The Spiritual Chase by J. C. Philpot

For My New Year's Resolution!

Father God, even though the future looks bleak and frightening I know you have a plan for my life. Strenghten me during the journey and help me not to be afraid or restless, knowing that you are sufficient. Mold me, hold my hand and walk with me Saviour.

To find out why this short prayer, read January 1 post)

This post below is an excerpt from the new uploaded Kindle 

"The Spiritual Chase "  by J. C. Philpot 

Download the FREE  Kindle  HERE 

But HOW does the soul thus "follow hard" after the Lord? Chiefly in longings, breathings, earnest cries, and intense pantings after Him. The Psalmist has expressed this in one short sentence, and a most emphatic and beautiful one it is—"As the deer pants after the water-brooks—so pants my soul after You, O God." He there represents the hunted stag panting and thirsting after one refreshing draught from the water-brooks; panting as David himself once panted for the water of the well of Bethlehem, when he uttered that poignant desire, "O that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem!" Thus it is by the panting and longing of the soul after God in intense desire and vehement longings of the soul to enjoy His presence, that this "following hard" after the Lord is chiefly manifested.

And God's people know this experimentally. How many times do they stretch themselves on their beds, and pant after the Lord as though the last breath were going out of their body! How often, as they are engaged in the daily pursuits of life, is there a cry going up out of their heart after the Lord, pleading with Him, and telling Him that they cannot be satisfied without His manifested presence! How often, perhaps, when for some time you have felt cold and dead, a sudden spirit of grace and supplication has come into your hearts, that has vented and breathed itself forth in cries to the Lord! And thus your soul has gone forth with the most intense desire to enjoy the sweet manifestations of His Person and testimonies of His covenant love.

"My soul follows hard after You." The Lord (we would speak with reverence) does not allow Himself at first to be overtaken. The more the soul follows after Him the more He seems to withdraw Himself, and thus He draws it more earnestly on the pursuit. He means to be overtaken in the end—it is His own blessed work in the conscience to kindle earnest desires and longings after Himself; and therefore He puts strength into the soul, and "makes the feet like deer's feet" to run and continue the chase.

But in order to whet the ardent desire, to kindle to greater intensity the rising eagerness, the Lord will not allow Himself to be overtaken until after a long and arduous pursuit. This is sweetly set forth in the Song of Solomon (5:2-8). We find there the Lord coming to His Bride; but she is unwilling to open to Him until "He puts His hand in by the hole of the door." She would not rise at His first knocking, and therefore He is obliged to touch her heart. But "when she opened to her Beloved, He was gone!" and no sooner does He withdraw Himself, than she pursues after Him; but she cannot find Him—He hides Himself from her view, draws her round and round the walls of the city, until at length she overtakes, and finds Him whom her soul loves.

This sweetly sets forth how the Lord draws on the longing soul after Himself. Could we immediately obtain the object of our pursuit, we would not half so much enjoy it when attained. Could we with a wish bring the Lord down into the soul, it would be but the lazy wish of the sluggard, who "desires, and has not." But when the Lord can only be obtained by an arduous pursuit, every faculty of the soul is engaged in panting after His manifested presence; and this was the experience of the Psalmist, when he cried, "My soul follows hard after You."

What Is Spiritual Growth?

Years ago, I remember getting on the bandwagon when people were talking about the Israelites in the wilderness and the fact that they missed out on God’s plan for them. If I was writing down all the derogatives comments made about the Israelites for having God right there with them yet they failed, I would have enough material to create a book by now. As I grow spiritually, I realized how juveniles those comments were. We can afford to make such comments because we truly do not know God the way we think we do. If we did, we would learn through God that there is no difference between us and the Israelites when it comes to serving and loving Him. 

As the matter of fact, we do not only have Christ in front of us as a cloud and our high priest, we also have Him inside of us, so in a way, we are worse than the Israelites. We are stubborn people, we enjoy living a double life, hence why we do not want anything to do with a life of abandonment at His feet. We follow after anyone willing to dilute the gospel to make things easier for us. We are great at giving Him lip service. Not interested in anyone’s report that does not match what we want to hear. We have hard hearts, idols coming out of our ears, and we are fascinated by what the world has to offer, and the list goes on.

The key thing here is “spiritual growth.” Spiritual growth isn’t about how active you are for God, or about accumulating knowledge. While these things make us feel good, and even the Church tends to evaluate most of their staff and what they label mature Christians, by accumulated knowledge. But, that’s not what God’s word value, for spiritual growth. Rather, it’s a process by which we are slowly becoming more and more like Christ while taking on His characters.  

As we grow spiritually, God keeps pushing the veil back for us which takes away the limitations God put on us after we died spiritually when Adam and Eve sinned. Only as we let Him remove the veil in increment that we understand how much we human beings have a limited understanding of the depth of spiritual growth. Imagine with me that God is working in each one of us to make us like Christ. Now, picture Christ’s character and everything He was when He walked the earth, then picture yourself and tell me in comparison to Christ you do not see almost an impossible challenge. If you can see the difference between the two, you will be able to accept the fact that there is so much work to be done that it is almost discouraging. Yet, the task is not impossible to God, all He asks is that we make every effort to keep up with Him so that He can prepare us for the future life.

Christ first Sermon was the Sermon on the Mount and should be a very good starting point for us. In reality this sermon signifies the starting point of our spiritual life. I was made to understand that I did not have to worry about the Sermon on the Mount and that God would work it out in me even after I die. As I walk closer with Christ, I found out this is something He needs to work in me and you now, and it is just the beginning of a life in spiritual adulthood as we leave behind the child life stage. As the Holy Spirit enlightened me to see the starting point with Him, it made me sad to see how today Church is trapped in a perpetual infancy stage – like the Pharisees.

Sure there is an ultimate end to our spiritual growth when we will see Him face to face just like He is. But like the Spirit taught me, there is nothing that limits Him from working most of it in us right here right now, except us getting in His way.

2 Peter 1:3-8

New International Version (NIV)

Confirming One’s Calling and Election

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I worry when I hear people say: “may be it is His plan for you and not for me” to grow so much in Him. This excuse has become so universal that I can only see Satan in the midst of it all. How then can we read the Bible, even reading verses like 2 Peter 1:3-8, then still not moving forward like we are participating in a course for our lives? If we truly get the gist of the Bible, how then can we explain that most of us are not making the commitment to follow hard after Him? Something is amiss.

  

We are so blinded that we lie to ourselves, yet we walk around as if God cannot see our excuses and the lies we tell ourselves to avoid a real commitment to Him. You are also kidding yourself if you think you can get there without making a painful mental effort to commit wholeheartedly to this walk. This is not a commitment to do more, but a commitment from the heart that says I want to stop playing with Christianity and learn to see things from His standpoint. I want to get to know Him intimately and I need to make things right with Him.

Think of it this way and test yourself. If you cannot find it in you after you claim to be Christian for decades, to commit wholeheartedly to Him, how do you expect your work to pass the test of the fire? Because not being able to take that mental step to abandon yourself to Him, should be your answer.

Take the step to let the Spirit moves freely in your life!

Why Shoud I Follow Hard After God?

This is an excerpt of my newly released Christian book 

"Apprehended & Apprehending"

Taken from the chapter 5 of the book

We follow hard after God because we have become aware of the need for a deeper life in Him, with Holy hunger. He initiates this pursuit to a point where we hunger so much that nothing can satisfy us anymore unless we get hold of Him in the depth of our beings. This awareness of Him seeking for us causes a chain reaction as the chase begins. At the beginning, it is not that difficult because we are head over heels in love with Him. I remember being apprehensive, wondering how I managed to fall in love with Him simply because I did not know Christians could fall in love with God. In this hot pursuit, you will soon realize that it takes everything you possess in your heart, soul, and spirit to follow hard after Him because of the intensity, the urgency, the zeal, and so on. Soon, you find out pursuing hard after God is about claiming your inheritance through the rigid preparation of an heir in the making. Eventually, this pursuit led me to the wilderness with Him where you become exhausted but you are to persevere and endure. As you continue the chase you live with the attitude and the full knowledge that you are indeed the King’s precious child.

 The only way Christ can completely apprehend us is if we join Him on the journey and do our share through total surrender. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that Christ does not have the ability to apprehend us without our help, but this is how He has chosen to work. He will not override our will to love Him and join Him in this journey. Neither am I saying that a lip service job of surrender will do. He is not interested in having a half-baked surrender that is done on a case by case basis. Either one of these wrong methods is a rejection of the terms of His covenant with us. He wants our all with no reservations.  When we understand what Christ has done for us, we understand His immeasurable grace, love, mercy and goodness. We cannot help but run back to His feet and surrender ourselves. When we start enjoying the life we have in Him through faith, we understand how lucky we are compared to those who are perishing. When we learn the sweetness of living in His bosoms we also realize how silly we were for having resisted Him for so long as well as for the time we wasted away from Him. Only then do we see the gravity, the ignorance, the blindness, the loss, and the present and future pain of living in the Devil's claws. As we recognize what we have in Him, we enjoy the freedom we have, willingly becoming His prisoners and His bondservant. What a life! What a God! What a wonderful paradox we live through Christ!

This excerpt is from my newly released book.  If you want to read more please get the book on Amazon kindle or paperback.  Kindle link  & Paperback

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