Time to Grow Up!

A little boy, after watching his father drive, asks if he can jump behind the wheel and drive the car. Because the boy sees his father is in complete control behind the wheel, he wants to take a turn. Driving looks like fun and the boy wants to try it out. But because the father knows that the child is too young to drive, and because the father has the child’s best interests at heart he will lovingly deny his sons request. Making this little boy understand that he needs to wait until he’s a bit older to be able to drive is as hard as making us Christians understand that we need to first mature spiritually in order for God to use us to our fullest potential.

If you guys are anything like me, as soon as you got saved you began crying out to God to use you. You asked Him to give you at least one of the spiritual gifts mentioned by Paul in I Corinthians. When we hear about other people in church dreaming prophetic dreams, seeing visions, and hearing God speak to them clearly we ask why not me? How come God is not using me as mightily as He is using so and so in church? We, like the little boy, ask our Father who is in heaven to let us drive the car of spiritual gifts, to let us take the wheel. But because God has our best interests at heart He will lovingly deny us our request.

But what about those of us who aren’t babies? What about those of us who have been in church for years and years, how come we’re not receiving visions and dreaming dreams? Some of you have been saved for years and still are not being used of God the way you should be or the way you want to be. So what’s the problem, why isn’t God giving you visions and dreams and prophetic words? Why in all your years of being saved have you not heard God’s voice clearly speaking to you or even seen Him in a vision? How come you’ve never once laid hands on someone and they get healed? How come you’ve never interpreted tongues? The answer to that question is easy...

Because you need to first grow up! It’s time for all of us to grow up. Just like the father cannot let the child drive a car he cannot handle, God will not bestow upon you a gift He knows you cannot handle. Though God can use anything, He prefers to use men not boys (and by men I mean adults of both sexes’ not just males). I Corinthians 14:21 says; “In the law it is written, With men (not with boys or with children) of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.” All the examples of people being mightily used of God in the Bible are people who were adults spiritually. Correct me if I’m wrong but never once do we see God using someone who is a baby spiritually in mighty ways. Luke 1:80 says John the Baptist “grew and waxed strong in spirit”. Acts 9:22 says Paul “increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ”.

That being established how do we grow up spiritually?

I Corinthians 13:11 says, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

The measure of a child’s physical growth is in their abilities or their actions. As children grow older we expect them to be able to do certain things. We expect a child to be able to feed themselves, walk without support, and talk. But because our growth in the Lord is not physical, it is measured by what manifests itself on the outside as a result of what’s going on on the inside. Just like we have expectations of children as they grow older, the Lord also has expectations of us as continue to grow spiritually. From this verse we can see three manifestations of the state of our insides that the Lord expects us as mature Christians to display;

First of all we are expected to stop speaking as children and begin speaking as adults. So how do adults speak? Let’s find out.

Mathew 12:34-37 says; “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

Colossians 3:8-9 says; “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.”

So mature Christians do not lie, they do not blaspheme, and they do not engage in discussions about filthy topics. But notice what verse 34 of Mathew 12 says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. Our words are therefore manifestations of what is in our hearts. A good heart cannot speak evil things neither can an evil heart speak good things. So to speak like mature Christians, we need to make sure our hearts remain clean after we are saved. When we are saved we are given a new heart, a clean heart, our hearts of stone are removed and we are given hearts of flesh. However if we let our hearts get defiled by the things of this world we won’t be able to grow in Christ.

Luke 21: 34 says; “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”

To speak as a child is to speak as you please with no thought to the consequences of your words. Spiritually to speak as a child is to speak according to your will and not according to the Lord’s will. Speaking as a mature Christian therefore, is speaking according to the will of God or speaking with the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But we can only be inspired by the Holy Ghost if we listen to it and surrender our wills to the Lord, or in other words, let the Holy Ghost reign supreme in our hearts. So to speak as mature Christians we have to make sure our hearts remain filled with God and nothing else.

Secondly, we understand as adults and not as children. So how do spiritual adults understand?

Ephesians 4:14-15 says; “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”

Children are easily convinced because they do not understand a whole lot about the world. That’s why you can tell a child that a magical fairy puts money under their pillows when they lose a tooth and they’ll believe it. If we want to become mature in the Lord we need to understand His word in order not to be easily deceived by false prophets.

Hebrews 13:9 says; “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines”. But how do we ensure that we do not get carried away by strange doctrines?

II Timothy 2:15-16 says; “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.”

So as we can see, in order to understand the word of God as mature Christians we need to study the word of God and hide in it our hearts. We need to be ready to disprove false prophets by taking them to the word of God and showing them the truth. But how can you show someone the truth in the Bible if you yourself don’t know where it is. There are many principles that have been attributed to the Bible that are not in the Bible, for example God helps those who help themselves, or cleanliness is next to Godliness. Because Christians do not bother to take the time to check these principles out they have been accepted as the word of God yet they are not.

The word of God is meat unto His children so when we are growing as Christians we need to move from milk to meat. Hebrews 5:14 says; “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

I Corinthians 3:1-2 says; “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.”

I Corinthians 14:20 says; “Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”

We need to graduate from milk to meat. We need to dig deep in the word of God and study it diligently in order to be able to understand as mature Christians and not as children. We should not be satisfied with simply coming to church and hearing God loves you, God will bless you, we should hunger for real meat. We should hunger for the pastor to go deep into doctrinal discussion on Sundays. Unless we progress from our favorite passages of scripture to reading the Bible in its entirety we will remain children in understanding. Our understanding is a manifestation of the word of God hidden away in our hearts. If we do not hide the word of God in our hearts we will be like gullible children easily convinced about this and the other.

Thirdly, we begin thinking as adults. To understand how mature Christians should think let’s first look at how they shouldn’t think.

Romans 8:6-7 says; “For to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

Our thoughts are a manifestation of who we are. What we consume ourselves with is what our thoughts will be preoccupied with. Proverbs 23:7 says; “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Therefore knowing we are not supposed to occupy ourselves with worldly things how are we supposed to think?

II Corinthians 10:5 says; “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Psalms 19:14 says; “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord.”

Philippians 4:8 says; “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Romans 12:3 says; For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

We are to think pure thoughts by occupying ourselves with godly things. As mature Christians we should be contemplating, thinking, meditating upon, and occupying ourselves with God and the work He has assigned each and every one of us. We cannot let ourselves be consumed by worldly thoughts because we know where such distractions lead. A child thinks only about the right here and right now. Children rarely look to the future to see the consequences of their actions. When a child wants to do something, they’ll do it without a single thought about the consequences of what they are doing. Children eat as much candy as they can sneak past their parents without thinking twice about cavities and dentists. Children will argue they want to stay up all night playing without thinking twice about how tired they will be in the morning or how the lack of sleep affects their performance throughout the day.

But adults think about the future. Adults calculate their moves before taking them, and understand that doing A will result in B and doing C will result in D and since D is the favorable outcome I’d rather do C than A. We as mature Christians should begin thinking about the future as well and the consequences of our actions.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Living for God results in eternal life, not living for God results in death, since eternal life is the favorable outcome we’d rather live for God than not live for God. Rather than complain about how sister so and so gets visions and I don’t, let us concentrate on growing into spiritual adults so that God can use us to our fullest extent. We tie the Lord’s hands and hinder Him from using us by choosing to remain babies spiritually.