When a child is born, he’s always born a baby, never a toddler or a teenager or an adult. Then the baby has to grow physically and his physical body knows how to grow naturally. The body doesn’t need training on how to digest food or how to absorb the nutrition needed. If you feed the baby the right food (i.e. milk), the body automatically grows to maximum potential.
We usually don’t worry about a normal baby’s physical growth. However, problems usually arise when the time comes for babies to eat more solid food. Milk only sustains physical growth for a short period of time. When they pass that age, they will need additional more solid food to continue their physical growth. Then their diet will change according to what their bodies need to grow strong and healthy. It’s important to notice that if you want your child to have a healthy physical growth, then you cannot only feed him milk.
Brother Morris Cerullo always says that all truth is parallel. The natural truth [not facts] is parallel to the spiritual truth. In principle, what is natural [seen] is created of what is spiritual [unseen] (Heb. 11:3). Therefore, to understand how we should grow spiritually, we should study how natural babies grow.
When we were born again, we were also born again as spiritual babies who desire the sincere milk of the word to grow up strong (1 Ptr. 2:2). Spiritual babies have the same nature as natural babies. Both need to be fed the right diet otherwise they will not grow properly or, worse, they will die young. As they grow in age, they will also need to change their diet. Their bodies will crave for a good diet in order to produce “strength power.”
As babies grow, they will also have to develop their mental ability to understand words, to speak, and to follow instructions. Their souls need to be fed with the right cognitive-stimulating food so that their intellect can produce “will power.” They need to be trained (or disciplined) that, for instance, throwing tantrum any time they don’t get what they want is not an acceptable social behavior. This is actually what we call, using a Bible term, renewing the mind – we train our children so that they can produce will power that conforms with the world’s standards. We send our children to schools so that they can learn how and what to think, say and act according to what the world defines as “acceptable.” Children who grow up physically but not mentally, will be called mentally-retarded.
Spiritual babies then will desire for spiritual food so that it will develop and produce spiritual strength called “faith.” As we say earlier, all truth is parallel. Let’s consider a born again baby. Say, someone had a personal encounter with God and got born again in June 1970. His spiritual age will be slightly over 30 years old. If we talk about a natural person at the age of 30, he shall be a mature grown up whom the society will not tolerate if he deals with his life-affairs like a 2 years old child. This person will, I guarantee, be immediately categorized as abnormal.
Other normal people will want to avoid having anything to do with him as much as possible because he always throws tantrum if he doesn’t get what he wants. No one likes to hang out with him as he wets his pants. No girl dreams on marrying him, no matter how good looking he is. No one is going to give him any authority over anything since he is regarded incapable of making informed decisions. Even though he is an heir of a royal family, he will definitely not going to be put in line for the throne given his unfortunate condition.
Now let’s take a look at spiritual born again babies. The time frame that we need to grow spiritually is not the same as the natural one. It will not take 20 biological years for a born again baby to think, speak and act like a spiritually grown up person. Personally, I believe the time frame that we use to grow up spiritually is the degree of our dedication to the Word of God – how we hear and do it.
You see, just like our body parts know how to grow physically, our human spirit knows exactly what to do with spiritual food – the Word of God – that we feed on. Our spirits will automatically digest on the Word of God and extract all the nutritional truth from God’s Word to the benefits of our spiritual growth.
I will never forget the pictures on TV about famine in Ethiopia several years ago. The children looked like an ET image – you know, big heads with “skeleton” bodies. Their weak feet could hardly support their bodies standing. They did not have strength and were dying. This is also true with our human spirit. When our spirit receives malnutrition then, spiritually, we will look exactly like those under-fed people.
How many of us have been born again, have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit for years and years, but somehow we can’t seem to move forward with God. We have reached this plateau in our spiritual life that we become complacent with what we have. We go to all sorts of services, seminars, crusades and Bible classes, but when confronted with problems in our own lives we always run to the phone first and not to the throne.
Let’s play with our imagination a bit. Let’s picture ourselves as spirit beings, taking into consideration how long we’ve been born again and how much of spiritual food that we have taken from all Christian audio-cassettes, videos, books, magazines, seminars, fellowships, Bible study classes. Are you ready to judge yourself? Now, how do you see yourself spiritually? Do you see your spirit-self like a 20 years old wearing a pamper? Do you see your spirit-self as a 40 year old who is afraid to go across the street by himself? Or do you see your spirit-self as a healthy and strong, ever growing spirit man who acts his out his knowledge of God’s Word? Are you acting your [spiritual] age?
Remember that all truth is parallel. If someone who’s physically mature but not mentally is called mentally-retarded. Then, if someone who’s physically mature but not spiritually may be called spiritually-retarded. Right?! No, I’m not suggesting that you are spiritually-retarded. But let’s just be honest with yourself and God, and see your spirit-self as you are spiritually. If you can do so, then you will want to change. Because we ARE EXPECTED to be changed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18) as the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17).
Please turn to Hebrews chapter 5 and let’s read from verse 11 through chapter 6:3:
“Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your [spiritual] hearing and sluggish [even slothful in achieving spiritual insight]. For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God’s Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food. For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action), for he is a mere infant [not able to talk yet]! But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law. Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity” (The Amplified Bible).
Many born-again Christians stop growing spiritually after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many stop growing after they call themselves “intercessors” and join their church’s intercessory prayer meetings. Many stop growing after they master deliverance service. Too many of us don’t have a healthy spiritual growth as a result of our ignorance of the Word of God. We’re too focused on religious activities in our church that we forget that God has sent His Word for us to understand and know Him. The Holy Bible does not consist of God’s Word. IT IS God’s Word!
Don’t be satisfied with your understanding of God’s Word. I guarantee that what you know is not that much actually. There is so much more that God wants to share with you through His Word. Dig deeper. You’ll be surprised of what is available for you. It’s time to move on and move forward. Stagnancy always stinks. Stagnancy means dead. Anything that is not running always turns to a problem. A water puddle will eventually become a wonderful place to breed mosquitoes.
Let’s not accept status quo in our Christian walk. Let’s not just be satisfied with our knowledge of certain biblical truth. Let’s strive after growth in our knowledge and understanding of the Word of God. Let’s grow in our obedience to do His Word. Let us be more radical and extreme for God. I said radical and extreme, not obnoxious! Let us be true defenders of Gospel, like Apostle Paul, Apostle Peter, Stephen, Daniel, Abednego, Shadrach, Mesach, and many more.