Hindrances to Spiritual Maturity...

Chapter Fifty-three:


The Bible teaches us that the process of growing spiritually takes a lifetime.  Philippians 3:12 says, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."  That being said, we are to be growing on a daily basis in our walk with God. 

God wants us to move forward and attain more.  He does not want us to be mediocre.  I recently learned that the word "mediocre" comes from two Latin words, and literally means "halfway to the peak".  God wants us to progress in our walk with Him and not settle for a lukewarm walk. We honor Him by going on to full maturity and reaching the peak.  Unfortunately, there are some who feel disheartened because they are not reaching the spiritual maturity that they would like. 

Do you ever feel you are not growing in your walk with the Lord as you would like?  Do you feel there is something holding you back, getting in the way of your becoming more mature?  It is quite possible that there are some unknown things you are doing, or attitudes/beliefs that you have, that could be the culprit in stopping you from progressing towards the spiritual maturity that you desire. I would like to present several reasons that could be the source. 

You have allowed things to get in the way.  Scripture warns us in Mark 4:18-19,   "Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."  The cares of this life can very easily become the focus of our lives.  In fact, it is often necessary for us to determine that we will not allow things or duties or obligations or relationships to  get in the way as they will absorb as much time in the day as we allow.  Oswald Chambers said, "What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things. It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes but I do not hear Him.” 

You have given up on growing any further. Your attitude may be that you do not need to grow any further and are just fine where you are.  You have settled for how your life is and continue to live in this world without the desire to grow any further. Or maybe you are under the presumption that you are already spiritual enough, which is pride. We can think we know enough about God, and we no longer thirst to draw closer to Him and grow in our relationship with Him. What we fail to remember is that the infinite God we serve can never be fully understood or comprehended by such finite beings as we.

You have just decided to settle for less.  In your heart you know that God often uses difficulties and trials to grow us and you try to avoid any degree of difficulty, and the result is that you do not progress.  Scripture plainly tells us in the Book of James, Chapter One that as believers we will have trials but that the end result of them is to produce maturity within us.  If you have predetermined that you will not deal with any difficulties and want your life to be easy and trouble free, then you hinder God's ability to work in you.  I, personally, know of several who became believers and once difficulties started in their lives they decided their old way of living was much easier and returned to living sinful, Godless lives.

 

You have already drawn the line as to how far you will go in your walk with God and are paying the price by staying an immature believer. You have to be willing to follow God, regardless of the difficult times you have to endure. When difficulties arise in our lives, we start to question God and maybe even get angry with Him.  We try to bargain with God so that we can have the assurance of heaven but without any trouble here on earth.  In Luke 9:23 Jesus plainly warns us that “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."         John 12:26 tells us, "Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

You want to know upfront, before you do something, what the cost will be.  What it will cost you financially, how much time it will take out of your pre-planned life, how it will affect your relationships, if it will be inconvenient. You want to determine if you will do such and such a thing, rather than doing it because you know He wants you to.  We are often more than willing to do something for God if it is fun and enjoyable.  We want to know all the consequences so we can decide if we are going to obey.

 You are holding on to something that you are unwilling to surrender.  You have willingly given up those things that are obviously sinful things, bad things, those things that are easily recognizable as being good to give up.  But Christ requires more.  He requires that we be willing to surrender the good things in our lives, also. Paul said in Philippians 3:7, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss." He was referring to things that we would consider okay, they were not immoral, they were not bad things. He could have easily said that there was nothing wrong in holding on to them because they were good things.  But what he realized, and many of us do not, is that humans can make idols out of anything, even things that are considered good.  We easily surrender evil things, but we tend to hold on to good things and we can begin to worship them. 

For instance, it is not a bad thing to own a home or own a vehicle or have a desire for something, but if we are not willing to surrender it to God, we can easily idolize it and cling to it tenaciously.  Surrender is much more than having the attitude that you can hang on to something as long as you tell yourself you are willing to let it go.  True surrender is a gut-wrenching, sweat producing night or time of wrestling with self.  A.W. Tozer said, "Whatever we refuse to surrender and count but loss, we will ultimately worship.  It may be something good, but it gets between you and God--whether it be property or family or reputation or security or your life itself."

Another hindrance is your desire for some sense of security.  When the Lord asks you to move forward, you want to know if it will be safe.  We do not like to have our sense of security disturbed.  We are not willing to be like the saints of old that paid a price, at times, to do the Lord's work. We do not like the idea of possibly being put in any position of peril, even though we say that we totally trust God and would give our very lives for Him. 

Maybe when you accepted Christ you were taught that this is all there is.  There was no suggestion that you needed to grow and mature.  Accepting Christ was simply sealing your place in heaven and then continuing with your life as before.  There was no encouragement or admonition to advance in your spiritual walk. If this is what you were told, how could you expect to grow and become mature in Christ?  Were you taught to be content with your salvation?  If proper and sound teaching of the Word of God is not used and you do try to go forward, you can be labeled as being some type of fanatic. It is often insinuated, or even spoken outright, that you should be happy with where you are and that should be enough for you.

Perhaps you have become disillusioned with the Body of Christ.  A. W. Tozer describes it this way,    "When we are first converted, especially if we come from a non-Christian background, we are likely to be almost too naive for our own good. The wondrous experience through which we have just passed, or perhaps I should say into which we have entered, has predisposed us to believe in everybody. Our trust in other Christians is likely to be boundless. That there could be hypocrites, double-minded professors, religious pretenders, carnal camp followers, never once enters our minds. The result is that our first encounter with a worldly church member comes as a frightful shock to our sensitive minds. Some never recover from this shattering of their confidence. They become religious cripples. Their growth is stunted and their usefulness destroyed, or at the least greatly hindered from that moment on."

You are not eager for inward change or did not realize the need for it.  You feel satisfied with how you are at the present and have no desire for the Lord to work on you in the area of your beliefs, attitudes or thoughts.  You  believe change on the outside is all that matters (i.e. you dress better, you do not use curse words). This is just like the Pharisees of the New Testament who went about dressing properly, eating carefully and preaching what they had learned from the Old Testament.  Jesus was so angry at their outward righteous demeanor that He said in Matthew 23:27-28, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."   If the reason is because you did not realize that you need to change on the inside, ask the Lord to show you what areas He wants to work on in your life.  

      

Then there is always the enemy, Satan, whose oldest trick is to get you to begin questioning God so you feel discouraged.  He wants you to look forward, in fear.  He likes to stir up the doubts, concerns and uncertainty that is within you. Satan will often try to get you focused on your past mistakes, telling you that those will hold you back and that you are of no use to God.  He does not want you to remember that with God all things are past and all things are new. You cannot look at what is going on around you or listen to the enemy's lies and tricks. You cannot grow in Christ if your eyes are not solely on Him.  

The devoted person who willingly follows the Lord does not ask about consequences, does not argue with God's plan for their lives and certainly should not question God's wisdom.  This is not to say that following God is an easy thing. The believer who really wants to follow God's will and know the truth will do what God asks, even if it is difficult.  They may be anxious or worried about how it will all work out, but they will step out in faith regardless.  

God knows that what He asks of us can be difficult, and it is during those times that we can be assured that He will be with us.  It is during challenging times that we see God work.  If we simply do not desire to see God do wonderful things in our lives, then all we have to do is stay in our comfort zone, remain an immature believer and we will have the say as to how our life goes.  But remember, God saves His unexpected blessings and last moment saves for those who are following His will, and it is in those times that your walk with God grows that much stronger and your love for Him that much deeper.  If you want to see God work in your life,  you need to be willing to step out in faith.  It is during these times that He shows Himself as being faithful, and the awesome and unexpected happens.

The Apostle Paul is a good example of one who was not content with merely knowing he had received salvation.  He longed to know God more and to be used by Him (Book of Philippians, Chapter Three).  If your desire is to become as mature as possible, and experience all that God has for you, then you must seriously consider which of these hindrances you have allowed into your life and make the decision to not let any of them hold you back any longer.  I am sure that if you pray, and seek God, He will show you what is holding you back and how to overcome them.  The end result is that you will grow more, and you will develop the closer and more intimate walk with God that you desire.

 

 

 

Using discernment when going deeper with God...

 Chapter Fifty-two:

Going deeper with God seems to be a very popular thing these days.  People flock to hear speakers who have new insights or ideas on how to develop a better, closer relationship with God.  If one goes into a book store that sells religious material you will see shelves of books written by various authors on how to develop a deeper relationship with  God.  Granted, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to have a closer relationship with God.  In fact, Scripture tells us we are to grow daily in our walk with God.  However, we need to use wisdom, discretion and discernment as to what we are incorporating into our walk in order to help us grow.

Some people spend quite a bit of time looking into what foods they are putting into their bodies.  There is a valid concern over steroids being used to make animals bigger, and antibiotics being used to keep them healthier as they make their way to market.  Many of us spend time reading the ingredients listed on the label of a food item so we know what we are ingesting.  If we go to such lengths to protect our physical bodies, why do we not put as much, or not more, effort into being careful of those who are feeding our Spirit?

Instead of spending time with the Bible and in prayer, we find it much easier to go to church and hear a sermon and expect to get closer to God through someone's words.  And we make sure to buy the latest books written by Christian authors in order to learn more about God and new techniques or methods of reaching God that are unknown to us.  Unfortunately these new methods that are being presented to believers are simply old methods that are being taken from other religions and have been "Christianized" so that believers will accept them and begin using them.

Because you read a few books or hear some sermons which sound very much in agreement with the Bible, you should not automatically assume anything about the author or the speaker's beliefs about Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit.  Some authors/speakers who have started out on solid Biblical ground have gotten off track in their walk with God by incorporating parts of other religions, particularly Eastern meditation techniques (i.e. contemplative prayer, spiritual formation) and the belief that there are many ways to God.  You will not know this unless you take the time to investigate everything they write, read all comments that they make and discover how they, themselves, live out their lives. 

Since most of us do not have the time or ability to follow everything one has said or written, we need to pray for discernment if we are going to allow someone's beliefs/teachings to become part of our walk with God. You should not allow a person to impart anything into your walk with God until you have prayed for discernment beforehand. If you ask God to give you wisdom and discernment, be prepared because He may reveal to you someone you are following who has gotten away from true Biblical teachings.  It may come as a shock to you when you discover this, but remember that God is showing it to you for your protection and as a warning to walk away from it.    A few good books or a few good speeches does not automatically mean that you can trust a person and  follow their teachings blindly. To accept all that one says simply because they have voiced some truth you agree with can lead to your downfall.

As you grow in the Lord, it is absolutely essential that you know Scripture.  That way when you hear something or read something your spirit will be much more sensitized to wrong teachings.  You need to be able to compare what you are being told with the Bible.  Truth will never, ever contradict Scripture!

Unfortunately, some Christians are into the deeper things of God just to appear more spiritual, more knowledgeable. Some who say they have the answer to a deeper walk with God will be exposed as the charlatans that they are when their lives and the errors they teach about Scripture are fully brought to light.  Either they have become deceived themselves and do not know it, or they are purposely promoting falsehoods under the name of Christianity.  If it is the former, then we need to pray for them.  If it is the latter, then we need to pray that they are exposed for promoting the lies and deception that they are.

If you pray for discernment and truly have a heart to follow only God's truth, He will protect you and show you when you need to walk away from something.  I had an experience like this when I was a young believer.  I attended a retreat for a few days that was to help a person grow in their walk with God. I knew a little about the lecturer, and from the interactions I had with him in the past he appeared to be a safe person to learn from.  However, a few hours into the first workshop the Holy Spirit started to prompt me that something was just not right about what he was saying.  I began to feel very uneasy about what he was saying, even though it did not sound blatantly heretical or unscriptural. The atmosphere in the room just did not feel quite right.  As I sat there and thought about it, I was very confused about what to do.  Something felt wrong, but I could not tell what it was, exactly.

As a young believer, I did not feel I was in the place to judge this man and what he was saying because I was taught to respect those who were more advanced in their walk with God.  But, the Holy Spirit continued to prompt me that something was wrong, and the uneasiness I felt within me continued to grow.  I felt that I needed to leave the retreat right away and go back home.  I finally decided to leave and went back home, not truly understanding what was wrong. As soon as I left, I felt much better.  I was confused, but spiritually I felt more at ease. Sometime later I found out that this man was involved in practices that were based on Eastern mysticism.  So, even though I did not know why I was to leave, my obedience to the warning of the Holy Spirit saved me from being exposed to erroneous teachings.  The Holy Spirit will warn you if you ask Him to keep you safe. 

What we fail to understand is that we can never truly get deeper with God through another person's insights or experiences.  There is no secret to going deeper with God.  God did not wait until these last few years to suddenly impart some special knowledge or teachings to our generation that He had kept hidden from past generations.  And anyone who thinks such a thing is prideful.  God is no respecter of persons, meaning that He does not regard any one person as being more important than another.  So why would He decide to reveal ways to get closer to Him to us in this generation, yet have kept them hidden from past generations?  The answer is simply because He is not.  God has always made all things clear to all generations.  As Scripture tells us in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "...there is no new thing under the sun".  

The key to a deeper walk is very simple.  It is not for a select few and it certainly is not some new revelation or discovery.  Trends come and go...it was true for the Church in years past, and it is true today. The key to a deeper walk is in allowing God to become more in your life as you become less. We need to want and know God for Himself.  As A. W. Tozer reminds us, "No short cut exists for a deeper spiritual life.  The man who would know God must give time to Him." 
 
William Gurnall said, "If only Christians who complain about their weak faith would turn their murmuring into an investigation of why it is so weak! It is because faith has missed its meals from the Word....But now that you have gradually stopped coming to God in His Word, there is a sad change. It is not easy for you to trust Him; and you have little authority over your unbelief!...We fail to experience glorious victories in prayer because we do not allow faith to pray very often....None are in more danger of losing their faith than those men who are content with what they have" 

 It is in Jesus Himself that we will find what we have been looking for. As we surrender and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide our lives more, we will find that our walk with God becomes deeper. Spend time in prayer and in the Scriptures and as you do ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and He will help you grow.  The Holy Spirit is the most trustworthy, reliable source of going deeper with God that you can find!

One word of caution is needed here.  Given our finite human capacity for understanding the vast things of God, we have got to realize and accept that we can never know all that we would like.  Scripture tells us in First Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."  We need to trust that God will teach us all that we need to know and that there are just some things we will not get to know or fully understand in this lifetime.