I’m an explorer walking the higher ground of God searching for spiritual diamonds for I long to know Him and the power of His resurrection. As I sit in my study hour after hour I am warned that my saturation of Biblical spiritualism could lead to a mental unbalance, and people could brand me as an extremist. However, I expose the unauthenticated hierarchy of the Christian Church that tells its parishioners there is nothing more to seek, that believing their definition of the scriptures is the requirement to be accepted by the beloved. Christian seminaries, churches, and Bible institutes have all joined to advance the cult of denominational supremacy, glossing over the concept of “Christ within you,” and overlooking repentance, obedience, and cross-bearing as true tests of the Christian’s faith.
The voice of the Dove is rarely explored in today’s tolerance of free lifestyles. Our Christian society assumes that if we have the word for something we have in our possession the thing itself. The Bible tells us how to be saved, but today’s theology tells us we are saved without the convictions of a true Christian life so the promise of salvation is no more than a rational interpretation. There are literally thousands of people convinced they are saved that are not. They have placed their beliefs in a system rather than true faith in Christ. It is no wonder that Jesus Himself was concerned if He would find any faith at all upon His return. Separation from the world, humility, self-control, obedience, repentance, and modesty must all be brought back into the Christian’s lifestyle if we are going to be true servants of Christ. I am afraid more people are going to go to hell because of the sin of religion than any other sin. Religion is mankind reaching up to God by observing rituals to a god they create for themselves or their denomination. Christianity is “Christ in you.” This is where God comes down to you, and takes residence in your soul.
An intense spiritual life is where we enjoy a personal inward experience, and receive the privileges that are ours through Jesus Christ. It is an open heart where no secret is hid, and a desire to have all matters cleansed from our soul with the unspeakable gift of God’s grace so we can perfect the understanding of His love and worthily praise His Holy name. We seek the divine revelation of our King and Savior Jesus Christ where we strive to sense and experience the inner feeling of God reconciling our soul to His. Through the renunciation of the world, the obedience of the Word, and repentance of our misgivings, we seek a conscious understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven that resides in our mind. The nearer we draw to God the more we become aware of sin and our undeserving relationship He has so freely offered us through the crucifixion of His only begotten Son. So we leave the basic principles of our ideology, and seek the filling of perfection through the Holy Spirit.
Nuggets of gold no one seeks anymore are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The true Church is a group of people who are spiritually illuminated, who appear in society and mingle with the world in certain ways, but stand out as different from others. Regenerated, spiritually led people who are different from everyone else in the actions, their behavior, and their character. Our emergence is spiritual, and our citizenship is in heaven. We have no confidence in the flesh, and we worship God in the Spirit. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. We suffer whatever indignations people throw at us for His name’s sake, and we are cross-bearers for the Gospel of Christ. We are royal ambassadors who treat all people fairly, and live in servitude to others. We expect to be rejected by society just as they rejected our Savior.
There is no ministry worthy of eternity without one of the gifts from the Holy Spirit. There are approximately seventeen gifts mentioned in the New Testament that are conveyed to the believers who are part of the body of Christ. These gifts are like a virtuoso jazz musician improvising a melody with the sounds of his soul. They are broad in scope, and wide in celestial latitude. This produces spiritual music of the finest quality, and it enables the gifted to create a supernatural ministry that is beyond the ability of the servant. For example, I am nothing more than a poor old roofer that the Holy Spirit has blessed with a desire to share the deeper mysteries of Christ. My love for God is so strong that writing to you doesn’t feel like work because as I write I grow stronger in my relationship with Christ. Those of us who have surrendered our life’s passions to our King and Savior have been blessed with all abundance, and have had the wondrous experience of seeing others come to Christ.
For us to grow in faith we must have expectations that the Holy Spirit will bless us with the prescribed gift of His choosing. I have never in my life had an interest in writing. I had no ability to see what God had in store for me, but I have had teachers who took me aside and made me practice writing. There was my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Shaw, who made me stay in class at lunchtime memorizing poetry and the Gettysburg Address. Mrs. Stanton, my creative writing teacher in high school, didn’t even require me to come to class, yet she dragged poems and short stories from me at will. To this day I can’t place a comma in the right spot, but all along God had a plan for me just as He does for you. After we have been gifted with our ministry we will all be able to look back and see how obvious God’s plan is. Until then we have to convince ourselves that we are capable of being filled by the Spirit, and that it is part of God’s glorious ambition in our lives. It is a Spirit-led operation based on our faith in the crucified work of Jesus Christ.
We come to a time in our life where we question its meaning. We become tired of the vises that control our thoughts so we undergo a period of time where we experience a deep and troubling upheaval in our hearts. An inward disturbance where we reach the breaking point of our soul, we fall down on our knees, crying out to God for deliverance, and we are changed instantly. He strips away our inner agony, and starts the process of regeneration. This is the act of bringing us back to life, transforming us into a servant of Jesus Christ, and a son or daughter of God. Before we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, however, we have to be emptied of ourselves. There is no “self” in the word “Christian,” only “Christ.” When we surrender our will and desires there comes a stage of loneliness. It is important we maintain our faith during this interval so as not to fall back into a life of compromise. We have all of God. We need to make sure God has all of us.
This time of loneliness is where we empty our minds of our personal ambitions, because it doesn’t really matter anymore. We move past the plans we have made for ourselves, and place our soul at the mercy of Christ. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and 
acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:1-2) Many leaders of the New Testament church spent time alone after receiving their salvation. Paul spent two years in the desert where the Holy Spirit entrusted him with making the Gospel available to all people. We humbly ask our heavenly Father to fill us with the Holy Spirit. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13) We obey the commandments of the Bible. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him. (Acts 5:32) We believe with great conviction what the Bible says—we are filled by the Holy Spirit through the faith that is granted to us by our desire to know God. True faith when it is grown produces a testimony that bears fruit. Our witness is based not on emotion, but on a personal relationship with our inner self, and the Holy Spirit of God. We will know when the Spirit fills us. There is no question because our life makes a dramatic change toward Christ.
Prayer is the breath of life for the follower of Christ and is the most powerful thing in the world for those who fear God. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:15-17) Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (James 4:3) For our prayer to be effective we must ask God what He wants us to do. Prayer that is not in the will of God 
is wasted and prayer for luxuries for ourselves and family is foolishness. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us: And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1 John 5:13-15)
Our survival depends on keeping ourselves in “crisis” mode, because the moral ambiguity of our heart will lead us astray. I choose to spend my time away from others and engaged in my personal studies of God’s Word. I abstain from adult activities so I can have an open mind to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This life is not for everyone, nor should it be, but each of us can take some time alone to be with our heavenly Father. True Christian faith is not developed in a group environment, but it is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through daily Bible study and prayer (DBS&P). Yes, we should worship God and fellowship together, but the seeds of survival are planted when we are alone with God.
Maturity In Christ 