In month of May in year 2006, I got a phone call in the night at 10:00 PM to reach home back in India from Sharjah as soon as possible. Doctors had advised to call all children before they could declare that my father was dead. Actually they wanted me to take the decision.
Next evening, while I was standing besides papa, I found him motionless and non-responsive, almost dead. I just prayed for him, told him several things from the Bible, requested him to forgive them who did wrong to him, seek forgiveness from God for all wrongdoings, sang the gospel song(s) he liked most and finally asked him to show me a sign if he could hear my voice. He responded by moving one of his finger. I knew he was alive listening to me.
Can you think of any other way I could find out if my father was alive?
The signs of a physically alive person is that
- he is conscious of the situation around him
- he responds to the situation
- he is active; he cannot remain still (inactive) for long time
- he feels hungry and thus he feeds
- he grows
None of the above stated things happen to a physically dead person. Think of the last DEAD person, whom you saw conscious of the situation around him and therefore responding to it; like in case of fire, he feels burning sensation so he runs frantically to extinguish the fire. Or if you have seen him taking part in some activities like family chatting, amusement, going for shopping etc. He does none. Does he feel hungry? No! Does he grow? Of course not! All these things happen only to a physically alive person.
If you see the above things in any person, you would say HE IS ALIVE and if you don’t, you conclude him/her to be DEAD. It is the same principle to our spiritual life.
As we mediated few weeks earlier, we are dead to sin and alive in Christ, so how do we find out if we are really spiritually alive (otherwise it might be just a deception of satan keeping us in darkness in the illusion of salvation which probably we did not receive actually).
Spiritually –
1. We must be conscious of the spiritual domain and the situations around us. If it is a sin situation (or a temptation which might cause us to sin, provided we yielded to it), we must remain alert and take our decisions in godly manner based on the biblical teachings.
2. We must respond to the situation. As in the first point, if it is a sin situation or a temptation, we must flee. We must get rid of all worldly and ungodly things, emotions, motives and lifestyle.
3. We should be actively participating in our spiritual race. A spiritual person would be actively participating in prayer times, bible studies, church services, learning of the biblical principles of the living this life and then living on as per his learning. We would not keep our mouth shut, but we would speak of Christ. Christian life is never a plane level, it is always a slant, difficult to go forward, yet we keep pressing on. As soon as we stop, we start declining backwards.
4. We should feel hungry of the word of God. We must feed on it since we are supposed to live by faith and faith comes by hearing from the Word of God.
5. We would continue to grow in our spiritual maturity. If you look back today and you don’t find any progress in your spiritual life, you should be alerted. It is not a good sign. As a child continues to grow throughout his life, so is the case of a spiritual baby.
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
[1 Peter 2:1-3]
Examine your life today. Are you conscious, do you respond, are you active, do you feel hungry, do you feed regularly, are you growing? If your answer is YES to all, praise God. If not, pray about it and start on today living for Christ. God bless.