Breakthrough: A Spiritual Life
Published January 2020
What's one thing you need Jesus to do in 2020, a breakthrough only he can do? And what is one thing God is calling you to start (or to commit to) in practicing his presence (bible reading, prayer, fasting, silence/solitude, etc.)? My hope for us in 2020 is that Jesus would break addictions, break through strongholds, break through hard or bitter hearts, and break our hearts for what breaks His. May the God of all power and comfort bring about a Gospel renewal in us. Amen.
CHRISTUS EXEMPLAR
Jesus is both fully God and fully man; theologians call it the hypostatic union—where Jesus has “two natures” united together in his being. In our Post-Christian context we must trumpet the truth of his divinity—his God-ness—and make much of King Jesus ruling and reigning over all things as God. And yet, we can’t forget the humanity of Jesus as well.
As a man, Jesus’ life and ministry are a model for us to follow.
We were “predestined to be conformed into the image of the Son,” (Rom. 8:29)—that is, we are to become like him. But we also have to realize that he became like us first. We read in John 5:19, “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” Jesus embraced, in his humanity, his limitations and his dependence on the Father.
Jesus gave us an example in his life, on how to live our human lives in dependence on the Father and empowered by the Spirit.
We see Jesus throughout the Gospels doing life and ministry primarily in two ways: through the Spiritual Disciplines and the Spiritual Gifts.
Many times we see Jesus getting away to be alone with the Father:
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35).
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16).
“Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them.” (Luke 6:12-13)
“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.” (Luke 11:1-2)
“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” (Matthew 14:13)
“Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” (John 6:15)
Jesus’ life was marked by prayer, silence and solitude, meditation, fasting, and of course, serving and evangelism.
Additionally, Jesus did ministry in the power of the Spirit, using all of the Spiritual Gifts. After being anointed by the Spirit in his baptism (Mark 1:10), he was “led by the Spirit” into the wilderness (Mark 1:12), he “returned in the power of the Spirit” to begin his ministry (Luke 4:14), “the power of the Lord was with him to heal” (Luke 5:17), “he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21). It was in the Spirit’s power that he cast out demons, taught with authority, healed, and had knowledge of man’s heart. Jesus had the fullness of the Spirit’s gifts.
And then Jesus said something that should stop us in our tracks: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
When Jesus gave his Church his Spirit as a gift, he gave us the ability to do more than him—as one human being compared with the whole of the Church. He expected us, and equipped us, to do life and ministry like him.
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FORM & FIRE
Over the last four years or so, we have discipled the people of TPC with various initiatives focused on the Spiritual Disciplines and Spiritual Gifts. We want to make that more clear and more overt—that the gifts and disciplines are the tools we use for the ministry God has given our people. That we follow Jesus’ example.
Another way to say it is that we need form and fire—the forming practices of the Saints across all church history and the fire of the Spirit that keeps the light of the Church burning.
May this encourage and bolster you! May Christianity never be boring again!
As well, I want us to pray and plead with the Lord that through our pursuit of him, we would experience breakthrough—in our spiritual life, in our relationships, in our ministry. That through the presence and power of God, Jesus would flex in our church and in the lives of our people in a profound way in 2020.
Think about it. . .if together as a church we treasured Jesus, and pursued the heart of the Father, and depended on the power of the Spirit, and sought boldness in our timidity, or healing in our sickness, or zeal in our ministry, or vision in our Monday-Friday work in the city, or peace in our anxiety and fears!
May Jesus excite our hearts for life with him and breakthrough where we feel stuck.