Main Summary: To Know Him Beyond Religion by Gloria Copeland is a book that teaches the importance of maintaining a living connection with God to live beyond religion. The author emphasizes the benefits of a connection with God, such as victory in life, and the consequences of not maintaining it. The book also shows ways to cultivate spiritual sensitivity, to live a life of close fellowship with God.
Lessons You’ll Learn From This Post
1. Maintaining a Living Connection with God
2. Benefits of Maintaining a Connection with God
3. Consequences of Not Maintaining a Connection with God:
4. Living by Faith, Not by Law
5. Developing Spiritual Sensitivity
Maintaining a Living Connection with God
Christian living involves many principles, but one stands out according to the author as the most important to living beyond religion-—maintaining a living connection with God. It’s the key to opening every door to this life and the next. Without it, the author says, you won’t be spiritually strong enough to do what you know to do.
The author maintains that to maintain a living connection with God, staying in daily communion with God is the number one priority of the Christian life. You must build your schedules around your time with Him.
She notes that you must seek God in prayer and the Word every single day. He says, “Abiding with God is simply fellowshipping with Him. It’s talking to Him and listening to Him. It’s setting aside the distractions and demands of life and taking the time to commune with Him in His Word and prayer.”
The author emphasizes that you must pray daily in your language and other tongues. Also, she notes that you should meditate on the written Word of God. Saying, “The more familiar you are with God’s voice as it comes through the written Word, the more easily you will recognize His voice in your own heart.”
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Benefits of Maintaining a Connection with God
In this subject, the author emphasizes the fact that the moment you turn to God, He’ll be there for you. She notes that, only by making Him number one and putting time with Him ahead of yourself, your family, your career, and everything else will you have victory in your life.
According to her, “Once we had the victory on the inside, the circumstances had to bow their knee, because victory on the inside always brings victory on the outside.”
The author emphasizes the need to make up your mind to abide in Christ and then centers on the fact that when you abide in Him, He abides with you and enables you to bear much fruit.
“Jesus promised that if we would maintain a vital union with Him and keep His Word alive in us, our prayers would produce results.” She says.
Therefore she notes that If you are maintaining a living connection with God and His Word is abundant in you and speaking to your heart, when you pray, you are sure to see results.
Also Read Mere Christianity By C.S Lewis [Summary]
Consequences of Not Maintaining a Connection with God
To wither is “to shrivel; to lose or cause to lose energy, force, or freshness.” That’s a vivid picture of what happens to us when we aren’t in vital contact and living in union with the Lord.
Even though we are born of the Spirit to live in the supernatural power of the living God, we lose our capacity for spiritual action. We may know what to do, but we find ourselves failing to do it.
We lose our desire to do the work God has called us to do. And even those things we can do become dry and spiritless.
Living by Faith, Not by Law
God never intended for the Christian life to be lived by a set of rules. According to the author, God wants us to have a heart for Him. That’s what it means to live beyond religion.
Living and walking every day with the Lord is what makes faith work. The author notes that Faith is not a formula. It’s not doing something because you want to do it, but rather because you’re supposed to do it.
Siting an example, she reiterates that it’s attending church because it’s the “right” thing to do when you would rather be somewhere else. She describes faith as living and walking every day with the Lord.
Developing Spiritual Sensitivity
Developing spiritual sensitivity is essential to knowing God beyond religion. The author believes that it requires a disciplined approach to life to achieve it.
There are several ways to cultivate this kind of discernment and sensitivity:
1. Staying connected to the realm of the spirit throughout the day
The author strongly believes you can stay tuned in to God by thinking of Him often, giving Him praise, consulting Him about things that come up during your day, praying in tongues on and off throughout the day, and carrying around a pocket New Testament with you. As she remarks, “If you maintain your union with God throughout the day, you can stay connected to heaven twenty-four hours a day.”
2. Making a Place for the Holy Spirit
The author notes that you must consciously make a place for the Holy Spirit not just in corporate services, but in your life as well. She recommends that you slow down and invite the Holy Spirit to interrupt your plans if He wants to. Take a few minutes here and there to keep yourself strong and built up in the Lord. Yield yourself to Him and stay in constant fellowship with Him.
3. Developing an attitude of dependency on the Holy Spirit
According to the author, your actions prove your level of dependence. She emphasizes that you begin every day dependent on the Holy Spirit. Connect with God first thing in the morning. Talk to Him about the things you will face that day. Follow His example and cultivate an attitude of dependency on the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you develop such a habit of dependence on Him that it would be unusual for you to go more than fifteen or twenty minutes without talking to Him and looking to Him for assistance.
4. Listening to your heart
The author on this subject recommends that you will have to learn how to listen to your heart as you go about your day. You will have to learn how to hear the still, small voice on the inside of you despite the bustle and noise on the outside of you. If you sense He is directing you to do something and you decide—consciously or unconsciously—No, I don’t want to do that. I think I’ll go another way, then you have just hardened your heart; she says.
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5. Humbling yourself before God
You must be willing to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and do whatever He says, even if you think it will make you look silly. She admonished that you aren’t afraid of making a mistake. Saying, “You have the protection of knowing that the Holy Spirit will never lead you contrary to God’s written Word.”
5. Following Peace
The author notes that this is one of the most important sensitivities to master. She emphasizes that when you sense uneasiness, stop and find out why it’s there. The Holy Spirit is trying to tell you something. Take time and listen. Pray about it, and hold it before the Lord until you know the right thing to do. She recommends that you always follow peace.
In conclusion, the author highlights the importance of maintaining a living connection with God as the key to living beyond religion. She emphasizes the benefits of staying connected with God, including spiritual strength, victory, and bearing much fruit. Conversely, not maintaining this connection leads to spiritual withering and dryness. The author also advocates for living by faith, not by rules, and developing spiritual sensitivity through staying connected with the realm of the spirit, making a place for the Holy Spirit, and developing an attitude of dependency on Him.
Finally, here is a question we’ll love you to answer.
Have you ever experienced the benefits of maintaining a connection with God? Can you share a specific moment when you experienced such a benefit in your life?
We would love to hear from you, please leave your answer and comment in the comment box below.
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