Becoming perfected
I send greetings in the name of Jesus:
Do you have steel toed shoes on? You may want them because we will be treading on some toes in this writing regarding what we say about becoming perfected. You may not of heard many teachings on this because it is a difficult subject. It is designed to include everyone who hears it from the top of the leadership of the church all the way to the new Christian or new church member. This deals with allowing the Holy Spirit to be in complete control of our spiritual growth. It is the spirit of God who is charged with teaching us and developing us into a child of God who can understand the deeper spiritual truths in God's word.
It is so easy to lump everyone into a single category. Each one of us has a special and unique journey to take with God's spirit. The problems come when we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit access in us to begin the process of transforming us. When we come to Christ we have the chance to become new creatures in Christ by allowing God's spirit to change us. It is a part of that transformation process that is promised when we can trust God enough to give him pieces of our lives. Each time that happens the piece of us we give away to God dies to the influences of this world and that piece of us is replaced with a new part of us from God's spirit that is holy and Clinton's and it fits into the kingdom of heaven. As this happens the Holy Spirit causes us to grow and develop into the child of God who can understand the deeper spiritual things in God's word. If you have ever read a passage then reread that same passage at a different time and received a deeper meaning when you read then you will understand what I mean.
This can only happen to us if we allow God to take us out of our comfort zone in this life. Without even realizing it we are all addicted to this life. We clean to what we think we know. We hold on to the desires for things of this life more than the desire for what God is promised us. That is why we are called men of little faith. It is this worldly minded Christian who cannot understand the deeper things of God simply because they will not allow the Holy Spirit to control needed to begin change from the old man to the new man in Christ. That change of mind and heart will never come to us as long as we still live with and are guided by our senses and knowledge in this world. Once again it is us who get in the way. The Greek word "SARINOS" means fleshly but it was always used in the context of weakness. The term "CARNAL" that we here in Scripture is used in the tone as willfulness. When you combine these you will get the "double minded man"that Christ speaks of.
Make no mistakes these people are followers of Christ, but they still live with 1 foot in this world while they are trying to hang on to the promises of God. It does not matter how long these people have claimed Christ or how much knowledge of Scripture they may have learned. They are still carnally minded. These people no matter who they are have not grown in his spirit enough to have anything but"the milk of the word". Paul said these people should not be given meet until they can handle it. This subject is the longest one of the series of discussions because of the important nature of the subject so hang in there. Do your toes hurt yet?1 Corinthians 2:6-16 tells us that becoming perfected in Christ simply means becoming mature in Christ. Paul speaks about the princes of this world or those who crucified Christ is coming to not. It is because they were operating in the wisdom and the knowledge of this world, not in the power of God's Holy Spirit. This hidden wisdom is given only to those who are of God's kingdom, it is hidden from this world in the teachings of the Holy Spirit. You've heard me say this before. This wisdom goes much further because it reveals the truth to those who can be trusted with the knowledge. If the world had been able to understand this wisdom it would have known it would have set into action the salvation of the world from sin. So the Scripture is fulfilled which says"I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those that love him".
Here's the problem; we cannot demonstrate perfected love to God without perfected trust.1 Corinthians 3: 1-9 speaks of the consequences of division and that our spiritual growth is being stunted. I have just this last step to take so watch your feet. We have the opportunity to deal with these things in two ways; we can either deal with the truth of what God tells us here or we can do what most church bodies have done and try to justify the natural divisions we make of ourselves from everyone else by saying we are right and they are wrong. Our first duty is to teach about the basics of salvation in Christ so that people are not led astray by teachings that are too deep for them to understand. Is it our goal to long for the deep things of God? YES OF COURSE! But not at the expense of dragging others along with this who cannot digest that truth yet. I am convinced that there are many baby Christians who do not understand the principles that many of us teach or preach, yet who are too embarrassed to say please explain to me because I don't understand. In turn these people form ideas and philosophies themselves about teachings we give them that may be in part true but not all true and it's our own fault. I wanted to touch more on this subject as we go, but for now I simply want to say"made you richly bless God through your life in him."
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Do you have steel toed shoes on? You may want them because we will be treading on some toes in this writing regarding what we say about becoming perfected. You may not of heard many teachings on this because it is a difficult subject. It is designed to include everyone who hears it from the top of the leadership of the church all the way to the new Christian or new church member. This deals with allowing the Holy Spirit to be in complete control of our spiritual growth. It is the spirit of God who is charged with teaching us and developing us into a child of God who can understand the deeper spiritual truths in God's word.
It is so easy to lump everyone into a single category. Each one of us has a special and unique journey to take with God's spirit. The problems come when we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit access in us to begin the process of transforming us. When we come to Christ we have the chance to become new creatures in Christ by allowing God's spirit to change us. It is a part of that transformation process that is promised when we can trust God enough to give him pieces of our lives. Each time that happens the piece of us we give away to God dies to the influences of this world and that piece of us is replaced with a new part of us from God's spirit that is holy and Clinton's and it fits into the kingdom of heaven. As this happens the Holy Spirit causes us to grow and develop into the child of God who can understand the deeper spiritual things in God's word. If you have ever read a passage then reread that same passage at a different time and received a deeper meaning when you read then you will understand what I mean.
This can only happen to us if we allow God to take us out of our comfort zone in this life. Without even realizing it we are all addicted to this life. We clean to what we think we know. We hold on to the desires for things of this life more than the desire for what God is promised us. That is why we are called men of little faith. It is this worldly minded Christian who cannot understand the deeper things of God simply because they will not allow the Holy Spirit to control needed to begin change from the old man to the new man in Christ. That change of mind and heart will never come to us as long as we still live with and are guided by our senses and knowledge in this world. Once again it is us who get in the way. The Greek word "SARINOS" means fleshly but it was always used in the context of weakness. The term "CARNAL" that we here in Scripture is used in the tone as willfulness. When you combine these you will get the "double minded man"that Christ speaks of.
Make no mistakes these people are followers of Christ, but they still live with 1 foot in this world while they are trying to hang on to the promises of God. It does not matter how long these people have claimed Christ or how much knowledge of Scripture they may have learned. They are still carnally minded. These people no matter who they are have not grown in his spirit enough to have anything but"the milk of the word". Paul said these people should not be given meet until they can handle it. This subject is the longest one of the series of discussions because of the important nature of the subject so hang in there. Do your toes hurt yet?1 Corinthians 2:6-16 tells us that becoming perfected in Christ simply means becoming mature in Christ. Paul speaks about the princes of this world or those who crucified Christ is coming to not. It is because they were operating in the wisdom and the knowledge of this world, not in the power of God's Holy Spirit. This hidden wisdom is given only to those who are of God's kingdom, it is hidden from this world in the teachings of the Holy Spirit. You've heard me say this before. This wisdom goes much further because it reveals the truth to those who can be trusted with the knowledge. If the world had been able to understand this wisdom it would have known it would have set into action the salvation of the world from sin. So the Scripture is fulfilled which says"I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those that love him".
Here's the problem; we cannot demonstrate perfected love to God without perfected trust.1 Corinthians 3: 1-9 speaks of the consequences of division and that our spiritual growth is being stunted. I have just this last step to take so watch your feet. We have the opportunity to deal with these things in two ways; we can either deal with the truth of what God tells us here or we can do what most church bodies have done and try to justify the natural divisions we make of ourselves from everyone else by saying we are right and they are wrong. Our first duty is to teach about the basics of salvation in Christ so that people are not led astray by teachings that are too deep for them to understand. Is it our goal to long for the deep things of God? YES OF COURSE! But not at the expense of dragging others along with this who cannot digest that truth yet. I am convinced that there are many baby Christians who do not understand the principles that many of us teach or preach, yet who are too embarrassed to say please explain to me because I don't understand. In turn these people form ideas and philosophies themselves about teachings we give them that may be in part true but not all true and it's our own fault. I wanted to touch more on this subject as we go, but for now I simply want to say"made you richly bless God through your life in him."
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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