Five lessons from the shaping of my life
by John North
Thank you for joining us at the Evening with John North. Here are the five life lessons that are the boiled down take-aways from my life journey with God. Here are the things that have shaped my spiritual life, put into terms that you can apply to your own life.
Lesson 1: Build your life!
As you look at the spiritual lives of people you look up to—their close walk with God, their prayer life, the answers to prayer they share, the way God speaks to them through his word, their spiritual insights, the spiritual impact they have on the lives of the people they interact with—it can be easy to think, “I wish I was like that; I wish I had that insight into Scripture; I wish I had that spiritual impact. But that’s just not me.”
What you need to recognise is that they weren’t born that way, nor did they suddenly become that way after a deep encounter with God. Yes, encounters with God are very significant. But the fact is, those people built that life that you see. Day after day they opened their Bibles and listened to God, then responded to him in prayer. They began talking about God with people who don’t know him, badly at first. But they gradually got better at pointing people toward Jesus. They started speaking up at Bible study and slowly learned how to express their thoughts. They found other people who were hungry for God and for his word and spent time with them. They learned to pray by praying with people of prayer.
You too can build that life. You can become a person like those people. You won’t be there tomorrow, or next month, or even next year. But as you faithfully build your life toward God, in five years or ten years you will be that shining light to the younger Christians around you and to lost people looking for answers.
Lesson 2: Invest time in relationships with people who are responsive to God!
King David wrote in Psalm 101:6 “My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.”
As I think back on my life, in a very real sense it is the story of the people that God has used in my life to shape me, encourage me, grow me, and stretch me. In preparing for the Evening with John North, I filled up a page with the names of people that have deeply impacted me at different points in my life.
When you find someone who is as hungry for God as you are, ask them to meet you for lunch or coffee, connect around your passion for God, and build a friendship over time. Study the Bible together, pray together. That relationship is a treasure.
Many of the things that deeply shaped me were not only individual relationships but groups I was with that were filled with people pursuing God. When Lois and I started a home-group for young adults in our church, we developed it to be that kind of group. We made it a high commitment group where we would eat dinner together each week, read a chapter of a book and come ready to share what we learned, there would be an in depth Bible study where everyone participated, everyone memorised Scripture, and at the end of the group time people would break into accountability groups of four people and would share deeply about the past week and their walk with God. It didn’t take long before the spiritual temperature of that group was hot! We were all growing and spurred on by each other’s hunger for God.
Lesson 3: Step out of your comfort zone!
I shared about my friend Monte in my youth group, who persuaded me to go into downtown Atlanta every Friday night, starting at midnight, to share Christ with people. I shared about leading a mission team doing evangelism in Uganda, which was interrupted by a military coup of the government and how we had to hide out before escaping into Kenya.
Stepping out of your comfort zone grows you spiritually in ways that nothing else can! When you have an opportunity to do something connected to the Great Commission in your area or in another country, and it makes you real nervous to think about saying yes….say yes! These are the zones of maximum spiritual growth!
Lesson 4: Seek out time and exposure with spiritual leaders who can disciple/mentor you and help you grow!
This is another list I made that moved me deeply as I thought about the great men of God who have had an impact in my life. Many of these who impacted me most deeply are people I have never met, but who I know well through reading their biographies. Some of these biographies include:
- Bruchko
- Lords of the Earth
- Rees Howell—Intercessor
- Hudson Taylor—God’s Man in China
- George Muller
- Brother Andrew
- The Hiding Place
- Peace Child
- Chuck Colson
- The Cross and the Switchblade
- etc etc
Others were people who walked close to God and were mature in ministry who invested time in my life that deeply shaped me. You may not know them, but I need to name some of them out of gratitude:
- My father, Ian North
- Charles Stanley
- Mary Gellerstedt
- Marvin McCollum
- Dan DeHaan
- Johnny Miller
- Robertson McQuilkin
- Howard Hendricks,
- Leigh Brown
Not everyone you admire will have the capacity to spend personal time with you, but get close to them through their ministry, their teaching, their books, podcasts, etc—anything that gives you a glimpse into their way of approaching life, God, and ministry. Learn what you can.
Lesson 5: Find someone, or a group, that you can disciple and help to grow!
Nothing will help you to grow in your spiritual life and in your ministry to others more than helping someone else grow. So much of my spiritual growth has come out of my spiritual leadership in Bible study groups or my preparation of teaching or my writing of books or mentoring Bible college students.
You don’t have to be a spiritual giant to disciple someone. You just pass on what has impacted you from scripture or what you have learned about ministry. You memorise verses together that have shaped your life. Who is there that you could start investing in? One day they will be sharing the things that have shaped their lives and your face will come to their mind with gratitude to God!
Of course, in our Evening with John North each of these lessons was packed with stories from my own life. But I hope this review blesses you and challenges you to keep moving forward with God!
