After You Fix Your Spiritual Position, Then What?

[HKHaugan]

After You Fix Your Spiritual Position, Then What?

We've been talking about our spiritual location and how to get a fix on it but what about after you get that fix? What do you do next? First, we'll review the location finding and then we'll move into the action we take after we know where we are.

Again, finding your physical location is knowing the intersecting point of your latitude and longitude. That takes time, the right instruments and knowing how to use them. But your spiritual position, that's something entirely different. There is a spiritual longitude and latitude. Returning to the two major questions the Bible presents are the parallels to our physical position. When God asks Adam, “Where Are You?” He wants Adam to realize where he is in relation to the world around him, his latitude, his horizontal position. That's the theme around which the Old Testament is formed (Gen.3). When Jesus asks Peter “Who do you say I am?' He is asking Peter whom he ultimately trusts with his life, his longitude, his vertical position. The whole New Testament is formed around that question to which Jesus presents Himself as the answer. Where those two intersect is our spiritual location.

The best way to describe our immediate location is the attitude out of which we respond. Attitude is our spiritual latitude. Our attitude is what determines how we respond to any relational encounter. Are we defensive or patient, angry or curious, caring or indifferent, judging by appearance or feeling another's inner turmoil, revengeful or forgiving? Those are just a few of our latitudinal questions.

Then there are those longitudinal vertical questions. When we are alone and pondering our circumstance to whom or what to we turn for a solution? The quandary within where we are not sure of how to respond and the accompanying fear of not being right or appearing wrong is a lonely burden. Our latitude also could find itself wrapped in pride, ego, self protection. We look above ourselves. Is there an understanding 'longitudinal' person we can trust, someone more wise and mature, we can share with? If there is a 'whom' is it a person around us we think is better than I am at dealing with it? Or do we turn to a 'what' which is behavioral principle, a method or technique that seems to work but doubt and hesitation cause us to stall? Unless the 'who' and the 'what' transcend the latitudinal then it is only aloneness, fear, pride and sin that govern our responses.

Assessing our location spiritually starts with asking those two questions of where we are horizontally and vertically. 'Who' and 'what' can handle the deep personal and relational issues that face us day after day? This is why Jesus came as both a vertical (longitudinal) and our horizontal (latitudinal) answer. No matter where we are, who we are or with whom we find ourselves, He presents Himself as the latitudinal person with a longitudinal bearing. Is it any wonder that He was willing to die on a cross, the singular visual image of the perfect intersection of the horizontal and the vertical? Here's how He said it: “Not my will but your will be done” “...on earth as it is in Heaven”...”I have come to do your will Father”...”The work of God for you is to believe in the One He has sent”...”I only do what my Father tells me”...”When you see me you see the Father”. All his focus was on His Father to whom He prayed vertically, longitudinally and for whom He lived horizontally, latitudinally.

Jesus always knew where He was in the world of people and with His Father. He had an immediate fix wherever He was. He was the perfect Person spiritually located in the Spirit with His Father. This is the most important point of the whole spiritual location process. Compare anyone you know or who in your mind stands out in the past or present, compare them with Jesus. You may have someone you associate with whose learning, ideas or lifestyle draw you to them. Compare them with Jesus. When He asked Peter the question “Who do you say I am?' what would your answer be?

Jesus, God the Son, becomes the person who sets our position first in Him and then with Him in the world around us. Paul says it clearly, “Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col.1:27).”

Second, we come to the where the rubber meets the road, where you put your feet to take the next step. In a recent conversation with a veteran he remarked about his artillery training. Not only how to fire weapons but how to fix the target's location, the enemy's position, for maximum effect. He had to know the coordinates, check and recheck them. He said the commanding officer asked him three times if he was sure they were correct. When he said they were, the officer told him to go ahead and fire. After you know your position and get a fix on the enemy, you fire.

Now carry that into getting your relational coordinates correct and rechecking. The way we do that is to keep in mind our position in Christ, that's first. Second, we need to know the position of the person we're relating to. What are their coordinates? Pray for discernment of the attitude leading them. Third, rely on the Holy Spirit to respond. Our immediate assessment as Jesus' disciples is that everyone we meet is an image of God, considering others better than ourselves (Php.2:3). That's the first coordinate. The second coordinate is their attitude. Does it reflect God or self centeredness? Are they trying to make an impression, are they image conscious, do they 'have an attitude (some personal identity agenda)? Our targeting as disciples requires that we “Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19).” Our reaction will reveal their position. If it is hostility, we immediately realize something has caused that so we are slow to anger. Whether they realize it or not they are revealing two things, a personal pain from the past and a testing us to see if we are for real and can be trusted. Also they may be coming across with a self-made identity to protect themselves. That's what spiritual coordinates are all about and we need the Holy Spirit's gift of discernment to read them, the courage to respond with compassion, self-control, patience, gentleness and love (Gal.5:22). That is why Paul teaches, “Whatever you do in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col.3:17).” It's all about our position in Christ...in Christ!

Obviously there is whole a lot more which is why Scripture is a treasure of Spirit-leading guidance enabling us to set our spiritual location. After that Scripture helps us get a fix on the location of others in order to set the coordinates that enable us to respond relationally the way Jesus would. That's His call to us. When we know where we are in relation to others we can set the coordinates that brings the grace, love and truth of the Lord that they too may know their longitude and latitude in Christ, the hope of glory and share Him through the coordinates set to help others know Him.