SPIRITUAL MATURITY

By Rick Mathes

John 16:15 (NASB77) ¹⁵  ” All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.

There comes a time when we have to take off our diaper, stand up and pee like a man! Using a drug here and a drug there or a drink here and a drink there is like stabbing our soul with an ice pick a little at a time. We are killing the life within, erasing our animation and sealing our future to fames when we sty in Satan’s playpen and breast feed on the goddess Diana. There is a moment of truth when we must put away childish things and grow up. Why don’t we? The anser is simply, growing pains: it hurts as god prunes us.

Knowledge that only the Holy Spirit can provide through the Word of God cultivates understanding no matter how slow the progress. You can’t coast your bicycle up-hill for long until you need o exert the effort to pedal the bike upward. So it is with our imperative to hear, listen, learn, apply then evaluate. We must be more Christ-like today than we were yesterday or we are headed for a massive backslides of which we may not recover. How many more chances do you have to repent, submit and obey Him before He withdraws His Hoy Spirit and lets you plunge into the furnace of flames that is opening wider for you.

Total maturity is total perfection. We are totally depraved so perfection apart from Christ is impossible but this does not excuse us from trying. We must always strive for Christ’s ideal. It isn’t the destination arrival, it is the striving toward the higher prize, we press on.

The deeper truths of the Gospel soon leap of the pages of the Bible. Jesus left God’s only message to us in the Bible, compete without additions or redactions. He also left the Holy Spirit ot teach us these profound truths.

It is only in doing this spiritual weight lifting that we can be empowered “not to sin.” Only the Holy Spirit has this authority over sin, death, hell and Satan. We are overcomers that even the very gates of hell cannot prevail against us. The temptation transforms itself into the testing for the elect and certain condemnation for the unbelievers.