A GPS makes it possible to always know where you’ve been, where you are and where you’re headed — sort of the past, present, and future of your life from a visual and geographic perspective. You never have to be lost again.
While a Global Positioning System may have been around for only 30 years or so, there is another GPS system that has been around for thousands of years: the Globally Positioned Spirituality system.
What’s a Globally Positioned Spirituality system? I’m glad you asked. Think of all the spiritual “systems” — religions and worldviews — in this world. Where do you stand in relation to them all? Feeling confused when it comes to discerning spiritual truth from spiritual error?
What about the looming moral and ethical crises of our day? Can you chart a path through the wilderness of amoral, secular values in our culture? What do you believe, and why, about abortion, euthanasia, same-sex relationships, the role of government in society, capital crimes and punishment, war, human rights, tolerance toward other religions, the right to worship and speak freely and other current hot topics?
And what about your personal spiritual “location” in this world? Where are you headed? What have you learned from the path you’ve been on? What course corrections do you need to make? What are your goals and dreams, and how do they mesh with God’s plans and purposes?
God does not want us to be lost. Fortunately, He has provided us with a “Globally Positioned Spirituality” system that allows us to answer all those questions, and more. He always wants us to know what we believe, where we stand and Whom we can trust. When it comes to having a plan, a course, a path to follow, God wants us to be as confident as Jesus Christ was.
Even during the hours of His life when Jesus suffered most, He was never “lost.” He knew what was happening and why, and He knew exactly what to do in the midst of the confusion surrounding Him. Jesus was betrayed by a close friend, falsely arrested, accused, and condemned, beaten until almost dead, crucified on a Roman cross, and died alone and deserted by most of His followers. Yet He was never lost.
What gave Jesus the confidence to stay “globally positioned” spiritually-speaking? Why didn’t He panic, compromise, give in, or run away in the face of such awful circumstances? It’s because He knew who He was and was confident in God’s purpose for His life. And where did He gain the knowledge that gave Him such confidence? Jesus had immersed himself in a knowledge of the Word of God.
Jesus knew He would be betrayed (see Acts 1:20; Psalm 69:25; 109:8), rejected, beaten, and afflicted (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53:3-5), and why (Isaiah 53:6, 10). And He also knew that God would not leave Him in the grave (Psalm 16:8-11; Isaiah 53:11) — that He would one day return to earth as King over all the earth (Zechariah 12:10).
It was the knowledge of God and His Word that kept Jesus Christ, in His humanity, from becoming confused and lost in the midst of an experience the likes of which we will never know. So if Jesus was able to stay spiritually positioned in life, can we as well? Absolutely!
God said to His people, Israel, during a time when they were desperately, spiritually lost: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). This is an exact parallel to what Jesus told the religious leaders of His day: “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge” (Luke 11:52).
Knowledge of God and His Word is so important because it acts as a benchmark against which to measure all the competing claims that the world makes on your mind and emotions. The Word of God and an intimate, prayerful communion with your heavenly Father are your Globally Positioned Spirituality system. Immerse yourself in them and you, too, will know who you are, what you believe, and where you’re headed.
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David Jeremiah is the founder of TURNING POINT FOR GOD and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California.