Tag: #authenticjoy

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The Grace Of Failure

I’m my worst critic. I want to obey God. I want to make all the right decisions. Most of all, I want to love people well. Somehow, I do not live up to that standard on a daily basis. And sometimes, when I fail, I beat myself up about it. I had a particularly bad self-flagellation episode recently. I was teaching an online class about spiritual growth. I had given the participants an exercise to do and as one participant was sharing her experience with the exercise, I interrupted her to ‘correct’ what I thought was a misunderstanding of the instructions that I had given.

I went over that interaction in my head for days. “Why did I feel the need to interrupt?” “How could I have acted in a way that was exactly the opposite of creating a safe loving space which was the foundation of the whole course!?” I sank deeper and deeper into a depression.

After I had a chance to apologize (and realize that this was bothering me much more than it was bothering her) I was able to begin to see God’s grace in my failure. I was able to see myself starting the session that day with a cavalier air about myself. I had been doing the sessions for a while now and I was becoming a believer in my own expertise. I was losing the ethos of the ‘eternal amateur’ as I call it. I believe that great moves of God, great churches and great men usually start off in a place of ‘Oh God, we need you, we don’t know what we’re doing.’ That place of dependency is not meant to be a phase that we graduate from but a lifetime heart posture.

God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Matthew 5:3 (NLT)

God moves in the midst of and on behalf of those who live in the reality of their dependency on Jesus. We can do nothing Godly without God.

My failure was God mercifully letting me know that I had taken a step away from that place of dependency. I was becoming a professional. I remember how I prayed at the start of that session… I didn’t pray for God to help me. I prayed for God to help them. They needed help, not me. What a delusion!

If it takes failure for me to remember the mess that I am and my utter need for God, oh God please give me failure. When God begins to move in your life and the spheres that you inhabit, it is a seductive fantasy to buy into your own competence. I’ve seen it. I’ve witnessed the exit of God as man exalts himself to god-like status. I’ve seen mere mortals become THE man of God to the point where it is anathema to even remind his church members that he is just a man. I’ve seen churches buy into a ‘we are the chosen ones’ narrative to the point that they sincerely believe that no other church can steward God’s purpose like them. The thing is, this happened to sincere people who genuinely wanted God. They just bought into their own success.

Success is a strong drink. It can intoxicate the heart and distort reality. Failure has the potential to sober us up to the delusion of our competence.

...I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. 8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

2 Corinthians 12:7b-9

Oh God, whenever I begin to buy into myself as the source of my success, please send me the grace of failure. I don’t need a reputation as a perfect Christian who has it all together. I do not want a reputation as successful in man’s eyes when I am not in Yours. I only want You. I only need You. I only want Your ‘Well done.’ On the days that I feel successful, please help me to remember that it is only by Your grace. And on the days that I feel like a failure, please help me to remember that that too is grace – an invitation to see You at work more deeply in my life.

Copyright 2022, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

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How To Achieve Spiritual Growth Part 2

In the first installment of this series, I introduced two foundational principles of spiritual growth:

  1. Only Jesus transforms. Not religion. Only a real face to face relationship with Jesus. Sure, anyone can change their behaviour and manage their sin but only Jesus can change our desires – change us from the inside out. John 15:4-6 (ESV) says: “4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” It is the abiding connection with Jesus that transforms us.
  2. We change more through relationships than through information. We have been fooled into a left-brained approach to spiritual formation. We have been told that if we study our bibles and attend to our church sermons we will grow. These are helpful, but what really transforms us is loving relationships and strong bonds with people and with God. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 (ESV) “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Today, I want to continue with three more principles:

  1. Transformation works from the inside out
  2. Fruit not gifts/accomplishments is the evidence of transformation
  3. Jesus is our model of maturity

Transformation

Transformation is one of the core values of Authentic Joy. We are about inside-out transformation. We are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that no lasting change comes through external means such as rule-keeping, sin-management, or behaviour modification. Transformation starts with the Holy Spirit re-connecting our spirit with Christ, progresses through a heart regenerated by His love and a mind renewed by beholding His glory, and finally ends in an incarnated Christ-like life. The imperative for transformation then is not more education, more willpower, more effort, or more external motivation (whether through fear, shame, or the approval of men) but rather more encounters with God (the only one who can truly change us).

Fruit

Giftedness is not a measure of maturity. God gives gifts freely to all men. It does not require maturity to be a gifted soccer player, musician, public speaker, businesswoman, pastor, evangelist, or prophet. This is huge because we often erroneously choose highly-gifted people as our role models, mentors, or worse yet, spiritual advisors. Mature people are those who have put in the inner work of growth in Christlikeness. The result of a life abiding in the vine and submitting to the Master’s pruning is fruitfulness.  According to Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit looks like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Only mature trees bear fruit!

The Model

Our role model for maturity is Christ Himself. He is the standard. While we may emulate different aspects of Christlikeness that we see in people, only Christ is perfect and complete. We like to give a relational perspective of Christ’s maturity:

  • Intimately connected to the Father.
  • Discipling, empowering and unifying our brothers and sisters.
  • Sacrificially and powerfully demonstrating the unconditional love of the Father to the world.

If we keep these principles in mind, we will have a good foundation for the spiritual growth that we all want to see in our lives.

Live long and grow!

Copyright 2022, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

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The Mourning – A Valentine’s Day Poem

Somewhere back there,

I lost You.

I don’t know when it happened.

All I know is loss, grief, anguish consume my soul.

Once we laughed and played.

Once my eyes were full of love,

For You only.

For You only.

When did I look away?

When did I become distracted?

Too busy to notice the creeping darkness;

The joy oozing from my soul.

When did doing good,

Replace being in love?

When did I start,

Taking Your Presence for granted?

Oh how I am overcome with remorse!

This isn’t the first time,

I’ve strayed so many times.

So many times…

One small step, one small step,

‘I will return to Your embrace later’

‘After this meeting’

‘As soon as I finish working on…’

Oh! I hear Your voice on the Wind!

My love, my love,

I am coming!

The basket of baubles,

That consumed me so,

Spills from my lap.

I must run to His voice!

I hear You my love.

Now I see You!

I see You leaping over the mountains to me!

To me! You have found me!

You have awakened my heart

Your breath hot on my lips.

The deadlines I was chasing, now forgotten.

The great deeds and heavy duties,

So much paler in the shadow of Your love.

Captivate me Jesus!

Cup my chin and turn my head,

Whenever my eyes wander.

Hold my hand tight,

Whenever I angle to turn away.

My heart is utterly in Your hands Jesus,

Only Your love holds me up.

Only Your love keeps me from utter ruin.

Enthrall me now and forever Jesus.

Amen.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. ~ Matthew 4:4 (ESV)
Copyright 2022, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Beneath The Surface Of Authentic Joy

As Authentic Joy evolves, we have found it necessary to be more intentional about communicating the unique calling and identity of our organization. To this end, we are pleased to announce a new revamped ‘About’ page that does just that. Here is a preview:

OUR VISION

Our vision is of a world inhabited by mature believers who live like Christ did. We define this Christ-life by describing the way that Jesus related to the Father, His disciples and the world:

  • Intimately connected to the Father.
  • Discipling, empowering and unifying our brothers and sisters.
  • Sacrificially and powerfully demonstrating the unconditional love of the Father to the world.

OUR MISSION

The mission of Authentic Joy is to promote, accelerate and support the spiritual growth and maturation of the body of Christ.

The Authentic Joy Growth Model focuses on 7 core growth processes:

  • Love
  • Intimacy with God
  • Identity
  • Responsibility
  • Wholeness
  • Resilience
  • Purpose

Our Motto: Your spiritual growth is our passion!

OUR VALUES

Intimacy with God is the one thing

For us, the Christ-centred life is not about doing things for Him but being with Him. Like Lazarus’s sister, Mary, it is our #1 priority to sit at His feet. Everything else is secondary. We will forsake all else just to be with Jesus.

There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her. ~ Luke 10:42 (NLT)

 Love is the most powerful force in the universe

We believe that the unconditional, lavish, sticky, fierce, pursuing, jealous, covenant-keeping, longsuffering love of God is unstoppable! We believe that His love for us, our requited love back to Him, and the overflow of love for each other is the dynamic that changes the world. There is no situation too hopeless, too far gone, too dark for the love of God to turn around.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NKJV)

 The world conforms from the outside in, but Christ transforms from the inside out.

We are about transformation. We are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that no lasting change comes through external means such as rule-keeping, sin-management, or behaviour modification. Transformation starts with the Holy Spirit re-connecting our spirit with Christ, progresses through a heart regenerated by His love and a mind renewed by beholding His glory, and finally ends in an incarnated Christ-like life. The imperative for transformation then is not more education, more willpower, more effort, or more external motivation (whether through fear, shame, or the approval of men) but rather more encounter with God (the only one who can truly change us).

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)

 Never stop growing

As long as we remain connected to the Vine, we will be undergoing spiritual growth. The moment we become satisfied with how much of God we have experienced, or the cost of losing our lives to gain His (pruning) is too much, is the moment we disconnect from Christ and begin to die. In this life, we are always on a journey of healing, growth, transformation and maturation. We cannot afford not to grow, both for our sake and for the sake of the world. The Father is looking for fruit and only mature trees bear fruit!

I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ~ John 15:1-2 (NLT)

 Be yourself - a facet of God that only you can display to the world

God only makes originals. The physical diversity displayed throughout God’s creation reflects the diversity of personality-gift-passions-strengths He also wants in His sons and daughters. Similarly, the abundant thriving life that we see in ecosystems with high diversity is what will happen in the body of Christ when we each uniquely and fully express who we were called to be! We believe that people must be absolutely free to be different from what we expect or prefer. We refuse to control or manipulate others into our preferred mold. We want to see every human fully embody their facet of God’s multi-faceted glory that He created them to display to the world.

He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. ~ Ephesians 4:16 (NLT)

The fight is in the head, but the treasure we fight for is in the heart, and we share the spoil with the hands

We fully subscribe to C.S. Lewis’s view that our desires are not too strong but too weak. We are on a constant mission to convert head knowledge about God, to heart knowledge of the Lover of our souls. We want to live lives of deep desire, fully alive to God, and dead to the trifling pleasures of this world. We want to move from commitment to a God-idea (theology), to instead be enthralled by a divine being who reveals Himself to us daily. Yes, we want sound doctrine (head). Yes, we also want a mission-focused church that meets the needs of the world (hands). But without the heart, we will either get insular believers puffed up with knowledge or burnt-out believers serving others out of duty. But when our hearts are set ablaze for God, we become laid-down lovers serving the world joyfully with hearts overflowing with the love of God!

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” ~ Mark 12:29-31 (NLT)

 Joy is the atmosphere of heaven

Without the joy of God, life is hard and dry. There is a reason that oil is used as an analogy for joy. Joy lubricates the friction of life and makes us supple and resistant to the harsh environments we will encounter. Without joy, we won’t endure the hardships of life well. Where there is freedom, there is joy. Where there is fellowship, there is joy. Where there is God there is joy! If joy is missing, something is blocking the flow of heaven to earth – either the enemy has us in bondage or we have broken fellowship with God or each other. Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father, heal the broken-hearted and set the captives free. Our mandate is the same.

You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. ~ Psalm 16:11 (NLT)

See more at authenticjoy.org!

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Two New Bible Study Plans!

Two of my latest Bible study plans just went live on YouVersion!

The first one is a 7-day devotional for business executives called Refuel, Reframe, Recalibrate. This plan is a wonderful way to start your day with a kingdom mindset and a breath of fresh air from the Holy Spirit!

Here’s an excerpt:
Sometimes work feels like we’re walking on quicksand. We can’t get our footing, and with every step we only sink deeper. No matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to get on top of our workload or ahead of the crises. The antidote to this rat race mentality is to live in the secret place of intimacy with God. Daniel lived from intimacy. Daily, he would kneel in his upper room praying to Yahweh. God knew Him. God took care of him. God loved him. When the king made a law that promised death for anyone who prayed to any god or man besides the king, Daniel simply went up to his room to pray as usual. No fuss, no drama. He didn’t try to appeal to the king, get a petition signed or have a hissy fit on social media. He simply prayed. I think it’s fair to say that Daniel did not suffer from anxiety.

The second plan is a study based on the book of Daniel. It explores our relationship to power.

Here’s an excerpt from this one:
In Daniel 1, we discover Daniel starts at the bottom of the power ladder – as a conquered slave. Daniel is a captive of Babylon without the power to even decide his name. He finds himself a chosen trainee for service in the king’s court. This immediately presents a challenge for Daniel because he is a Jew – a servant of Yahweh – but he has to serve a king and a people who have no respect for or allegiance to his God. How will he navigate this dilemma? He doesn’t seem to have much power to influence this massive pagan system. Or does he?

You can access all of my plans including these two on the YouVersion app or here.

I hope they help you on your joyful journey of spiritual growth!

Copyright 2022, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

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Rated XOX

It’s 2022! Happy New Year! And what better way to start the year than with some steamy, passionate sex! Yes, this is still a Christian blog 😊.

Christian mystics throughout the ages have used sexual union as a powerful metaphor for spiritual union with God.  It was Saint Paul (a chaste man, ironically) who said, ““A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.”

In my journey toward wholeness and holiness, I have been wrestling with my sexual brokenness. Years of distorted sexual messages and experiences have configured my mind in such a way that seeing the divine intent in sexual intimacy is a challenge.

To explain let me share a quote from one of the many books I’m currently reading (I may have mentioned before that I’m a book junkie).

“…desire is one of the greatest gifts we can give to another. It is the gift of receptivity. Being received by someone in love, whether in a physical or spiritual way, is one of the most life-affirming experiences we can have. When a wife opens herself to receive a husband in sexual intimacy, or when a trusted friend allows you to share your deepest hurts or hopes with them, you feel seen. These are healing, expansive encounters. And they mirror the inner life of the divine.”

Kelly Deutsch – Spiritual Wanderlust: The Field Guide To Deep Desire

This truth-speaking from Kelly Deutsch caused my soul to leap. I knew it held some truth that I needed to hear although I did not quite get it at first. As often happens, my mind railroaded me with distractions. The provocative phrase ‘when a wife opens to receive a husband’ filled my mind with a flood of images that seemed much too dirty to be associated with God. I struggled with these seemingly opposing forces in my being. Should I go deeper or turn away? Should I be thinking of God this way? Curiosity and shame locked horns.

Only God Himself could help me sort through this entanglement and see what was true. So, I took my thoughts to Him in my usual morning devotions, and this was what I heard Him say:

“Matik, We want you to know that We see your confusion. We see your struggle to untangle your thoughts and desires. We see your heart and mind straining to see purely; to see Us clearly. We see the condemnation that tries to infect as you struggle with your sexuality; your sexual desires entangled with the deepest desires of your heart, and your thoughts toward and about Us. Know this Matik, We are never ashamed. And We are not ashamed of you or shamed by your thoughts. Bring them all to be reconciled at the cross. We can handle it.”

He always knows what to say 😊. My Saviour accepts me; receives me; as I am; unconditionally. He is not waivered or put off by the immature and incompetent bumbling thoughts of a child struggling to comprehend concepts much bigger than himself.

Soothed by the reassuring love of my Papa I was able to push past the surface and lean into the mystery that He wanted to reveal to me… Sexual intimacy is not just the heated sating of physical appetites but two hearts longing to be seen completely, known fully and in the context of that full disclosure to still be desired, wanted and cherished. To have all our flaws and imperfections exposed and still be found desirable. We want to be wanted for who we are without having to pretend or perform. We want to be affirmed that we are beautiful after all. This is what we truly seek, and this is what only God can truly provide in full measure.

God wants to be with you, with no barriers and pretenses (naked), know you fully (inside and out) and have you look into His eyes and see only hot desire and unconditional love for you. Not only that, but He wants to be known by you too, and wanted by you (if you can accept the thought). God is constantly revealing Himself to us for the explicit purpose of captivating us with His incomparable beauty and eternal love in the hopes that we would set our hearts rapturously upon Him and open ourselves to receive Him.

As I said, there is no better way to start this new year than with a passionate love encounter with the Lover of your soul! May He satisfy you all the days of your life and into the blessed union of eternal bliss!

Copyright 2022, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

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“My Kingdom Is Not An Earthly Kingdom”

“My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”

John 18:36b (NLT)

This was Jesus’ answer as Pilate questioned Him about being king of the Jews. It is a reality that informed everything that Jesus did and the way in which He conducted His life. But perhaps more to the point that Jesus is making here is what He didn’t do. He did not vie for leadership of the Sanhedrin. He did not come as a king like Hezekiah or David to free the Jewish people from their oppressors. In fact, he made no attempt to free them from Roman rule at all. He never tried to gain any earthly power, whether through political means or through violence. His kingdom was not of this world and therefore was not enforced by earthly means.

As 2021 comes to a close, I cannot help but think that we (Christians) still haven’t learned the lessons of 2020. We are still desperately trying to build a spiritual kingdom with earthly tools. Utter futility. Nothing, I believe, illustrates this better than US abortion statistics:

First of all, it is worthy of celebration that abortions have been falling since 1990. I think that this is good news no matter if you are pro-life or pro-choice. However, what is striking is the fact that the greatest declines in the number of abortions took place under Democratic administrations (shown in blue). We can conclude from this chart that there either is no correlation between a pro-life administration and reducing abortion rates or more astoundingly an inverse correlation.

Many well-known Christian leaders publicly and vociferously supported the Republican candidate in the last US elections and cited his policy on abortion as a deciding factor (if not the deciding factor). This one issue absolved us Christians from any responsibility for the pettiness, bigotry, hate, and division that he spewed forth daily. We were saving innocent lives. Only, as it turns out, we weren’t. The CDC’s statistics on abortion for 2018 and 2019 reveal something that has not happened in a long time – two successive years of rising numbers of abortions. (https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/index.htm)

Could it be that what influences a nation is not so much the legal policies but the spiritual atmosphere? Could these scandalous statistics be a message from the unseen realm… “My kingdom is not of this world!”

Maybe (and I admit that this is a hypothesis) what made a difference was the prayers of the church lifted up during pro-choice administrations as opposed to resting on our spiritual laurels during pro-life administrations? Maybe…

Looking forward into 2022, the pandemic rages on and many of our churches continue to be preoccupied with earthly kingdom business. Our big concerns – being forced to wear masks and get vaccinations. As over 5 million people worldwide (including many clergymen and women) have now died from Covid-19, one would think that there would be bigger things on the minds and hearts of God’s people than the infringement of our ‘religious freedoms’. Surely.

Our kingdom compass is desperately in need of recalibration. Where does the anchor of our hope find ground? In Christ or in our government? What is the motivation for our actions? Love of neighbour or love of self? Are we moved by God’s voice or the latest conspiracy theory? What’s our priority, our freedom, or our responsibility as ambassadors of Christ?

Do you have strong convictions about taking or not taking vaccinations? Great! Take a page from the Hebrews in Babylon. They stood up for their convictions and depended on God to deliver them from the earthly authorities of the day. We can rest assured that if we are in the purpose of God, He will protect and provide for us as He did for Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Our King is much more powerful than any earthly power. Daniel and his friends never sent around a petition for signatures or started a campaign against the king or plead their case or even asked God to judge the authorities. They just stood by their decision and left the rest to God come what may. They knew that their kingdom was not of this world.

Let’s flip the script in 2022. Let’s show the world the power of God like Daniel did… like Jesus did! Let’s be radical demonstrations of the love of Christ. The demonstration of Christ’s kingship was not in His ability to bend men to His preferences through legislation, political power or social pressure but His ability to destroy the power of sin, sickness and demonic oppression in the lives of men. In the physical realm, Jesus spent His life as a sacrificial demonstration of love. In the spiritual realm, He completely undercut the power darkness that was at the root of all evil. This is how we shine in the present darkness. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our weapons are mighty for spiritual battle.

Let’s get radical. Let’s see thousands healed of Covid as churches send out intercessory teams to surround hospitals with prayer. Let’s see churches give radically to care for the sick. Let’s elevate our minds above these worldly affairs of masks, vaccines, and politics and begin to really follow Christ into His kingdom. Let’s demonstrate the indefatigable love and power of Jesus Christ!

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

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Inner Work

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

~ Matthew 23:25-26 (NLT) ~

If you want to grow, you must do the inner work. Inner work is the washing of the inside of our cup. It is facing our dirt and finding the root cause of how it got there and why it keeps coming back. It is getting healing from trauma. It is confronting our shame and facing our fears. It is bringing our selfishness and greed and pride to the cross to be crucified with Christ. This is the most sacred type of work and the most neglected.

I think there are three reasons why inner work is so neglected by Christians. Firstly, it is unseen, especially in the early stages. As you first begin to tackle your inner demons, not many will come up to congratulate you or encourage you on the excellent work you are doing. There will be no acclaim or reward for taking up that broom and mop and getting down in the muck of your inner life. The motivation to do inner work must come entirely from within (ultimately from God)… the militant commitment to give up your fake-life to follow Christ. Your sight of eternal life (not in heaven but here and now) must be larger… more attractive… more valuable… than the Pharisee-life of religious superiority and praise of men.

Which brings me to the second reason that inner work is so neglected. It requires us to be honest about our mess and that type of honesty will not win you many friends in the church. The vast majority of the church is in the business of cleaning the outside of the cup – managing sin – modifying behaviour. Jesus says we have to clean the inside first. Transformation, Jesus’ way, cleans the heart first and then (after some time) the outside becomes clean. This type of transformation is lasting, genuine and Christ glorifying. The problem is that while we are doing the inner work, our mess is visible and that is uncomfortable to our ego. Often, to really sort out the inside of our cup we will have to seek professional help, confide in family and close friends and generally be OK with not being ‘blessed and highly favoured, praise God’. For many, that price is too high.

The final barrier to inner work is the lack of tangible results. We are driven to perform. ‘Only results matter’, says the management adage, and we have bought it wholesale. Inner work is slow, and tangible results are not evident for a long time. You have to be more committed to the process than the results. This was my greatest challenge to my inner work. I saw men and women of God walking in great purpose in their 20s and, “What was I doing in my 40s?” my inner critic said. Nothing much. Decades of just trying to know God better and confront my own depravity without much evidence of the greatness I felt called to. There is this pressure to achieve something… anything… to exit the process prematurely.

This performance culture is a delusion and a distraction. Why are we more inclined to listen to a pastor who has twenty books, leads a mega-church and has hundreds of thousands of followers on twitter than the little faithful old ladies in our church? I’m a big fan of little faithful old ladies. Without these pillars, there would be no successful pastors. Often, they are full of the wisdom of inner work gurus. Our eyes and ears need recalibration. Success defined by numbers of followers and size of empire is not a kingdom definition. I’m not saying that these things are bad, just not a good goal for your life. They are better achieved as a byproduct of more of Christ in us. There are men and women with big outward success that have cleaned the inside of their cups and some that have not. To the uncalibrated eye they may look the same, but the former are such treasures while God takes no pleasure in the latter.

I invite you to recalibrate. At this time many of us are on a break from work. Spend some quiet time with God. Re-focus on the inside of your cup. He is looking for those who will carry His Living Water, undefiled, to a world in drought.

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

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EVENT: Spiritual Formation 201

Spiritual Formation 101 was a resounding success!

Together, we explored:

  • How we practically become more mature.
  • How our upbringing affects our relationship with God.
  • What it means to be an adopted daughter/son of God.
  • Tangibly experiencing God’s love.
  • The role of vulnerability in building intimacy.
  • Practices that build intimacy with God.
  • Barriers to intimacy with God.
  • What is our true identity in Christ.

The insights gained as we discussed these topics were invaluable. However, just as valuable (or perhaps more so) was the opportunity these sessions presented for like-minded companionship on our faith journey. For a little while, we shared our lives open-heartedly with our fellow travellers. My heart is still awed when I relive some of the moments we shared. It was an unparalleled honour for me to facilitate this sacred experience.

Therefore, it is with great anticipation that I look forward to Spiritual Formation 201 starting January 10th 2022! Formation 101 focused on the awakening phase of our faith journey. Formation 201 will focus on the processing phase of our faith journey. Front and centre will be topics such as:

  • The purpose of pain.
  • Thriving versus surviving.
  • Working from rest.
  • True identity versus false identity.
  • Emotional resilience.
  • Discovering your calling/vocation.
  • Staying joyful in trials.
  • Confronting shame and facing fear.

Expect to come away from this journey with insights and tools to feed your spiritual growth for years to come. More than that, expect to receive an impartation that will bring you closer to Christ and multiply your fruitfulness for the kingdom!

Once again sessions will be held via Zoom, interactive, experiential, and Spirit-led. We would be honoured for you to join us. And it’s FREE 🙂 Please click here to register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1p3pe9eCm9_ZZYWNH7rfiutfNcCT_NeUmK4g0bUNH-L0/edit?usp=sharing

Joyfully,

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Make Room For Intimacy

I recently read this verse from the NLT translation of the bible and it resonated deep in my soul:

I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6b emphasis mine)

God’s heart cry is to be known by us. Stop and let that verse sink in for a while. Seriously. Take a minute.

God wants intimacy more than service. Put another way, He wants sons and daughters, not slaves. Consider all the way back to the newborn creation when God walked and talked with man in the cool of the garden. God’s original intent, distinct from His intent toward all other created beings, was to walk in fellowship with man. Often, we are busy busy busy doing things for God instead of being with God. God does not just want our prayers, our fasting, our tithes, our church attendance, or our bible reading. He wants our fellowship. He wants us to seek a real heart-to-heart relationship with Him. Getting to know the Eternal One is the most necessary and serious endeavour of our Christian life.

The unfortunate reality is that our culture is more rational than relational. Consider the first 20 years of your life. What was the emphasis of all those years of preparation for adulthood? In our early years, we were taught how to talk, walk, read and write. Then we went on to more difficult things such as Algebra, Geography, football, playing the guitar, and driving a car. Then we graduated to real challenging subjects such as plumbing, performing surgery, or doing a theatrical performance. But how much did we learn about listening, processing our emotions, vulnerability, empathy, or handling conflict well? Not nearly as much.

This academic, task-oriented, performance-driven culture has fully saturated our religious lives as well. We measure our Christianity by things like bible knowledge, church attendance, ministry engagements, missionary work, and doctrinal understanding. How far have we drifted from “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35). Or what about, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). The central issue of being like Christ is relational – loving God and others like Christ did. And all relationships begin with the desire to know and be known by the other.

I do not think we are even aware of how plutonic our relationship with our Heavenly Father has become. Consider how universally the bible has come to be considered the Word of God. It used to be (in biblical days) that the Word of God included a personal encounter with the Divine. There was no separation of God’s voice from His Presence. The Speaker was inseparable from His words. When the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, God personally spoke to him and said, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”. When Balaam announced what the Lord had spoken to him, he said, “This is the message of Balaam son of Beor, the message of the man whose eyes see clearly, the message of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open”. Can you hear the echoes of someone who has been in the presence of the Voice of Many Waters?! In New Testament times the people gathered around Jesus to hear the living Word of God speak to them!

Nowadays, we casually read from the bible and believe it is synonymous with hearing God’s voice. This is a deception. Without a doubt, He can speak to us as we read, but hear me well, it is not the act of reading that brings connection with the divine. No no no. Many souls have read the good book (and some have memorized it as did the Pharisees) without any interaction with God whatsoever. I myself have come away from the book at times remaining empty of the Bread of Life. Hearing from God is a far more relational endeavour in the same way as reading someone’s biography is very different from spending time with them. Hearing from God requires a pure heart and an undistracted mind turned with burning desire and rapt attention toward the only One who has the words of eternal life. “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.” (John 6:68)

The Holy Spirit lives in us. The whispers of God echo in our hearts if we hearken to His quiet voice. I implore you. Take a step back from doctrinal debates and endless studies and make room in your hectic schedule of good deeds to seek God. Intimacy is nurtured in SLOW time. Awake before the dawn and set your affections toward God in hushed silence. Take long slow walks in nature and soak in the wonder and the beauty of His handiwork. Linger in heart-to-heart journaled conversations with your Eternal Lover. Instead of approaching the bible like a manual for life to be studied, approach it like a love letter that fills us with an inexorable desire to turn from the pages toward the Author of such amazing love. Instead of approaching times of prayer with a list of petitions, approach it with a curiosity to discover what Your Heavenly Father might want to speak to you today.

In this season of advent let us make room in the inn of our lives for the Saviour. Let us make room for intimacy.

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.