This blog is based on a message by Karen Fannin.
God has been speaking a clear and repeated word to His people: come up higher.
That call is not simply about trying harder or digging deeper on our own. It is an invitation to experience more of Him, to persevere through battles, and to keep fighting the good fight of faith with praise on our lips. God already knows the end from the beginning, and His plans for His children are good. Even in hardship, His grace is sufficient, and He is faithful to carry us through.
We were not called to merely occupy a seat in a church building. We come together to strengthen one another, speak life, pray, worship, receive the Word, and carry that Word into the situations waiting for us outside the doors. Faith must move us forward.
Search Out What God Is Saying
Proverbs 25:2 teaches that God conceals matters in His glory, while kings find honor in searching them out. As believers, we are part of a royal priesthood. We are not meant to live on the surface of God’s Word or take every circumstance merely at face value.
God’s ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. That means we must learn to sit with His Word, turn it over in our hearts, and ask, “Lord, what are You saying to me in this?”
Sometimes the question is personal. Other times, God may be calling us to seek His heart for someone else or for the body of Christ. Either way, there is wisdom in slowing down, listening, and allowing His truth to take root.
There are seven practical ways to press forward and come up higher. Put their first letters together, and they form one powerful word: SPIRIT.
- Stir up the gifts
- Pray for others
- Intimacy with God
- Rely on Him
- Immerse yourself in the Word
- Take bold steps of faith
This is how we move forward: not in our own strength, but by the Spirit of God living within us.
Stir Up the Gifts God Has Given You
In 2 Timothy 1:5-7, Paul reminds Timothy of the sincere faith in his life and urges him to stir up the gift of God within him. He follows that reminder by declaring that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind.
Every person has gifts and talents placed within them by God. Some abilities may have been evident from an early age. Others may be hidden, undeveloped, or even buried beneath years of criticism, disappointment, intimidation, or fear.
But gifts from God do not disappear simply because people have tried to shut them down.
Maybe your gift is practical. You may cook, bake, sew, organize, teach, build, repair, operate technology, encourage people, or serve with your hands. These are not insignificant abilities. They can become avenues through which the love and goodness of God touch lives.
Gifts often need to be trained and refined. Skill grows through practice, learning, and faithfulness. Yet the goal is not personal recognition. Our gifts belong to God, and they are meant to bring Him glory.
Do not assume it is too late to discover what God has put inside you. Age does not disqualify anyone from being used by God. Ask Him to reveal what He has given you, then begin to fan that gift into flame.
Pray for Others and Build One Another Up
Praying for others is one of the ways we position ourselves to be used by God. When we bring another person before the throne of God, we are making room for His love, healing, peace, and purpose to flow through us.
Pray life over people. Pray healing. Pray restoration. Pray peace over troubled minds and homes. Pray that people will prosper in the fullest sense of the word.
Prosperity is not limited to the amount of money in someone’s wallet. A person can have great wealth and still be empty in their mind, heart, relationships, or body. God’s desire is for His people to flourish in every area of life, including spiritual health, emotional health, relationships, purpose, and physical well-being.
Jesus did not leave us with a book of distant stories that have no bearing on daily life. His life gives us an example of how we are called to live. As 1 John teaches, as He is, so are we in this world. His life is within us.
Hebrews 10:24-25 calls believers to consider one another, stir up love and good works, gather together, and encourage one another. Church is not a social club. It is a place where hearts are joined in unity, burdens are shared, and people are strengthened to endure.
There are seasons when it is tempting to pull away because of discouragement, relational pain, or spiritual heaviness. Those are often the very moments when encouragement, prayer, worship, and the love of fellow believers are needed most.
Make room to pray for someone else. Ask God who needs encouragement. When He brings a person to mind, do not ignore it. Lift them up, speak His promises over them, and believe for His goodness to be made known in their lives.
Make Time for Intimacy With the Lord
Devotions are valuable. A prayer at the beginning of the day is valuable. But intimacy with God is more than completing a spiritual routine.
Intimacy is setting aside time simply to be with Him.
It is coming before the Lord without an agenda, not only with a list of needs, but with a heart that says, “Here I am.” It is praising Him, thanking Him, remembering what He has done, and allowing His presence to fill that quiet place.
God inhabits the praises of His people. As we begin to thank Him for salvation, for Jesus, for the Holy Spirit, for His guidance, and for His faithfulness, our hearts become more aware of His nearness.
There may be moments when you set your heart toward prayer and do not feel anything right away. Keep coming. Then there are those moments when you simply say, “Lord,” and His presence becomes so real. He is there because He desires time with you.
God is not only interested in meeting our needs. He desires relationship with His children. He wants a family. He wants us near Him.
John 15:4-5 teaches that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. A branch cannot produce fruit apart from the vine. In the same way, apart from Him, we can do nothing of lasting value.
That is why intimacy matters. It is where strength is renewed, identity is restored, and fruit begins to grow.
Rely on God, Not What You See
Second Corinthians 5:7 gives us a simple but life-changing instruction: we walk by faith, not by sight.
When trials come, circumstances may look destructive. A medical report may be troubling. The world around us may seem chaotic. Pressure may feel overwhelming. Yet we are not called to be moved by what we see. We are called to be moved by the Word of God.
Faith does not deny that a battle exists. Faith refuses to let the battle have the final word.
God is faithful in the midst of the hardest circumstances. He can bring life where the enemy intended destruction. Testimonies of healing, rescue, and restoration remind us that God is still at work and that the story is not over.
Do not overlook the small ways God shows His care, either. Sometimes His love appears in what may seem like a minor detail, such as providing something that was quietly needed or placing the right thought in someone’s heart at the right time. These are little kisses from heaven that say, “I hear you. I see you. I love you.”
The more we recognize God moving in our lives, the more we begin to see His hand at work.
When an unexplained heaviness, oppression, or pressure comes upon you, do not immediately assume it is only about your own circumstances. Ask the Lord what is happening. It may be something in the spiritual atmosphere or a burden connected to someone else. Search Him out, listen for His direction, and pray life, peace, and truth into the situation.
Immerse Yourself in the Word
Ephesians 4:23-24 calls us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new person created according to God in righteousness and holiness.
Renewing the mind means remembering who we are in Christ.
We are not merely flesh and bone, trying to survive life through human effort. The Holy Spirit lives within us. We have purpose. We have destiny. God has plans greater than anything we could produce on our own.
Because of Jesus, we have been made righteous before God. That does not mean we reach perfection in our own behavior. It means we continually return to the Word, allow our minds to be renewed, repent when necessary, and choose to believe what God says about us.
We are not the tail, but the head. We are not beneath, but above. We are blessed in our coming and going, in our bodies, in our households, and in the work God has placed before us. Deuteronomy 28 is a powerful reminder of the blessing and covenant faithfulness of God.
When a negative report comes, faith does not agree with defeat. Faith rises up and says that God has purpose for this life, that His Word is true, and that the enemy does not get to determine the outcome.
This is not a passive faith. It is an aggressive faith that stands, speaks the Word, believes deeply, and keeps moving forward.
When pressure comes, whatever is inside us will come out. If we are filled with fear, anger, and discouragement, that is what will spill out in difficult moments. But when we immerse ourselves in the Word, the truth of God begins to rise from within us.
Fill yourself with the Word until it becomes your first response.
Take Bold Steps of Faith
It is not enough to know the Word, speak the Word, or pray the Word. At some point, we have to walk it out.
Bold faith often looks very practical. It may mean speaking to someone God puts on your heart. It may mean offering prayer in a public place. It may mean giving, serving, encouraging, or responding when God says, “Go.”
Those steps can feel uncomfortable, especially for anyone who has battled timidity, fear, or a tendency to stay self-focused. But our confidence is not in ourselves. Our sufficiency is in Christ.
God gives the power and strength to do what He calls us to do. He can take the person who once hid in fear and use them to speak His Word, minister to others, and bring hope to those in need.
Mark 16:15-18 gives a powerful picture of the commission Jesus gave His followers. We are called to proclaim the gospel, operate in His authority, confront the works of the enemy, and lay hands on the sick with faith for recovery.
God wants His people to see lives changed. The destruction around us is real, but the Greater One lives in us. We are called to come higher, move in faith, and become available for His power and love to work through our lives.
Say Yes: “Lord, Send Me”
There is a simple response that can change the direction of a life: “Lord, I am here. Send me.”
You may feel weak. You may remember the messes of your past. You may feel timid or unworthy. But God does not call people because they have everything together. He calls people who are willing to surrender.
Lay down your own agenda, your fears, and the limits you have placed on yourself. Come humbly before Him and allow Him to stir up the gifts and talents He has placed within you.
We are a peculiar people, uniquely called by God. We are a royal priesthood, called to greatness in the name of Jesus. But this is never by our own power or might. It is by His Spirit that we live, move, and have our being in Christ.
Press forward. Stir up what God has placed in you. Pray for others. Pursue intimacy with Him. Rely on His Word above what you see. Immerse your mind in truth. Then take the bold step He places before you.
Come up higher. The Spirit of God is calling.
Application Questions
- What gift or talent has God placed in you that needs to be stirred up again?
- Who is God prompting you to pray for, encourage, or serve this week?
- What would it look like to set apart unhurried time simply to be with the Lord?
- Where have you been allowing what you see to speak louder than what God has said?
- What Scripture do you need to immerse yourself in during this season?
- What bold step of faith is God asking you to take?
