In this blog I’d like to talk to you about the importance of reflection and why it is crucial in our walk of faith with God. In this season of change, God is addressing many misnomers in current Christian education, including the ideas and philosophies around reflection.

You might be thinking that you already reflect and that there is no need to understand the value of reflection in your walk of faith, because if you are thinking of God, then you are reflecting, right? Unless you understand reflection from God’s covenant perspective, which links it to Jesus’ spiritual priesthood, it’s likely that reflection has more to do with man’s own ideas, longings, fears, failures, hopes and dreams, than truly unveiling the face of God to the heart.

When God talks about reflection, He is specifically talking about the priesthood function of the new covenant; setting order to knowledge by weighing our thoughts upon the scale of Christ for the purpose of building His kingdom. Once a believer receives transitional knowledge training in the terms and function of Jesus’ covenant and priesthood, they are equipped in that scale by the foundation of truth Jesus entrusted to His apostles as His master builders.

So then, reflection is not a loose definition that the flesh can pour itself into, but a very specific labor in the mind with a set form of knowledge for faith. To illustrate how specific God is about reflection, I’m sharing a spiritual sacrifice with you that I received while in prayer. The sacrifice was: “reflection is the bedrock of faith”.

The word bedrock means a) solid rock underlying loose deposits such as soil or alluvium and b) the fundamental principles on which something is based.

The reference to a solid rock speaks about the foundation knowledge needing to be equal to Christ for faith to be built thereon. Without the right foundation, faith cannot grow according to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. For faith to grow, it must be in the right environment, just as a seed must be planted in the right soil to not only germinate, but successfully grow.

There is a direct connection between our spiritual growth and reflection.

Ephesians 2:19-22
¹⁹ Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

²⁰ And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

²¹ In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

²² In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the corner stone of our faith (v20). It is upon His foundation that faith is built and by His priesthood, expressed according to His likeness. God, in bearing witness to this, reciprocates by issuing to the believer more grace. This perpetual cycle of increase is set within the law of reciprocation (contact for increase) as we fellowship with God. This activity makes us fruitful, and a holy temple (v21) unto the Lord in which He dwells.

Faith is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, so the bedrock is Jesus. He is the foundation of our reflection through which we consider Him, call His wisdom to mind, and reflect His equity in thought, word and deed. When we engage with God through faithful labor with His knowledge (reflection), we grow as we take on the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

Can you see why reflection is the bedrock of faith? Without reflection, there can be no spiritual growth. God requires us to reflect because reflection is about taking the time to stop and consider what is being said, to weigh the knowledge that is being presented, and to stand in the testimony of Jesus Christ.

We read this also in the first century apostles’ instruction to the saints in their care.

2 Timothy 2:7
Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

Hebrews 12:3
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

In Hebrews 12:3 there is a clear connection between the need to consider (as to reflect) and not faint in the mind. Apostle Paul was putting the saints in remembrance of the power of reflection for our equipping in the battle of the mind as faith is tested. By restoring living apostles to the church today, God is returning this refuge of sound instruction to the church. As such, believers are taught that the will is strengthened as we reflect upon the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Hereby we guard our thoughts to keep the conscience pure in Him.

I want to go back to the beginning where I said that unless you are thinking about reflection from God’s covenant perspective, chances are that reflection is more about the needs of the flesh (man’s own ideas, longings, fears, failures, hopes and dreams) than the value of Christ in God’s communication.

We’ll see this more clearly as we look at how Apostle Eric vonAnderseck lays this out for us in the IDCCST Course, where he explains how God tied reflection to our priesthood. I’m going to briefly quote from the Lesson Guide, week 14 The Priesthood of the New Covenant:

Justification is our response to the standard God set for our labor in Christ to reflect him perfectly, for he is reclaiming the conscience from its former reflection upon its first history, which God condemns. (p. 150)

And from the IDCCST Handbook:

Jesus is now the temple and altar of our faith. Your priesthood is in remembrance (reflection) of him. Your priesthood no longer reflects the condemnation of the flesh, but the righteousness of Christ. (p. 171)

Because the law reflects sin and death, the duties of the law are not worthy of God’s honor. We need a new heavenly priesthood and new duties of faith to reflect Jesus Christ. (p. 177)

From these bits and pieces from the IDCCST Course we learn how God puts a difference between reflecting on self and reflecting on Christ. Workshop exercises use the following 5 key definitions to further clarify reflection:

1. To rehearse the knowledge of Christ in your mind for the purpose of reciprocation. We first weigh the knowledge you are receiving, whether it is tethered to the kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness. You’ll want to weigh knowledge on the scale of Jesus Christ and reflection assists you to do this. You’re allowing God, by the anointing, to assist you to build His kingdom, and as you do, He assists you with His gifts to complete the cycle of your growth.

2. To consider the knowledge of Christ with the intent of gaining understanding of God’s perspective.

3. To review the knowledge of the covenant in your mind to assist your discernment as you contrast the kingdom of God and His building tools to that of the kingdom of darkness to ask questions about the seeds of knowledge you are nurturing, to stand in agreement with God.

4. To think on the things of Christ and His covenant to apply the knowledge of Christ to your faith. Faith must first reflect Christ before it can express Him.

5. To call to mind the truth of Christ to retain Him in our knowledge. While Satan addresses the psychological struggles of life, God directs faith to express Christ.

Sound instruction helps define how we are to engage with God in mindful labor with His holy knowledge. God provides such disambiguating instruction through His elect stewardship to unlock His covenant perspective; without which, believers assign their own meaning and interpretation, which reflects man rather than God, and as such departs from His priesthood, which is contrary to what God purposed for faith. Before there can be spiritual cleansing, there has to be doctrinal cleansing, which begins with the choice to humble the heart for re-education and conversion to Jesus’ holy covenant.

Once believers have made the transition into covenant and have the foundation of truth laid in their hearts, we look at knowledge from that vantage point – to stop and consider how God is communicating Christ to us. Reflection is prompted by taking one word, token, or symbolism and weighing the knowledge by rehearsing in the mind those things that are true to God’s character, purpose, and plan to observe how God reciprocates back to us in the quickened understanding. God is present in these choices to learn more of Him.

When we say there is a link between reflection and spiritual growth, it is because reflection initiates action. Through reflection we are progressing as we labor with the anointing. We can reflect upon how the peace of God accompanies His grace, and observe how Christ is ministered to us, or how our understanding increases through the multiplication of the Spirit as we continue in fellowship with God. Reflecting on Christ means we are mindful of the purpose of God as revealed through Jesus Christ. This pleases God, because faith is then functioning according to God’s Intelligent Design for Christ-Centered Spiritual Transformation (IDCCST).

In Ephesians 4:27 we read: “Neither give place to the devil.” Here, Apostle Paul was instructing those under his stewardship to reason with the anointing to discern what is being presented to the mind; thus keeping the thoughts upon the tracks of truth, and overcoming the natural habit of the mind to look to self.

The same instruction is applicable today. We are called to guard our thoughts and to discern what is presented to the mind through the measure of Jesus Christ. Jesus identifying Himself as the way, truth and life, provided His government, truth and Spirit for faith’s equipping in His presence as the scale and measure for our discernment through which we guard the mind from the onslaught of the enemy.

Satan’s goal is to usurp faith. “Usurp” is a word of knowledge I received in prayer which means to take illegally or by force. Grace does not force, but provides knowledge for faith and awaits our choice of consent in obedience to the Lord, which is to strive lawfully. In contrast, Satan is a mastermind in manipulating how information is packaged through the slight of his suggestions, in a way to manipulate thoughts. If accepted, what you take away are false impressions you believe to be true.

We were created for God by God and our return to Him is through obedience of covenant faith. This means that being sealed by the Spirit of adoption we are citizens of heaven and our daily training is to exercise faith with His righteousness as we subject our thoughts to His grace and truth. Satan’s goal is to usurp these efforts; to redirect thoughts back to self, keeping faith in the dead zone.

Satan’s suggestions often draw introspection to self, promoting the use of the principle, aspiration, and imagination as false measures for equity, but God calls us to reflection as the Spirit sets order to our thinking to reveal the snares of the enemy. God challenges the habit of the mind to reach for self to reveal the enemy’s place of hiding.

By the good habits of faith to reflect, rehearse and reciprocate Christ, our thoughts reflect the mind of Christ as we labor with the anointing. This is our place of strength where our perspective is renewed according to His righteousness and we gain healing and deliverance from folly of the flesh. Making decisions based on reflecting on Jesus’ covenant is the new way of life which is the habit of faith we practice daily.

Our IDCCST Course covers a comprehensive range of skill building knowledge to fully equip faith. Putting these skills into practice and choosing to reflect on the tokens the Lord provides to encourage growth, we grow in our experience with His Kingdom as God continually unveils the folly of carnal thought patterns the enemy introduces; freeing us unto the superior things of Christ’s life, substance and power. God set His virtue in Christ alone and we access this as we reflect on Him.