A trajectory is defined by Webster’s dictionary as a path, progression, or line of development resembling a physical trajectory. The Bible describes a spiritual trajectory for every believer in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
As soon as we give our lives to Jesus and invite Him to become our Lord and Saviour, we become new born babes in Christ. The Apostle Peter admonished us as new born babes to desire the sincere milk of the Word of God that we may grow thereby (1st Peter 2:2).
The Apostle Paul tackles the challenge more directly when he wrote that when anyone becomes a Christian, old things must past away and all things must become new (2nd Corinthians 5:17). This is what helps to set the trajectory.
I start from point zero where I invite Jesus into my heart. As soon as old things begin to pass away, there is a lift off and the journey upwards begins in earnest.
This is where we differ as individuals. Some embrace the new way of thinking and acting with zeal and make several changes very rapidly. These are the ones amongst us who rise like a meteor. They are very radical in getting rid of the sinful old ways.
Quite a few take off but because they are not so eager to get rid of the old ways, their rise is quite slow and sluggish. The pace at which an individual rises is determined by him/her. Constant personal evaluation helps us rise quickly. Those who do not make excuses for their faults but seek to change daily take a steep trajectory on their way up.
What helps is to keep the goal always before us. That goal is Jesus. We were called into Christ by our God in order to be conformed into His image. In other words, we are called to love like Him, serve like Him, be humble like Him and show forth His character through our lives.
We must not fall into the error of making another climber our goal. The Bible says to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
As we rise, we leave the natural man that we used to be way below us. The natural man is the man who cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. For the natural man for example, sin of immorality can be enjoyment, corruption can be a business strategy. Cheating and lies just simple ways to take advantages that occur. But the man on a spiritual trajectory distances himself from the ways of the natural man.
As he rises, he realizes that good intentions always do not match action. He may encounter the frustration of knowing what is right to do but always ending up doing the wrong thing. Quite a few get stuck here and out of frustration conclude that further upward trajectory is just not possible.
But what is needed here is to understand the way of the Spirit. The way of the Spirit is to cease from the struggle to get it right. Come to God in prayer and say: “LORD I want to go up this ladder but each time I attempt it, I slip back. Please come and do it in me and do it through me. I YIELD MYSELF TO YOU.
The moment we yield, the Holy Spirit’s empowerment kicks in and to our utter amazement we discover CAPACITY that is BEYOND our natural ABILITY. This is what grace is all about. The Holy Spirit gives us inner strength and the courage and boldness to stand up to all kinds of pressures that we face on our upward journey to stand for God and for Christ in our world.
This inner strength is very necessary to counter all manners of fears and intimidations that make us to buckle and give in to the ways of the natural man. Nobody can climb any higher beyond the limits of self-will without this inner strength by the Holy Spirit. None!
The good news is that this inner strength is available to all and can easily be accessed through a short sincere prayer. That prayer must reveal the inner desire to change and go up.
Those who are not sincere in their desire to change, get no help. The Holy Spirit can tell the difference and He is not in the habit of wasting His resources.
The moment we taste victory through the inner strength supplied by the Holy Spirit, we change course and go up rapidly to MATURITY. That is why the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:15-16 (NLT) 15 “Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.”
The maturity platform is that holding on to the progress we have made. The progress is the basic principles of GODLY LIVING that brought us out of sin and took us on the way up to spiritual maturity. It does not mean that we now know everything or get everything right. What it means is that we are striving daily to be blameless in our walk before God on earth. God has always demanded this of anyone walking with Him: Genesis 17:1 (NLT) 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
No matter where you are right now on this spiritual trajectory, let us strive to arrive at the maturity platform and make that our new base as revealed in Ephesians 4:11-13 (NLT)
“11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13 is the maturity platform, where we have come to embrace Jesus truly and fully as our standard and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are going up each day on that ladder that we climb to meet Him and be exactly as He is.
Nobody gets to be fully like Jesus until we see Him. 1 John 3:2-3 (NLT) “2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.”
So my brother, my sister let us KEEP CLIMBING on this our SPIRITUAL TRAJECTORY striving daily to be like our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen Alleluia.