Spiritual Principle
August 12, 2015

A brief review may be in order—when God encounters us, there is an impact—we are changed, we glimpse an aspect of His character, heart, ways, that we didn’t understand before, and suddenly how we see life changes—an “Impactful Event” has occurred, a word-seed from the Lord has been dropped into our hearts, and our journey is never the same again. Maybe. Interesting word “maybe” as it has to do with “what may be.”  It is good to take a moment to catch our breath here for if we are going to understand the impact of a word-seed of God upon our lives and the spiritual principle God is trying to establish we need to realize we are expected to do something with it. God may Impact us, but if we don’t value that event and embrace what has been placed in us by the Lord, we don’t live out of the new spiritual principle, then that seed will wither and possibly die (although the Lord is very good at resurrection). Keep in mind the parable of the sower of the seed that Jesus tells in Matthew 13. Some seed withered, the birds stole some, some seed was choked out—but some thrived. Here we discover that the condition of the soil of our heart is very important to be receptive to what the Lord wants to plant. I can remember a few examples where I have had an impactful event with the Lord—and it changed my life, but others who walked through a similar journey, withered. One example would be YWAM. I met God at YWAM (Youth With a Mission) in a powerful way…God spoke to me, He told me that He loved me, and it has so changed me I have wanted to spend the rest of the my life somehow helping other people realize God is real, He wants to speak to them—and if they could only learn to hear His voice they would be changed forever. But some of the people I knew at YWAM, soon after coming home, went back to life as normal—I could never figure out how that was possible. But maybe they didn’t have the same impactful event that imparted the same spiritual principle (more on that in a minute, we must keep the wandering dog on the leash for now).

I remember being at my Mennonite church (which appears to be a happening place all these years later) and the Vineyard movement renting space for an evening worship meeting. I was so excited to introduce my college and career age peers to that meeting—and they hated it!  To this day I can’t figure that out—how was that possible? I had had an impactful event that they didn’t. And I was changed while they couldn’t perceive the value of that meeting because they didn’t understand a spiritual principle I had received earlier on at YWAM—God was real and wanted to encounter people. Without that spiritual principle that meeting didn’t make sense to them.

Now think about your Impactful events with God—has there been times where God’s encounter with you has so impacted you, you have been surprised that others you knew weren’t impacted? (Or possibly were but down the road just didn’t really value it all that much and went back to life as usual?) Here was what was happening the moment that impactful event with God touched you—God deposited in you a spiritual principle He holds dear—and you got it. There was something you suddenly understood that changed your life. You knew something about God’s: nature, plans, character, ways, etc. that were as real to you as breathing. Let’s look at some examples to help with the connection between impactful event and spiritual principle:

As I mentioned above, when I was in YWAM I was impacted by God’s love for me through God speaking to me. In a moment depression left, love came flooding in, and I realized I was known, loved, and cherished. I had been a Christian all my life—but I was suddenly different because I had had an encounter with the Beloved. If you re-read what I have written above, in describing my impactful event you can already begin to see the “spiritual principle” God had placed inside of me (and in actuality there are probably about five I suddenly realized in that moment), one being “God speaks today, and He does so because He loves people.” I believe that with every fibre of my being, but not because I read it in a book, because I encountered it personally. I had discovered a spiritual principle about the nature and desire of God because of that impactful event.

Here is another one, a bit different though, I want to pick one a little less flashy as the Lord meets us anywhere at anytime—it’s belief system change that we are wanting to track here: In elementary school I was a cool kid (what happened in High School is another story all together!) but I discovered one day that I had a real heart for the broken. A soccer game had been arrange at lunch time and the teams were being put together in such a way that all of the athletes and cool kids would be on one team—and the losers on the other…and I was on the cool team. But I just couldn’t do it, something inside of me just knew it was wrong, and I joined the loser team. My friends were aghast!  …And we won!! It was miraculous, at least on an internal emotional level. I have never forgotten how that felt. And for a lot of years I worked with street kids—because I had had an impactful event when I was in grade seven where I learned to love the broken. Because I embraced a spiritual principle that the Lord held dear- to love the unlovable.

One more—living by faith. Kelly and I always seem to step out and believe for crazy things. One day my dad was over babysitting. We had just returned from our date night and must have been discussing some crazy living by faith thing. My dad had been listening, and while listening he was clenching his jaw as tight as he could (his jaw muscles were just bulging)…Kelly and I noticed. Dad realized we were suddenly both on to him and he was caught, and out of his mouth came “You know, I don’t know how it ever works out for you two–I have just learned to keep my mouth shut!”  I spent a lot of time pondering that at the time. Why was it that I could have faith to risk? Because God had revealed to Kelly and I through an impactful event that He always came through (usually at the last minute) and we had learned we could lean on that spiritual principle:  The Lord provides for those that choose to follow Him and listen to Him.

So there are three examples above. The Impactful event given (except for the last example with dad, that would take too much time to write out) and the spiritual principle learned. I would like you to take some time again and review a few impactful events you have had with the Lord. And they may be “rock your world” ones like me at YWAM, or maybe a life choice that you made, like me in grade school–it doesn’t matter how the Lord set up your event. It matters that you chose to accept. But what did you accept? What was the Lord imparting to you- what was the spiritual principle He wanted to Impact your life with? Review a few of your own Impactful events—what did God teach you through them, because remember, word-seeds of the Lord grow—first they buds and flourishes, then seed for the sewer, and bread for the eater. In other words that impactful event and spiritual principle has more to do in you yet if you understand why God put it there, and how to grow the crop that the Lord planted inside of you to fruition. Impactful Events and the Spiritual Principles imparted are road-markers pointing your way forward.

Working It Through

Take a piece of paper and in one column write down 3 or 4 Impactful events the Lord has arranged to get a hold of you. In the next column beside that write down some of the Spiritual principles the Lord imparted to you through those events. We’ll unpack this a bit more in the upcoming blogs—beginning with defining “core values.” As well, as in my examples above, my first example is in regards to how God changed me in relating to Him, my second in how the Lord changed me in relating to others. You may have different types of Impactful events and spiritual principles as well. Anything that set you on a journey in regards to the Father and His Kingdom is good!