Growing to Maturity
"Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN
from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden
is light," Matthew 11:28-30
One cannot follow Jesus without seeing and hearing Him. Today,
we do that through the study of God's Word and prayer and
consider it a PERMANENT daily discipline! Anyone who will
honestly answer God's call and develop into a disciple of
Jesus Christ in this day and age needs to consider the actions
of the original twelve disciples. Those faithful ones...looked
unto Jesus! They walked and talked with Him. They followed
Him wherever He went, spent time with Him, watched, observed,
and listened intently to EVERYTHING He spoke!
They not only LISTENED...but they LEARNED and took their
lead from Him by DOING as He did. They asked Him specific
questions and listened to His responses. They interacted,
daily, with their Master, worshipping Him and understanding
that He was indeed, "the Christ, the Son of the Living
God!" They loved their Lord from their heart and obeyed
His directives as proof of that love. i Being daily in His
presence impacted their lives in such a manner as to produce
a change, not only in their nature, but also in their character,
behaviour and speech.
We can do no less today!
Jesus is not here in the flesh, but we still find the fullness
of His grace and truth as we experience His Word and His Spirit.
This comes through doing the same three things which the disciples
practiced.
THEY HAD JESUS:
1. to listen to, to ask questions of and to learn from
2. to fellowship with daily
3. to worship daily
WE, TOO, HAVE:
1. His written Word to study...to learn from
2. fellowship with Him in prayer, speaking to and listening
to
3. opportunity to worship Him daily
As we do these things, we, too, will grow in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...just as the first disciples
did!
Any person "gets to know" another person, relationally,
as they spend time with them. Apart from times of closeness
and openness, one only comes to know "about" another;
they do not experience them personally with looking at them,
being with them, speaking with and listening to them. It is
no different in relationship between Jesus and us! The disciples
lived, daily, experiencing these vital, connecting, interpersonal
things; and it is our reasonable responsibility as Christians
today, to also be found responding to the drawing and calling
of God in all these ways. These are the essential things that
develop individual disciples into spiritual maturity in this
life.
Healthy Growth
Natural, healthy growth in the life of plants and animals
calls for proper nutrients of food and water and light. So
does the process of growth in the spiritual life of the individual
disciple. This is God’s way. To grow, we must take in
God’s Word, partake of the Bread of Life, Jesus, and
be refreshed and washed by that same life-giving water of
His Word. We must walk in the light as He is in the Light
by looking unto Him, and coming into His Presence through
prayer and worship. These things are food, water and light
to us. Our spirit is a living thing. It must be nurtured and
cared for properly for it to grow and develop in the process
it was designed to experience. If not, it dies. At best, it
remains technically alive, but does not fulfill its purposed
design because it is asleep… unconscious and unaware
of the moving and working of God’s true purpose for
it.
We need to look unto Jesus and learn to be awake in our spirit,
our inner man. We learn by His supernatural help and grace
to become aware of life in more than one realm at a time -
the realm of the spirit and the realm of the natural.
God is a Spirit. We must be aware of Him in both realms to
experience Him! His life takes place in the realm of the Spirit,
which is unseen to the natural eye; but our spiritual eyes
and ears can be trained to see and hear in the realm of the
spirit even as we walk upon the earth.
Such an awareness comes only through a faithfulness and a
commitment to put 2 Timothy 2:15 and Ephesians 6:18 into practice.
These verses exhort the true disciple of Jesus Christ to look
unto Him and: “Study to show himself approved unto God,
a workman not needing to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
Word of Truth.” And also, “Praying without ceasing,
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful
to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all
the saints.”
Regular personal study of God’s Word and a lifestyle
of prayer brings the awareness of God (from His realm of Spirit)
into the realm where we live. It is the singular responsibility
of the disciple of Jesus Christ to be willing to daily practice
these disciplines and apply what is revealed if there is to
be spiritual growth in their life.
The things found in Hebrews 6:1-6 are the foundation the
Scriptures describe for the believer and disciple of Jesus
Christ. The writer of Hebrews calls us “to go on to
perfection (maturity), not laying, again, this foundation.”
He implies that for the true disciple of the Lord Jesus, once
this foundation has been laid and accepted as God intended…..it
is God’s plan that the disciple go on to maturity, by
continuing to build upon this sure foundation of basic belief.
Christian's Secret to a Happy Life
Many decades ago, a saint of God blessed the Body of Christ
by writing with classic insight. Her name was Hannah Whitehall
Smith, and she wrote a remarkable book called "The Christian’s
Secret to a Happy Life." This classic Christian work
was pivotal in my own initial salvation, experience, and there
are numerous testimonies that the Holy Spirit used her book
mightily in the souls of thousands of people over the years.
Hannah Smith’s work was a tool which drew me, and my
life’s gaze turned away from looking at myself and those
about me to "looking unto Jesus" as my source. The
Holy Spirit anointed the truth she shared, and the illustrations
she used proved very significant to me. These are concepts
of the Holy Spirit taken from her book, and drawing from her
words, I put them into this nutshell of understanding:
“What can be said of man’s part in God’s
great work of bringing His children to maturity? Each must
continually surrender himself unto God and continually trust.
The lump of clay could never grow into a beautiful vessel
if it stayed in the clay pit for thousands of years; but when
it is put into the hands of a skillful potter, it is shaped
and grows rapidly, under His fashioning, into the vessel He
intends it to be. And in the same way the soul, abandoned
to the working of the Heavenly Potter, is made into a vessel
unto honor, sanctified, and ready for the Master’s use.
“The maturity of a Christian’s experience cannot
be reached in a moment, but is the result of the work of God’s
Holy Spirit, who by His energizing and transforming power,
causes us to grow up into Christ in all things. And we cannot
hope to reach this maturity in any way other than by yielding
ourselves utterly and willingly, to His mighty working. But
the sanctification the Scriptures urge, as a present experience
upon all believers, does not consist only in the maturity
of our growth, but in purity of heart; and this may be as
complete in the early as in our later experiences.
“The lump of clay, from the moment it comes under the
transforming hand of the Potter, is, during each day and hour
of the process, just what the Potter wants it to be and therefore,
pleases Him; but it is very far from being matured into the
vessel He intends it to be in the future.
The little babe may be all that a babe could be, or ought
to be, and may, therefore, perfectly please its mother; and
yet it is very far from being what that mother would wish
it to be when the years of maturity shall come. The apple
in June is a perfect apple for June. It is the best apple
that June can produce; but it is very different from the apple
in October, which is a perfected, complete apple.
“God’s works are perfect (mature) in every stage
of their growth. Man’s works are never perfect until
they are in every respect complete. All that we claim, in
this life of sanctification is that by an act of faith, we
put ourselves into the hands of the Lord, for Him to work
in us all the good pleasure of His will, and then, by a continuous
exercise of faith…..keep ourselves there!”
God Expects His Children to Grow
God expects His children to grow in His likeness and character
because the basic transformation of their nature is from one
of sin to one of righteousness as they "look unto Jesus"
in the act of justification. Maturity into His character is
the goal of the process of healthy growth and development.
This comes as the result of the process of sanctification,
a lifetime of looking unto Jesus and practicing what we "hear"
Him say and "see" Him do. This is the plan of God
for EVERY child of God. Each is called to be His disciple
and to follow Him in manner and character of life.
I have personally illustrated it this way. I inherited three
beautiful pitchers from an aunt. They are hand blown amber
glass with unique green handles. They are identical in every
way except for size. There is one large, one medium size,
and one small. They are so beautiful that they remind me of
three beautiful sisters each about two years apart in age
from the other. The individual pitchers can each be filled
with sparkling water and be full for its size and shape, but
each does not hold the same amount of water.
I believe that the thing God looks for in us as His vessels
is that we be as full of Him and His truth as we can possibly
hold. Though a larger vessel may hold more of Him, He is looking
for FULLNESS rather than amount. This illustrates His desire
for us to walk in all the fullness of His grace and truth
of which we are presently capable. We may mutually understand
that the amount may increase over time as we grow spiritually;
but for now, He is looking for fullness of Himself in the
open vessel of each of our lives.
God desires for Himself a people that are His people in nature.
He has made provision for a "glorious church, without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be
holy and without blemish," (Ephesians 5:27). He longs
for our "growth in grace and in the knowledge of His
Word" above all things; for our doing so equips us to
be able to commune and have rich and intimate fellowship with
Him, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is a relational
being, and He longs for us to draw close to Him so that He
can enjoy us as His own and draw close to us. That we truly
know and become intimate with Him is the desire of His heart.
This is "normal Christianity"……relationship
and fellowship with God as it was designed to be from the
beginning. This is Christian discipleship: growing daily,
growing steadily, yielding to His will, humbling ourselves,
being teachable in all the vast areas of life which we do
not know, but in which He, alone, can teach us by His Word
and Spirit. It is to be found walking constantly in the attitude
related in Job 34:32: "Teach me, O Lord, what I do not
see; if I have done wrong I will do it no more."
Through such a teachable attitude, Jesus draws His disciples
into a continual hunger and thirst for righteousness from
the core of their being. He designed that our lives show a
"steady progression" in holiness and purity. He
molds our character into His example of integrity; and as
we grow, our righteous nature expresses itself as one that:
"Loves God completely ~
Loves ourselves correctly ~
Loves others compassionately" Ken Boa: Face to Face
The one who will look unto Jesus can learn to love in this
correct way. Spiritual growth is growth in the character and
likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Growth into
this character then becomes the behavioral pillars and structures
that are built upon the sure foundation laid in Hebrews 6:1-6.
It is around these pillars of maturity that we find the ever
increasing responsibilities of ministry and service formed
and fashioned.
Without the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, and this sure
foundation of the basic belief in the life of a disciple,
there would be no structure built up of the "glorious
church" corporately. Without foundation and structure,
there would not be fruitful ministry and service expressed
on behalf of God to this world.
Ken Boa, author of "Face to Face" , summed up these
two great commandments found in Matthew 22 by addressing these
three relationships we each have to face in life. We will
never be able to truly fulfill them unless we look unto Jesus,
the Author and Finisher of our faith. For there must be appropriate
love in our relationships with God, ourselves, and others
if we are to fulfill the design and purpose of God.
Before any individual is ever fully released into ministry
that would appropriately represent their Lord in Spirit and
in Truth, these three areas of relational love must be fulfilled.
After all, it is Him we serve and His Kingdom we represent.
It must be done on His terms and for His sake. We are not
our own, but have been bought with a price. He sets the standard
of love, and He changes not. The proof of maturity is the
relational evidence of His standard of love found in our lives.
Jesus said that the world would know that we are Christians,
by the love we demonstrate. That is what we are distinguished
by, for love never fails; and His standard has never lowered.
THIS demonstration of His love is Christian maturity. THIS
is mature discipleship, definitely looking unto Jesus and
following in His footsteps. His was a life and ministry of
honest, honorable humility. His character was pure. His behavior
was characterized by integrity and holiness - full of grace
and truth. His actions were timely and marked by wisdom that
is from Above. His expression of love honored and welcomed
others. His life was one laden with the fruit of righteousness.
He was holy in all His conduct. This is the one we are to
look unto. He called His people of old to this, and He calls
the same things to us today; for Jesus Christ is the same……yesterday,
today, and forever! (Hebrews 13:8)
Maturity is not age, an amount of knowledge, nor a grasp
of factual information. Rather it is how we live our lives
in relation to God, ourselves, and people - the most precious
of all God’s creation.
Do we live it in the fullness of His love and purity, or
do we live it unchanged, selfishly pursuing our own desires
and dreams apart from Him? Search your heart. Honestly see
where your choices and commitments have positioned you. Are
you looking to self and success in the culture around you,
or are you looking unto Jesus?
Copyright: Sandy Brunson - Volunteers for Jesus
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