Daily Rhema: SPIRITUAL MATURITY

Proverbs 22:6 KJV
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Stretching Beyond Your Measure

Spiritual maturity is determined by the size or capacity of the human spirit, and the degree of divine wisdom and understanding in the soul.

The larger your spiritual capacity and the more knowledge, understanding and wisdom you have, the more mature you are.

This determines what spiritual responsibilities you can handle at each point in time. You must be careful not to take on responsibilities that will stretch you beyond the measure of your present spiritual capacity (2Cor.10:14).

The Lord Jesus Himself grew in stature and wisdom (Lk. 2:40). Too many Christians want too much too quickly! For instance, how can the flock of God be properly cared for by spiritual children?

It would be the height of irresponsibility for a natural father to put his five year-old child in a rented apartment by himself and tell him to fend for himself, because he is old enough to talk.

If you are going to succeed in Christianity, you must learn to wait before God can entrust you with more responsibilities, power and prosperity. This is because proper spiritual growth, like physical growth, takes many years.

The prodigal son in Luke 15:11-19 got his inheritance prematurely, consequently wasted it and almost lost his salvation. Although he was taken back into the family, he lost his inheritance because all the father had now belonged to the elder brother (Lk.15:31).

This is like the case of the Christian who is saved but so as by fire, and suffers loss (1Cor.3:15). One reason why his works were of the quality of wood, hay and stubble and were burned, was that they were done prematurely, without the necessary spiritual capacity and wisdom.

Long Distance Race

The true goal of Christianity is to attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, being conformed to His image (Eph. 4:12-15; Rom. 8:29).

Every Christian is faced with the simultaneous challenge of two types of growth. The first is a growth into spiritual maturity (from spiritual babyhood to fatherhood).

The second is a growth in purity, which starts with sanctification of the human spirit (at the new birth), and ends with the total and permanent sanctification of the spirit, soul and body of the believer (permanent perfection).

Growth to Maturity

There are three main stages of spiritual growth for the Christian; the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear (Mk. 4:26-28). The Bible also speaks of babes, little children, young men and fathers (1Cor. 3:1; IJn. 2:12-14).

The growth from a babe to a little child is the ‘blade’ stage. From little child to young man is the ‘ear’ stage; and from young man to father is the ‘full corn’ stage. We must grow in wisdom (Lk. 2:52) and in spiritual stature (Psa. 119:32).

Growth Timing

How long does it take to grow from spiritual babyhood to spiritual fatherhood?

Example: The Lord Jesus. From the time the Lord started about His Father’s business at age twelve (Lk.2:42,49), until the time of fulfilling His purpose at the cross, at thirty-three, was twenty-one years.

Example: David; he was anointed as a teenager (1Sam.16:11; 17:42) and became king over all Israel at the age of about thirty eight years: a period of about twenty-one years.

Example: Joseph; he was seventeen when God gave him dreams and thirty-eight to thirty-nine years old when he experienced the fullness of those dreams (Gen.37:2; 41:46,53-54; 45:4-6); again about twenty-one years.

From the example of the Lord Jesus, who is our perfect example (we cannot grow faster than Jesus), we see it will take about twenty-one years to grow from the new birth into Fatherhood, under the right conditions.

21= 7 x 3 is symbolic of perfection of completion: 7 is God’s number for completion (Gen. 2:2) and 3 for perfection (Lk. 13:32). So to grow from baby to little child takes 7 years; little child to young man takes 7 years and young man to father, another 7 years.

It is possible to have been a Christian for many years and still be a baby Christian because of improper growth conditions (Heb. 5:12-13).

This does not mean that you must wait twenty-one years before you can do anything for God. As you grow, right from the early stages, you can and should engage in spiritual activities within your local church, even to the degree of becoming a leader at one level or another, under authority (Gal. 4: 1-2).

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