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Make a decision and be determined that this year, 2023, you are going to grow deeper in the knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Why? Because the first enemy or hindrance to your faith is a lack of understanding God’s Word.
Hosea 4:6 NKJV
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…
It’s very important that a believer is established in the fundamental truths of God’s Word.
Fundamental means the beginning, the foundation, groundwork. Back to basics.
That is what God told me towards the end of last year. Teach and preach again on the foundational principles of my Word. I want my people to be established on a firm foundation and I want them to grow strong in Me.
1 Peter 2v2 NKJV
As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.
When we get born again, that means, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and personal Saviour, we start out as spiritual babies.
There’s nothing wrong with being a spiritual baby. We all start out like that.
But God’s plan and purpose is not for us to stay babies but to grow up and to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
And the primary way to develop your spirit is by feeding on the Word of God.
The food for your spirit is the Word of God.
The primary way in which Christians can grow is through the knowledge of God’s Word, which is why studying the Word is so important.
2 Timothy 2v15 NKJV
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
When we handle the Word, it is important that we rightly divide the Word of God. It implies we can wrongly divide the Word.
When people wrongly divide the Word, when they take scripture out of context, it leads to error.
When people don’t study the Word and sit under proper teaching and doctrine, they end up in error. That’s how cults begin.
I know of a guy who passed away at the age of 40. He believed wrongly. He would quote scripture out of context.
Studying the Word of God is important, so that you will not need to be ashamed. So be diligent where the study of God’s Word is concerned this year and present yourself approved to God and to others.
To help you, I sent you all a plan to read the Bible over a two year period.
And to help you even more, especially if you are still a baby or a young person in the Lord, listen to the messages that I preach on a Sunday and go over it again together with the notes.
Find out what the Word of God says. Don’t depend on others to do your studying for you. Don’t depend on others to do your praying for you.
Two Types of People
The Athenians
Acts 17:19-21 NKJV
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
The Bereans
Acts 17:11 NLT
And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.
When you have a good solid Christian foundation that is built on the Word of God, and when you act on what God’s Word says; you will be able to stand strong when the storms of life come.
Another Two Types of People
Those who hear the Word and act on it and those who hear and don’t do anything.
Matthew 7v24-27 NKJV
Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.
You can’t build a house in a storm. It’s too late. You build before the storm comes.
You can only detect who are the hearers and who are the doers when the storm comes.
But don’t be afraid of the storm. Just establish yourself in the Word and do it and you will be safe when it comes.
On the surface it appears as if the storm destroyed the house but if it did, then it would have destroyed the other house.
But there was a deeper reason for that. There was no foundation built on the house. No hard work. Taking shortcuts. Quick fixes. One foot in the church and one foot in the world.
That is why God is wanting us to be established in His Word this year.
We are making the Word of God final authority in our lives.
When you apply the sayings of Jesus in your life, when the storms of life come, you and God will still be standing.
Growth is a process
We must understand that growing up is a process, both physically and spiritually. You don’t become a full grown Christian overnight just like you never became a full grown human-being overnight.
You don’t get upset with your baby when they fall or when they drink milk from their bottle. That is understandable. They will grow out of that stage and eventually be able to walk on their own and start drinking out of cups and glasses on their own.
That’s the same with baby Christians. We must be patient with them and walk with them for a while. Don’t get upset with them when they miss it or when the fall. Just encourage them to get back up again and keep moving forward.
But it looks foolish when a twenty one year old walks into a room still drinking milk from a baby bottle.
Likewise, it’s not acceptable for someone who had all the opportunity in the world to grow up spiritually, who sat under the word day and night, to still be acting like a baby and crying all the time.
It is not God’s will for you to remain a baby or child spiritually. It’s God’s will and plan for you to grow up and become mature in Him?
Ephesians 4v8; 11-15 NKJV
Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and somepastors and teachers,
That is where we get the words, “five-fold ministry”. Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher.
The five-fold ministry are gifts to the Body of Christ.
Christmas: people wrap themselves in wrapping paper and say they are a gift to their families (Lol).
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and somepastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
We are equipping YOU to do the work of the ministry. You need to edify, build up the Body of Christ. You need to let God use you to
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man,
AMPC says… “that we might arrive at really mature manhood”
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting but speaking the truth in love, may GROW UP in all things into Him who is the head – Christ…
So we see in the above verses that God wants us to grow up in all things into Jesus. He needs us to grow up so that we can do the work of the ministry. The fivefold ministry gifts were given to the body of Christ to help them grow spiritually.
We will continue next week and see the different stages of spiritual development. You will locate yourself spiritually and how to grow out of one stage to the next.