Spiritual Maturity and Fruit

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Hebrews 5:12 - 6:2

The clock is ticking, and the time is short. The time is short for you to minister, and the time is short for the body of Christ to work together to counteract evil spiritual forces that are at work. If these forces are not counteracted you may not see the immediate results, but your children and grandchildren most certainly will. They will reap the results of our generation not uniting and forsaking all to follow Christ.

I continue to preach and write things that, hopefully, will fall on hearing ears and hearts before time runs out. This is another attempt to reach someone, anyone, who will be touched and say, I am ready to forsake all and follow Jesus Christ. I am praying that people will come forth who realize they are in the world but are not of it. I am also praying that professing Christians will grow restless with modern-day Christianity and will not only cry out for restoration of the Church, but will take whatever steps are necessary to bring forth and be part of a Church that is in the image of Jesus Christ, not in the various images of man. The result will be a mature remnant Church that, in the unity of faith, will bear fruit to the glory of Christ.

Lasting peace and unity
will not come through compromise.

Part of the fruit that the spiritually mature body of Christ will produce is peace and unity within the Church. Unity is associated with peace, but it is also associated with truth. There will be no mature and lasting peace and unity within the Church until the body of Christ is sanctified by truth (John 17:17). The Church has prospered when it was sanctified by truth. The Church suffers when she moves away from truth to any degree.

When the Church compromises in the effort to find a place of agreement, a pseudo unity forms that is not Bible-based, disciples are not equipped for every good work, and the Church’s witness and power in the world are weakened. Can we pick and choose which parts of the Word we will obey and still call Jesus Lord? Unless one is adhering to both the elementary teachings and the meat of the Word of God, he will have no secure foundation when the storms come, and they will assuredly come.

The devil is the archenemy of the Church. He rebelled against God and His truth in heaven. He brought rebellion against God and His truth in the Garden. He attacked the people of God under the old covenant. He has attacked the Church, the apple of the eyes of Christ, since her inception, and he continues his attacks today. His methods do not change much and have always included infiltration, lies, and deception. His lies are not always openly flagrant, but are intended to be deceptive to move people away from truth. His lies are often packaged in very beautiful and wise-sounding sayings, such as agreeing to disagree and about essentials and non-essentials to unity, liberty and love. The enemy knows that human beings are vulnerable to beautiful things. This is revealed in Genesis 3:6: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Whether it is a tree that is pleasant to the eyes, a woman beautiful to behold (2 Sam. 11:2), or a beautiful and wise-sounding saying, it is rooted in the world and will not achieve the lasting peace and unity that come only by being sanctified by truth. The result is the same when we take of the fruit of compromise and eat. It produces a less than mature and unified Church and hinders us from working together to share the peace and love of the Lord, which we and the world so greatly need.

God desires spiritual maturity and fruit.

The account of Jesus cursing the fig tree in Mark 11:12-14, 20-21 is evidence of God’s desire for His people to bear fruit. The lessons of Hebrews 5:12 through 6:2 reinforce this message and teach the importance of moving to spiritual maturity. They also reveal that maturity is connected with knowledge of both the milk and the meat of God’s truth. One cannot become mature in Christ without being thoroughly grounded in the elementary teachings as well as in the meat of the Word. One will not comprehend the meat of the Word unless they thoroughly comprehend all of the basics of the Word, the elementary teachings. Test yourself; can you name and explain the elementary teachings listed in Hebrews 6:1-2? Many people will not understand much of what I minister verbally and in writing until they grasp the full intent and importance of the aforementioned verses and the principles involved.

Man’s religion hinders spiritual maturity.

Man’s religious teachings and traditions always keep people in a box that will not allow them to grow to maturity. It can even be said that man’s religious teachings put people in varying degrees of bondage. Martin Luther probably recognized these problems and was trying to change things with the posting of The Ninety-five Theses. Rather than looking objectively at what Luther was saying, many in the established Church of that time branded him a heretic. Today, the Protestant Church has been infiltrated by man’s religious teachings and traditions as much or more than the Roman Catholic Church of Luther’s day. In some cases, the religious teachings and traditions may be subtle, but they are not any less devastating to the original intents and purposes of Jesus Christ for the Church He is building. Behind all of this is the master deceiver, Satan himself. He infiltrated the Garden of Eden, he infiltrated the Jewish religion of the old covenant, and he continues to press his strategic attack of infiltration in any area where God is working.

Any honest disciple of Jesus Christ must recognize and admit that the Church under the banner of being Christian is characterized by, among other things, both good and bad, division and disunity. Wherever Satan is successful in his scheme of infiltration, the seeds of division and disunity are always sown. Every major part of the Christian Church has also added to and/or taken away from the truth of God’s Word. Any adding to and/or taking away from God’s word is a serious breach of the Word. Churches and denominations may promote these things and even draw people because of them, but there will be an accounting given before Jesus Christ in the future. Can these things be changed? The answer to this question is unequivocally yes, but how? How can we restore the Church? How can we have a restored Church without spot and wrinkle of both sin and man’s religious teachings and traditions? How can we finally have a restored Church in the mature image of Christ Jesus that gives no place to the wiles of the devil?

One may ask why I am not addressing the carnality in parts of the Church. I do, and I will continue to address those issues, but the truth is that there will always be carnality where man’s religious teachings and traditions are found. Some months ago, I met with a group of people to help them find things in the Word of God that would give them wisdom for choosing their next pastor. The one who tried to dominate that meeting, and actually was in opposition to what I was trying to accomplish, left her family for another woman not long after the meeting. These and similar things will continue to plague the Church until she continues in the Word and knows truth that will set her free.

The Church needs true prophets.

We need true prophets of God to help restore the Church. A large part of the Church does not believe prophets exist anymore, and another part of the Church is following prophets of hype. We need to discern the difference between the office of the called-out prophet who truly hears from God concerning His will and directions for the Church, and the gift of prophecy. We must cry out for real prophets to come forth and then start listening to them. Stop debating about whether or not they will be like the Old Testament prophets, and just let them be what God wants them to be when they come forth. They will speak what the Church needs to hear from God without looking at the faces of the people, i.e., they will only be influenced by what God says and not by what man says. In order for God’s purposes to be accomplished, prophets need disciples who have ears to hear.

We must have a remnant of disciples of the Lord Jesus who see the problems clearly, and who are willing to give their lives to change things. There must eventually be witnesses all over the earth, but at the beginning, they will be found in various locales throughout the earth. All of them will be united in Spirit, but in various locales, there must be a core group of dedicated disciples working in one mind and accord to demonstrate what Jesus intended when He said, I will build My Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. We must first have the remnant united, not only in Spirit, but in actuality, in geographical locations throughout the earth.

Restoration requires breaking out of the box
of man’s religious teachings and traditions.

From Martin Luther’s attempts, we learn that restoration will probably not be from the inside, at least not in the beginning. If one tries from the inside of the box to change the box of organized religion, one is usually going to be kicked out of the box. Begin declaring all of who Jesus is, what His kingdom is and what it is about, who the Holy Spirit is and what He came to do, who you are in Christ, and then see what happens! Do all in a humble and loving Spirit, but see what happens!

There are people who have spent a lifetime trying to influence various parts of the Church from the inside, and to their credit, they have touched some lives for the Lord. They have not, however, changed the box. There are others who have recognized problems in certain boxes, but their solution was to move to another box. With their families, they moved to a place of personal comfort. Although some may be tempted to be offended by my words, they are still in a box, just a different size, shape, and color. In a box, one might listen to a whole year of sermons and find that every sermon was totally in line with the Word of God. Every sermon had something that helped them and/or their family! But if it is a box, it still violates the lessons of Hebrews 5: 12 through 6:2.

A minister can preach only truth and still be personally immature—and leave all of their hearers in an immature spiritual state. This is why the devil causes many churches to ignore or disallow the book of Hebrews. The truth is that no one will ever fully understand who Jesus is, what His new covenant is, and who they are in Christ without being thoroughly grounded in the book of Hebrews. In the end there will be victory, but will we, our children, and our grandchildren have to suffer needlessly because we stayed in the box, though it is a comfortable box, and never went on to perfection (maturity) (Heb. 6:1)?

Looking for alert disciples who will forsake all
to follow Jesus and continue His work.

I am trying to reach disciples who will be wide awake and will forsake not only the things of the world but all of the things of man’s religion to follow Jesus. Jesus must have sensed some degree of urgency while on earth because He knew His time was short to share His message and find disciples who would do the above. I hope I have many more years to share Jesus Christ and His message, but the time is short for changing things before devastating things occur.

After writing this on Monday, April 16, [2007], I learned of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I was reminded of speaking a word several years ago that mothers would be crying, and a few days afterward hearing of the shootings at the high school in Columbine, Colorado. I also noticed a difference about this tragedy. Many reporting it and hearing of it were not as deeply touched as they were about things in the past, such as Columbine or the events of September 11, 2001. The devil is desensitizing people about these things as he has about other things in the past. God is looking for disciples who are very sensitive to His Spirit and His Word and will not be distracted from seeing clearly.

In conclusion, I remind you that there must come godly repentance and restoration, or devilish storms will continue, and they will increase in number and severity. We had to face the fact on April 16 that not all storms are weather related. Let’s draw near to God. Let’s study to show ourselves approved and move on to spiritual maturity and the unity of faith. Together, in the full measure of the stature of Christ, we will bear much fruit to His glory. It has been said that you are as spiritual as you want to be. Let’s be prepared for the day when the devilish storms approach our door. That’s when you will want to be spiritual. Like a mature marathon runner, however, spiritual maturity does not happen overnight; it takes discipline. Let’s be disciples who are sensitive to God’s Spirit and His Word and who are ready to forsake all and follow Christ, bearing the mature fruit of righteousness.