A Correct Perspective for Our Spiritual Development

God has satisfied my spiritual hunger in a measure, but I am not perfectly satisfied yet. I am satisfied

that I have found the source of all life and truth, but I recognize that there is much more. There is yet

before us an expansive field of spiritual reality. We are to venture there with the Holy Spirit to make

our discoveries.

Our present field of spiritual life and experience is the place to which God has brought us as a

preliminary training school for the ages that are yet to come. It is in the "here and now" that we are to

make certain qualifications for our placement in the eternal ages. These qualifications will not be given

to us, spontaneously, when we get there. We must qualify for this future placement, ËÂÚÂ in time.

Then, in the eternal ages, that which has been acquired through discipline and training, through the

surrender of our old life to the resurrection of the new, all of this will be projected upon another plane

of living in ages yet to come. Whatever we acumen in our life here of spiritual vigor, strength, and

vision, that is all that God will take of us.

The method by which this is built will come through our reactions to the Word, our life circumstances,

and to the movings of the Holy Spirit. These are the mechanics. All this will be used to trace upon our

immortal spirit something even remotely of the image and likeness of His Son. This is the thing that

the Lord is after in the here and now.

We must have a correct perspective. Instead of moving toward objectives which God has not put

before us, we are to have our vision focused so that all this shall accumulate unto God, not some lesser

thing. God is very busy building His Body, training it, doing a thousand things with it, so that at the day

when it will be lifted up, there will be something glorious and beautiful to be presented.

All of us have a certain degree of spiritual hunger. Our hunger rests on certain levels of spiritual

development and growth. In the realm of the Holy Spirit, there is to be a continual, progressive

development in our spiritual living, moving us up from one place of discovery and life on to another

place of discovery and life, and on to another. This speaks of "The spiritual ascent of our being back to

the heart of God." We do not belong here; we are here on probation, for just a few fleeting years of

training and discipline, then we will be taken.

In this ascent of going back again to the heart of God, we continually move from one level of spiritual

understanding and experience to another. This is determined by the amount of spiritual life,

illumination, and response which we are able to gain and render back to God on the level upon which

He has projected us for the time being. We learn our lessons through these experiences, as we are

reacting agents. We were made this way in the structural law of our being so this might be possible.

I have some very real spiritual experiences in God. However, this does not make me less practical in

my daily pattern of life experience. I have discovered that I must order my steps as I walk with the

Lord. Then He guides my path; continually disciplining, training, and pushing me into a new order. Our

progress in this will be determined by the degree of spiritual hunger which is registered within us.

God can create this spiritual hunger; we cannot. The only thing that we can do is to hold up the

possibilities that God has for us. We become spiritually hungry on different levels. Sometimes we say,

"Oh, I know that, I have heard it before; tell me something new." We must come to realize that there

are a thousand facets of light in this glorious gem of redemption. Who can hope to ever think that we

will possess all of this light and illumination? No, we are yet very human, and our capacity of reception

has not been sufficiently enlarged.

As we hold the measure of spiritual hunger that we presently have before the Lord and allow Him to

accomplish within us all that this measure of hunger will allow, then He will be able to enlarge our

capacity. This will be repeated again and again until we have come to the place where we are able to

hear Him say to us, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few

things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" Matt 25:21.

Now I understand why I had to go through these times of testing, discipline, and enlargement. He was

creating within me the capacity to enter into the vastness of joy. Finally, my hunger has found its

satisfaction.