5 Barriers to Our Spiritual Growth, Ep 2-35
Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to get back to the basics. We are talking about conquering our unseen enemies, but we are talking about the things we do to ourselves where the conquering is our own doing. Specifically we are going to address 5 barriers that prevent us from being able to move forward with the Lord. Not every unseen enemy is satan, sometimes we create our own enemies out of our behaviors. So let’s take a look at the 5 most common barriers I have seen created in the lives of people I have worked with over the years.
1. Overcommitment
A lot of times how we commit, or how often we commit is related to our personality type. People pleasers sometimes find themselves in the situation where they have trouble saying no and as a result wear themselves out overcommitting to so many activities that they struggle to stay focused and feel they are doing the right things. This isn’t limited to people pleasers, sometimes when we are unhappy or don’t trust ourselves to have downtime, we end up taking up every spare minute of our time with serving or volunteering all over the place. Part of the challenge in overcoming overcommitment is understanding why we are overcommitting. A life change often leads people to begin overcommitting to avoid loneliness, a recovering addict, loss of a loved one, a recent retirement, there are several reasons why this becomes a way to deal with change. At first glance it may seem like a healthy solution, to get out there and help others, be a part of something, but isn’t the best answer.
Let’s look at Moses, he was overcommitted and he wasn’t as effective as he could be because he overextended himself. As long as he was overextending himself, Moses could not truly lead the people the way the Lord needed. To set the scene, Moses is leading the people in the wilderness and managing any large group comes with challenges. His father in law comes to visit and spends the day with Moses as he conducts his daily business. So we pick up the story from there. Exodus 18, starting at verse 13.
13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”
15 Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”
17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. 21 But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. 23 If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
Jethro knew Moses needed to be committed to what he was called to do by God, but he was overcommitted to the daily tasks which meant he was undercommitted to areas where the Lord needed his full attention.
Are you committed to what the Lord has called you to? When we overcommit to what “we” want, we undercommit to where the Lord needs us to focus. We cannot be effective that way. We need to know what the Lord wants our focus to be directed toward and stay focused to do all the Lord asks of us in that area.
2. Undercommitment
We already hit on how overcommitting really just means we are undercommitting to where we are called. Here, undercommitment, which I don’t think is actually a word, but we are using it anyway, undercommitment here is where we are intending to do what we are called to do by the Lord, but we are not willing to do what is required. Where I see this happen the most is when we want to do what we know we should be doing, but we aren’t willing to make the time that is required to develop or participate. We have the time, we just chose to spend it doing other things. We don’t want to give up the things we like to do what He asks of us. Some people are not good with time management. That is not what we are talking about here. Undercommitment is part a heart issue, it’s part a faith issue, it’s part an endurance issue and at times can be a resilience issue. When we are undercommitted we are prone to fall away easily if we do not see a big change or a “payday” for the time we are putting into something. I’ve mentored people on an area that has taken me years to grow and develop in and after a month they get disappointed they are not where I am and lose their willingness to continue to do what is required. If you aren’t willing to do what the Lord needs from you then how can you expect to be able to have the Lord provide you with all you need to carry out what he has called you to do? Jesus never gave the disciples shortcuts because they were his favorite. Why should anyone think now that we don’t have to spend the time developing what is needed to be able to live in our purpose for Him?
If you are having a few rough weeks, that’s ok, that happens, but we become our own enemy when we stay in that rough place for too long mentally or in our heart.
Are you undercommitted to what you are called to do? The Lord did not go halfway in what He was called to do for us, so we should not be undercommitted to do what He asks of us. Don’t give up, don’t let someone else’s issues become your issues, don’t let your own doubts derail your progress.
Here are some scriptures to lean on when you are developing your commitment.
Proverbs 16:3, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”
Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
3. Failure to grow
Failure to grow is related to undercommitment, its like a cousin of undercommitment. Failure to grow I see as a barrier because it doesn’t mean they are incapable of growing, it means they aren’t willing to put in the effort. Paul tells the Colossians growth is important if we want to please the Lord. Colossians 1:9 we read, “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[e] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,” Bearing good fruit requires growth. You cannot bear good fruit without growing because it is about life and what happen over time when we are doing what we need to nurture growth. Ephesians 4 also reveals how and why the Lord set up us for success to grow. “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” We are expected to mature in our knowledge of Him. Hebrews 6 puts it this way, “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites,[b] the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.”
To be honest, when I hear most Christians talk and the topic of growth comes up this is how I see their response describe who they are. Luke 8, “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” Anyone I mentor who is not willing to grow does not remain as someone I am willing to mentor until they are willing to do what is necessary to grow. When I hear someone is hungry, then I know guidance and encouragement will be a huge factor to their success. Paul explains it this way,
1 Corinthians 13, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” That takes time and effort and discipline to keep going.
Recently at one of the Holy Spirit nights I was hosting, I talked about how important it is to grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit. It is so important to grow, to want to grow. In my teaching I told everyone that if you are not in the process of growing, then you are in the process of dying. It is easy to allow the culture, the ways of the world and the enemy to sway how you think, how you see the Lord, and what you think of the Bible. Over the last few weeks I have seen an increase in the amount of questioning the validity and veracity of the Bible from people who are calling themselves Christians. That happens when we don’t bother to grow. So get busy growing or get busy dying!!
4. Blitzkrieg growth
Now this barrier may not make sense at first but let me explain how I have seen this time and time again. It’s a mistake that sincere people often make thinking they are doing themselves good.
When I first adopted Zeke, my green wing macaw, I didn’t know anything about birds, let alone these big beautiful, intelligent parrots. He was barely hatched, I visited him for months as he grew until it was time for him to come home. It was a huge responsibility, and a long-term commitment I made when I adopted him. His nature is still a wild bird, so he can be unpredictable even tho he is more than happy to learn English or whatever else I teach him. He has the intelligence of about a 4-year-old. They have dietary do’s and don’t’s, grooming needs, companionship needs, medical needs which were all new to me. For the months between when I paid for him and when he came home, I was learning everything I could every day to make sure I could care for him correctly when he came home. I had to learn about cages, toys, how to work with him, how to change my house to accommodate him, there was so much to know. It was overwhelming. I watched videos, read books, emailed experts, talked to people, and it felt like no matter how much I learned, there was more to learn, or different opinions that contradicted others. I wanted to know everything. I wanted to be responsible. My heart and my mind were in the right place, but I was just getting information from everywhere, and it was actually making me feel less confident the more people I listened to. There are varying level of eccentric people who are bird people, I am one of those people, but even I cannot handle some of the extreme behaviors and opinions of some bird people. Differing opinions, differing viewpoints, differing experiences lead people to say and do what they do. When it comes to animals, passions ignite and people can be really rude when someone does something that is contrary to their opinion in how a bird should be cared for or exposed to. I’m digressing now, when it was time for Zeke to come home, I didn’t use a lot of that information I had crammed into my brain. Instead, Zeke and I handled everything new to both of us a little at a time and found our way as companions. As I put my notes together for this episode he sat next to me, preening and asking me “What’s up?” I spent so much time learning things that were not applicable, things that I now know I do not agree with, things that were actually just ridiculous, and a waste of my time. I lost focus on what I needed to know trying to make sure I knew “everything” I needed to know. My heart meant well, but my type A personality went into overdrive when it should have just slowed down and taken things one at a time.
When we want to grow in knowledge, we need to be focused. We don’t want to be listening to 8 different podcasts on top of reading 4-5 books while listening to multiple radio ministries. I guarantee people who are blitzkrieging their growth are listening to ministries that are contradicting each other because we do not all believe the same interpretations of the Bible. When I hear someone say they are doing this I begin to ask who and what they are listening to or reading. Then I ask them about what they are getting out of each one. If you are doing this, ask yourself the same thing. If you can’t answer definitively what you are learning from what you are doing then start to pull apart what you are doing and define what you are trying to develop in your life. You cannot grow when you are giving 10 different ministries 15 minutes of your time. That just doesn’t make sense to do to yourself. Learn one maybe two things well and then move on to learn something new. Overwhelming ourselves with too much gets you nowhere, there is no benefit. We may think we are spending time with the Lord doing it that way, but if it’s not quality time, what does it matter. Always choose quality time with the Lord not quantity time with several ministries.
Hebrews 12 gives us a description of what we are doing to ourselves by doing a blitzkrieg instead of focusing on our growth, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
5. Fear
Most of us are aware of our own fears. We either deal with them head on or avoid them, maybe chip away at them. No matter what your reaction is, we are generally aware when fear begins to affect us. We have talked about how the enemy uses our fears against us, but here we are talking about how we use our fears against ourselves. Sometimes we get so focused on our own fears that we don’t realize the fears of those around us. According to an
October 14, 2015 09:05 ET| Source: Linkagoal study, nearly half of applicable adults (49%) admitted that fear of failure was the biggest roadblock to either not achieving their goals at all, or discouraging them from revisiting their goals. And while fear of failure topped the Fear Factor Index, fear of embarrassment (44%) and fear of one's goal being perceived as too difficult to achieve (43%) were also major hurdles to goal achievement.
We have to trust in the Lord, we have develop our faith to overcome our fears. I know that is not a new thought, but the issue is how. How do we overcome our fears? When it is not the enemy, it is just us blocking our own path with fears? How did David overcome his fears when Saul was searching for him to kill him? How did Moses respond when he was leading his people out of Egypt and Pharoah came after them but the only way forward was a body of water? What did Saul do when he had been struck with blindness by the Lord on the way to Damascus?
Most of us do not have fears that exceed what these 3 were dealing with and what did they do? They gave their heart full of heaviness to the Lord and they acted. They didn’t have a choice but to act. They trusted Him and acted in faith. David ran, he hid, at one point in a cave in En Gedi and Saul was in that same cave and had no idea David was even there. I was in En Gedi earlier this year. I looked at the caves and thought of this moment in David’s life and if I were David, what would I have done. Moses undoubtedly had a heavy, fearful heart as he was leading all of his people out of Egypt and to see that Egyptian army after them must have been confusing and terrifying. Moses had to believe in a God he could not see for an answer he could not conceive of and overcome his fear. Saul was out to kill the followers of “The Way” and yet, blind, had to rely on one of them to come to him and restore his sight. He had to believe that Ananias would do as the Lord described and not take revenge on him.
We have what we need to overcome our fears. The Lord doesn’t ask us to do it alone, but we have to be willing to trust Him and act. We can’t sit still in our fear or we will start to spiral downward and the enemy will at some point join in on our spiral. We have to make a choice and if it’s something we have to make everyday, then we make it everyday.
All 5 of these barriers we discussed are within our control and ability to change. We need to be willing to remove any barriers that prevent you from being able to move forward with the Lord. We know what will happen if we don’t remove them, but what can we accomplish for the Kingdom if we do. The Lord can do anything, but He needs us to do it with Him on earth as it is in heaven.
I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the 5 barriers to moving forward with the Lord that we place on ourselves. I do hope it has helped to build your understanding and encouraged you to conquer your own unseen enemies. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.
As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:
· Address 5 barriers that prevent us from being able to move forward with the Lord
· The 5 most common barriers I have seen created in the lives of people I have worked with over the years.
o Overcommitment
§ The 5 most common barriers I have seen created in the lives of people I have worked with over the years.
§ Let’s look at Moses, he was overcommitted and he wasn’t as effective as he could be because he overextended himself. As long as he was overextending himself, Moses could not truly lead the people the way the Exodus 18, starting at verse 13.
o Undercommitment
§ We already hit on how overcommitting really just means we are undercommitting to where we are called. Here, undercommitment, is where we are intending to do what we are called to do by the Lord, but we are not willing to do what is required
§ Proverbs 16:3, Galatians 6:9,
o Failure to grow
§ Failure to grow is related to undercommitment, its like a cousin of undercommitment. Failure to grow I see as a barrier because it doesn’t mean they are incapable of growing, it means they aren’t willing to put in the effort.
§ Colossians 1:9, Ephesians 4, Hebrews 6, Luke 8, 1 Corinthians 13,
o Blitzkrieg growth
§ When we want to grow in knowledge, we need to be focused.
§ Always choose quality time with the Lord not quantity time with several ministries.
§ Hebrews 12
o Fear
§ We have to trust in the Lord, we have develop our faith to overcome our fears.
§ Story of David, Moses and Saul. They gave their heart full of heaviness to the Lord and they acted. The Lord doesn’t ask us to do it alone, but we have to be willing to trust Him and act.
We encourage you:
· To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment
· If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice. There is also a Study Guide available and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book. One devotional is for women and one is for men. Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.
· Come to my live event on 9/23 if you are in the Los Angeles area and experience the Holy Spirit, 80 Wood Rd, Journey the Church Office, for more details listen to the Invite I posted on 8/24.
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I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!
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