Imagine that you are a passenger on the Ark. As you look outside, your heart skips a beat. So much water! The old things have been swallowed up by this liquid monster. Although your feet are dry, standing on the wooden deck, you still feel a bit uneasy. This boat - big though it may be - is the only thing separating you from a watery grave. How can you gain a greater sense of security? Level up. Climb up to a higher deck. The top level affords you the greatest distance from the flood.
Beware of living low. It's dangerous to camp out on low ground. In terms of the Ark analogy, your degree of vulnerability increases in relation to your proximity to the surrounding water. The lower you go, the less safe you become. Conversely, the higher you go, the more protected you will be.
To the unbeliever, there is a need for leveling up to saving grace. Climb on board the eternal Ark of salvation! Jesus is the Captain (Hebrews 2:10). If you remain outside, you will be swallowed up by your own sin. It may not be raining today. The sun may be brightly shining without a dark cloud in sight. But a day of reckoning is coming. "...the LORD closed the door behind them." (Genesis 7:16, GOD'S WORD® Translation) No human hand can open the door once it has been shut. There is a higher level for you in Christ - a level that will extend throughout eternity.
To the new believer, the next level is a place of spiritual growth. Grace is necessary - and available - to get you to that place. There is a danger of getting stuck in the "babyhood" stage of spiritual development. You can level up to saving grace without taking the next step to Christian growth. There is, however, a solution to this. The way to level up into the next stage of spiritual advancement is to open up your Bible - and to keep it open. We grow by feeding on the spiritual nourishment of God's Word. "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of THE WORD, that ye may GROW THEREBY..." (1 Peter 2:2, emphasis mine)
Then there is a need to level up to fulfilling God's calling on your life. There is truly grace for your place in the kingdom of God. Ministry isn't exclusive to the ones standing behind the pulpit. We have different gifts and they are based on "the grace that is given to us" (Romans 12:6). Every Christian is called and graced for some form of spiritual service. A tree grows outward as well as upward. Obedience to this personal destiny constitutes a major step-up in your walk with God.
There are opportunities to level up in the blessings of God. Let's consider one example. Just as there is healing for the sick, so there is grace for sustained health. It's one thing to receive healing when your body falls victim to dis-ease. But there is a higher place in grace where you enjoy ongoing health and wellness.
Think of it this way: a faucet can be turned on and off, but a stream is ever flowing. Healing is the faucet. When you receive a healing touch from Heaven, the faucet is turned on. Thank God for that! But the faucet, unfortunately, can be turned off when a new affliction attacks you. The stream, on the other hand, is the continuous flow of peak health, warding off sickness and disease.
Is this lofty level of physical blessing actually possible? The Bible answers in the affirmative. Moses departed this world in exceptionally good health - at the ripe age of 120 years old. According to Deuteronomy 34:7, the passing years had no adverse effect on his eyes, his strength or his vitality. After a century and two decades of living under the aging process, he was as healthy and strong as ever!
There is a level in grace where no pestilence, plague, destruction - in fact, "no evil" of any kind - can even come near us, much less jump on us. Read Psalm 91. There is grace to "be in health" (3 John 2), not only to "be healed." The same grace that can heal you of sickness and infirmity can also keep you above the self-same afflictions. This is victory on a higher level.
The heavens are on a higher level than the earth. Likewise, God's thoughts and ways are on a higher level than man's (Isaiah 55:8-9). In similar fashion, our thoughts and ways as believers must be on a higher level than that of the unbelieving world (Romans 12:2). There is a higher level where "life and peace" can be found; it can only be reached by maintaining a spiritual mindset (Romans 8:6).
There are varying degrees or levels of faith. Jesus spoke of "little faith" and "great faith." There are different levels to prayer. Reciting The Lord's Prayer is a far different level of interaction with God than "effectual fervent prayer" (James 5:16). The Savior, in the Garden of Gethsemane, reached such a deep level of prayer that "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44).
It wasn't until the disciples launched out "into the deep" that they caught an abundance of fish (Luke 5:4-7). In this case they leveled up by going deep. The man who builds an unshakable house must first dig deep (Luke 6:47-48). This requires digging through multiple levels of earth. A seed needs depth - "deepness of earth" - in order to grow (Matthew 13:5). There are different levels of receiving God's Word. We learn this in the Parable of the Sower.
Jesus came to not only give life, but to give it "more abundantly" (John 10:10). This is a deeper level - and higher level - of life. God is able to elevate us to a level that is "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). He gives grace to the humble, and this grace will exalt you to a higher level in due time (1 Peter 5:5-6).
After completing His earthly mission of grace, the Master ascended back to heavenly glory. The Bible says He was "taken up" and "carried up into heaven" (Acts 1:9; Luke 24:51). The glorious journey back Home takes the resurrected Christ through the five levels of Earth's atmosphere. Ultimately, He reaches His exalted destination at the right hand of God - in a place known as The Third Heaven (see 2 Corinthians 12:2). And thanks to this multi-leveled return to the Father's side, we can experience multi-level grace to cover each dimension of our lives. Moreover, the day is coming when we will make the same upward voyage through the heavens (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). This will be the mother of all level-ups!
© Matt Decker
» This post is excerpted from my book GRACE IN A MAZE: How to Make it Through (available as paperback and eBook)
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