principles require work to understand and work to apply.

We live in a society and a culture today where work primarily has negative connotations. We only need to look at how our culture defines the opposite of work to see this. Rest, vacation, relaxation, recreation. Work is the opposite of these things. It is something we are not meant to enjoy. Where people do enjoy their work, it is looked at as the exception and not the norm. This is why the dream of most of us is to get to a place where we have sufficient money that we never have to work again. We can have a life of leisure, doing what we want, free from the daily grind.

This is not just the case in the world around us, but even in many of our churches. Let’s take as an example a very common theological argument about grace that if you have been a Christian for any length of time you will come across. On the one hand, there are churches who hold that God requires holiness, and holiness requires sacrifice and effort, hard work. Christianity is about doing your duty, doing what is right, and this is done out of good character. These types of churches often slip into the mistaken belief that we can somehow earn credit with God through working hard. On the other hand are churches that teach that God has done all the work for us and all we need to do is receive it and enjoy it. It is all by grace. What I would like you to notice is that In both cases there is the presence of a limiting belief that work is fundamentally unpleasant - to use the biblical word “toil”.

The truth is that work is actually designed as a wonderful thing - a gift. It was designed fundamentally to be both enjoyable, and fulfilling. Our Father designed us to build, develop, create and discover things and to get tremendous pleasure and satisfaction from doing so. So much so that when we stop working we inevitably become unhappy. The problem is that with the fall of Adam, work came under a curse. In Gen 3:17 God said to Adam “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life”. I would encourage you earnestly, that if this is not your reality and work is still “toil” for you, to seek God earnestly about his promise given directly to you to set you free from this

Gal 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us”

When God set Humankind on the earth earth He said to them both - here is a blueprint (the garden), here are some principles, go out and transform the rest of the planet according to this this blueprint. That mission still stands today. In essence what He said was “Go and enjoy the challenge and work that I have given you because it will fulfil you and make you very happy, and I will get great pleasure from your happiness”. (Gen 1:28 - God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”) What He did not say is “Here is a garden in paradise, a chaise-lounge, perfect weather, and an endless supply of tasty food - relax and enjoy”. We were fundamentally designed for challenge, designed to produce and to experience an overwhelming satisfaction and fulfilment in doing that. We are not designed for a life of ease. When human beings live a life of ease, we deteriorate and the consequence is a rottenness that sets into our souls and bodies. The easy life is contrary to our DNA and our design.

In summary, it is really important for us to turn away from any limiting beliefs we have had about work, to ask God’s forgiveness, and to embrace His original design of work and to know that work is a great thing. Only then can we really lean into the work that is involved in developing our spiritual potential and enjoy the process as much as the rewards or outcome of that process. I am absolutely not saying that it is going to be easy, or always pleasant. What I am saying is that it will be challenging, exciting, and extremely satisfying. What will be really satisfying will be when we have developed our potential to the point where we can move beyond just working on ourselves, to doing the works of God in the world for the benefit of others. We can follow Jesus’ example

John 5:17 - My Father is always working, and so am I (NLT)

Consumers versus Producers

The third area where we can experience liming beliefs is around consumerism. The world has undergone a lot of change over the last 50 years, and one of the key areas is the emergence of consumerism. Oddly enough, this trend comes as a direct response to the problem of work. Consumerism offers of an easy life where items that make life easier and that automate work are mass produced so all we need to do is acquire them. Somebody else does the producing, we just buy what we need when we need it. The limiting belief here is that somebody else will do the producing, it is not our job.

The consumerism mindset is so pervasive that it has unfortunately leaked into mainstream Christian culture. In a lot of churches there is no expectation of us having to “produce” anything. The producing is done by experts, and we simply consume their output. I would ask how many times you have heard a teaching on how God designed each and every one of us to work, to be successful in that work, and to contribute more into the world than we take out? Instead there seems to be an expectation that there are religious professionals who are paid to produce religious “products” (do all the work), and all we need to do is go the “store” and collect the finished products to meet our required needs. When this doesn’t work as we expect we become unhappy “customers”, angry at God, at the church, and we lose faith.

Consumerism is just simply not how God works. It is not that what we are doing is not working, it cannot work because it violates God’s principles. God’s design is not for a small group of professionals to do the producing for a much larger group of consumers. Instead he has designed each and every one of us to be a producer and called out a small group to step back and take up a support role coaching and heping the rest to be successful. Being called into fulltime ministry truly is a step down and a sacrifice rather than an elevated position. We are all designed to take raw materials, learn some principles, and apply these to our raw materials to produce the kind of wonderful life-giving things that He made each of us to uniquely produce. That is living life to the full.

The question is, how do we eliminate any limiting beliefs in this area? Being a consumer is addictive. It requires a significant change of mindset to start thinking about the raw materials that we have and what we can produce out of them to contribute to the greater good. It requires that we stop looking for the ease of somebody else creating finished products for us. Instead, it is about developing an attitude that seeks out raw materials and looks to understand principles in order to build and develop unique products that contribute to the greater good. It is about asking God to open our eyes to the wealth of raw materials that He has given each of us to transform into the kind of products that the world around us needs. If we can learn to stop looking to others for a finished product and start working on the raw materials and principles that God has provided us then the rewards can be staggering. This is how single individuals like you and me can have an impact on the world around us that is vastly disproportionate to our abilities.

To summarise I am going to paint a picture of how all of these factors plays out in practice. I am going to paint a picture of two Christians, both living in the same city, going to the same church, and in similar stages of life. Both are equally sincere in their faith, and both are giving God everything they have. Christian number one is very happy, things just seem to work for them, they live a full life, their business prospers, their family, and their impact on the world around them is significant. Christian number two is having an awful time, in fact life seems to be going worse for them than the non-Christians around them; things just don’t seem to work out for them, they are always struggling in their business and family, and barely seem to be getting by; they feel depressed, frustrated and have resigned themselves to doing their best while they wait for God to rescue them. In the first case, this person has recognised the raw materials around them, either intentionally or accidentally applied the principles of God to them, and produced an abundance. In the second case, this person has not seen the raw materials right in front of their eyes, not paid attention to principles, and has constantly looked to others to produce for them. The question I would like to ask is which one if these two people would we like to be?