He Has You

Being born again is the new you. Jesus taught, “…unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

It is one thing to be born and another to grow up. Many are born again, but it is the rare few that reach spiritual maturity. The limit is not a restriction of God, but the limit of what you are willing to do.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food” (Hebrews 5:12).

We are meant to grow and mature spiritually. We are called to walk in the Spirit, but many remain crawling.

 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:1). We have many spiritual babes in our Churches.

Don’t be satisfied with an immature spiritual life.

You were meant for something more.

Measuring Maturity

You cannot measure growth unless you mark the points along the way. Be honest with where you are at and ask the Lord to help you from there.

An immature believer has come to the cross, but the spiritually mature have climbed up on that cross. Spiritual growth sprouts from natural decay.

An immature spiritual bully is one who tries to strong arm others into believing exactly as they do. A mature saint will listen to what others believe and love them whether they agree with them or not.

In the natural, a flat line is a heart no longer working. Beware the flat line of your faith.

The sign of a maturing saint is that they are no longer surprised that their prayers are answered. “So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer” (Ezra 8:23).

Spiritual increases come by natural decreases. So long as you see fasting as a loss, you will never gain from it.

The sign of a mature saint is they long to live the consecrated life. Never think you can be so deep in the world and not be of this world.

The mature faith is not measured in time or intellect, but the trust in your heart. The immature believer trusts themselves too much and the Lord too little. The mature believer trusts God even when they have good reason not to.

The world’s idea of a mature Christian is one who has more knowledge of the truth. God’s idea is that the saint lives more of the truth. Knowledge can know truth, but wisdom lives it.

The young saint thinks of all on earth that he may someday have in heaven. The mature saint prays for all that is in heaven that they would have here on earth.

Spiritual Maturing

You can become spiritually mature. It is not by your qualifications that the Lord can change you, but by His. It is Christ in you that changes the course of your life.

Maturing in faith is not agonizing in all you have done wrong, but trusting in all that He has done right.

The greater faith is not by years of effort, but by a single act of surrender. The veil is torn but will you enter? You cannot enter through the veil and remain in the outer court.

If you want to be nearer to God, you must become further from the world.

Everyone matures in their natural body because it is by natural power. But the spirit man in you can only grow by the Holy Spirit.

In the natural, maturing starts in the flesh and then ends in the mind. In the spiritual, maturing starts in the mind and then ends in the flesh. Paul wrote, “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23). The flesh always follows the mind. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7).

Natural fruit will rot, but spiritual fruit will last forever. Time will always tell the fruit you are producing.

You think the higher faith means less temptation, yet it is the other way around. The higher faith is not without temptations, but filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome them.

Don’t study to become righteous but become righteous that your studies will yield greater truths. Spend more time living out truth than you do learning truth, and you will end up learning so much more.

Spiritual growth has its resources in heaven. We don’t need more of the world in heaven, but more of heaven in the world. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17).

It is better to be caught living higher than you preach.

Spiritual growth is not having more mountain top experiences but experiencing the presence of God in the valleys.

Stop seeking spiritual highs and start living spiritually high. You don’t need man to get to God.

In the natural, as we mature we can do more on our own. In the spiritual, we can only mature as we do less on our own. Spiritual truth is often the reflected opposite of natural things.

The secret to spiritual growth is to stop relying upon your natural strength. “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Walking with God cannot be done standing still. A living faith is always moving.

Spiritual change requires spiritual work. It is the Holy Spirit alone qualified to do this work. Your only job is to let Him have His way with you.

It is by the humor of heaven that we often don’t get it together until our bodies are falling apart.

Blessings to you,

Paul

All Scripture is in red and uses the NKJV (New King James Version) translation unless otherwise noted.