I hear, both in the corporate world and within leadership circles in the Church, the phrase, “Taking someone to the next level.” Entire courses of instruction and counseling are developed to take someone to whatever “the next level” means.

That next level is defined in a variety of ways, mostly involving greater levels of personal success and influence. In God’s Kingdom, the next level is not about promotion or increase. It is about deeper intimacy with God.

In the 1990s, Jan and I took a class from Dr. Bobby Clinton at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. The class was offered to us as part of our training to prepare us for missionary service overseas.

Dr. Clinton and his group of assistants began to study leadership. They would eventually study tens of thousands of leaders from Scripture and leaders across history in both the culture and within the Church. What they found was that only 30% of the leaders finished well.

Those 30% had two things in common that informed the researchers that a person had finished their life well. First and foremost, they continued to grow in their intimacy with the Lord, and secondly, as a result of that intimacy, they had made their ultimate contribution in God’s Kingdom for which they had been created to make.

Just those two things define a person who finished well – nothing else. It wasn’t about how large or influential their ministry became, or the lifestyle they were able to live because of their promoted position. The key element of their success in God’s Kingdom was their increasing intimacy with the Lord.

While Clinton’s research was focused on leaders, it applies to everyone in God’s Kingdom. If we want to get to the next level of our faith journey, it only comes from keeping our intimacy with the Lord as the primary purpose of our lives. In that increasing intimacy with God, we will discover our Kingdom purpose. Our intimacy with the Lord is the only thing that will direct our steps toward that purpose.

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).