The "Next Level"

We hear it all the time--that someone has to 'take it to the next level'.

An athlete needs to take his play 'to the next level' if he's going to be great...a student needs to take her studies 'to the next level' if she's really going to excel...

...So what does it mean to take our Spiritual Lives 'to the next level'?

For me, it has to do a lot with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit "is with you, and will be in you" (John 14:17). I believe that this was fulfilled at Pentecost, and has been fulfilled from that day forward for every believer (Paul says that we are "sealed" by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4), and that our bodies are "temples" of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6).)

Clearly, the Holy Spirit IS in the life of the believer in Jesus...so why do we often live as if He's not?

For me, God has been showing me that I've been trying to do the impossible: I've been trying to live my life in a Spiritual way, by depending on my own strength. I've been trying to do what only God's Holy Spirit can do! I've been trying to accomplish something through my 'flesh' that can only be accomplished by yielding to the Holy Spirit.

Remember that Paul said that "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18).


In other words, it is God's Spirit who works in us to accomplish this change--to bring us to "the Next Level".

As for me, I want to cooperate with Him more. I want to be more sensitive to His leading. I want to sense His work within me more--changing me 'from glory to glory' (as one version puts the above). I want His power at work in my life, and I want Him--not me--to get the glory for it.

What does that look like for you?

Is it more passion in your relationship to God? Is it more willingness to obey? More commitment to His Word? A yielded heart and mind? A willingness to 'live by faith' and DO 'that thing' He's been leading you to?

Stop yourself long enough to answer this question: "If God, through the Holy Spirit, wanted to take YOU to the next level, what would it be?"

What does He want to accomplish in you?

May God continue to take each of our faith "to the Next Level"!