By Brother Michel Lankford
Understanding the Need
The first thing that we must understand are doing spiritual checkups is that, the Bible instructs us to do them. So, we should treat it as a biblical requirement. Many believers want to go on autopilot. They want to abandon all of their spiritual responsibilities into God’s hands, even though God says that certain things are the responsibility of each individual believer to do, and that is Dangerous.
Scripture clearly says that we are to TEST ourselves. We are to examine ourselves, and to make certain that we are in the faith of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t say to take our position in Christ and our salvation for granted. Scripture says just the opposite of that. This is each believer’s OWN personal responsibility to do, (2 Corinthians 13:5). Were not allowed to blow this off as God’s responsibility. Or, we can’t blow this off, and make it the responsibility of other believers to make certain that we are in the faith. It is part of our job as disciples, and we could suffer greatly if we don’t do it.
As It Is Written: “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
(2 Peter 1:10 NKJV).
Scripture, yes even the New Testament specifically says that we are to apply DILIGENCE in making sure of God’s call and election toward us. So, we have Peter as our second witness telling us that we should be diligent to test ourselves and not take our salvation for granted
We are supposed to apply all of our diligence in building Godly Character into our lives, (2 Peter 1:5-10).
Since God tells us to test ourselves to make certain that we are in the faith, then that must mean that it is possible for people to believe that they are in Christ, when they truly are not. If it was not possible to deceive ourselves then the instructions of 2 Corinthians 13:5; and 2 Peter 1:10, would not be necessary. Those instructions would not be there, if we did not need them.
Understanding the Methods
God does not give us Instructions to follow without also giving us the means and methods that we can use to successfully obey His Instructions. That means that if God is requiring us to test ourselves, then He also provides biblical methods and means that we can use to succeed in testing ourselves properly.
Many times God uses the physical to highlight and to train us in the spiritual; (just like he used the concept of the physical seed to describe the word of God producing good fruit in people’s lives). Likewise, we can learn how to do a spiritual checkup by looking at a physical checkup. Whenever you do a physical checkup, there are some basic things that they check every time. They always check your weight, your height, your blood pressure, and your breathing, and your lungs. What we learn from this is that once we know which specific Godly Standards to look for, then we can check those each and every time during our spiritual checkups. Doing a good spiritual checkup is about making sure that we know what Godly Standards were trying grow into and to achieve, and then we compare ourselves with those Godly Standards to check our progress.
First, check your internal dictionary. In order to walk with God, we must first agree with God, (Amos 3:3; Romans 12:1-2; Isaiah 5:20-24). Are you growing in your agreement with God? When God says something is good, do you agree with Him and do you define that same thing is good? When God says something is bad, do you agree with Him, and you define that same thing as being bad?
Second, check your appetite for God’s Word (1 Peter 2:2). Are you growing in your appetite for God’s Word and God’s Instructions? Are you looking for commandments you can practice obeying? Are you looking for promises you would like to obtain?
Third, Even according to the New Testament, we can be certain that we are growing in our love for God, and that our love for God is being perfected by how we respond to the commandments of YHWH and of Messiah. When I encounter a Commandment of God how do I respond? 1 John 5:3 clearly says that when I can keep a God given commandment, and I can look at it is a delight and not as a burden, then I am loving God. 1 John 2:5 says that when I can keep His Commandments, then the love of God is being perfected in me. So, I know that I am growing in love for God and for Messiah, and that His Love is being perfected in me when I can keep the commandments, and I can do it with a great attitude.
Fourth, what biblical promises and my cooperating with God to obtain? There are 7487 promises from God to humankind in the Scriptures. The vast majority of promises have conditions that believers are required to meet in order to obtain the promise. By the very act of choosing a biblical promise, learning the conditions required to obtain the promise, creating an action plan to meet those conditions, then walking and persevering in meeting those conditions, and then then logging or noting the results in my life and circumstances, I am GUARANTEED to grow. That’s because while I’m striving to meet the conditions in order to obtain the promise, God is going to do character and attitude adjustments throughout the whole process. Therefore, I won’t be able to help it grow by walking that way.
Fifth, are you actively pushing yourself to develop Kingdom Characteristics that God says He wants? How diligent are you being at praying for those things, making action plans to develop those things, finding Bible instructions that help you develop those things, and walking your action plans unto you see results? (2 Peter 1:3-11; Galatians 5:22-25; James chapter 1:19-26).
