The Holy Spirit does not want you to neglect meeting together at a local and healthy (not perfect, sinners are present) church! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit works through the members of local churches to bring glory to God through speaking the truth in love and loving your local neighbors in practical ways. So, the Holy Spirit will want to bring you, a member of the body of Christ, together to encourage and strengthen you and all of God’s children in the faith and to continue to do good acts in the communities where He has placed each church.
“And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 BSB
The Church of Jesus Christ’s many members are becoming one Temple where God resides by the permanent indwelling of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. So, only the Spirit of truth and revelation using the Word of God can mature saints in Christ.
“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role. I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” 1 Corinthians 2:5-7 BSB
HPM teachers (s) are not infallible and do not have the supernatural ability to mature any saint spiritually, so no person should ever place their faith in them or any pastor or teacher. However, all pastors and teachers should be found trustworthy by those who choose to sit under their shepherding and teaching. All pastors and teachers lives and doctrine should conform to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
HPM teachers are simply messengers of the gospel of God’s New Covenant graces and the message of righteousness to equip the saints to know the difference between good and evil. The Spirit of God trains humble, loving, and submissive saints in the message of righteousness.
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14 BSB
Sanctification is fundamentally supposed to be a loving relationship between the Spirit of God, Who is one with, in union, or coupled with a person’s new spirit; they have a ‘new self’ housed in the person’s old self’s body where their sin remains (Romans 7:13-25, 8:1-27).
A loving relationship where the Spirit of sanctification’s gracious work is to transform an immature infant in Christ into a mother or father in Christ. So, through continual spiritual maturing by the Teacher, saints can increasingly experience God the Father’s, Son’s, and Holy Spirit’s love deeper and be used increasingly to love others in word and good works.
“Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God [lovingly give the Spirit of consuming fire our old self’s body where our sin remains], which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind [the Spirit renews the infant in Christ’s mind with the knowledge of God and evil and good, training them to know the difference]. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:1-2 BSB
And
“Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways. But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
The warnings to love others and obey God, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Spirit are plentiful, as seen in the above verses. Why? A Christian can still refuse, deny, and quench the Spirit of God. All these evil decisions and actions reject and rebel against the love of the Spirit of sanctification. So, an infant in Christ freed from sin does not result in automatic obedience to Christ; Christians can still disobey God and treat others unlovingly from falling to temptations from their old sinful nature, their bodies. They must choose to love God continually! God calls Christians who think and act this way as infants in Christ when they should be more mature in Christ.
Inappropriately immature infants in Christ are worldly-minded, so they argue about spiritual matters and cause trouble wherever they go: at home, at work, at play, and, worse yet, at church. While spiritual, truly born again by the Spirit and made into new creatures in Christ, they only know themselves as they did before being saved by the Spirit, merely sinners that are saved.
“Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man? For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?” 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 BSB
In 2 Corinthians 5:14-18, God identifies seven reasons infants in Christ do not mature in the faith. To grow in love, faith, and hope, infants in Christ must be willing to leave the elementary teachings about Christ and move to the New Covenant of the Spirit teachings, which are the gospel of God’s graces, including the message of righteousness.
For God’s love to flourish, the child of God must be willing to continually die to their old self and live only for Christ Jesus by faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the Spirit of grace. The Spirit of Christ will use maturing saints for increasingly good works that God the Father prepared in advance to glorify Jesus Christ’s name on earth.
Spiritual adulthood in Christ is not the end goal; instead, it is for Christians to experience the fullness of God the Father’s love in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ so the Spirit of God can use them to love others as God loves, however, to love as God loves is impossible without spiritual maturity!
Dropdown Submenus: About Joe
I am a very improbable New Covenant pastor and teacher.
“Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth.” 1 Corinthians 1:26 BSB
I fit the above description quite well. I was not an ‘A’ student but a ‘B’ student when I attended public schools and university. I participated in a seminary for under three months when the demands of a first at the church and being a new executive pastor precluded me from continuing seminary (the Senior Pastor agreed). I was not born into a Christian family. I have lived an average middle-class life. I became a Christian on March 28, 1978, when I was born again in Christ by the Spirit of Christ. Spiritual maturity in Christ is unrelated to the length of time I or anyone has been a Christian. My Christian life, unfortunately, proved this point.
I can speak with confidence about how infancy in Christ should be short-lived! My confidence comes from the Spirit of truth and revelation, Who told me I was a full-fledged infant in Christ for about thirty-seven years after being born again. After being saved in 1978, I remained self-interested and self-reliant and saw myself primarily as a saved sinner. While I was an infant in Christ, I remained predominately worldly, even though on my exterior, you would have thought I was maturing in Christ!
“Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man? For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?” 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 BSB
I predominately loved myself more than God. I did love God and was thankful for and devoted to all Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, sacrificed for me. However, I would have sometimes denied this fact through my words and behavior, showing myself as a hypocrite. My resistance to dying to myself resulted in me resisting the Spirit, Who is the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
My immature beliefs in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit’s gracious work to make me a new creature in Christ, coupled with my resistance to dying to my old self, ensured that my old self predominated, keeping me infancy in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-18). My spiritual immaturity (I had elementary beliefs in Christ) nullified the grace of God. So, after being saved by the Spirit of grace, I tried to prove God made the right choice, so I tried to live by faith in God and myself. After being saved, I made every human effort to please God! Because of my immaturity in Christ trying to please God, being a Christian was not easy and created a heavy burden on my life.
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?
Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh [human effort]? Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe?” Galatians 3:1-5 BSB
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