Spiritual Fitness, Motivation and Assessment
“May the Spirit of truth and grace give you an honest assessment regarding your spiritual fitness””
It is to our advantage to assess our spiritual fitness and development. May this following chart, which is defining truth from deception, aid you in your progress to spiritual maturity. We must “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” and continue to grow up in Messiah [Christ] (Philippians 2:12). It is important to have this preliminary spiritual checkup “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). As you go through this chart, we pray for the Holy Spirit to spur you on, to grow up into the redeemed righteous people that our Savior died to purchase for His eternal glory and Kingdom. May the Spirit of truth and grace give you an honest assessment regarding your spiritual fitness and the areas that the flesh and the Enemy have had an advantage over you. Yahshua [Jesus] will help you to discern truth from deception and to wisely choose blessings and life in the Spirit. Everything on this list refers to pure Scriptural mandates and its respective blessings or judgments, which will be magnified throughout this series.
The following chart will give you a preliminary overview of some of the biblical heartbeats magnifying truth and deception. As you proceed in this series, the distinction will become very obvious and vivid as light is from darkness and night is from day. It is written, “… God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we should walk in the Light as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Yahshua [Jesus] His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1John 1:5-8).
As you take an honest assessment, it will be helpful to make a list of the areas that you are prompted to incorporate in your personal prayers. The Holy Spirit convicts us of the need to become stronger in the Spirit and weaker in our self-willed flesh nature. As we continually work out our salvation, we will ultimately become more than conquerors over our flesh, the world, and Satan’s deception.
Truth versus Deception Checklist
+ Click to Enlarge
“The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will ... reap eternal life””
Dear Ones, we must remember that Yahshua (Jesus) is love and His love is unfailing, but we must not put His love to the test by self justifying sin. It is written, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8). Our Savior’s loving mercy and grace covers a multitude of our confessed repented sins. Apostle John said, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful … to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). His Holy Spirit is convicting all of His children, urging us to acknowledge our sins of disobedience and to wholeheartedly repent and “from now on sin no more" (John 8:11).
We are at the close of the age, Yahshua (Jesus) is proclaiming to all who will listen, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” “I tell you, … unless you repent, you will all likewise perish [not enter the kingdom of heaven]” (Matthew 4:17 and Luke 13:3). Some will say, “I repented when I received Jesus as my Savior.” That is essential, however as we continue to “work out our salvation” we will have additional conviction leading to repentance in order for the Spirit to overcome our flesh nature. Then Yahshua will be clearly seen and glorified through our words and deeds. The Holy Spirit is powerfully working “to turn … the disobedient to the attitude [wisdom] of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Messiah’s love expressed in His outpoured divine blood, will cover our repentant hearts and free us from bondage to our selfish sin nature and Satan’s strongholds. As you wholeheartedly continue on in this series, our hope and prayer is that the Spirit of truth will help you to grow up in a manner worthy of our Savior’s sacrificial blood that redeemed you and covers your confessed sins. The obedient redeemed are eagerly preparing and longing to be ready as they wait to be with their righteous King in His eternal kingdom.
