Spiritual Drifting

“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” – Hebrews 2:1 (NIV)

Have you ever been on a boat before? When a boat does not have an anchor in place, the boat slowly begins to drift away. Before you know it, the boat is far away from its intended location. In this specific verse from Hebrews, the Greek word translated as “drift away” refers to this kind of drifting. It is easy for us to allow our spiritual walk with God to “drift away” from where we should be. Sometimes we receive a powerful Word from God about our prophetic destiny, but as time goes on we forget about it. We fail to act upon the assignment we receive from God. We put our assignment on consignment!

Sometimes we start out strong and on fire. We are reading our Word, studying, praying, seeking God, and taking the right steps. But as distractions come into our lives, we slow our activity. We begin to drift. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to pay most careful attention to the things that we hear from God. This means both the spoken and written things of God. This requires action on our part. As believers, we are called disciples of Christ.

One of the roots of disciple is discipline. We tend to think of discipline as being punishment, but this word can also mean a narrow focus of study. Being a disciple of Christ means following Christ in the focus of our assignment from Him. Your assignment is part of how Christ is manifesting Himself through your life to everyone around you.

The Apostle Paul had a spiritual son named Timothy. Twice, Paul reminded Timothy of the prophesies once spoken over His life. “Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well” (I Timothy 1:18). “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you” (I Timothy 4:14).

It is important that we remind ourselves of God’s promises to us so that we can fight the good fight of the faith. The enemy brings distractions and the cares of life to quench the Word of God that is in you through the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to write down prophesies and promises about your life and put them on important places in your home, like a mirror or on a door. These will be reminders to you. Ask the Lord to help you take forward progress towards obeying His Word. God’s promises are an anchor for our soul (Hebrews 6:13-19). As we act on those promises, we are tending to the spiritual anchor to keep us going in the right direction.

These are practical ways to avoid spiritual drifting.