The Secret Source of Spiritual Vibrancy
Jun 01, 2026
One of the questions I've been thinking about lately is this: What keeps a leader spiritually strong over the long haul?
Not for a week. Not for a season. Not during a conference high or after a breakthrough moment. What keeps someone steady, stable, and spiritually vibrant for decades?
I was reflecting on that question recently while teaching from Joshua 24. As I sat with the text afterward, one verse continued to stick with me.
"The people of Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, those who had personally experienced all that the Lord had done for Israel." (Joshua 24:31)
That phrase grabbed my attention: those who had personally experienced all that the Lord had done.
The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this is one of the great secrets of spiritual vibrancy. The people who remained faithful weren't merely preserving a tradition. They weren't living off someone else's memories. They weren't surviving on secondhand stories about God's faithfulness. They had experienced Him for themselves.
That's a big difference.
Most of us know people whose faith inspires us. Maybe it's a mentor, a spouse, a pastor, a friend, or someone whose books and podcasts have impacted our lives. We hear their stories of answered prayer, divine provision, courageous obedience, and spiritual breakthrough. Those stories encourage us. They should. God often uses the experiences of others to strengthen our faith.
But there is a danger hidden in that inspiration.
If we're not careful, we can begin to substitute other people's experiences for our own.
We can become spectators of faith rather than participants in it.
We can spend so much time listening to stories about God working in someone else's life that we stop asking where He's working in ours.
The reality is that borrowed stories have a limited shelf life. They can encourage us for a season, but they cannot sustain us for a lifetime. Eventually every leader needs personal evidence of God's faithfulness. We need our own moments of dependence. Our own prayers. Our own risks. Our own stories.
That appears to be exactly what Joshua is describing. The generation that stayed faithful had personally experienced God's activity. They had watched Him provide. They had watched Him lead. They had watched Him come through when there was no other explanation.
Those experiences became anchors for their faith.
When I look back over my own journey, the moments that strengthened me most weren't the sermons I heard or the books I read. They were the moments when I was forced to depend on God.
The times when I didn't know what to say and had to trust Him for wisdom.
The seasons when the vision seemed larger than the resources available.
The moments when obedience required sacrifice.
The situations where I reached the end of my own strength and discovered that God was more than enough.
Those experiences did something inside me that information alone never could. They transformed truth from a concept into a reality.
And that's why I think spiritual vibrancy is so closely connected to faith.
Every meaningful faith story begins with a risk.
When God asks us to forgive someone, to be generous, to start something, to stop something, to share our faith, to trust Him with an uncertain future, we're given a choice. We can stay where it's comfortable, or we can take a step that requires Him to show up.
The moment we take that step, we create the possibility for a story.
Not because we're trying to manufacture spiritual experiences, but because dependence naturally leads us into deeper intimacy with God.
When I am depending on God, I pray differently. I read Scripture differently. I listen more carefully. I'm more aware of His guidance and more sensitive to His correction. I find myself making adjustments I might otherwise avoid. Sometimes that means changing a behavior. Sometimes it means surrendering a belief, an assumption, or a preference. Growth is rarely painless, but it is always personal.
And that's where the story gets written.
As I look at my own life right now, the question I'm asking isn't simply, "What am I accomplishing?" The deeper question is, "Where am I depending on God to show up?"
Because if I'm not depending on Him, I'm probably not creating new experiences with Him.
And if I'm not creating new experiences with Him, it's only a matter of time before my spiritual life becomes dependent on memories from the past or stories from other people.
Joshua reminds us of something important. The people who stayed strong were the people who personally experienced the goodness of God.
Not secondhand.
Not borrowed.
Not inherited.
Personal.
As you look at the week ahead, I want to encourage you to ask yourself a simple question:
What story is God writing in my life right now?
Where is He inviting you to trust Him?
Where is He asking you to take a step of faith?
Where is He calling you to depend on Him more deeply?
Because spiritual vibrancy doesn't come from living in someone else's story.
It comes from walking closely enough with God to discover that He's still writing one in you.
And that may be the very thing that keeps you steady, stable, and strong for the long haul.
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