Steps To Spiritual Maturity, Bible Study

Monday's Bible Study for June 10, 2013

(Steps To Spiritual Maturity, Bible Study)

I have dealt with people who thinks that I am judging them by telling them the Truth from the Word of God and they seem to get mad or upset and try to prove that they are right and they try to say that I have no clue. These people attend to say things like, “You don’t know me, you don’t live in my shoes and don’t know what I go through, so don’t tell me how to live or what to say”. Does this sound like you? What the problem here is, the Bible has already condemned you because you have chosen to disobey God and His Word. You can’t handle the Truth, so you attend to yell and scream at the messengers of God’s Word, even worse, you are having a spiritual battle with God Almighty and fighting with Him. I may not know some of you and don’t know what you have been through, but with you acting out like this show’s how immature you are and how ignorant you are to the teachings of God’s Word. To be one with God, you have to learn how to crawl before you can walk. You have to learn by hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that some of you don’t go to Church on a regular basis. You need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I can feel that some of you have not done that. You need to confess to Jesus Christ that you are in in the need of a Savior. You need to repent all of your sins to God and walk completely away from them and get water Baptized and you will receive the free Gift of God, which is Eternal Life in Heaven, not hell. We will talk about Baptism here in a bit. Many of you are just like Babies, even though you may be an adult, but you are not ready for pure spiritual food, because you may not be ready to handle it. I have some steps to help you to become a mature adult and I pray that it will help you become spiritually mature in the likeness of Jesus Christ. The way you act here on earth, shows what maturity level you are on. Lets dive right into this and I pray that you will learn to follow Jesus Christ today. 

(Steps To Spiritual Maturity, Bible Study)

‘I could not talk to you as spiritual adults but as to nonspiritual, or as infants in our Messiah. I fed you with spiritual milk not spiritual meat for you were not mature enough and even now you are not strong enough, for you are still too carnal’ (1 Corinthians 3:1 to 3) Prolonged spiritual childhood is carnality and it is often mentioned in the scriptures. Acting like immature Christians had reduced the Corinthian people to the status of spiritual babes. There was no distinction between carnality, immaturity and spiritual babes, because carnal people act childishly. If a person does not grow as they should in Christian character, then they are immature babes. Having a good memory for scriptures does not signify maturity. Christianity has to be of the heart, not head knowledge. Growing up as a Christian does not mean being able to quote many scriptures, it means to produce spiritual fruit or good Christian character. If a Christian goes whimpering off to the church leadership about silly trivialities, they are childish and that signifies immaturity. At this early stage of their Christian walk, weaker people are more likely to give up their faith (Matthew 13:19 to 21). It takes strength of character to remain faithful to God through difficult times. Ongoing sin or a reactive dislike of parts of the Bible are signs of immaturity. Many Christians love the excitement and joy of the house of God and see a lot of miracles but will not accept the discipline of church leadership. Many people hate the way the Bible describes some sins as abominations to God. They will not tolerate being told their sin is their sin and not someone else’s fault. They hate being told they will have to give an account to God on Judgement Day for their actions, both good and bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). Some people cannot accept solid teaching from the Word of Truth where a strong foundation can be laid. God cannot work through a church where He is not Lord and Head of that assembly, nor can Head just the relationships of people within the church to create strong disciples, or touch on their greed, their materialism or their worldly lifestyle. These same ‘babes’ might grow up if they could see the Christians in Africa for example, who dress in bark because they have no clothes and cannot easily access fresh drinking water, or having one Bible shared amongst 5,000 people like in some countries. The Corinthian church had many gifts but they also had many problems caused by immaturity. Gifts given by the Lord are not a sign of growth, but of grace. Maturity is knowing how to handle the gifts to glorify God and to edify the whole body of believers. The scriptures need to be understood by the mind but experienced by the heart. We all need to seek the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal those areas where we need to grow up in God. Spending time with the Lord, being completely silent in His Presence, waiting for His Word to come, worshiping, fasting, listening to Christian music, attending church and being involved in church activities will all help with spiritual growth. Once a person feels they cannot get enough of God’s presence even after spending hours with Him, that individual is growing up. If every Christian spent two or three hours reading His Word, praising, worshiping and praying, every single day, we would have very few spiritual infants. People who refuse to read the Bible, will not mature in God. The story of the elder brother of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11 to 32) shows a very immature man who complained about the father’s welcoming home party for the prodigal. Many Christians are like that. They do not realize Jesus has made the way of deliverance for them, nor do they realize they have an inheritance. They are still struggling to gain the victory, but they do not have to gain the victory for it has already been given to us by the blood of Jesus, so all we have to do is walk in that victory. Some people take a long time to grasp the concept of deliverance from sickness, spiritual weakness, sin and carnality, and walk in the liberty of salvation. ‘Whom the Son sets free is free indeed’ (John 8:36). At this stage of spiritual growth, there are still people who walk away from their faith when things get tough (Matthew 13:22). Other people turn to ‘alternative’ teaching. ‘Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings for it is good for the heart to be established by means of grace’ (Hebrews 13:9). A mature Christian will produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit and behave graciously. ‘Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control and those who have crucified the flesh with its desires. If we live by the Holy Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking and envying one another’ (Galatians 5:22 to 26). The scriptures say the doctrine of the carnal person is unstable. ‘We should no longer be spiritual children, tossed to and fro between various winds of doctrine, following unscrupulous men in every form of trickery, inventing errors to mislead, but speaking truth in love, let us grow up in every way to be like Jesus Who is our Head’ (Ephesians 4:14 & 15) The scriptural steps of spiritual maturity are water, milk, meat and oil. When we slowly grow up through the steps, we will see God is building His church gradually, step by step. The first step, water, is for spiritual cleansing, and for spiritual thirst quenching. Consistently reading the Bible washes us spiritually. This ‘water’ is figurative or spiritual. The Bible is the cleansing water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26). Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1 & 14; Revelation 19:13). He came with water and blood (1 John 5:6). We are washed by His blood (Revelation 1:5). The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1John 1:7). The water of the Word washes us clean from sin when we give our lives to Jesus, then after our salvation we should then be baptized in real water, which is very significant for our salvation. Jesus was baptized by full immersion so we should be baptized by full immersion. Jesus Himself is the Saviour and the Head of His body, the church because He gave Himself up for the church so He could cleanse the church by the washing of water with the Word, so He could then present the church to Himself in glorious splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing ... Wives need to submit to their husbands; husbands need to submit to Jesus ... Husbands are the head in a household; Jesus is the Head of the church ... Wives are to submit to their husbands; the church must submit to Jesus ... Husbands must love their wives; Jesus loved the church so much He gave Himself up for her ... Jesus sanctified the church by washing her with the water of the Word ... Jesus nourishes the church as a husband provides nourishment for his wife ... The God given sanctity of earthly marriage was given as an example of the church being the Bride of the Lamb, our Messiah (Ephesians 5:22 to 33). The water of the Word quenches our spiritual thirst or need for God. ‘As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God’ (Psalm 42:1 & 2). ‘Listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters ...’ (Isaiah 55:1). Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of this (normal) water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the (spiritual) water I will give them will never thirst again. The (spiritual) water I give will become in them a well of living water springing up to eternal life" (John 4:13 & 14). ‘To the thirsty, I will give (spiritual) water without price from the fountain of the water of Life’(Revelation 21:6). ‘The Holy Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let those who are listening say, “Come!” Let everyone come who is thirsty and whoever will, let them come, take of the Water of Life without cost’ (Revelation 22:17). Moving on from the watery steps, we come to the ‘milk’. ‘Like newborn babies you should crave the pure spiritual milk, so by it you may be nurtured and grow into salvation since you have already tasted the goodness of the Lord’ (1 Peter 2:2 & 3). As brand new baby Christians, we began our walk by listening to preachers tell us all about the Word of God. Most of it went right over our heads. When we first begin to read the Bible, it leaves us wondering. As new baby believers, we are not expected to know more than the basic doctrine of salvation. New Christians are called babes or infants. Jesus called His disciples babies, yet they were all strong, adult men, but they were new babes in the New Covenant (Matthew 11:25). Jesus called young Christians, lambs (John 21:15). John calls them little children (1 John 2:1, 12 & 28). As a new Christian, we need a long time to grow, just human babies do. The milk of the Word nourishes us until we learn to ‘walk’ in the Lord, unaided. The first step is as a spiritual baby, then a little child. After we learn to walk in the Lord, we are called ‘boys’ or ‘lads’ or young men (1 John 2:18). As we grow spiritually and learn more, so the steps of spiritual growth as mentioned in the Bible become deeper, more interesting, more exciting and we begin to get to know more about God’s personality. Once we become ‘children’ rather than ‘babes’, God begins His discipline and we grow faster, spiritually. ‘By this time you ought to be teachers but you still need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s Word. You have come to need spiritual milk not solid food. Everyone who feeds on milk is immature in the Word of righteousness, for he is a spiritual infant’ (Hebrews 5:12 & 13). Paul said he could not talk to the people as spiritual adults, but he had to speak to them as though they were spiritual infants because they were too carnal and unspiritual, behaving like unchanged people. They were arguing amongst themselves and Paul told them off (1 Corinthians 3:1 to 23). We need to grow up in God, mature and see things through spiritual ‘eyes’, not through worldly eyes. God will tolerate carnality in a new Christian for a while, but eventually He will start to deal with us as sons and purge the sinfulness out of us. Jesus said His words and teaching cleansed and pruned the disciples (John 15:3). Later on He said He could not tell them everything He wanted to because they were not ready for it (John 16:12). After a few years, we come to the next step in our spiritual growth. The next step is the need to go on to meat or more solid spiritual food. ‘Meat is for full-grown adults who are able to distinguish between good and evil’ (Hebrews 514). At this level we should be able to seek out for ourselves the deeper oracles of God written in the Bible. We should be past the stage where we believe everything the pastor says, just because he says it. We should be able to search both Old and New Testaments and cross reference scriptures. We should be able to line up the latest sermon from church with the scriptures. The Bible should be making a lot more sense than before because the more we read, the more the Lord opens our spiritual eyes, and so the more we can see. Jesus said, “Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and blessed are your ears because they do hear” (Matthew 13:16). Jesus was speaking about spiritual eyes and ears. The things of God are foolish to the natural, nonspiritual man, and it takes time to learn and discern the things of God (1Corinthians 2:14). Mature Christians are called sheep who should mature into shepherds. The next step is when we get to the point where we can teach others. The Bible calls mature Christians, fathers (1 John 2:13 & 14). It is a time when the Lord expects mature Christian behaviour and He will no longer tolerate immaturity or bad conduct. We are to be examples of Christianity to the outside world, to our families and especially, to new Christians in the church. This is the time when we are aware God is watching every move. He always has been, but we are more aware of it. We become more aware of the sin nature that lurks in our bodies. We strive to become as holy as mere humans can be because we know our purity brings us closer to God. We are also aware of the greatness of our Creator and are able to have long, involved conversations with Him. He tells us secrets He becomes more real than ever before. We can experience His kiss on our cheek, His wonderful perfume filling the room; we can sense the warmth and love in His eyes. He becomes a real Person. We are far more aware of what He expects of His people in the terms of holiness, honesty, kindness and other attributes He has, we are to attain to. This is when He reveals the weaknesses in our character He disapproves of, and the new fresh clean aspects of our character are revealed. At the same time, we are able to search the scriptures in a much deeper way and get to know God in a deeper, more mature way. He becomes our whole life, our breath, our constant companion and our lifeblood. This is the point where we know we can never live without Him, and there are no more stumbling blocks. If people make it to this stage in their walk with the Lord, they are much less likely to slip away (Matthew 13:23). Another step is the ‘oil’ of the Holy Spirit. This can come at any time in our lives, or any time in our walk with God. Some people receive the Holy Spirit the day they receive Jesus as their Saviour. Other people are not filled with the Spirit for years afterwards. Some are baptized in water before being baptized in the Holy Spirit, others receive the Holy Spirit before baptism in water. Every person is different and there is no set sequence for receiving the Holy Spirit, but once we do, we receive power to do God’s will. We receive the internal ‘fire that gives us the desire to get out there and preach. We receive the guidance we need (John 16:13). Praying in tongues, or praying in the Spirit gives us the strength to live in this sinful world without being tainted by sin (Jude 1:20, 24 & 25). We have learned to listen to the tiny voice of God so we are able receive answers to problems and questions we often want to ask Him. We receive the power to walk by faith, walk in the Spirit and walk in a totally new way of life. All we have to do is ask, receive by faith and learn to listen to His still, small voice. If you are a new Christian and are wondering why the Bible is so hard to understand, keep reading it because God will show you new things in His time. Just as we would not overload a young child with information they are too young to understand, so God also does not overload us with information we cannot yet absorb. Be patient with yourself and allow God to reveal the steps and stages of spiritual growth for you, slowly, as you are able to deal with each new piece of information. It gets better, more interesting and more exciting as God slowly reveals things to us; things we would never have dreamed possible. ‘They (Christians) have a garland (hope) for ashes (broken lives), the oil of joy (the Holy Spirit) for mourning (distress of any kind), the garment of praise (praise and worship) for the spirit of heaviness (depression, sadness) so they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord so He may be glorified’ (Isaiah 61:3). We are not to live for the flesh and of the world. Living the way of the world will only bring you sadness, hatred, sorrow, pain, aguish, misery, emptiness and it leads to destruction in hell fire. There is no Life if there was no God and you will have no eternal Life if you die without Jesus Christ in your heart, mind, body and soul. There is one person and way that you all need to belike, live like and follow and Jesus Is Our Example. ‘Come to Me all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light’ (Matthew 11:28 to 30). Those are wonderful words of Jesus. The idea of the ‘yoke’ is like a farmer or our ‘Master’. A yoke makes oxen go where the Master wants them to go, and do what the Master wants them to do. The whole message of the Bible is ‘God wants to give us salvation’. He wants to transform us, prepare us for heaven and finally, introduce us to a whole new existence. We need to concentrate on being transformed into the likeness of Jesus and that includes being totally obedient like He was. We need to learn from Jesus and apply the knowledge to our lives. Just reading the Bible is not enough to change us. ‘Receive with humility the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. Be doers of the Word of God, and not merely listeners to it’ (James 1:21 & 22). We need to form a one on one, close relationship with Jesus in order to learn from Him. We need to spend time in His company and get to know Him intimately, just as Jesus knows the Father intimately. ‘I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done for you’ (John 13:15). We need to make Jesus our Lord and our Master and follow His example. If we follow the Lord, we are not pushing against His will, and that makes our lives flow easier and we will find peace. Jesus also once had a ‘yoke’. He was, and still is connected to His Father, and in obedience went to the cross to save and liberate us humans, and in return we need to be committed to the Father’s purpose. His yoke is all about service and obedience to God. What kinds of things will Jesus teach us? He has told us He is gentle and humble in heart. Just as Jesus learned from His Father and did the things God told Him to do, so we also need to learn to do the things Jesus did and said. Jesus said if we do that, we will find rest for our souls. We will be at peace with in ourselves. The soul who learns from Jesus, is a soul at rest. If we are proud confused and live for ourselves, or striving to live without Jesus’ yoke to guide us, we cannot learn from God. The Pharisees were a good example of what not to do. Allowing Jesus to guide us will bring spiritual growth, and to do that, we need to be close to Him. What motivated Jesus? The close, loving relationship with the Father motivated Jesus to fulfil the task given to Him, and that is the yoke we need to have too. We must be obedient and fulfill whatever tasks are given to us, just as our Example, the Lord Jesus did. By taking His yoke and completing our tasks, we glorify God the Father. Jesus was speaking to the Father when He said, “I have glorified You on earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do” (John 17:4). Jesus showed us His ‘yoke’ by only ever doing what God the Father told Him to do. ‘I am able to do nothing from Myself ... because I do not seek My own will, but only the will of the Father Who sent Me’ (John 5:30). Several times in the four Gospels we read about Jesus saying just that; that He came solely to do God’s will. ‘For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but to do the will of Him Who sent Me, and this is the will of Him Who sent Me; that I should not lose any of all that He has given Me, but that I should give them new life and raise them up at the last day’ (John 6:38 & 39). In other words, God the Father wants to give us salvation through Jesus the Son. Jesus delighted to do God’s will. Jesus life was dominated by the desire to please the Father and to accomplish all that the Father had given Him to do; and He never once wavered from that thought. That thought determined Jesus’ attitude to life; made Him become our servant; He was utterly selfless; Jesus was never negative or selfish, ungracious or unloving. He was always wanting to direct people to the Father and teach people about the Father. That is what made Him reach out to touch sick people; reach out to bless the children; raise the dead; and finally, that is what took Him to Jerusalem and to the cross. That is why at the end He cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The Father was at the centre of what Jesus did, and we must also desire to do God’s will in its entirety, right to the end of our lives. Jesus taught us how to face life, but He also taught us how to face death. His very last words were, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit” (Luke 23:46). That is faith, because when we are dead, there’s nothing more we can do. Faith is the way we face death. We all need to face life by living to please the Father and to honour and glorify Him. We need to follow His example and allow that to bring us the greatest delight. We need to learn from the Lord Jesus daily. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus suffered anguish but He prayed, “Not My will but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). We also read that although Jesus is God’s Son, He learned obedience by what He suffered. Jesus became the Source of salvation to all those who obey Him (Hebrews 5:8 & 9). Jesus lived in total submission to the Father, His plans and His purposes. Jesus is the most influential Person in all of earth’s history. The Apostle Paul had the same determination to follow the Father. He faced beatings and death but did not waver from ‘fighting the good fight’. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7) In the book of Daniel we see that Daniels three friends from the tribe of Judah, Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach) and Azariah (Abednego) were also prepared to die in order to be obedient to the Father, and were delivered by the Angel of the Lord (Jesus) from an extremely hot, fiery furnace (Daniel 1:6 & 7; 3:12 to 27). Daniel was delivered from the hungry lion’s mouth (Daniel 6:16 to 23). The obedience of these four incredibly brave men changed history in favour of the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar made a decree that everyone had to honour God (Daniel 3:29). Later King Darius made a decree that every person had to fear the Lord (Daniel 6:25 to 27). We are all capable of pushing God out to the fringes of our lives instead of keeping Him at the centre where He should be. Jesus – who is our example – never once did this even as a teenage boy. Every year Jesus and His family went to Jerusalem for a Passover feast. One year when Jesus was about 12 years old, He failed to return home with His parents. They searched for Him for three days, and when they found Him, His mother Mary firmly scolded Him for worrying them. Jesus reply was; “Did you not know that it is necessary for Me to be in My Father’s house doing My Father’s business?” An example for teenagers to follow is; Jesus was always obedient to His parents (Luke 2:41 to 52) We need to follow Jesus’ example of obedience and dedication to God. Fierce determination did it for Jesus, and will do it for us too, and with God’s help, we will succeed. We cannot, cannot, cannot, do this on our own. We must be submitted to God, humble ourselves and ask His help, and by the grace of God we will achieve total obedience like Jesus did. If we fail, we need to repent, confess our sins, and get right up and press on to the goal. Total submission to God can actually keep us from falling into sin (Jude 1:24). But if we do fall we know we have an Intercessor, Who intercedes on our behalf and can pull us back up again (Romans 8:27; Hebrews 7:25). We all have different calling’s so we need to ask God what our task is and do what He asks of us. We will not succeed if we try to do someone else’s job. The example for this is found in the scriptures. The body of believers is made up of many parts. If God calls us to do a task, we should not try to do a different one. If we are a ‘hand’, we should not try to be a ‘foot (1Corinthians 12:12 to 25). We all belong in our own place, doing our own job, in obedience to God’s will. Just as Jesus was obedient and was completely and totally successful in His purpose;which was the plascripturesn of salvation the Father gave to Him for us; so our obedience to God is the key to a successful Christian life. ‘According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Holy Spirit, that you may obey Jesus and be washed in His blood. Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus our Messiah, Who according to His great mercy, became our Father again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that does not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last days’ (1 Peter 1:2 to 5). As we close in prayer tonight, if you want God’s Holy Spirit to come into your life and to make that transformation in your life, then you need to live your life for God and not for yourselves. Living your way is what got you into the poor situation that you are in, in the first place. Many of you has been blinded by satan’s darkness, for way to long. Now is the time to make that change, by living your life to the fullest for Jesus Christ, God Almighty. Come to God and get right in His sight so you can be in Heaven when you die. Lets Pray.