Are you Grown-up ?

We call someone Adult when they reach the age of 18 Yrs. There are many privileges (Voting / Marriage / Jobs etc..) once we reach an Adult, it also gives us the self-independence for us. At the same time if you are adult and someone calls you baby or Kido, we get angry and annoyed on that when people make fun.

Yes, the same is true in our Christian life, We may be a grownup adult, but many are still babes in Christ Sight. Picturise an adult feeding Milk in “Feeding Bottle” instead of eating solid food from a plate, that’s how Christ sees many of us.

So in this post we will see what are the levels of Christian spiritual maturity (Babe vs Grown Up), what should we do to grow on further, what warnings we should avoid as Grown up’s in Christ.

Spiritual Babe

Anyone who believes Jesus is God, is a Child of God, as they come in to Faith they are Babes of Christ, Bibles definition of Spiritual Babe

'Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 'Hebrews 5:13

Examine yourself to see if you are Babe

1. Unstable Christian Life – Examine your Christian life if its unstable, generally babies are handed over from one person to another, likewise spiritual babes are tossed across with every doctrine. Are you getting tossed around like this ?

'Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ' Ephesians 4:14

2. Stuck up in Ritual way - Examine if your star-struck by Christian to one kind of ritual. Babies are focused on one particular person (their mother), spiritual babes have their particular denomination or church that they think of as “my church” - I am a CSI, CNI, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic / Episcopal / Baptist etc.. by following a ritualistic practice of a church and not following the word of God

'What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas ”; still another, “I follow Christ.” ' 1 Corinthians 1:12

3. Spiritual asleep – Examine if your spiritually asleep. Babies need a lot of sleep, and spiritual babes spend much time spiritually asleep. Not realizing the sins that’s around them, many times living in self-denial that the sin committed is not worse sin compared to other persons sin.

4. Fussy and Cranky – Examine yourself if you are fussy and cranky with others, often complaining on situation. Babies can be cranky, and spiritual babes will fuss over any little thing. They don’t show Love as the Jesus taught us to be.

'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ' 1 Corinthians 13:4

Spiritual Grownups

Many of us as Christians need to grow from a Babe to Grown up, Bible definition of Grown up is

'But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.' Hebrews 5:14

As human beings we have senses, there are six senses for anyone who can be called as Spiritual grown up, examine to see if you have these qualities

1) Sense to Discern – One of the most important Senses is to discern the word of God, if a word comes from someone, they will not accept everything that comes to them. They will discern and see if it’s from God and accept that. Holy Spirit helps in discerning and translating this to our human wisdom to separate what’s from God vs. What’s from human.

'For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ' 1 Corinthians 2:11-14

2) Sense of Taste – Examine if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious and that Lord is good all the times of your life, no matter what hardships comes in life.

'Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.’ Psalms 34:8

3) Sense of Hearing – Examine if you hear God’s voice when you go away from God, you will hear his voice like how a sheep hears his shepherds voice with a distinctive sound.

' Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7

4) Sense of Sight – Examine if you have the sense of Sight to see what God is showing, Some actions which you see will bring senses in you that will strengthen your Christian faith, some actions which you see will bring a warning to your ways to repent and come close to God. Holy Spirit helps this translation of actions to Sight / Wisdom so that we can contextualize in our life.

'that he lavished upon us in all wisdom and understanding, ' Ephesians 1:8

5) Sense of Smell - Examine if you have the sense of Smell, many times as we walk with Jesus, there are times when Satan imitates Jesus and deceives us, like a dog who is faithful to his master can recognize his master thru its powerful smell, we can sense God when we have the fear and reverence on him, if he is close to us we can sense that with the Gifts from God vs. Satan.

'I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. ' Philippians 4:18

6) Sense of Touch and Feel – Examine if you have the sense of touch and feel, Many times when we walk with Jesus, we can sense the touch of him when we pray or when we are in trouble or when we sin. This is possible if you have your hearts tender and aligned to God’s ways.

'They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. Ephesians 4:18-19

Fruits of Spiritual Growth

Once you have grown up in spiritual maturity, we are blessed by God with many Gifts, it’s not only for us to be content in what we received from God, but to be a blessing for others.

'Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. ' Hebrews 6:7

Once you are blessed, God expects us to bear the fruit of his blessing, If ground is blessed by rain but refuses to bear fruit, no one blames the farmer for burning that did not grow. When we really bear fruit, we abide in Jesus and are in no danger of falling away from God.

' “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ‘ John 15:5

'That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. ' Psalms 1:3

Warning For Spiritual Grown up

1) Falling vs Falling Away - Many of us feel very happy when are walking with God, others (the world around us) will see that reflect from our actions as it will be different from a normal person. This is a good sign of Spiritually mature indicating grownup in Jesus. Satan is like a roaring lion, he will be more aggressive to take away the Spiritual growth we have from God. He uses many praises from others to target your spiritual fruits, this will bring pride and idiolatry (Self fame, its only about you) in you to focus on yourself instead realizing that all what you have is from God, once you give space to this, slowly you will fall away from Jesus.

'It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. ' Hebrews 6:4-6

There is a necessary distinction between falling and falling away. Falling away is more than falling into sin; it is actually departing from Jesus Himself.

'for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. ' Proverbs 24:16

If you depart from Jesus (fall away) there is no hope to come back to Jesus as in the word it say it is impossible “who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance”

2) Hindrance’s – Sin can hold us back in our Spiritual Growth. But there are also things that may not be sin (every weight) but are merely hindrances that can keep us from running effectively the race God has for us. E.g., We often use our Mobile Phone, Facebook / Instagram / What’s up etc.. Sometimes getting addicted with the Facebook Posts on how much likes you get, How much followers you have for a Instagram Story, are mere hinderance that takes away the focus from God.

'Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 'Hebrews 12:1

Our choices are not always between right and wrong, but between something that may hinder us and something else that may not hinder. Examine if there is a weight in your life you must lay aside?

3) Becoming Lazy – Once we attain a level of Spiritual maturity, we become lazy to do things which we do when we are growing up vs. grown up. This gives room for Satan to bring in his objectives to take us away from God. First this starts with skipping the Bible reading / prayer time we have with God. Slowly we drift away from the Faith of God, fall from his grace and his gifts that’s planned for us.

'We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. ' Hebrews 6:12

So examine yourself

• Where do you stand in spiritual maturity - are you babe or grown up ?

• If you are Spiritually grown-up, do you produce the fruits that God has desired ?

• Are you falling in sin or falling away from Jesus .? Now is the time to get back to God and be active.