But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit – Jude 1:20 NKJV
The theme of this bible verse brings to mind the picture of a building or an edifice; you know, like the house you’re living in, your children’s school, your place of work, your church building or your most admired building. There are different types of buildings; in underdeveloped nations, you still find huts made with mud, thatch and wood; and you still find people living in tents; while in other parts of the world, you find bungalows, story buildings, mansions, towers and skyscrapers.
However, Jude writes about a different type of building. The mention of most holy faith and the Holy Spirit (both eternal in nature) in this subject suggests that Jude is speaking about a building that is eternal and not made with human hands like physical buildings are (See 2 Corinthians 5:1). What makes this building different is that it can grow from one dimension to the other, it can stretch and expand, it can go from small to great; it has a kind of life that man-made buildings do not have.
Here are two keys to help you in building yourself up spiritually:
- Grow in the knowledge of Christ
A conscious pursuit of the Lord through the study of His Word is key to building yourself up in the faith. Just as a child who does not eat well cannot grow, people who don’t feed their hearts with the knowledge of the Lord will remain like ‘mud huts’ – small, weak and easily shaken by the storms of life. There is something very special about the Word of God; and it is the fact that it produces power and transmits life into us when we open our hearts. Jesus said this:
… The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. – John 6:63 NKJV
When you have His words in you and you commit to putting them to practice, you are going to experience such a transformation of life that no human education or academic qualifications could have made possible.
- Pray in the Spirit often
The other key to building yourself up is building your own spirit through praying under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. Praying in the Spirit includes praying with your mind and praying with your human spirit (See 1 Corinthians 14:15). This means that you invest a quality amount of time in prayer; you yield yourself to the Holy Spirit and you allow Him to guide, instruct, empower and inspire your prayers. As matter of fact, how much you pray in the Spirit determines what type of building you will grow into. This is because it takes spiritual strength to retain the words of life that Jesus speaks to you; there is a devil out there who wants to steal the Word of God from you and burden you with the cares and distractions of life – and he can only succeed when your human spirit is not built up and made strong by the Spirit.
Through praying in the Spirit, you can edify yourself from a mud-hut-like spiritual stature to a tower or even greater!