Knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Jesus taught, “I am the Good Shepherd, and I know [without any doubt those who are] My own and My own know Me [and have a deep, personal relationship with Me]” (John 10:14 AMP).
Too many Christians live a shallow faith with little depth in their knowledge of God. I am not talking about intellectual knowledge, for we have plenty of people that are willing to study about God. No, I am talking about those willing to spend time with God all alone to truly know Him.
Solitude produces what fellowship cannot. “But when you pray, go away by yourself, all alone, and shut the door behind you and pray to your Father secretly, and your Father, who knows your secrets, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6 TLB).
We think that to have a deeper faith we must have a higher position within the church. But our position in the church has very little to do with our position before God. People are more willing to serve God before men than they are to serve God in obscurity.
There are more Christians willing to serve Christ than surrender to Him. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways.’” (Matthew 16:24 TPT).
We think a deeper faith knows the deepest secrets of heaven. We think a deeper faith operates in the deeper gifts by which a person becomes well known before men. But the deepest faith has nothing to do with secrets and gifts, but only a heart laid bare before God each morning.
Be honest with where you’re failing, then let God help you overcome. “For You light my lamp; the Lord my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run at a troop of warriors; and by my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:28-29 NASB).
We think the deeper our faith, the more of an easy life that God will give us. But the deeper faith often comes with a deeper suffering, as it is in the suffering where God takes us even deeper. Scripture proclaims that some of God’s greatest servants suffered more than others.
Learn to let suffering complete its work in you before God might remove it. “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace [who imparts His blessing and favor], who called you to His own eternal glory in Christ, will Himself complete, confirm, strengthen, and establish you [making you what you ought to be]” (1 Peter 5:10 AMP).
We think the deeper faith will mean we rise above our weakness. But the deeper faith realizes how utterly weak we truly are and simply falls in submission to the Father. Our highest moments will be when we fall the lowest before a Lord who will help us when we are willing.
To grow in your faith, the question is not can you be strong enough, but can you be weak enough. The Lord told the Apostle Paul, “…My power is brought to perfection in weakness.” [and Paul said] Therefore, I am very happy to boast about my weaknesses, in order that the Messiah’s power will rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 CJB).
The deeper faith is a lower standing before men beside us and before God who is above us. The lower you kneel, the higher your faith, and the deeper you can go with God. Humility is not an acquired attribute of those with a deeper faith but a prerequisite.
There are two qualifications you must have to be a mighty servant for God. First, you are not qualified. Second, you agree with the first. By this standard, everyone has the first, and few have the second. “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” (Luke 1:52 NKJV).
The deeper faith is attainable by all but sought out by only a few. Many go to church, but few are the church. Many will pray to God, but only a few will have a life of prayer. Many say they want a deeper faith, but only a few really do. The deeper faith will cost you the right to you.
Once you give up the right to yourself, it is there that Christ can use you. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]’” (Matthew 16:24 AMP).
If you want to go after the deeper faith, you must live in the Word and live in prayer. You cannot go deeper until you are ready to be real. So long as you care two cents what man thinks of you, God can’t help you go any deeper. Until you get alone with God, you’re not.
The most productive time of your day is when you’re praying. “Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes” (Ephesians 3:20 TLB).
The deeper faith requires a life of consecration. Consecration means that you must be set apart from some things and joined to something else. There are things in your life that don’t belong there. Until you are willing to remove them, they are the obstacle to a deeper faith.
There are no compromises in a consecrated life. “For I am Yahweh your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy…” (Leviticus 11:44 HCSB).
You can go deeper in your faith. You can have a faith that lifts you out of the frustrations and emptiness of this world up into the perfect joy, and absolute fulfillment only found from heaven. Be willing to pour out the dead sand in your life that He would pour in the living water.
Faith is like a tree: the deeper the roots, the stronger it will stand. “For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8 NKJV).
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius