DON’T CONFUSE YOUR MENTAL IQ WITH YOUR SPIRITUAL IQ

A recent article in a business journal listed the top 20 qualities an employer looks for in a job applicant. The top three were: follows directions, completes projects and good communication skills.

Surprisingly, mental intelligence didn’t even make the top ten. Mental IQ was listed at number thirteen in the list of twenty.

IQ is an early twentieth century concept. It measures a thing called “smartness.” Your IQ score isn’t limited to your intellect. Did you know that you also have a spiritual IQ?

Your goal this week is to consciously expand your awareness about your spiritual IQ.

Algebra can give you fits but flunking Algebra doesn’t measure your spiritual IQ. The same is true for any of your other school subjects. Intellectual smartness and spiritual smartness are separate.

How do you measure your smartness?

Where does your spiritual IQ come from? Jesus gives it to you through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Read John 7:37-39 & Ephesians 1:13

What is spiritual IQ? Your spiritual IQ score is determined by the size and nearness of your spiritual inheritance. How aware you are of it and how much of it you are using.

You will expand your spiritual IQ by creating a compelling picture of your inheritance. The picture must be vivid and Biblical. The more vividly defined the picture, the easier it is to recall. And faster, too.

The Apostle Paul tells us that the Christian’s spiritual inheritance is based strictly on their relationship with Christ. Paul says in Galatians 3, “for you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ…and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” In the Old Testament God offered His love and goodness to His people by giving them the Land of Canaan as their inheritance. In the New Testament, God gives His son to the heirs of faith.

If you’re last name were Weber, Heinz, Hilton, or Gates, you would be rich, privileged, powerful and famous from birth. How influenced would your life be by the single idea that you possessed such great wealth that it would be mathematically impossible for you to spend it in one lifetime?

The roots of your spiritual IQ will tap into the Biblical fact that you possess a world famous inheritance. The Bible says that the God of the universe adopted you. You were living in an orphanage called sin and God walked in through the front door. He personally produced and handed over the adoption papers. They were written in blood. On that day He made you His child and you were made His heir to an ever present spiritual inheritance.

Paul says that “having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.” (Ephesians 1:13,14)

Ice cream is rated America’s number one dessert. Americans consume it at the rate of 15 quarts a year for every man, woman and child in the USA. I bet that you’ve got a stash of cookies and cream stowed away in the freezer section of your kitchen? I bet that at this very minute, just the mention of the word “ice cream” can be felt and seen in your mind. Taste the cool sweetness of the sugar and cream. See the waxed container, the colors of the logo, and the container’s shape. Probably you can even visualize exactly where it sitting in your freezer.

You can expand your awareness of your spiritual inheritance by finding a way to picture a container of some sorts. Is it wood or is it made out of a precious metal? Where is it? Under your bed or on top the dresser? Can you hold it in your hand or is it too large for that?

Think it. See it. Make it close. Grab it.

Your spiritual IQ is your Holy Spirit inspired ability to open your inheritance. Before you kick off a new project, go to your inheritance box. When you feel rejected, open up your inheritance. When tempted or tested, when you feel lonely and feel the need for communion with Christ and His presence, go to your box.

“But what’s inside?” you ask.

Inside your box is whatever you need or desire from God in the present moment. Before you were born, God already knew that He would adopt you. Before you were born, He filled your inheritance box with everything that His foreknowledge saw that you would someday need. Read Romans 8:28 and 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Spiritual IQ says, “blessed BEFORE the test.”

When Jesus ascended into Heaven, He gave His disciples their inheritance. The gifts of Christ’s victory over sin are to be used and enjoyed today. When God adopted you into His family, He made you His heir. Are you using your inheritance?