It's Time to Go Higher!

 “But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.” Hebrews 3:6 (NLT)

By Alexandra Copeland

In Hebrews 6:1 (NLT), God tells us, “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.” I truly love this verse. It speaks to the renewal and transformation we all must make as we continue to grow in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Spiritual growth is chalk full of change, and it can be an unpredictable reality at times. 

Christianity is a soft place to land, but it isn’t a cushion where we’re able to sit down and be comfy for the rest of our lives. Many have assumed this, but it’s not the example that Jesus left for us to follow. Christianity was not meant to be stagnant. It is as dynamic and revolutionary as its founder, Jesus Christ. We were not called by God to rest on our laurels. We’ve got work to do, and sometimes this work requires us to be a little uncomfortable.

One of the most important aspects of this work is conditioning ourselves to be flexible to God’s Will. Undoubtedly, we will need to surrender some things that are no longer useful to our spiritual journeys, so that we can acquire more of what is useful and beneficial for our progression forward. This is hard for many of us. We have a tendency to cling to what we’re used to. We have our favorite scriptures, our favorite people, and our favorite places. These all help give us a sense of comfort, and let’s face it, we like it when we can count on things not changing up on us. To some degree though, things will change, because nothing stays the same. Again, our duty is to be flexible to the Will of God, so that we are not left behind as life moves forward.

This happens to quite a few people. They refuse to leave their old ways behind, and ultimately, they become stuck in neutral. People will ignore the writing on the wall. They won’t pay attention to the signals from the Holy Spirit, warning them that it’s time to move up. Instead, they burrow their heels in the sand and clinch even tighter to what is familiar. We all do this to some degree, but to the extent that our next level of spiritual growth depends on it, we’re going to have to figure out a way to kick our lives into high gear. 

God tells us through the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:18 (NLT), “Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.” We are called by God to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. Some of us have adopted our own schedule for doing this, but sometimes it doesn’t advance us enough. It doesn’t get us to point C at the time that God has appointed. 

Spiritually, when we’re supposed to be at point C, and we’re still at point A, that’s a problem! We don’t belong to ourselves. We belong to God. He has some place for us to be. We’re on His schedule—His timetable. Everything in our environments will begin to signal us when we fall too far behind. Relationships are broken, friendships are lost, finances are depleted, and problems keep popping up all over the place. All of these are indicators that something in our walk has gone stale.

Some of us start to panic when this happens. Some relationships and friendships should be left behind. Everyone cannot go where God is taking us, and this is something we must accept. We shouldn’t cling to anything so tightly that we cannot let it go for Christ’ sake. But instead of letting things go and letting God settle matters, many of us try to use old strategies on new dilemmas. We’re in a different place spiritually. Hebrews 6:1 warns us not to go back to those elementary teachings again and again. In other words, what worked three years ago is not going to cut it today. Newness is on the horizon!

Our lives will take on a different texture when we’re not progressing forward. It is not uncommon for us to experience a period in our spiritual journeys in Christ where things do not feel as fresh as they once did. We go through seasons of sadness or tribulation, where it feels like we are taking one step forward and two steps back. Just about every Christian that I know has experienced a period in their spiritual lives like this. We’re not being punished. God is calling us to go higher in His Word and Will, so that we can have a greater vision and understanding of who He is, and who we are in Christ.

Hebrews 3:6 (NLT) says, “But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.”  Jesus Christ is our Lord. He’s in charge of us. We relinquished lordship of our lives over to him. In other words, Jesus Christ is in the driver’s seat. He knows where we need to be, when we need to be there, and how to get us there. We are the vehicle, and through the Holy Spirit, we can move in perfect harmony with our Lord and Savior, in the Will of God, if we will trust Him. 

This means we need to make sure that we’re allowing ourselves to be led. We can’t get to high places in God without the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit that indwells us. When we cease to move forward in the Spirit, we lose that freshness that we crave so much. Things become stale because we place ourselves in a box spiritually. God has so much more to show and teach us. So dust off your faith and bring it front and center. Take the time to get in the face of God by praying and studying His Word more. Commit yourself to Him in every way, and you’ll see that He will take you higher in His wisdom, grace, and love.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

New International Version (NIV), Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.