Divine Advancement: Systems and Routines

Do you want to grow rapidly in God–but you find yourself frustrated because you don’t seem to be making progress? If so, let’s discuss one of the keys to divine advancement that you may be missing: the key of systems and routines.

One of the biggest keys that I have ever found to spiritual growth–rapid spiritual growth, even–is the use of systems and routines that support your goal to seek God. Today, as Part 6 of our series 9 Keys to Divine Advancement, we’re going to talk about some very practical systems and routines that will help you become exponentially closer to Jesus.

What do I mean by “systems”?

When talking about spiritual growth “systems,” I simply mean “the way you do things.” But, “the way you do things” shouldn’t be willy-nilly or based on chance.

Building a relationship with anyone takes purposeful, planned-out action, and building a relationship with Jesus is no different. Think about it:

• If a man is wooing a woman, does he only rarely contact her or offer her gifts? Of course not. If he’s truly interested, he makes a plan for when to contact her; he pursues spending time with the woman; and he plans out meaningful gifts, surprises, and over-the-top gestures.
• If a salesperson is wooing a potential key client, do they only rarely reach out to discuss the business deal they could put together? No! They make a plan, ask key questions, pitch their ideas, and pursue the deal until (hopefully) it comes together.

It should be the same for us when we pursue Jesus.

There is a way certain things are done in the world to achieve specific results. And building relationships always requires outreach, communication, planning, and intentional effort.

If you want any relationship to be special and personal, then you’re also going to have to add in things like sweet gestures, careful listening, heart-to-heart conversations, gifts, kind words, loving acts of service one to another, and special times together. That is how relationships are built.

Well, if you want to grow in Jesus, it will make all the difference in the world if you will implement a system for pursuing Him.

There should be a way you do things–a certain way you have decided on because it’s best, not because it’s what you feel. This “way you do things” is your personal system for pursuing Jesus.

Then, you implement that system using routines. And by using both systems and routines, you make sure that your daily pursuit of Jesus is not an afterthought. You give Him first place in your life because, every day, you PLAN to do so–and you carry out your plan.

I know this may sound too logical or rigid.

I’m not actually a rigid person at all. But, on some things, the Scriptures require us to be rigid. There’s nothing flexible about what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33 NKJV).

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus didn’t give any options for having “all these things” added to you if you seek Him second, third, or not at all. Seeking FIRST the Kingdom of God, and seeking FIRST His righteousness, is the only option that actually gets you anywhere.

(If anything comes before God on our priority list, then we have an idol–and we never want to go there.)

Yes, Jesus must come first in our lives, both in word and in deed.

Look at what Jesus Himself said in John 4:23-24:

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24 NKJV).

To “worship in spirit and truth” means that we both have a heart for God, loving Him with all our hearts, AND we actually carry that love into real actions. We have to both believe God, love Him, and obey Him every single day.

In our faith, our confessions, and our actual actions, we have to put Jesus first in all things.

This means:

• Yes, you have to plan out your time with Him.
• You have to make aggressive plans to pursue Him, establishing specific times and certain ways you seek Him every single day. (These are your spiritual growth systems and routines!)
• And then, we each have to carry out those plans, even when we are tired, unmotivated, or don’t feel like it.

So, what are some examples of systems you could put in place to help you seek Jesus first?

Remember, the systems are the higher-level “way you do things.” The routines are the nitty-gritty details of carrying out those systems. (We’ll talk about that below as well.)

But first, just as examples, here are a few spiritual growth “systems” that I use:

System 1: I decided years ago to give Jesus the literal first part of my day.

I schedule everything around this, every day. (This decision requires a routine to actually carry it out, but read further below for more about that.) This has been the best decision, after salvation, that I have ever made in my life.

System 2: When I read my Bible, I always do so with pen and highlighters in hand.

I have a system for highlighting what I read in different colors:

• pink for words that speak to my heart;
• orange for words of caution;
• blue for words about rest;
• green for words about money; and
• purple for words about Christ’s deity: how He IS God and claims to be God.

I also keep the following items ALWAYS in my special prayer spot (a spare bedroom which I call my “woman cave” in my house):

• my Bibles;
• my journals;
• my tallit;
• my study materials;
• copies of my books (as my own books are my own tools that I myself need, in most cases);
• tissue for those teary days;
• highlighters in various colors;
• pens of different types;
• stickers (which I use to decorate my journal and also to mark certain Bible passages and prayer trains in my Bible);
• my box of Bible promise cards (which I call “God’s treasure box”);
• scissors (you never know when you need them);
• blankets;
• pillows to prop my books up on; and
• prayer reminders (like the flags of nations, our printed prayer cards, and more from my prayer toolbox).

Those things are always there because I always need them, every single day. So, I have a system in place to keep those items in certain spots, and they are always readily accessible. Having this system makes my time with Jesus exceedingly fruitful every day.

System 3: When I get in my car alone, I decided to use that opportunity to pray in the Spirit.

So, when I am driving around running errands (which I have to do for work all the time), I put on some worship music and pray in tongues.

Related: Read here about what is the baptism in the Holy Spirit and how you can receive it, with the gift of speaking in tongues and all the other spiritual gifts too.

System 4: When I sit down to be alone with the Lord, I enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

I don’t start off my prayer time with my laundry list of needs. I do have plenty of needs, as we all do; but, after I ask the Father for Holy Spirit to help me pray, I begin by thanking and praising God because that’s how the Word says we should approach Him.

This are just a few examples of little systems I have established to help me pursue Jesus with all my heart, and to encounter Him daily.

But, systems require routines to support them and make them effective. Without a routine that you execute every day, you can have a system set in place all day long, but still do nothing about it.

Routines help you manage your time.

Here’s a key to remember about all types of divine advancement:

God isn’t waiting to pour out His Spirit and His blessings on us. He does so every single day, and His blessings rain down on us fast and furiously … in proportion to the degree in which we seek Him. So, if we want to advance in our walk with the Lord, we have to invest our labors and efforts in seeking Him to the same degree that we want Him to advance us.

To do that, you must have routines in place that structure your TIME.

What kind of routines do you need to set up to aggressively pursue Jesus?

First, you need a morning routine. Here are some key things to ask yourself when setting up your morning routine:

• Does seeking God first matter to you? If so, then you know for sure that your quiet time alone with the Lord in prayer and Bible study needs to be in the morning, immediately after you wake up from sleeping (or your version of “morning” if you work nights), before you face the rest of your day.
• How many minutes does it take you to wake up, stop hitting snooze and actually get up out of bed, and empty your bladder, so you can move on to seeking God?
• How many hours would you like to pray and study the Word each day? (I recommend a minimum of one hour for basic spiritual growth. In decades of experience, I have seen that people are unlikely to ever be strong in the Lord if they don’t seek Him first for at least one hour a day.)
• What time do you need to be done with your quiet time (which happens first, before you get ready for work, et cetera) in order to start getting ready for work, and to get out the door on time?

Write down all the answers to those questions.

Then, back up your times like this:

• If you have to get out the door by 7:30 AM …
• And you need 1 hour to get yourself and your family ready …
• Then you have to be done with your quiet time, so you can start getting ready, by 6:30 AM.
• And if you decide that you’d like to spend 1 hour a day alone with the Lord, in prayer, worship, and Bible study …
• Then you will need to begin your quiet time by 5:30 AM.
• And if it takes you 30 minutes to hit snooze a few times, get out of bed, and empty your bladder …
• Then your wake-up alarm needs to be set for 5:00 AM at the very latest.

But, you also need 8 hours of sleep. So, subtract the 8 hours from that, and you will see the surprising fact that you will need to be in bed by 9:00 PM every night in order to put God first in your life like you desire to do.

“But I can’t get in bed by 9 PM,” you say? Why not? Figure out why, and then make whatever changes are needed to support your #1 priority of seeking God first for one hour a day.

Of course, these are just examples. Everyone’s life is different.

BUT …

Don’t make excuses.

People often use the phrase “My life is different than your life” to make excuses for bad time management. If you’re thinking that right now, why is your life different?

If you have serious things that truly make the example above impossible for you, that’s fine. Make your own routine that does work, which still enables you to seek God first.

BUT …

When I hear most people say “My life is different,” they are saying that because:

• Going to bed early would require them to forego 2 hours of doomscrolling on their phone at night.
• Going to bed early would require them to skip their favorite shows on TV in order to seek God first.
• Going to bed early would require them to not have their children in extracurricular activities every single night of the week, and they’d hate to disappoint their children.
• (Even though children do not have the maturity or skill set to be able to decide what’s best for them; that’s what parents are for. And children always want everything they see [including every extracurricular activity known to man], but they don’t have the wisdom or maturity to see how those activities hinder rest, discipleship, health, building real family relationships, and so many other things. That’s why children have parents–to protect them from themselves, the devil, the world, and unholy culture.)
• Being able to get out of bed early and be reasonably conscious would require them to break their dependence on coffee (a strong drug), and also to take vitamins at bedtime, which takes effort and purposeful planning.

Oh, she’s gone to meddling, now. 😉

But what if you came home in the evening, left the TV off, did homework, cooked dinner, packed your lunches for the next day, did laundry, touched up your housecleaning, laid out everyone’s clothing for the next day, had family devotions, and got everybody in bed by or before 9 PM …

… so you could also wake up at a reasonable hour, rested and refreshed, and seek God first for an hour a day …

… all so you could grow in the Lord and aggressively pursue Him as He deserves?

And what if you did this every day, seven days a week, as a matter of routine–instead of just here and there, or (worse yet) never?

I guarantee you that you’d be blessed for it.

Jesus Himself said so, so He’s really the One making the guarantee–not me. 🙂 Look at Matthew 6:33 again:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33 NKJV).

Routines are concrete ways you choose to manage your time. They are absolutely essential if you want to seek God first every single day. Seeking God first every single day is the basic requirement to growing in the Lord.

And once you get that routine set up, you can make all kinds of different sub-routines for yourself to enhance and support it, like:

• The order in which you do different things in your quiet time (like offering thanksgiving, prayer, studying the Word, speaking the Word over yourself, sowing seed, and so on);
• Your special Sunday morning routine to get your family to church.
• Your bedtime devotional routine, so you can read the Word to your children and talk about God with them.

Routines are not just for logical, methodical people. They are for everyone.

I’m the most spontaneous person I know. I love creativity and feelings and expression. I’m not a natural planner; I have to have God’s help every day with things like planning and structure.

But, I set up systems and routines for myself many years ago, and have stuck to them like glue ever since. He gets all the glory, for He has helped me do that. But, He’ll help you do the same! And God has used these systems and routines–which produce my time with Him, and thereby growth in Him–to change my life a million percent. Again, He’ll do the same for you.

What kinds of systems and routines do you need to establish to seek God first, and to advance in Him?

Stop and ask the Lord to show you. Review the examples above for potential ideas. Keep an open mind about changing your habits, your mindsets, and your physical dependencies.

Ask God what changes you need to make in order to pursue Him aggressively, and pursue Him first.

And then, let the Lord show you what He wants you to do–and let Him work in your heart as He answers. Remember that it is God Who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13 NKJV).

… and He’ll help you want to make the changes He shows you, and He’ll help you actually make them.

Does this article about divine advancement through systems and routines challenge or inspire you? If so, leave a comment below!