EAT AND BECOME MATURE!

Hello [subscriber:firstname | default:Beloved],

Today I invite you to eat. My invitation may surprise you, but I am inviting you to eat this meal that is necessary for spiritual maturity in order to take possession of your inheritance. Before going any further, let me tell you a story.

It is the story of a lady whose husband was shot and killed during a robbery shortly after her marriage. The robbers, obviously under the influence of drugs, had operated with their faces uncovered. Some time after these unfortunate events, there was another robbery in a neighborhood near her home and one of the robbers, shot and wounded, fled and collapsed in front of her house. She let him in and recognized her husband’s killer. What should she have done? Let him die? Call the police? But the Holy Spirit asked her to treat him, since she was part of the medical staff. She did so, showing him all her compassion. When he was completely healed, the woman reminded him of the circumstances in which she had first seen him: during a robbery in which her husband had been killed by one of the robbers, that is, this man in front of her, whom she had cared for so lovingly. The man was shocked, deeply touched and agreed to give his life to Christ.

« For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? » says the Bible in Matthew 5:46-47. This woman did the kind of thing that the Bible calls extraordinary. She forgave her husband’s murderer and nursed him back to health when she had the opportunity to make him pay for the evil he had done to her. What a spiritual maturity! Yes, a person must be spiritually mature to do this: having the character of Christ.

As I told you previously, spiritual maturity is necessary if you are to possess your inheritance in Christ. « Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all » says the Bible in Galatians 4:1. How to become an extraordinary Christian? How to become spiritually mature?

First of all, you must be born again by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in order to have the divine nature in you. You were born human from your biological parents but you must imperatively be born from God if you want to have the divine nature and this goes through the new birth (John 3:1-6). Are you born again ? If you have not yet given your life to Jesus, I invite you to do it so that you become a child of God because it is by being Christian that you will be able to manifest the divine character of Christ. God gives you, through His nature in you, the ability to love, to forgive, to speak, to act like Him, to walk in His ways. Without this nature, the biblical teachings that you listen to cannot transform you in the long run. It will be just like a coaching but it will not be able to stay to the point of giving you the character of Christ.

Then you need to feed yourself properly in order to grow and mature. A child needs to be fed to grow. An adult needs to eat to get strength. This is the physical body. The soul, on the other hand, is nourished by the affective or emotional charge attached to words, actions, events or circumstances. For example, the soul will be motivated by the encouragement attached to a word or the joy linked to a circumstance (Proverbs 16:24). The spirit of man, on the other hand, is nourished by the word (Matthew 4:4). That is why we must desire, as newborn children, the spiritual and pure milk, so that by it we may grow to salvation (1 Peter 2:2). In order to grow and mature, we must begin with pure spiritual milk before moving on to solid food, which is made for full aged men (Hebrews 5:14).

Your spirit needs to eat the Word of God for you to grow, for you to become mature. Like physical food that you savor by chewing before swallowing, you must “chew” the Word of God by meditating on it. Yes, Beloved, it is by meditating on the Word of Christ that it will transform you so that you come to the state of a full aged Man, to the perfect stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

Meditation is more than reading. Listening or reading is not enough for the mind. It must think and reflect regularly on what it has read or heard; that is meditation. « This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you[c] shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. » says Joshua 1:8. The mouth referred to here is not the mouth of your physical body, otherwise mutes would feel excluded. It is the spiritual mouth that eats through meditation and allows you to act faithfully, sustainably and become mature. A strong mind has influence on your soul and body and this contributes to success in all areas of your life.

So, Beloved, I invite you to eat, not just any food, but I invite you to eat Jesus whose name is the Word of God (Revelation 19:13). This pure food will help you to be mature to possess your inheritance in Christ, and make you an extraordinary person! Enjoy your meal!

God bless you!