A child is born. The newness of life has begun outside the womb. All things are new and miraculous. The exploration into life begins where everything is new and fascinating. There is indeed nothing old, for nothing has been before. A babe begins to grow in stature and mentality. It then takes on the traits of its father and mother with the passing of time. The mother feeds the babe and cares for it, and for a while the father only watches on.
The mother waits upon this child hand and foot for days, weeks, and even months, and then years. The child grows more as it develops in walking and talking. This child begins to say what he hears and to imitate those closest to him, and before long his character begins to take shape. The world around this child has begun to quiz their little mind and begins to ask unanswerable questions. The young child’s father only looks at him with a loving smile, and his answer to the child is that they will know soon enough. But the child is not completely satisfied.
Then come the first inklings in his young mind of what he wants to be when he grows up. Surely someone will ask him what it is he wants to become. Does he want to be a fireman, policeman, or doctor? This child may even say, “I know what I want to be”, but will change his mind at the whim of some new toy. The father continues with the smile of anticipation.
Time goes on, and the child begins to face growing pains of entering the years from childhood to adolescence, or teenage years. This is a very trying time. This time of life has the teens assuming knowledge that they sometimes think is beyond the years of the adults around them. Trial and error bring emotional moments in their life. Parents will have to endure defiance or even possible rebellion. Also, during this time, he finds peer pressure comes upon him, trying to conform this character to a particular social status. The mother may come to exhaustion and mental collapse, but the father only looks on and smiles, for he knows all too well what lies ahead.
But turmoil isn’t for naught, even as it rears its ugly head perhaps a multitude of times. As they come, the young man somehow manages to go through with a little more experience in life and from it a more intelligent approach to the problems that confront him. The father is indeed the one who is smiling more as the day of adulthood approaches. The father has anxiously awaited the impending day when he can say to all, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased,” and now it has come. Those things that once seemed miraculous are now merely everyday occurrences in life.
The day comes when mother no longer must tutor her son to put away his clothes or clean his room, take a bath, and brush his teeth. These things have become rudimentary. They are a necessity for daily functional tasks and appearance’s sake but have nothing to do with conducting the transactions of business. The day came when the father smiled long enough over a bumbling youth. He shall now take over the task of setting this young man into a place where he may take a seat of authority beside his father and help his father conduct business in the father’s name.
He must now put into practice the things that have been ingrained into him by the trials that he has passed through. He has learned that consideration toward others and their problems will gain him their respect. He has learned that by patience, he will gain advantage in life. He has learned that being happy in all situations will make the significance of the problem decrease, and so on. The father is indeed pleased that his son has made his way through the wilderness of adolescence, and he has seen well that his son will make a good businessman and partner. And so, in the end, the son receives the inheritance of the father and carries on the business as his father had done so from the beginning.
THE MEANING NOW BECOMES CLEAR
This may sound strange, but I must tell you that the Lord told me this story. At some point we are all in this process of growth in God. We will all recognize ourselves somewhere in it.
A child is born. Do you see this as your beginning or birth as a Christian? It is or was a time when God births us out of the nonexistence of our past as lost souls looking for that something missing in our lives. We were looking for something to get us out of our sinful past. Our past becomes nonexistent to God in that we should look at it like Paul did when he spoke of not looking at those things behind us, but unto the things that are set before us (Phil 3:13). We are to look diligently to that which God has called us. But as children, we are not yet settled in our ways. We have much growth to do. As children, we will play with God, not listen to our mother, and try her with many things.
The church world today has many born-again people playing church that really should not be holding positions of authority. They have yet to reach adolescence. They really do not know what they want to be or should be. One day the child wants to be a preacher, the next day a choir leader, never listening to their real mother, which is from above, the heavenly Jerusalem (Gal 4:26). They have no ear for higher things in life. Despite it all, God smiles upon those who sincerely have a heart after Him. He gives to them the fruit of growth and increase that will bring them to a full maturity. There will also be pruning to rid life of unnecessary unproductive limbs. For these children comes the teen years of adolescence.
This adolescent stage is the experience that the Pentecostal people have been through. The Holy Ghost Baptism is a necessary part of our growth and development to get through to the next level of God. I say this without reservation. It must be. We must be tried to bring about the production of fruit in our lives (Gal 5:22-23). This fruit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. All nine of these fruits will and must come to fruition in this season of our growth. If not, the next realm of growth will not be entered with a productive nature. I would dare to say most will never develop further until they do.
Let’s look at this from the eyes of a gardener. Pressure from the ground tries to keep the seed from coming forth. Such are the trials of life. The ground is our flesh. It must be laid aside for the higher calling in the spirit realm. The sun (son) is forever pulling us upward from the ground to reach into the air (heavenlies). The earth, our body, tries to keep the investment of God inside our form (body) of ground. The seed must be strong to break through this, and indeed it is, for our Father has come through the Spirit, by the investment and payment by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. God is breaking ground now, today. He is building a building, to put it another way. He is cultivating an orchard. Call it what you may, but God is putting together a people that will break forth from their ground with a word of God that will deliver mankind from the curse of the first Adam. God is building a building that shall stand in the evil day with a covering that is made up of lively stones. Praise God!
God is preparing a people who are presently in the state of adolescence. In the Tabernacle of Moses, this stage of growth can be seen in the Holy Place, where the priest made final preparations before entering the very glory of God beyond the veil. We are in a place just before entering into this very presence. Adolescence is almost to a close. Adulthood is around the corner for the few who will dare to enter in. Will you be one who enters? There is a way.
In the Tabernacle, the last stop on the way into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies was the Altar of Incense. This is the place of prayer. Are we willing to stop our daily lives, as did Daniel when he saw the captivity of Israel coming to an end and began to pray that God would honor His Word in keeping with the prophecy that deliverance would come? Will we pray for the deliverance of this creation?
The Bible says that the whole creation groans for the manifestation or revealing of the sons of God (Rom. 8:14-25). This calling was for these sons to come into adulthood. The day that our Father says that it is a time to teach us the business. It is time to teach us the ways of government. Authority shall be given to those who show that they have overcome, and not until (Rev. 3:21).
From childhood to adulthood, one must realize in truth that to be born again is not the end of it all. It is not the ultimate in the Christian walk. In addition, one will note that adolescence is certainly not the time for authority. That would lead to disaster at the hands of sophomoric wisdom. To pick fruit before its time results in it having to be thrown away. It will be found too hard or green. To say that a Spirit-filled Christian has arrived or made it would also be a disaster. Even in this stage, many have not died to self quite enough to lead their own lives, let alone that of others in counsel.
My fellow Christian, I beseech you to search the Word diligently for those things that shall bring into being fruit in your life. Do not look at the world around you and allow yourself to be ruled by the circumstances that govern it, which are quickly passing away. If your intent is to obtain eternal life, you must then set your standards by that which shall rule in eternity. That is the everlasting Word of God. God said that His Word shall not pass away (Matt. 24:25).
Adulthood is where God wants us. It is a place where God can look upon us and say to us corporately, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased”. It is a place where Jesus Christ is Head and we, His body, function, eternally joined together.
“And hast made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev 5:10)
We shall reign. Will you be a part of those who reign? Think about it. David was anointed to be king but when a child, a teenager, but his throne, the place of authority and government and responsibility, was not given to him until he reached adulthood. That was the age of thirty. Who else do you know who rose to authority at the age of thirty?
Livin' Small 