This is a portion of my new book "Dream Date"@ i-proclaimbookstore.com
For any one to realize his dream date, he/she must be mature enough and of sober mind of what he/she really want in life. Your dream as we have just seen will put you in bad situations which if you are not mature enough will knock you out of the way.
We have a phenomenon in the church today which I call the” eternal babyhood of the believer."
We have members of our churches who, after years of hearing messages, are just the same. They continually need a minister to keep after them changing their diapers, carrying them, breastfeeding and checking that their milk isn't too hot. Pastors are tired my brother, grow up, feed on hard foods so that you can be strong and be able to know good and bad by yourself. Able to cook for yourself,walk for yourself without bothering your pastor on small issues.
The church seems more like a baby care than an army.
Sometimes we fool ourselves because we grow numerically. We think that this is growth. But to grow in numbers is not spiritual growth. Cemeteries also grow numerically. To have a hundred people without love and commitment, is just to get the church full of babies.
Often we see the situation, but we don't know what to do about it. We tell our people, "You should be bearing fruit for Jesus.
You should be experiencing the virtues of God. You should have more love, more peace." But we cannot expect such qualities in babies. They are found only in adults.
This was Paul's complaint when he observed the lack of spiritual growth in the Corinthian church. "You are still babies,” he told them. To the Galatians he wrote that he needed to go through the pains of childbirth all over again for them. And when the people in the book of Hebrews ought to have
been teachers, they needed to be taught the first principles over again: they could take only milk instead of solid food. I have a little girl called Seritah. If I tell her, ", Seritah give me grandchildren," even if I pray for her, fast for her, and slap her, she cannot give me grandchildren. Not because she is naughty, not because she is rebellious, but simply because she is a child.
Of course, if she grows, she can give me grandchildren, without praying and without fasting. Because that's the natural fruit of growth.
When I was growing up I desired to have beard because I believed once I got them my mom will beat me no more because she used to beat me every day. In my mind I believed once they grow my mother would fear me as she did to my daddy.
So I began to pray for the Lord to give me a beard. And I remember that once I had a day of fasting and prayer.
My mother asked, "Peter, are you not eating today?" I answered, "No, Mom, I'm fasting." What is that? “Not to eat but pray,”
I replied. “But why are you fasting?" "It's a secret petition," I explained.
The beard didn't come, even though I prayed and fasted.
But when I was 18, without praying, without fasting and without confessing, the beard came as a result of natural growth and development.
My fellow brothers, once we become spiritually mature, we will start seeing things happen naturally like those beards i earnestly prayed for.Those things which drag and pull us down will completely disappear.God will be near us.
My brothers let's fight the good fight of seeking the mature spiritually.
Amen.
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