Growing Up

Remember when you mom or dad said “you just need to grow up?” Did you know that growing up in Christ is not the same as growing up in Adam?  Religion tells us wrongly that we need to grow up and still think like Adam, self-effort.  Our growing up in Christ actually has nothing to do with our performance, ability to avoid bad behavior, our lists of rights and wrongs, Bible memorization, program participation, rules adherence, ministry involvement, journaling ability, devotional time invested…or any other Adam derived metrics.  It has everything to do with Jesus.  We go from infant to son by soaking in the revelation of the goodness of God.  Peter says this:

1 Peter 2:1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander (SELF-Stuff from Adam). 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (ESV) (explanation added)

Spiritual milk is hearing, believing and meditating on the goodness of God.  It is not more information on rules.  That is law.  Grace and law cannot co-exist.  Grace with law is just law.  Our pure milk is knowing that God did it all, Jesus finished it all, the Holy spirit completes it all.  Sometimes we need a good soaking in His goodness to break down our tough, Adam-taught, wrong-fruit-ingested law thinking.  We need our minds transformed.  He baptizes us in His goodness over and over.  The Israelites used to cook goat (solid food) in milk to make it tender and yummy.  Hunters will soak game in milk to tenderize it and remove the gamely taste.  Our growing up, our consumption of pure spiritual milk is our movement from law thinking and law believing into Grace receiving.  We move from ourselves to Him.  We move from our self-sufficiency to His finished work.  

Here is a list I came up with that shows the transition from infant to son or law to Grace or milk to solid food or…  It is not a Chinese menu.  You can’t pick what you want from either list.  Our growing up should be moving from column one to column two.  If you are not a believer then you have no choice but column one.  You don’t have the “wiring” to receive a greater revelation.  If you are a child of God then it should be a natural progression from one to two.  The enemy doesn’t want you to know this.  The enemy wants to keep you pinned on your knees in deep powerless remorse about how much you suck so you never move from the spot.  That is his plan.  Hanging with your “Christian” friends at a church is often the very thing the enemy uses to keep you down.  Often accountability is to sin, law, rules…  In most churches the discussion of the goodness of God gets the leadership and membership angry.  Makes you wonder…  Our church experience, our family experience our growing up should be moving into a greater revelation of Grace.

It takes our willingness.  It takes a few things to make it happen.  God does all the work but we need to position ourselves.  We need (to name a few):

1. Be a born again child of God
2. Surrender (Gal 3:20, Ph 3:8-10)
3. Hunger (Matt 5:6)
4. Revelation of the goodness of God (1 Peter 2:2)
5. Revelation of the finished work of Jesus (Rom 10:4, 8:2, Gal 2:16-21)
6. Trust (Heb 11:6)
7. A transformed mind (Rom 12:2)

So here is the list. Remember if you are born again column one is not who you are.  Column one is a place you can choose to hang out if you are believing wrongly.  Column one is a lie.  Your growing up is to learn to stop believing and thinking like column one.  When you read the table take a deep breath, let it out, be calm and ask the Holy Spirit “how do I move from one to two?  How do I change my thinking?  How do I change my believing?”  He will show you.  Maybe you are already all grown up.  If so

Yay God!
 

Lance