Christian Living

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“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
Welcome to this edition of The Awakening Call.

This week, we look into a scripture that on the surface would appear a rebuke, but is really a cry for spiritual growth and maturity. The latter part of the opening verse speaks of the necessity for us as Christians to grow beyond the need for the knowledge of what is described as ‘the first principles of the oracles of God’. See Hebrews 6:1-2 for a detailed list of these.

The author of Hebrews speaks of an expected level of spiritual maturity with the passage of time. Thus, he states - ‘for though by this time’. While his use of ‘time’ includes time within the context of days, hours and minutes, it however goes beyond that to include the varied experiences we go through in life that shapes or influences who we are or become. Time of itself is not adequate for growth to take place.

But while time is essential for growth, yet the passive passage of time is not a guarantee that growth will take place. Rather growth often comes as a result of both time and the tangible and determined steps that we take to allow the Word of God and our experiences to become the process that brings us to a place of maturity.

In Isaiah 5:1-7, God teaches of His expectations for growth, maturity and fruitfulness for those who have been nurtured. Thus, if we can affirm that God has indeed nurtured us in the years, months, weeks that has gone by with His Word, His Spirit, His love, mercy and grace, by the comfort with which He comforts us in our seasons of trials and persecutions, His victories and breakthroughs (sometimes in seemingly hopeless situations), His wisdom, His favour, His blessings and provision, etcetera, then we also must affirm that His expectations for us to bear such fruit as is spiritually adequate to teach and instruct others about Him, His ways and His will is legitimate.

It is natural for every living thing to grow. This holds true for life in Christ Jesus. If we live in Him, as we should and are called to, them it is imperative that our ‘living in Him’ must of itself produce in us continuous levels of spiritual maturity. I use the word continuous that I might put a caveat not to ever allow ourselves to come to a place where we think that we are totally mature. In Philippines 3:12, Apostle Paul writes:

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected;

Note verse 16 where he exhorts those who are persuaded that they are mature to retain this thought in their mind – that they are yet to be perfected.

Though time, the Word of God, our varied experiences and our response to them are all expected to have nurtured us to a place of spiritual maturity; sadly it is not often always the case.

Maturity of any kind, least of all spiritual cannot be assumed. For while we have no control over the passage of time and limited control over our choice of experiences, yet our ability to mature through them is largely dependent on how we respond to life and our experiences. For growth or maturity to occur, we must:

• Seek the knowledge of God’s will for specific areas of our lives. There cannot be spiritual maturity without the Word;

• Be completely submissive or totally yielded to doing or obeying what we now know to be His will for the Spirit of God will not strive with man; neither God nor His Spirit can walk with us except we agree with Him that His will be done;

• Be willing to endure whatever it would take to see His will done. Know though that God has not designed us to seek to please Him in the flesh but by His Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can give us such wisdom and strength as is required to stand firm in the faith.

• Allow God’s Word and His Spirit to explain and define our experiences. We must never allow our experiences to define who God is. When we allow God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to teach us the truth of what we are passing though, we open up our lives not only to know and understand His ways, but also to receive His power and authority to prevail.

• Not allow anger or bitterness to arise in our hearts concerning our experiences. God’s way has always involved allowing the men and women He wishes to use the greatest through the wilderness places of life where there is hunger, rejection, shame, reproaches, etcetera. But He does this, not in wickedness for there is no wickedness in Him, but as Moses explained in Deuteronomy 8:2-3 to humble and prove His elect and to let them know that His Word is sufficient to live by.

Failure to respond to or handle our experiences in a godly manner can truncate or frustrate our spiritual growth or maturity.

For example, if in our handling of life’s challenges, we find ourselves perpetually turning to others to pray and seek the face of God for us rather than praying and seeking His face ourselves, we forfeit the closer walk with Him that pressing in ourselves would have produced.

A key to helping us remain open to growth and maturity is what Apostle Paul spoke of himself in 1 Corinthians 13:11:

‘When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things’

While a 30 year old can be held as being mature, nevertheless his maturity is different from that of a 50year old. Thus, while, say at 15 years in the Lord, we find ourselves facing a situation similar to one we faced at 5 years in the faith, we might find our earlier handling childish compared to today’s approach and therefore deserving to be put away.

For example, perhaps in our earlier experience, we had sought the help of others to pray for us and seek the face of the Lord on our behalf. Now however, having grown in our relationship with God, we decide that we will separate ourselves to seek His face and get a word directly from Him concerning our challenges. While seeking the help of others to pray with us is not immature, yet it is a more mature response that we are willing to pay the price to seek God’s face ourselves. In this, we have qualified to teach and instruct others on how to seek His face.

The Church of Jesus today faces the massive challenge of discipling, in spirit and in truth, the multitude of men and women who have given their lives to Jesus. It would help to create a massive pool of teachers if we who have been Christians for longer periods can allow the Holy Spirit to build us up mature disciples who are able to teach, instruct and nurture others to the full knowledge of Him.

I pray that God, who despite seeing all of our weaknesses and yet chose to trust us with the true riches of His kingdom, will help to give us all a heart to love and nurture those for whom Jesus died; I pray that He would give to us the grace to grow and to mature to the full stature of Christ; I pray that, in the midst of a busy and chaotic world, we never forget to be true and faithful witnesses of Jesus’ love, mercy, power and eternal glory and above all I pray that after that we have nurtured others in Him we ourselves will not become castaways.

Shalom!

Chi Onwuchekwa

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