SPIRITUAL MATURITY: HOW WE CAN GROW UP IN THE LORD

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways. 1 Corinthians 13:11

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It feels good when you are a child. It is indeed the most sweetest moment of ones life. Everyone treats you with care and handle you gently.You are considered for certain favours because you are seen as a weakling. People struggle just to ensure your well being. These and other preferencial treatments given to children make childhood days a lovely and enjoyable time.

However it comes with its challenges just like any other stage you reach in life. If you are child you are treated as someone who is undeveloped mentally and so adults hardly hand over anything of value to your care or share deep issues with you. A child cannot be a caretaker of a great inheritance.

There is no one who will hand over $10,000,000 to a 5 year old boy to keep. How is he going to take care of such large amount of money? You will only hand to him such amount when he come of age, an age where you consider him as a matured person.

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Apostle Paul said he did everything as a child when during his childhood days but gave them up when he became an adult. We cannot still live childislessly when we have been in Christ for some time now.

God doesn't want us to remain the same after we are born again. He wants us to grow, the only way we can become sons to be entilted to our heavenly heritage.

Just like no one wouldn't dare to discuss deeper issues with his little boy the same way God wouldn't share any deeper issue with us if we don't grow in our christian life. God would not hand over any great inheritance to our care until we are more mature.

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore you are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Galatians 4:1-7

From the above scriptures any christian who is not growing is a child and is not entitlted to anything until he grows. He is just like a slave, because tutors instructs him and determines how he should live though he is royal and an heir.
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The devil controls believers who are still babes, he manipulates them to do as he wills.
This is one of the reasons God wants to grow so we don't become subject to others will. We reign with Christ and that is the righful place God wants us to be. We have become God's sons and as sons we are entitled to every blessings that is in Christ.

One may ask, How can I grow in the Lord?

As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: 1 Peter 2:2

The first food every baby needs when it is born is milk. Breast milk is what they require to grow thereby. It is something they need to depend on to increase in size and develope. The bible compares a born again christian to a new born child. It says born again Christians should feed on the word to grow. Our spiritual growth start by feeding on God's word then it proceed to other spiritual necessities that our spirit needs to function effectively in the realm of the spirit.
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Again, we need to also be prayerful always. Prayer is necessity for survival in our walk with God. It is one the foods our spirit requires to be more matured spiritually. A prayerless Christian is still a babe and is an easy prey for the devil. Our spiritual muscles begins to stretch as we keep on praying daily.

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Lastly, we need to fast regularly so as to grow spiritually. Waiting on the Lord through fasting always empowers our spirit with the nourishment and the energy it requires to grow. The bible says that they the wait upon the Lord renew their strength.
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Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:30-31