Spiritual Maturity

Are you growing in your relationship with Christ? Are you the same as you were last year? Are others seeing the fruit on your tree?

Everything God asks us to do, He gives us the power (grace) to do it. The biggest mistake we make is to TRY and DO IT without God's help. The first thing you should say is, "God I cannot, however I am willing to let you do it through me." Yes, we're partners with God, but we cannot do anything without Him. Anything we try to do because we're trying to keep up with someone else, God is not going to help us with. He doesn't want us trying to be like anyone else. He wants you to say, "God what do you want me to do?" and then whatever He shows you to do, He'll help you do that.

When we have an intimate relationship with Jesus, everything works. With the law, everything becomes a "have to"... I have to go to church, I have to pray, I have to read the word, I have to confess the word, I have to memorize the word, I have to tithe... everything becomes a HAVE TO.  Have to is dead. Jesus gave us a WANT TO. We spend time in the Word because we want to, not because we have to. If you have the mindset that you have to do all of these things to make God happy, then it just sucks all the joy out of it. You don't do things to get God to love you. He is love. He already loves you perfectly. When you know that, you begin to respond to that by "wanting" to do what God wants you to do. You want to please Him. You don't do things because you think He'll be mad at you if you don't. When you do things because you WANT to, there is a JOY in doing it.

Romans 12:2 says we are transformed, completely changed by the entire renewal of our mind. A beautiful hand painted little teacup started out as a lump of clay, went through a lot of stuff, and was transformed from one thing into an entirely different thing. Are you the same as you were last year? It glorifies God when others see you change and they see what God does in your life. When you change from an angry person into a loving person, from a greedy person into a generous person, from a selfish person into a selfless person, it brings great glory to God as He is the change maker. People need to see the fruit on our tree. The world needs to see us not just go to church. They need to see us change and represent Christ to them. Romans 8:29 says, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers and sisters." God preordained that we would be molded into the person of Jesus Christ. Any person who will not let God do what He wants to do in their life, will not ever be happy. There are a lot of unhappy Christians today because they are unwilling to let God mold them. Take clay, representing you, and shape, representing Jesus. There's a lot of stuff that has to go through the forming process, a lot of stuff that has to be broken off of our lives.

There is no microwave Christian maturity. We say that we want to be transformed into His image, but we really want to be "zapped." God is a lot like a slow cooker, a crock pot that takes all day, but boy are things tender when they come out. Who needs a breakthrough in their life? There are no drive through breakthroughs either. You can't grow up in God overnight. It takes two things. The first thing is the Word. The second is time. It takes a few years to learn who you are in Christ, to know that your confidence is in Him.

As Christians, we need milk and meat. Milk is affirming who you are in Him... you are amazing, you are blessed, God's got a great plan for your life. We need that. We also need meat. Meat confronts our behavior. Meat says that it's time not to act like the world. Meat says it's time to get yourself off your mind and do the things that God is asking you to do. God says that it's time for self control. Hebrews 5:13 says, "For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness, for he is a mere infant (not able to walk yet)."  What does this mean? The doctrine of righteousness means you know who you are in Christ. He has come to live in you and your new identity is in Him. Your confidence and trust is in Him. He loves you and will never stop loving you. Then you begin to work with the Holy Spirit to let what He's done in you worked to the outside of you. That takes correction from God. This is the deal... listen closely... if you don't know who you are in Christ, every time you hear something that corrects you or confronts your behavior, it's going to condemn you. In the early years of our marriage, anytime Kent would say anything that would bring any type of correction to my life, I would get so defensive and so mad. I was a baby Christian. We gotta like milk and meat. The reason that it's important to have life groups is to have some accountability in our lives. We all get off track and need to be pointed back to Christ. You need to have good enough friends so when you're acting super stupid, they will sit you down and say sister... this ain't you! What do immature Christians talk about? When Paul says in Hebrews 5:13 that he is a mere infant, he means that immature Christians don't know how to talk right.  All you have to do is listen to WHAT they talk about. They talk about themselves most of the time. The rest of the time they talk about their problems. Ephesians 4:15, "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, and when Jesus ascended, He said I'm going to send you another counselor and He will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13) What is so awesome about the Holy Spirit is that He will never show you something or deal with in an area if it's not the right time in your life and it's not going to be for your benefit. What is one thing that God is dealing with you right now? Is it an attitude? Is God dealing with you to be more generous? More patient? How about more discipline and self control? Will you make a decision to trust God and decide that now is the time to do what God has been asking you to do? When we move in God's timing, there is an anointing that makes things so much easier. It's an easy flow when we get in God's timing. If you wait until you're ready, you may never do it. We need to be like David and move promptly and do what He is asking us to do when He asks us to do it. Often times, little acts of obedience are more important than what we think are the big things. You can speak one word to someone and turn their whole day around for them. Life gets to be exciting and takes on such a better quality when we get up every day, not just trying to get God to give us what we want, but wanting to partner with Him in the work He is doing. "God put somebody in front of me today that I can help and be a blessing too. And whatever you want to deal with in me do it because I don't want to stay the same." The most frightening thing is that we would never change. He changes us from glory to glory to glory. We need to learn how to receive correction and conviction from God without letting it condemn us. This is the only way we will spiritually mature.

God Bless You,

Love,

Sherry :-)