Hi all,
As we've looked at how the Lord has used and uses the lives of others as examples for us, we can't forget the example of Jesus.
"...Christ suffered for us, as an example, that we should follow in His steps." I Peter 2:21
"A pattern I have given to you, that as I have done to you, you should also do." John 13:15
Not the act of washing feet, but the larger example of His life of serving others.
Spiritual growth like physical growth, happens in stages
"As new born babies crave pure milk that you may grow in respect to your salvation." I Peter 2:2. A newborn is 100% dependent on its mother for milk, warmth, shelter, comfort. And the baby leaks at both ends, lol. They make messes.
But they consume milk and grow; we don't know how, they just do. "Crave pure milk." PURE milk, that you may grow. Not weird tasting milk ie not bad doctrine. Not goofy teaching. Not teaching leading to bondage, but pure, that helps you grow.
In Galatians 4:19 Paul wrote:"My little children, I am groaning in labor pains once again, until Christ be formed in you."
The church at Galatia is the middle part of the modern nation of Turkey. Paul visited the region in all 3 of his trips recorded in Acts. Its chief cities included Lystra where the lame man was healed in 14:8-9, and Derbe. It is for them he interceded, likening his groanings in prayer to that of a woman in labor.
When we intercede for someone
When they struggle with life and the Lord, it is very much like a series of contractions; Intensity, rest, intensity, rest. All the while the baby is growing (in Christ). When we intercede regularly for such growth in family and friends, we need this example of physical growth to give us patience as Christ is formed in them. Contract, rest, contract, rest.
Because the Father works within a person, what He is doing is not always visible to the person who cares most that they grow in Christ! Paul's prayers of Ephesians 1:17-19 and 3:15-20 are about the Father opening the eyes of their understanding, and strengthening them in their inner man that they may know the love of Christ.
That's not external. So often when we pray for a loved one we want to measure progress. But that progress isn't going to be seen. When Peter exclaimed in Matthew 16:16-17 that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus said the Father had shown him that. But no one knew what the Father had been showing Peter until he spoke it out for all to hear.
So too is the case of our loved ones and the Father's work within them. We won't know what is going on until they are willing to express it. So be patient, the Father is at work.
In I Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul chastises them by calling them babies:
"Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?"
A Christian will say they are not a baby in the Lord because they have known Him for years, maybe decades. Yet that is not the measuring stick used for spiritual growth. If a person has strife in their life, where they are saying things as the Corinthians did:"I'm of Apollos" and "I'm of Paul", they are still a baby.
A person may be 50 years old, sung solos for years, headed up the Sunday School Department, but if they are causing division and wrapped up in strife and choosing sides as some of the Corinthians were doing, they are babies.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 3:2 he wanted to feed them meat, but they couldn't handle it. That's the trouble with people when they measure their spiritual maturity by how much they know. They think knowledge equals maturity, but that's not what the Bible says. It says growing up to live in the fruit of the Spirit and have the godliness of His character that marks maturity - being a doer of the Word, not a hearer only.
To modernize what Paul said to our day, we could say a person who is so wrapped up in a particular teaching to the exclusion of others, even unfriending or getting angry at those who don't agree with them, is a baby in Christ. They may have known the Lord for decades, but by God's measuring stick, they are mere babies.
Paul put it this way in Ephesians 4:14-15:
"That we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ."
Evidence of being a baby is not being a discerning person. Babies get tossed here and there with the latest doctrine that comes along. Babies can't discern truth from lie. Babies can't discern if someone is teaching by craftiness trying to hook them in.
How many people get caught up in things on the Internet and elevate them above chapter and verse, even elevating them above common sense! But when something resonates in our spirit, it makes sense spirit and soul. It doesn't tingle the senses, but the Spirit of Truth within agrees with and that person senses that agreement, that settling, that peace.
But spiritual children are too young and immature to discern that. Consider how we teach children of 'stranger danger' - not being drawn aside to a person in a car who offers them candy, or claims to want directions. Stranger danger is something every child is taught. Parents equip children with GPS tags, give them phones and more, because it isn't that they don't trust their child, but they realize a child doesn't have discernment, maturity or experience with strangers.
If we take everything that happens to us as an example to learn from, the Father is gracious to give us insights into what we did wrong, what we could do in the future, and more.
When Jesus told the disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees they thought He was upset they didn't bring enough bread with them. His response in Mark 8:17 stands as an example for us to recognize what He is doing and has done in our lives and the lives of others:"How is it you haven't put it together? Do you not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?"
Let us look at all the examples around us, and let the Lord teach us, correct us, inspire us! New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
As we've looked at how the Lord has used and uses the lives of others as examples for us, we can't forget the example of Jesus.
"...Christ suffered for us, as an example, that we should follow in His steps." I Peter 2:21
"A pattern I have given to you, that as I have done to you, you should also do." John 13:15
Not the act of washing feet, but the larger example of His life of serving others.
Spiritual growth like physical growth, happens in stages
"As new born babies crave pure milk that you may grow in respect to your salvation." I Peter 2:2. A newborn is 100% dependent on its mother for milk, warmth, shelter, comfort. And the baby leaks at both ends, lol. They make messes.
But they consume milk and grow; we don't know how, they just do. "Crave pure milk." PURE milk, that you may grow. Not weird tasting milk ie not bad doctrine. Not goofy teaching. Not teaching leading to bondage, but pure, that helps you grow.
In Galatians 4:19 Paul wrote:"My little children, I am groaning in labor pains once again, until Christ be formed in you."
The church at Galatia is the middle part of the modern nation of Turkey. Paul visited the region in all 3 of his trips recorded in Acts. Its chief cities included Lystra where the lame man was healed in 14:8-9, and Derbe. It is for them he interceded, likening his groanings in prayer to that of a woman in labor.
When we intercede for someone
When they struggle with life and the Lord, it is very much like a series of contractions; Intensity, rest, intensity, rest. All the while the baby is growing (in Christ). When we intercede regularly for such growth in family and friends, we need this example of physical growth to give us patience as Christ is formed in them. Contract, rest, contract, rest.
Because the Father works within a person, what He is doing is not always visible to the person who cares most that they grow in Christ! Paul's prayers of Ephesians 1:17-19 and 3:15-20 are about the Father opening the eyes of their understanding, and strengthening them in their inner man that they may know the love of Christ.
That's not external. So often when we pray for a loved one we want to measure progress. But that progress isn't going to be seen. When Peter exclaimed in Matthew 16:16-17 that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus said the Father had shown him that. But no one knew what the Father had been showing Peter until he spoke it out for all to hear.
So too is the case of our loved ones and the Father's work within them. We won't know what is going on until they are willing to express it. So be patient, the Father is at work.
In I Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul chastises them by calling them babies:
"Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?"
A Christian will say they are not a baby in the Lord because they have known Him for years, maybe decades. Yet that is not the measuring stick used for spiritual growth. If a person has strife in their life, where they are saying things as the Corinthians did:"I'm of Apollos" and "I'm of Paul", they are still a baby.
A person may be 50 years old, sung solos for years, headed up the Sunday School Department, but if they are causing division and wrapped up in strife and choosing sides as some of the Corinthians were doing, they are babies.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 3:2 he wanted to feed them meat, but they couldn't handle it. That's the trouble with people when they measure their spiritual maturity by how much they know. They think knowledge equals maturity, but that's not what the Bible says. It says growing up to live in the fruit of the Spirit and have the godliness of His character that marks maturity - being a doer of the Word, not a hearer only.
To modernize what Paul said to our day, we could say a person who is so wrapped up in a particular teaching to the exclusion of others, even unfriending or getting angry at those who don't agree with them, is a baby in Christ. They may have known the Lord for decades, but by God's measuring stick, they are mere babies.
Paul put it this way in Ephesians 4:14-15:
"That we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ."
Evidence of being a baby is not being a discerning person. Babies get tossed here and there with the latest doctrine that comes along. Babies can't discern truth from lie. Babies can't discern if someone is teaching by craftiness trying to hook them in.
How many people get caught up in things on the Internet and elevate them above chapter and verse, even elevating them above common sense! But when something resonates in our spirit, it makes sense spirit and soul. It doesn't tingle the senses, but the Spirit of Truth within agrees with and that person senses that agreement, that settling, that peace.
But spiritual children are too young and immature to discern that. Consider how we teach children of 'stranger danger' - not being drawn aside to a person in a car who offers them candy, or claims to want directions. Stranger danger is something every child is taught. Parents equip children with GPS tags, give them phones and more, because it isn't that they don't trust their child, but they realize a child doesn't have discernment, maturity or experience with strangers.
If we take everything that happens to us as an example to learn from, the Father is gracious to give us insights into what we did wrong, what we could do in the future, and more.
When Jesus told the disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees they thought He was upset they didn't bring enough bread with them. His response in Mark 8:17 stands as an example for us to recognize what He is doing and has done in our lives and the lives of others:"How is it you haven't put it together? Do you not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?"
Let us look at all the examples around us, and let the Lord teach us, correct us, inspire us! New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
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