Spiritual manhood is the stage of stability in the spiritual life and the continuation in maturity. It is not something hard, but it is ruled by spiritual standards. Maybe you are still a child, but you think that you are in the spiritual manhood which might not be the case in reality. So if you are still going through ups and downs in your spiritual life then this means that you are still a child or a spiritual adult.
Spiritual manhood has principles and a method. Your stability protects you from stumbling over people, situations, or events, until you reach a stage where you do not fall or stumble, but rather become invulnerable.
Spiritual manhood is listening to the Word without exempting any specific topic as it happens with a student in a school. The student does not choose what subject to learn, but rather learns everything given to him even if he was not attracted to it. But after a while, he discovers that what he is learning is actually related to other subjects and starts to connect these educational lessons together.
1 Corinthians 13:11:” When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
The spiritual child talks and thinks in the wrong way and therefore he walks in the wrong image. Paul the Apostle boldly states that he has nullified what is for the child. Spiritual manhood is a divine purpose to all children. Childhood is a normal thing in any person’s life, but it is not normal to remain a child because Satan will not show you mercy or compassion and if you think that God will protect you from Satan, this means you do not understand the spiritual laws. You live on this earth which is controlled by Satan and he will take every opportunity to enter your life.
Adam was not naïve but aware of everything that is around him and the proof is that he was in charge of tasks. Even God said in Genesis 2:18:” And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.” Adam is the one who handed over the earth to Satan. There are things that are understood implicitly in the revelation, and the Jews are among the most correct interpreters of the prophecies, and every word has many details, for example the word “helper” means that he was assigned tasks, and the Lord gave him a helper; a helper to complete these tasks.
If you are seeking spiritual manhood and stability, it is not something hard, but it needs commitment because the Holy Spirit is very serious and wishes to see you committed in order to reach the spiritual manhood for this is pleasing to the heart of God.
Have certainty in the biblical truths:
Luke 1:1-4:” Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed them unto us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mighest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”
Notice here that Luke is talking in certainty saying that there are things we believe in with certainty for God will not use believers who are not certain because He transmits certainty through a believer to other people’s life and in no doubt there are those who make other people stumble through unbiblical teachings.
Paul the Apostle, in Acts 20:20 said to the people of Ephesus that he had kept nothing back from them, but preached them anything that would be helpful where there are a lot of servants who know the biblical truth and are afraid of declaring it. Luke also talked in Chapter 12 about the punishment of God to those who did not give the portion of food in due season, the Lord Jesus will talk with them about their shortcoming toward their congregation.
There are some people who will be taken in the rapture and will stand in front of the judgment seat of Christ and there are some who will prepare themselves to be taken in the rapture in the end of days. “The oil of the virgins” in Mathew 25 does not refer to the Holy Spirit because it does get dry, but it refers to the biblical knowledge meaning that if you do not take the biblical knowledge and get enlightened, you will then go through tribulation. If you were a slouched believer toward the Word of God and do not understand it, then you will be a crippled child. But if you want to become a spiritual man then you must follow a system and you must understand the meaning of spiritual manhood. You must also commit yourself to hear the biblical truth because often times you will find that your flesh does not want to hear a biblical teaching where you ought to feed on the mind of the Lord.
The reasons for stumbling and its solution:
Stumble is a hindrance to the spiritual growth which means that you fall into the same trap more than one time. There are those who claim that they are stumble but in fact they are lazy or there are those who were stumbled in their spiritual life by other people and some stumbled themselves on their own. The word of God in Luke 17:3 says:” Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” The meaning of the Word “rebuke” here is to stop him and to put boundaries which differs from the word “go and tell his fault” used in Matthew 18:15:” Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Meaning to get an explanation for what he did.
Do not stop your spiritual growth because you were stumbled by things. You have to take a stand against these excuses. The Lord Jesus has already said in Matthew 11:6:” And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Keep yourself from stumbling and if someone tried to stumble you then stop him and put boundaries to it.
Mark 6:3:” Is not this carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.” They were stumble by the Lord Jesus because they underestimated Him and considered Him as a normal person. Whenever you underestimate the word by not focusing, paying attention and retrieving it – since the Word is the same as Jesus – this means that you underestimate Jesus personally. The beauty of Jesus is in His person and not His outer look. God’s people knew very well that they cannot see Him, so they used to contemplate the beauty of His person.
John 6:53-66:” Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
The Lord Jesus was not talking to his twelve disciples but to the Jews and He was not sitting in the attic holding the cup and the bread. Even His teachings were not accepted by many and when He spoke about eating the flesh of the Son of man, many of His disciples were offended so He said to them:” Does this offend you? How are you going to realize what is bigger?” this confirms that the Holy Spirit will not reveal things to you that are bigger than your spiritual level because there are those who do not know the Word and mistaken the voice of Satan to them by the voice of the Holy Spirit and therefore they suffer. So you must know the Word of God very well for the will of God is to break any lack of knowledge and any falsehood among His people.
A disciple is a person who follows his pastor and not the one who attends meetings only when feels like it or the one who is only present for the time of worship because this is called spiritual childhood. The reason why people love the time of worship is that at this time they give and commune with the Lord and enjoy Him. As for the time of the Word, they do not enjoy it because they do not respond to it, so they feel bored and cannot bear to hear it. And of course, the teaching must be biblical and revelation in order for you to enjoy it, because you will not become a spiritual manhood if you do not know the biblical truth, and just as your soul is released in praise and worship and you are drawn to it, so if you are able to release your soul when you hear the word, then you will be attracted to it.
God will not use people who are not in the spiritual manhood because mankind is waiting for the manifestation of the glory of the mature children of God and if your motivations are not pure and you still do not know how to pray and you still have a spiritual sluggishness from time to time then all of these are an indicator that you are still a spiritual child. Even if the truth hurts at the beginning, it does not matter because discipline seems painful at the time but it produces the harvest of righteousness at the end. As the Word says in Hebrews 12:11:” Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercises thereby.”
The solution to the stumble is in the answer of the Lord Jesus which He gave to answer the question of His disciples and its meaning is the spiritual realm when He said in John 6:63:” The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Therefore, you must understand the truth and the depths of matters through your understanding of the spiritual realm. The Lord Jesus made us masters in the spiritual realm, and based on this you are reassured in all situations because you realize that the basis of all matters is spiritual. For example, you will not be afraid of anything when you are harmed by someone, as you are aware that behind those who are trying to harm you are evil spirits that made them stand against you, and instead of pointing fingers at the person and planning revenge, you pray for him and stop the matter from the spiritual realm.
Do you still stumble now and then? This means that your spiritual life is not going in the right spiritual rate, and you need to know more spiritual facts that help you understand matters. The spiritual child often stumbles because he does not realize that the basis of everything is the spiritual realm. If you seek to reach spiritual manhood, you must understand the world of the spirit, and that Jesus made you a master in it, and this is what makes you not anxious in situations because their basis is spiritual.
The Lord Jesus dealt with matters from a spiritual basis, and when you also discover it and understand it; you will realize that everything is controlled by the spiritual realm, and you can change it and take control of your life. Spiritual manhood is when you reach a stage where you get rid of your own circle, and be in a lively relationship with God, and realize that He is not bothered by you and that His love for you is always constant, and that Satan has nothing to do with you, and you discover what you have in Christ. When you are enlightened by this truth; you will then realize that you affect instead of getting affected because you are of the same material of the Word.
Respond to the Word:
Respond to the Word and do not be like the ones that Jesus addressed them saying in Matthew 11:17:” We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.” It means they are nonresponsive, while the angels are always joyful in every biblical truth (Hebrews 12:22). In the spiritual realm there is constant joy and cheer.
1 Peter 1:9-12: ”Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. The prophets of the Old Testament here were prophesying about what is going to happen after the cross. They searched intently trying to find out who will enjoy all these things and what time and the Holy Spirit answered them saying that it was not for them, but for a time to come, “the time of the Church”, and if this thing was dazzling to them, you are living now in it.
As this truth is now being proclaimed, the angels listen, hear and rejoice because of its immensity. You need to understand that the spiritual realm moves according to your response to it. And if you are walking with your five senses and waiting for something to move you, this will not happen because the secret of your ignition lies in your response to the biblical truth, and once you turn to it, you will discover that you have entered it automatically because the kingdom we are in is driven by the attention and the hunger to the Word.
If you are waiting for dazzling things without responding to the Word, and you are waiting a lot for something to move you, it will not happen, because it is not the divine way. And there are those who believe that the Lord will appear to them as He appeared to others as long as He wants to, thinking that the Lord is like his parents who always do for him whatever he wants.
The rich man and Lazarus:
Luke 16:25-31:”But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead”.
The Lord Jesus did not give an example here, but he told a true story. Most Bible scholars mention that this rich man was a relative of the Lord Jesus and the Jews knew him. That is why he did not want to mention his name so that his affairs would not be known to everyone. There are those who interpret this witness that if you want to go to heaven, you have to taste afflictions, and if you live in goodness on earth, you will definitely go to hell where the rich man went, but this rich man was rich in his own way and not rich in God.
“And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent”. This means that if they saw something huge then they will believe, so he confirms that their problem is not richness but unbelief. “And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead”. This means that if their hearts do not move towards the Word of God- making it clear that the sound of the Word is stronger than one rising from the dead- they will not believe.
If you do not want to walk with God seriously and believe that God will come down to your spiritual level – although He sometimes does if necessary – this does not mean that you should remain a child. Do not live like the eldest son who waited for his father to throw him a party without asking him to. Do not wait for the Lord to do something for you without asking for it, and you continue to wait for Him, while the Lord is waiting for you to tell Him your request, otherwise you will wait a lot and delay your spiritual growth.
1 Peter 1:23-25:” Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you”.
You are born of the same material as the Word, which does not fall or be destroyed. Human nature is destroyed, but the one born of God cannot be destroyed, hallelujah!
1 Peter 2:1-3:” Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”.
“Laying aside all malice, and all guile” it means laying aside hypocrisies and guile and everything that is similar to the world and its principles because if you walk in the Word you will be a mentor.
“Hypocrisy” means all judgments that are contrary to what is in your heart. Every believer should be open to those who follow him spiritually, and not show hypocrisy with his brothers and sisters. And you should not praise someone saying; “You are a spiritual giant,” knowing fully well that it is not the truth.
“Envy” is the jealousy of the heart, which desires what the other has.
“Evil speaking” that is, to speak contemptuously of others, belittle and ridicule them, and gossip. Put all this aside so that you do not get hurt in the end!
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”. After laying aside all malice and all guile, it is normal to desire the sincere milk with no content added to it meaning the sincere biblical truth. The child naturally craves “has a strong desire” for milk, and if he does not crave milk, then this is not normal.
If you do not lay aside malice, hypocrisy, envy, and all the slander “wrong thoughts,” your appetite for the word will diminish until it ends, and you will find yourself laden with things; Because your mind is attentive to other things, and the solution is to seek the help of someone who takes care of you spiritually. If you continue this way, you will get used to the situation, and you will continue without feeling that there is any problem. In order for you “to grow thereby”, “it comes in the original” in order to grow in it for salvation, or to be saved by it. It is to reach the stage of salvation of your soul (thoughts, passion, will), by charging it with the Word, and replacing your personal thoughts with divine thoughts. A believer must grow every day, as one of God’s man said, “If you do not grow, you bounce back.”
“If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” it means no believer’s life is built on the terror of God and any teaching that terrifies people from God gives birth to spiritual disabled children, and if you are in a quarrel with God and do not see that the Lord is good, the remedy is a quick and correct understanding of God’s love, and here you can be bold in your relationship with Him and become mature from one stage to another, and not remain as you are. Know that the reason for staying at the same level is because you are lazy and do not want to commit yourself to God. The lazy always has his way of thinking that destroys him.
Jacob 2:1-3:” My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool”.
Do not be among the believers who put favoritism under the cover of faith. That is, do not do something and then justify it by favoritism, as it is a sin. This means that do not put a cover for error in the name of Christ, and beware of the wrong use of faith in justifications, or to do what you want. Do not feel that the service given to you is a small, and you begin to complain and think that the spiritual leader stands before God’s call on your life.
Your steadfastness comes as a result of your correct understanding of the biblical truth:
Hebrews 13:9:” Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein”.
1 Peter 3:14-17:” Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
“Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” this means that those who teach unbiblical teachings are the first to get hurt. And if the messages are not understood correctly, many will be lost and this will lead for loss to others, because spiritual stability comes as a result of the correct interpretation of the word.
“Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness” this means that dangerous things lies therein in the wrong explanation to the Word God so your steadfastness is related to your correct understanding of the Word.
James 4:13-17:”Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin”.
“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” this scripture does not apply to the believers who walk in the Word but rather to those who have forsaken the Lord in their hearts. The reason why they have forsaken the Lord, we are not saying that doing business is bad, but because these people are proud of things other than the Lord and they know exactly what the right things to do are and yet they do not.
James 5:1-8:”Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”.
“Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts” in other translations it says: “Be steadfast and do not be afraid” regardless of what happens around you in terms of injustice, slander, and theft because the Lord is near. The steadfastness of your heart depends on your understanding of the biblical principles, because if you do not realize that the Lord intervenes in your life and stops any negative thing, then your heart will not be steadfast. The Holy Spirit establishes your heart and makes you steadfast when you realize how He walks with you here on earth. Here, you will not be affected by anything or feel sad or happy about anything.
Do not bind your heart to anything here on earth or to your possessions. Spiritual manhood is steadfastness, and this does not mean not facing challenges and circumstances in your life, but rather your steadfastness is in facing them. Steadfastness is the opposite of stumbling because the stumbling person is always affected by events, circumstances, and feelings. He is moody and always terrified of Satan, and believes that he is in a constant war, and that there is an enemy that he tries to escape from, and asks for prayers from others.
The characteristics of a spiritual childhood:
You may be a spiritual child because you are new to faith, or you have known the Lord for years without walking in the Word so you have become a disabled child, “Nepios.”
- He is easy to be deceived in the person of God, like a child who thinks that his parents prevent him from certain things because they do not love him, so he always stumbles from the Lord and needs a spiritual mentor who teaches him and let him know who God is and what are His principles so that he can learn to hear the voice of the Lord through them, because at this stage he only hears the voice of Satan who fills his mind with thoughts against God.
Every person who accepted the Lord Jesus in the days of the apostles was called a disciple and not a servant, but unfortunately everyone who accepts Jesus in this day begins to serve directly, and the pastor believes that the service will make him stick to the church, while offering him the pure biblical truth is what attracts him to the church.
This is very similar to giving a great responsibility to a young child, and then you find him becoming arrogant or making divisions because due to the wrong motives of the heart, and he cannot be corrected because he thinks that he is a leader because he took over a great responsibility before the right time, and from here we see poor services, and it is easy for servants to get annoyed with each other.
- He is easily deceived in the ways of God, begins to guess based on his knowledge, and is like a child who uses a pen as a sword dealing with situations with arrogance and haste in judgment; therefore, he must be given proper food so that he does not turn into a disabled child “Nepios”. He may think that God answered him because of his crying, and here he needs to learn that God does not respond to crying.
Psalm 103:7:” He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel”. Moses put himself in the right position, which is to know the ways of the Lord, while the people chose that Moses become a mediator between them and God, and the Lord wanted to communicate with all the people, so He appeared on the mountain in a supernatural way, because this must have happened since the people grew up among many gods, and they were accustomed to supernatural things. They were spiritual children walking in the five senses.
- He doubts and deceives himself and it is easy for him to belong to any teaching that has luster. Anything new has its luster, but that does not mean that everything that shines is gold. And if an idea is presented to him from the devil, he thinks that he is the source of the idea, and here he blames himself and falls again into sin, and reaches a stage where he feels constrained and does not know that all these things are imaginary and that there is no such thing as a constraint. When he knows that these ideas are not coming from him, he then becomes free.
Perhaps he believes that there is an old man, so he deals on the basis that there are two natures inside of him and he must always bridle the old nature and find proofs from the reality of his life for that, while the Word proves the opposite. Romans 6:6:” Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin”. This means that the old man has died literally and not under a death sentence.
- He is deceived by Satan and thinks that Satan is huge and terrifying, and that he is the problem of his life and so he complains about the flesh, the world and Satan.
- He is deceived by people and thinks that they are the problem, where the problem resides in his unsteadiness.
- He believes that the problem lies in the circumstances, in the events around him, and misdiagnoses things. Spiritual children do not know how to hear the voice of the Lord. So if you are caring for someone spiritually, do not say to him: “Pray and hear the voice of the Lord”, decreeing that all children of God should listen and be led by the Spirit of God, but not all of them are led by the Spirit of God. Only the mature ones are. Romans 8:14:” For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God’. (The mature sons of God).
The Lord Jesus differentiated between goats and sheep. The little sheep follows the big one and does not know how to hear the voice of the shepherd. As for the big one, he distinguishes the voice of the shepherd. That is why the Lord said to Peter, while you feed them, differentiate between goats and sheep. There are spiritual children, you are the one who makes decisions for them like a physical child who cannot make decisions while he is still learning, and when he matures he will then know how to make his own decisions.
7- He depends on others. Galatians 4:1-3:”Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world”.
In these verses, Paul the Apostle speaks of the people of Israel as being minors before accepting Christ, and becoming mature after knowing Jesus. And we can understand a biblical principle from it: a spiritual child cannot possess what he has in Christ. Like a minor heir who cannot use his inheritance and he is like a slave who does not own anything in this case.
If the spiritual child accepts this truth and realizes that he is on his way to maturity, he will be subject to guardians until his father decides that he has already matured because the child cannot make correct decisions but he only cares about his own pleasure and desires such as playing and sleeping.
Likewise, the spiritual child only cares about the world and needs to submit himself to someone to help him and guide him.
An example of this, there are shelters for street children so that they do not stay there and become addicts or bandits. Likewise, a spiritual child if he does not undergo spiritual parenting will wander in this life like a homeless person.
When a person submits after a long period of time of non-submission, you will find him rebuking his spiritual father because he is accustomed to the street style, and the spiritual father must accept him and work with him patiently. And the person must accept correction even if it is painful, and if he does not accept it and does not study the Word as he is led by the one who takes care of him spiritually he will ruin his life, as the Bible says in Hebrews 12:11:” Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby”.
It is not something to be ashamed of if the spiritual child depends on others, but it is wrong for him to associate his life to someone and feel that he does not know how to live without him. Like a physical child who depends on his parents who train him to make correct decisions on his own in their own way without referring to them, but he will still need their guidance in higher matters because they are higher than him.
A person who guides you spiritually is someone who connects you to Jesus and teaches you how to do things His way. In the beginning, he gives you a fish and teaches you how to catch it until the time comes and you catch it yourself, and this is what Jesus did when he told the disciples in Matthew 14:16:” But Jesus said unto them, they need not depart; give them to eat.” (Because He gave them a biblical teaching. The concept of a disciple at that time is someone was someone who leaves everything and clings to his teacher and sits at his feet to learn from him).
You are the one who uses your child’s imagination and does not leave it empty, or kill innovation and creativity, so direct your child to innovate and imagine correctly, for the Word makes him submissive without canceling his personality. It also makes you choose with a full heart.
8- He waits for someone to do things for him like an infant who waits for his mother to feed him.
9- He is a tactile person who walks and measures his life with his five senses. That is, what he feels and what he sees. For example, he may cry when he is going through hardship until someone who nurtures him spiritually corrects him and teaches him the right way. He does not believe without seeing. 2 Kings 6:15:” And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! How shall we do?” the servant of the prophet Elisha was terrified while the prophet himself did not care to see for the ones with them outnumber the ones against them because he sees it clearly through the Word, but he prayed for his servant and asked God to open his eyes. Moses was also telling the people that they were surrounded by protection, and he sometimes used mountains to symbolize the divine fortresses surrounding the people. You do not need to see with your eyes, but rather to understand what the Word says about every situation, because seeing is not the criterion.
10- He makes a lot of mistakes because spiritual childhood is connected to the way of thinking.
1 Corinthians 14:20:” Brethren, be not children in understanding (immature children “Baidon”): howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men (mature adults)”. Form this scripture, we understand that we need to be crippled, backward, in incomprehension, and unaware regarding evil and do not meditate on it. For example, if a person is stealing in your work place, do not try to find out how he does it and the details of the matter, do not reflect on his sin. The Holy Spirit shows us through these verses the importance of being a spiritual man, and the opposite of it is being a child.
11- He cannot bear the responsibility and the Holy Spirit deals with him through feelings. Some voices make him laugh at this stage; because he only understands the language of feelings. Like a father who communicates with his child through feelings. This is what he enjoys, and when he grows up, he communicates with him through speech. Although the father is the same person and the child too, but the way he communicates with his child has changed because the child has matured. If you continue to communicate with him in the manner of a baby, it will lead him to disability. This is how the Holy Spirit treats us. For example, sometimes the Spirit of God overwhelms you with joy while you pray “You are the object,” but there comes a time when you intentionally rejoice in “You are the subject” and invalidate what is for the child and live in joy without any influences and you will stop relying on your feelings; for this Paul the apostle says in Philippians 3:1:” Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord”.
The spiritual child believes that if he does not feel joy, then there must be something wrong with his relationship with God because he walks by what he sees and feels. Whereas, the spiritual man is not affected by what he sees or feels, but rather he walks only with what he believes in, and the opposite of this latter stage is maturity when he walks in the Word only.
Some think that through cry and supplications God will answer them, but God loves faith as it is written in Hebrews 11:6:” But without faith it is impossible to please him”. (this means to believe in God and not to pray this way saying:” Have mercy on us” because now you have obtained mercy). 1 Peter 2:10:” Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy”. (There will come a time where the spiritual child will wean as it happens with the physical child and it will hurt).
12- He is sure and reassured through others, because he is not used to the Word having authority over his life, and that is why the Apostle John said in 1 John 2:13:” I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye know the Father”.( He talks with the spiritual child or the adult about his victory over Satan because he is still preoccupied with him, but he talks with those who have advanced spiritually about the depths of their relationship with the Lord, because they work with Him and are preoccupied with souls).
13- He believes anything and therefore it is easy to be deceived by anyone.
Colossians 2:1-8:”For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”.
The second verse is explained this way: so that your hearts may be encouraged as you are joined together and united with one another in love, so that you may receive the blessing of what you have understood after being certain of it. When you associate with a body (a church) with love, you understand and become certain within you of what you have understood, and here you will receive the blessing of what you have studied in the Word; this is why being in a body (a church) is so important.
“ For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit” you will often find someone who takes care of you spiritually and knows very well what you are doing, even though he is not present with you in the flesh.
“Beholding your order” The term used here is a warlike term that describes the soldiers as they stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, standing next to each other with strength. This is the type of the relationship with your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
The reason for your ignition is because you opened your heart to the biblical truth and studied it well and the reason for the ignition to stop is because you did not keep the ignition of your heart on an ongoing basis. Therefore, he advised saying:” As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”. In the same way that you received Jesus, this is how you continue to walk in Him. In the beginning, your fascination made you to open your heart to the Word and so you were ignited. And at the time when you stop your fascination with the Word, thinking that you know the interpretation of every verse and get used to what you hear; you reach a stage where the Word becomes outdated in your opinion and your ignition goes out.
As a spiritual child you need to preserve your ignition by receiving a pure biblical doctrine, to keep your heart attentive to the Word and to pour all your heart on the Word. Jesus said in John 7:17:” If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” This means that he who wants to know will be given sufficient light, but he who makes excuses for himself and does not pay attention to the Word will remain in this state.
The levels of the spiritual maturity
Ephesians 1:3-5:” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”.
God predestinated us unto the adoption in Greek it means “maturity”. The Holy Spirit is the spirit that helps you mature because it is pleasant to God to see you mature spiritually than to see you living blundering due to your distracting thoughts and thus your body becomes weak as a result of the weakness of your spirit. The one who is spiritually mature is the steadfast one who is not shaken by circumstances or events and is not affected by feelings.
- The first level is: BREFOS
- The second level is: Paidion
- The third level is: Huios
What is the meaning of “adoption”?
It does not mean to adopt a child who is not your son, but rather means maturing “Heiosia”, as it is derived from the same root as the word “Hyos” in the Greek origin, as the emperor at that time used to enroll all his children in the school of “Heossia”, in which they would learn martial arts, economics, and how to run a state , until they become just like their father, and when they reach this stage they become mature, and the emperor holds an adoption ceremony; A party is prepared for them, and he says, “This is my son, listen to him,” as happened with the Lord Jesus in Matthew 17:5:” This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him”.
The power of the resurrection, which is the greatest force on earth that changes circumstances and events; is available within you now. And know that behind any problem or dilemma; a demonic force is trying to destroy you, and you have to deal with the situation with the power of the resurrection that has become available to you, that overcomes the situation.
The Holy Spirit works in order to make you mature, and you may welcome many childish things if you do not understand how maturity is done. When you become a man, you will stop all these childish issues from prevailing over you and in particular the spiritual fluctuation. Nothing will put you down for days or make you stand still. But rather, you are determined to reach the level of spiritual maturity and to become stable and unshakeable in your life.
1 Peter 2:4:” To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious”.
Isaiah 28:16:” Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste”.
“He that believeth shall not make haste” in other translations it says “he who believes will not be ashamed and does not rush”. Based on this, if you are hasty in making decisions for fear of missing out on a certain opportunity, this means that you do not walk by faith and have not matured spiritually, while life with the Lord has no failure or shame. t is likely that some failures will occur at the beginning of your journey into maturity as you were supposed to know the right biblical truth in your childhood, but it was not offered to you, so you became disabled. On the other hand, there is another person who takes the biblical right at the right time, and finds results faster than you, while you have a mixture of wrong teachings that you cling to and need to get rid of it. This is not God’s fault but the fault of those who did not teach you the Word at the time and God will punish the pastors who did not give the portion of food in due season (meaning that they did not give the right food, the true biblical teaching, in the right time). It does not mean that you should revolt against them but it is for you to realize that God is innocent concerning all of this.
Sometimes when you hear the biblical truth, you feel that you know it very well that is because the Holy Spirit, during your childhood phase, was talking to you about matters through questions and ideas, but you did not know to distinguish His voice because there was a louder voice, which is the voice of the unbiblical teaching. And there are those who fortify themselves and refuse the sincere teaching because of their imbibitions and strong conviction of the wrong one. Your acceptance of the correct teaching, after years of being exposed to adulterated teaching, is like emigrating from one place to another. But dare and demolish everything you have learned, as long as you discover that it is not correct. Paul the Apostle did the same thing, and considered everything rubbish. He did not consider what he had learned and studied, nor did he grieve over the wasted years of his life, because knowing the Lord is more precious to him than anything else.
God told the Pharisees about this same concept in Marc 7:13:” Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye”. That is, you made my words useless and powerless because of the traditions and concepts you took from your fathers, and the remedy for that is to revolt against spiritual childhood and stand against it, so that you do not live floundering in this life, and hear about what you have in Christ. And you will not be able to possess your inheritance unless you make Jesus Lord and Master over your mind as you made Him Lord over your spirit. And do not think that spiritual childhood is a natural thing because of what you see around you of child believers floundering in life 1 Corinthians 16:13-14:” Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity”.
One of the most things that believers have considered to be normal is the spiritual draining and not feeling the desire to pray and this means that the believer is carried by feelings and emotions. But spiritual maturity is praying always for the Father because of your desire to do so regardless of external influences and what you feel. When you mature like this, the Holy Spirit will entrust you with greater matters, but if you are uncertain, it means that you are not walking by the correct biblical principles.
Do not be stubborn. When you do not have enough light on all matters, do not cling to your opinion and think that it is God who speaks to you, while it is Satan who is speaking to you. Not everyone who drives his car is on the right path. For this reason, you need to learn to drive, and to know the right way, and if you are able to drive; you will go fast. If you know the Word well and what you are doing, you will be fast in your spiritual life. The believer is not supposed to live during his spiritual childhood floundering. If he grew up in a healthy place, and took the right food, he will grow in peace because of the protection of the Holy Spirit for him, until he reaches spiritual maturity and take control. Unfortunately, many believers do not realize the difference between their role and the role of the Lord, and they wait for His intervention, because they do not know what to do.
The person who is spiritually crippled “Nepios”
1 Corinthians 3:1-2:” And I, bretheren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even unto babes (spiritually crippled) in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able”.
Just as the student moves from one stage of education to another, so the believer moves to higher spiritual levels. Do not think that the spiritual life is difficult and full of obstacles and obstacles, for our life with the Lord is now easier than the life of the disciples with Jesus in the flesh, because of the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in us, blessed be His name! John 16:7:” Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”.
It is better for him to be within you than to be with you, for he is no longer Emmanuel (God with us), but God in us. And if the disciples were overjoyed over corporal contact with Jesus, you are in better shape. And the angels desire to see and hear the wisdom of God, and learn from you, and when Jesus came to earth, the angels exclaimed in Luke 2:13-14:” And suddenly there was with angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”.
Colossians 1:27:” To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of his mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”. The Apostle Paul wants every person (you are not excluded) to be perfect; That is, mature in Christ Jesus through the teachings. If you don’t pay attention to the teachings, know that you will not mature. If you do not see results and maturity in your life, review the biblical teaching that you believe in, but if you do not see results because you are still a spiritual child, then this is normal.
The stage of the spiritual maturity
Hebrews 5:11-14:”Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe (Nepios). But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The Apostle Paul refrained from explaining difficult matters because of their lack of understanding, despite the length of time in which they were taught, and not because of the difficulty or obscurity of the Word. They were supposed to become teachers, and this shows that everyone learns and matures in order to teach others, but they have stopped maturing spiritually, and therefore they need to learn the basics.
“Unskillful” the word unskillful in Greek is something which pierces into something else. This means that they did not cross, they did not pass in the matter, because you must have knowledge and pass in the matter, which illustrates the importance of teaching righteousness (doing the right thing) in the stage of spiritual maturity.
“That are of full age” Mature people who have become trained, tested, and do not run away from situations, but rather see challenges as an opportunity for promotion and new experiences with the Lord, because maturity is facing the situation like a lion that pounces on its prey. For example, if you do not know how to drive a car, you will be afraid to drive, but if you are trained to drive, you will not hesitate. You have the nature of your Heavenly Father who gets angry and roars in a situation.
The characteristics of the spiritually mature
1-Takes responsibility
Luke 10:1-4:”After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore, said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way”.
A person who is spiritually mature takes responsibility. The Lord worked to prepare souls before entering any place by sending two disciples before Him, to inform the country of the coming of a prophet to them, so that they would open their hearts to receive the Word correctly, because if they did not know him as a prophet, they would stumble upon him as the people of his country.
Luke 22:35-36:” And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, but now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. The Lord Jesus made it clear to them that He was carrying them on the wings of His faith, and praying to meet their needs, but now they are mature and able to be responsible for the service fund, and to hand them over the responsibility. For example, you may find someone asking you to pray for them without even you talking to them about God, and that is because the Holy Spirit pushed them to you, because he entrusts you with souls. Unfortunately, there are those who destroy souls with their fear of telling them about the Lord so that they do not turn away from Him.
Maturity is not making mistakes under any circumstances, but to speak and do the right thing always without disturbance.
2- Emotionally stable
A mature person is someone who controls his emotions and directs them in the right ways. There are those who cry because they remember the death of their father or one of their loved ones. You are supposed to reach a stage where you lead your emotions and feelings, and not the other way around. When the Lord Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, He wept for the people, not because of the death of Lazarus, as He saw their fear and terror of death. John 11:42:” And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
Crying in the Bible refers to defeat, except at the time of intercession and worship, not crying because you are sad about things. The word “compassionate” in Luke 7:13:” And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, weep not” means “He moved with spiritual compassion” according to the thinking of God and not the thinking of humans. If your way of thinking becomes like people, you will not know how to help them. The mature moves his feelings according to what God thinks.
3- He has fundamentals
Isaiah 28:16:” Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste”.
“He that believeth shall not make haste” in other translations it says, “do not be ashamed, do not rush.” A mature man has fundamentals. For example, he does not lie under pressure, nor does he put off his study of the Word. 2 Peter 1:5:” And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge”.
“Virtue”, that is, principles, you must establish principles and basics, including not selling God under any circumstances or pressure. One of God’s men once said, “God’s love is sufficient to make you betray the world.”
Luke 1:17:” And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord”.
A person who is mature is the one whose mind is disciplined about one thing, that he is more than a conqueror, and the Word fills his mind as a result of hearing the biblical teaching.
The spiritually mature has a spiritual way of thinking about matters that affects his behavior, and he is not hasty, but rather moves with discipline. Look at the monkey and the lion, you find the monkey moving a lot and not sitting down, while the lion is crouching, not shaking, fixed in its place, and this confirms that if you are mature or not. It affects your body language and the way you walk, as the bible says in Proverbs 30:29-31:” There be three things which go well (the way of walking), yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up”.
“And a king, against whom there is no rising up” in other translations it says “and the king when his army is with him and against whom there is no uprising”. He is steadfast, he does not shake, he does not panic or fear. The Word of God affects the way you walk and the way you speak. It makes you speak only at the right times, as it is related to all the circumstances of your life, not as many thought that it only concerns the things that make the Lord happy or sad.
When you know what you have in Christ, you become steadfast and more mature than your age. This what the Word of God says in Psalm 119:98-99:” Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation”.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15:” But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.”
The natural person who does not walk in the spirit does not accept the things related to the spirit of God. He does not know it nor can he distinguish it or understand it. For example: he cannot distinguish miracles and divine healing. He considers them to be normal.
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man” The spiritual person gives his biblical opinion on every subject, and others are not able give their opinion on what he says as they marvel at his wisdom. For example, a normal person may be deceived in people, but a mature person may not be deceived. Spiritual maturity is what protects you from falling into these traps. The spiritually mature sees things from the spirit world.
The secret behind your spiritual maturity is your realization that the basis of everything is spiritual. Anything that happens in the eyewitness must first happen in the realm of the spirit. And to distinguish the thoughts that attack you suddenly, are they from Satan or the result of your feelings?!
The five functions of the church
Ephesians 4:7-15:” But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers ( in the Greek pastors as teachers); For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God ( deep knowledge), unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ”.
“And gave gifts unto men” in the Greek language it says “he gave to the people” some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. Gifts to the people to help the church mature because He wants you to mature first and for you to see the hand of the Holy Spirit intervening and declared in your private circle before you serve. How dreadful it is for a spiritual child to go out to serve. It is very similar to a physical child running a factory.
The spiritual child may be used by the Holy Spirit according to the light that he has, or by great degrees of evil spirits. The correct thing is to mature first, then go out to serve, and then build the body of Christ, until we all reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ here on earth.
What proves that we will reach this level here on earth is the verse that follows it “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” there is no wind of doctrine in heaven and it differs than the term “moved by the Holy Spirit” used by the Apostle Peter in his letter, which means that they are inside a ship with a sail. As for the term “carried”, it means a leaf that flies in the air, sometimes in height, and another in falling. The spiritual child is unstable, which gives the opportunity for Satan to enter his life strongly.
The Apostle Paul mentions five functions in the church:
- Apostles
- Prophets
- Evangelists
- Pastors
- Teachers
The apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, or the teacher can be a pastor of a church. The preacher specializes in dealing with sinners, but in his church he is a teacher and a pastor and the prophet sees visions, but in his church he is a teacher and a pastor. It is not necessary that the five functions exist in the Church, as some believe. The Lord Jesus worked through these five positions, but the most prominent of them is the teacher, because it is necessarily that the people learn the Word to mature.
Zeal without knowledge is not enough
Proverbs 19:2-3:”Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth. The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord”.
The Word of God shows us that an enthusiastic person without knowledge walking in the wrong direction is not something good. Unfortunately, most of the believers are troubled by every wind of doctrine and they reached a point where they abandoned God permanently because they have suffered and it was due to the wrong knowledge about God.
The third verse says that a foolish person ruins his life and his personal affairs, and then gets angry with God. Most believers walk in the wrong direction, twist their ways, and then blame God for any trial or problem. The reason for this is the pastors who do not feed the souls properly and they will stand before the throne of Christ and will be punished.
The way to become a spiritual man
First: The Word of God
2 Timothy 3:16-17:”All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”.
The Word of God is a tool for reproof and correction. If you walk away from the Word, which is the source of your knowledge, you will go astray because your passion and your love for God are not enough without knowledge.
1 Peter 2:1-3:” Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”.
Reject, hate, and get rid of every malice and guile and everything that is conformed to this world. Hypocrisy is everything that is the opposite of what is in your heart. Envy is jealousy and wishing for what others have. Evil speaking is to speak contempt of others. As a spiritual child, desire the Word and if you have less desire, then know that you have allowed something unholy to enter, or you have unanswered questions about God.
“If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” This means that you rely on the goodness of the Lord and you base your spiritual life on Him. If you are in enmity with God and believe that He is the cause of the problems in your life, you must reconcile with Him first and discover that He is not the cause of the problems you are going through. He will not interfere in your life without your permission.
In Luke 18:41, the question of the Lord Jesus to the blind Bartimaeus: “What do you want me to do for you?” Although he knew very well that he wanted to regain his sight, but this confirms that the Lord would not interfere in your life unless you allowed him to do so. Bartimaeus had to allow Jesus to intervene in his life and heal him, as if he signed his agreement with the intervention of the Lord.
Second: to be filled with the Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 14:4:” He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself”.
He who speaks in tongues charges and builds himself up as if building new floors in a building that is your life.
Third: you believe in yourself like God does
Galatians 2:20:” I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”.
To believe what God believes in you. He believes in you because he invested his life in you. Hallelujah!
Fourth: the interaction with the Word
James 1:21-25:” Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed”.
You must lay apart every filthiness and wickedness so you are able to receive the Word. There are those who deceive and delude themselves by listening to the Word without walking in it. They know what the Word says on a specific topic, but they do not live it, and this is a huge deception. If you do not interact with the Word, you will live deceiving yourself.
This is an example to understand more: If you suffer from a problem at work, and the one who takes care of you spiritually tells you, “Exercise your faith to end this problem from your life,” your role not to agree with his words with your mind only, but rather react to his words with your spirit, because if you react with your mind only, you are deceiving yourself. These are the believers who are baffled by the Lord’s non-interference in their lives despite their prayers and their study of the Word, but the secret lies in their interaction with the Word or not.
“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass” This person looks at his spiritual truth, but forgets it after a short time, he does not fix his focus on what he saw about himself in the Word of God.
“Looketh” in the Greek language, it says “to move his body and turn to”; That is, he directed himself and interacted. And the matter is practically applied in our lives when the leader of praise says, “Raise your hands and worship the Lord.” You must raise your hands and interact with Him, and if you do not, you are deceiving yourself. And do not pretend that you are an inexpressive personality, because it is a must that believers have one reaction in situations. The evidence for this is when the disciples were persecuted, they had one reaction in Acts 4:24:” And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord”. The disciples acted like this because they had one way of thinking, and none of them resorted to someone in a high position to help them, because whoever changes into the same image of Jesus obtains the way of God’s thinking. If two believers go through a problem, they will have the same reaction because they have the same way of thinking (love and faith). Fasting does not solve the problem but you fast and sit with the Word so that it works in you and helps you mature spiritually.
“Doer of the Word” you have to respond to the Word and walk in it because you are responsible for making the Word work in your life. You have the raw material “The Word of God” what remains is to be put into practice as if you own a device and it remains only to use it to benefit from it so make the Word work in your life to be successful in everything.
Colossians 2:4-6:” And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”.
“Yet am I with you in the spirit” The true pastor knows in his spirit who is spiritually weak among his congregation, because he is with them in the spirit. And Paul the Apostle explains that he sees in his spirit their stubbornness in faith, and that they are steadfast, standing side by side, and it comes in the Greek language, “shoulder to shoulder.”
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” In the same way that you accepted Jesus, so continue to behave. You see, how did you accept Jesus? You listened to the words of those who preached to you, responded and interacted with them. You allowed the Word to enter you, prayed with them, and did not give consideration to the voice of your five senses. And you also rejected things such as certain sins and friendships, and this is what led to your salvation; in the same way, and with the same response, this is how you should continue to walk in your life with the Lord.
Psalm 119:130:” The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” in other translations it says “the entrance of your Word into my heart” which means receiving the Word in the spirit enlightens me. Hallelujah! Three people can listen to the same sermon: one of them does not understand anything, the other is partially enlightened, and the third who is fully enlightened because it is up to each person to receive the words. When you listen to a sermon, you do not listen to the word that a pastor prepared for you, but rather to what you were hungry for. The bleeding woman took what she prepared herself for, because the Lord Jesus did not prepare himself to heal her. When she touched the fringe of His garment, she received the healing for which she prepared her heart for and drew strength from it. ; So put yourself in the position of receiving in order to mature spiritually.
One of the men of God once said: “Do not throw down the ladder and do not get rid of the ways that made you grow spiritually” because you must continue to use the same methods that made you take these steps forward so that you continue to advance more and more. Do not think that you have matured spiritually and so you do not need to be alone with the Lord, or you grew too old to study certain verses, thinking that the Bible is like a syllabus that you learn and then it finishes.
Remember that everyone who works in the five functions of service must be a pastor who gives special advice to each person. The apostle among his people is a teacher and a pastor, and he is called the Pastor Apostle. The preacher among his people is a teacher and a pastor and he teaches people to preach outside his church Colossians 2:7:” Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving”.He uses the language of agriculture and the language of construction; That is, there are things that have deep roots.
Ephesians 6:4:” And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”.
There is something called the chastening of the Lord and you will not know how to raise your children properly without understanding the chastening of the Lord. Chastening is not breaking the child but rather teaching him right from wrong because if you don’t then you are sabotaging his life. And if you are nurturing someone spiritually and do not chasten him then you are sabotaging his life.
Proverbs 4:1-6:” Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee”.
King Solomon advises the sons with wonderful instructions because he was at one time subject to his father David, and thus he can take care of them, because there is no son without a father; For this reason, you do not say, “I receive from the Lord Himself,” and you refuse to submit to someone to correct you, because in this case you withdraw and do not want anyone to correct you, as the Bible says in Proverbs 18:1:” Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom”.
Whoever isolates himself from the one who takes care of him spiritually, and is afraid to open his heart to him, does not want anyone to correct him. How horrible it is for a person to take care of others spiritually while he himself does not follow up with a pastor higher than him.
Listen and pay attention to the instructions given to you by the one who leads spiritually. It is so ugly to pretend that you are listening and not put your heart into what he is saying. Proverbs 4:3:” For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother”. He was attached to his father, apprenticed to him, flexible, smooth, and easy to shape. And “only,” meaning that he was carefully taken care of as if he was the only son, even though he was not the only one.
If you want to give your child a proper upbringing, you have to take special care of him, and fill his mind with the principles of the Word, instead of letting his mind be filled with the principles of the world, then you rebuke him, scold him, and demand that he behave in the right way, when you did not plant in him the principles of the Word. If you take care of a person spiritually, his file must be present in your mind so you take special care of him.
The Apostle Paul taught Timothy. He said about him in his letters that he was “his son,” although he did not win him to Christ, but he worked on his life and taught him the Word. Hence, we understand that discipleship is a very important matter, and it is not limited to the platform only, but extends to individual sessions as well.
Proverbs 4:4:”Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live”. This is the first commandment that David gave to Solomon to motivate him, encourage him, and teach him to keep his words in his heart, because his life is linked to the words he hears, and he explained to him the ways of life. For this reason, if you want your child to grow up for the Lord, do not spend all your time talking to him about silly matters without planting the Word in his heart, and link all corners of his life to Jesus. Tell him that it is the Lord who gave you enough money to buy him new clothes because He loves him.
Let the Word have an authority over your children and do not fear that they will be polluted by the principles of the world, because the Word will preserve and protect them. And don’t think that their mere knowledge of Bible stories is enough to make them act right, but you must instill in them the principles of the Word.
Deuteronomy 6:4-8:” Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes”.
“Teach” in the original translation it says “sharpen”; That is, make it penetrate, and force it on your children. Certainly, if you undervalue the Word, do not think that you will be able to raise your child in the Word or be able to help someone spiritually. If you are caring for someone spiritually, it is important that you teach them the principles of the Word and how to pray properly. Do not expect someone who takes care of you spiritually to go out with you, and consider him a friend because if you get used to him, you will not receive the teachings from him. So look at him as a father and not as a friend.
Let the Word sweeps the brain of your child and teach it to him, and do not follow the advice that says: “Do not withhold anything from him lest you break him.” Rather, teach him the Word, as the Lord Himself did this with Adam in Genesis 2:16-17:” And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. God commanded him not to eat; This is why you must tell your son “no” because if he does not hear the word “no” from you, he will get used to doing whatever he likes, and you will lead him to hell.
You desperately need to step outside the customs of your community, as the Lord commanded Abraham in Genesis 12:1:” Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee”. In other translations it comes as “go out for your own good”; that is, getting out of their way of thinking.
Ephesians 6:4:” And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Holy Spirit does the same with you. He disciplines and encourages you, and helps you in disciplining your children. You need to realize the meaning of spiritual submission and dependence, and to follow a spiritual person does not cancel your personality but rather trains you to reach a stage where you can do things on your own without referring to him, and he will continue to take you higher; This is why spiritual care is indispensable. The lack of guidance and care were a hindrance for believers in their spiritual growth.
Do not expect supernatural things:
Do not wait for something supernatural to happen to you until you believe that God is speaking to you. So you think that if the pastor of the church did not say your name and make prophecies about your life that he does not love you. When you do that, you are like someone who waits for the Lord to come through the window while he comes through the door, and this shows your ignorance of the Word and that it has no power over your mind and you will wait for years and nothing will happen. This does not mean that He ignores you, but rather He loves and adores you, but he has a way of working, and you have to follow it.
Illustration:
Luke 16:27-31:” Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead”.
Lazarus asked Abraham to send a person from the dead to his father’s house, so that they would repent and their fate would not be hell like him, but he replied that if they did not appreciate the Word and pay attention to it, even if someone rose from the dead, they would not believe. Pay attention to this, here he gave the Word a higher credibility and influence than the resurrection of a person from the dead! If you are waiting for something supernatural, then you are waiting for God while He is waiting for you. The Lord uses the supernatural with people who are far from the Word and do not possess it. If you are still waiting for this way to happen, know that you are a spiritual child, and that you are suffering in your life because of this. If the child continues to play the same game that he was playing at the age of three, after reaching the age of eighteen years, then he becomes disabled and those around him grieve over him. Likewise, if you continue to use the same way as waiting for supernatural things, you will remain a spiritual child.
Learn the principles of the Word
Luke 4:18-19:” The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”.
Do not think that God speaks to you through the verse that touches your heart in your daily readings of the Bible. There are those who mistakenly thought that this verse was from the daily reading of the Lord Jesus, but in fact He opened it and read these verses on purpose.
Perhaps the Lord spoke to you at some point in this way because He descended to your spiritual level, but it will not continue like this. You should study the Word in all aspects of life and not wait to find the verse in your daily readings in order to be ready to face any situation, and this is what Solomon made clear in Proverbs 10:14:” Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction”. The wise man impoverishes knowledge to be ready to face circumstances with strength.
If you understood the Word of God, you will be able to extract from it general principles of life, because it is not only limited to enter heaven only, but it gives you principles to walk in the right way in life, such as: your association, choosing a suitable job, and even in emigration as well.
1 Corinthians 9:6-11:” Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working? Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?”
“Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox” That is, do not put a muzzle on the mouth of the bull while it is working in the field, and the people understood this clear and explicit meaning. As for the Apostle Paul, he made it clear that it does not concern bulls, but rather the servants of the Gospel- as the Spirit of God revealed to him after reading the Old Testament – that man is of much higher value than animals. Based on this, we understand this principle: that the Spirit of God reveals life principles to us through His Word, as it happened with the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul discovered deep dimensions of the Word that were not contradictory at the same time. Every number contains biblical principles, so you can extract from the Word principles to live by whenever you eat the Word. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 2:8:” So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us”. They did not only share the Gospel with them, but their lives and privacy as well. This means that you do not share your private matters with anyone, but rather with certain people, after you have trusted them.
The chastening of the Lord
Hebrews 12:1-13:” Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed”.
“A cloud of witnesses” This heavenly scene is similar to an earthly sports stadium in which there are players (believers), and only heroes of faith are watching us and not everyone who went to heaven. As long as there are heroes of faith who walked in the right way here on earth, you also be encouraged and lay aside every weight. When the Lord Jesus descended into the abyss, he took with him the heroes of faith in the Old Testament and ascended with them. He entered heaven first, and then the believers followed him. This is the scene mentioned in the Book of Psalms 24:7:” Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Boredom starts in your mind and leads you to weakness because you are not looking unto Jesus which means the Word.
“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin” you will not reach a point where you will have to shed blood for sin because the Lord Jesus reached the death on the cross, the blood, for you.
“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him” if you want to become a spiritual man, you then must accept chastening, discipleship, and refinement. The evaluation is giving a way to the person and correction. Do not be discouraged when your spiritual father scolds you.
“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” There are those who rejected the Lord because they mistakenly thought that if they became children of God, they would be scourged.
“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons (as mature) “You must come under the hand of the Lord, and accept His discipline, so that He may treat you as a mature son. Whoever does not accept discipline and submission – submission must be wholehearted – turns into a bastard, not real, instead of becoming mature. The Holy Spirit reveals your secrets to those who take care of you spiritually, and if you are afraid of that, know that your heart is not flexible and full of malice, and needs correction and maintenance. If you want to leave a mark in the lives of others, you need to submit and be flexible, and give room for the Holy Spirit to work in you.
“Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits” God is the Father of the spirits because He is a spirit so when He scourges, He does so to our spirits. Most biblical references link this Bible reference to Proverbs 17:10:” A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool”. It means that words affect the wise person more than a hundred lashes on the back of the ignorant, which shows that lashes do nothing to the ignorant. If no earthly father or mother disciplines their children according to the Word, they will then discipline them according to their own standards, and not the Lord’s.
“Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them” every chastening is painful at the beginning but the wonderful result shows at the end.
“Make straight paths for your feet” you can make these straight paths for your feet when you are submissive to the person who is taking care of you spiritually.
Colossians 3:21:” Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged”.
If you are angry with your child or with the one you are taking care of spiritually without planting the Word in him, then you are breaking and destroying him. There are those who tease and bully those they care for, and in the end they become frustrated, broken in life and feel small in spirit. A father can make his son a hero or a defeated person. This is why you should not be harsh with your son or with the one you are taking care of spiritually.
Spiritual care is a responsibility and all the pastors will be standing in front of the judgment seat of Christ. If only people would remember when they will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, they would make the right decisions. The apostle Paul said that he would present those who were his disciples before Christ and be proud of them 2 Corinthians 1:14:” As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are our’s in the day of the Lord Jesus”.
Upbringing of children and spiritual care
Hebrews 13:17:” Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you”.
God gave authority to the one who leads you spiritually to talk to you about the things you hide and do not want to show, so do not try to hide some things and not let your pastor to approach it. If you do not submit, you will suffer in life and make crooked paths for yourself and after you sabotage your life, you will turn against God and complain about Him.
If you are caring for someone spiritually, you need to realize that you have a massive tool which is the Word of God. If you are profane in your spiritual life, you will then ruin whom you are caring for and God will ask you for their blood. If the Word does not touch your heart or moves you, then your words will not touch those you lead spiritually nor move them because the Word must have an authority over you first. This is what the centurion made clear for he was totally aware of the words of Jesus Matthew 8:8-9:” The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it”.
Proverbs 7:1-14:” My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows”.
This Bible reference confirms the importance of the Word. If you are caring or leading others, you must assure them the necessity of giving the Word authority over their lives.
“That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words” The Word keeps you from being deceived in people or things. It is possible that the Holy Spirit warns you against giving an amount of money to someone who claims poverty, or leads you to give it because he has a purpose for that. It is very necessary for you to realize that Satan often tries to tempt you to leave your work so that you deviate from the right path.
“The simple ones” in the Hebrew language it means “those whose hearts and minds are empty of the Word”, who have not stored the Word within them. If you want to teach a child physically or spiritually, teach him what he should do first before you teach him what he should not do, and there is permittivity for the spiritual child. Malachi 2:15:” And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth”. The Lord tells us in these words His purpose of engagement: “Why did God make you and your wife one body? Why did He revive you and make you one? Because He wants a divine offspring, that is, you must draw your child to God and fill his mind with information from the Word because if you do not draw his way for him, then the devil will do that.
“And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding” this person is seduced because his mind is void of the Word.
“Her feet abide not in her house” Among the signs of spiritual instability is going out a lot, and not being able to stay at home, because you are running away from being with non-believers in your home. Running away is not the solution, and if you keep running, one day your constant running will destroy you. If you are spiritually ignited, you will know how to worship while in prison like the Apostle Paul, who is not affected by anything but influences only.
“I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows” this person pretends to be spiritually stable. There are those who make haste in taking a decision regarding an engagement not knowing that this engagement will lead them to hell because their minds are not full of the Word and therefore they get easily deceived by the other partner. If you lead a person spiritually, do not overlook his mistakes but correct him because if you leave him, his heart will become accustomed to error. It is permissible to hit a child to discipline him at a certain age because as a child he does not understand words. He understands the language of the five senses, until he reaches a stage where he understands words and then your words will have power over him, so they become stronger than beating.
Proverbs 9:13-18:” A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers who go right on their ways: Who so is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell”.
“Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” What is done secretly has its pleasure in the beginning, but this does not apply to you, because whoever speaks these words his mind is empty of the Word, and anything that is visible and revealed is of light. If you teach your child and make him understand the Word and how things go so that he does not seek to know by himself, then when these things are offered to him, he will refuse it of his own free will because he has prior information about it.
If you are responsible for people, you must see things before they happen, and teach them the Word, and scold them sometimes, so that they do not end up in a bad image. And if they have bad friendships, do not be afraid to prevent them from mingling with them for fear that they will refrain from attending meetings.
If you realize God’s love, you will adore studying the Word instead of feeling empty, bored, and going out a lot because of spiritual emptiness. Refuse to be an ordinary believer.
Acts 16:1-3:” Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek: Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek”. Paul the Apostle called “Timothy, who is my son” although he did not teach him from the beginning of his faith, but he formed a radical formation in his personality after he met him. And he recommended Timothy for he was educated by him, and so he went out to teach by the teaching of Paul; if biblical truth has shaped your personality, then you are on the right track.
The spiritual fathers and instructors
1 Corinthians 4:15-17:” For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church”.
There is a difference between the spiritual father and the spiritual instructor. The spiritual father is the person who puts and establishes a doctrine for the people like Paul did. He also taught them, in the previous chapter, that it is wrong to side with a certain servant whether Paul or Apollos. At the end of the letter, he mentioned asking Apollos to go to them but he did not because he wasn’t accepted by them because they side with Paul.
The spiritual instructor is a person who is subject to the same spiritual father and learns from him and so he teaches you what he has learned from the spiritual father. If the spiritual instructor teaches you something opposite than what the spiritual father teach then you must listen to the spiritual father and not vice versa. Romans 16:25:” Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel.” That is, according to what I discovered about Jesus, as if I clung to the Lord like the disciples. And of course not everyone who says that he discovered Jesus in some way from the Word, he discovered the truth. But as for Paul, he was known to the apostles and the disciples, and he had his spiritual dignity.
The misunderstanding of the importance of the spiritual fatherhood has led either to idleness, or terror, or control or for the spiritual fatherhood to have the iron hand, or the fear of leaving it so that curses would not befall the person. You have the right to leave for Biblical reasons, but if you leave because of impure heart motives or because you refuse to be corrected, then you will be hurt and you will return to the way you were, and the same spirits will work in your life and haunt you, because you do not walk according to the correct biblical principles.
Submitting to a spiritual father is voluntary and if you are hungry to know the biblical truth, the Holy Spirit will make you trust your spiritual father. It is a mistake to drop-out and think that you will be able to figure out the Word on your own, this is not true.
Be like the one who takes care of you spiritually and submit to him. Learn from him through his teaching and see how he acts in the situations. He is the one who trains you and draws your attention through the good Word, because in many times you might suffer because you do not submit.
There were penalties in the Old Testament for those who object the people who gave biblical teaching, so it was easy for miracles to happen. Elijah was sent before the Lord to prepare the way for him, and when the Lord Jesus came, people’s hearts were ready to receive the Word, and His disciples clung to Him easily.
Of course, there are those who misused the power of spiritual care, but this does not mean that there is no right spiritual care. You have the right to discuss what is presented to you from the Word, but if you discover that it is the biblical truth, then you must submit to it, and this is what made Paul the Apostle say to Timothy “Let no man despise thy youth” ( 1 Timothy 4:12). Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young. Spiritual authority has nothing to do with age, but it depends on the maturity in biblical knowledge.
1 Peter 5:1-3:” The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock”.
“The oversight” in the Greek language it comes as “observation and attention” which means looking at what is far beyond. And in other translations is comes as “all over searching for”.
You are not supposed to share the details of your life with every brother and sister in the body of Christ. But you do tell the one who is caring for you spiritually in order to know what the Word says about the situation. Do not be ashamed to share anything with your pastor, and do not be afraid that he will give you an opinion that you do not like. Unfortunately, our nature and our culture as an Egyptian society does not like submission so do not go with it!
“Not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind” shepherd the congregation of God willingly and not because you have to. Not for money but with enthusiasm without any effort.
“Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock” He clarifies the error of the shepherd’s dominance and the iron fist. He, who leaves you, let him leave you. The Lord leaves the ninety and ninety sheep to look for one sheep, but if the sheep chooses to leave, He will let him go. Like the lost son when he chose to leave his father. The father did not force him to stay with him, because he is mature. As for if he is a child, then the father will not leave him, but rather control him, and it is possible that the matter will come to beating, because it is a written commandment in raising children, and it is not the first method of the upbringing, but rather the last method that can be used.
The authority of the Word over your life must be transferred to the one you take care of spiritually, but if he does not accept it and is not convinced of the authority of the Word over his life, then the fault is not in you. Many also rejected the words of the Lord Jesus and were insulted despite Him being anointed, because the anointing does not compel a person to do anything, and there are those who deal with the anointing in an inappropriate way.
Jeremiah 22:21-22:” I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice. The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness”.
The Lord says to His people, I spoke to you in your time of prosperity, but you did not listen, as this is your way since your childhood. This makes it clear that if you let your son do the sin justifying that when he grows up he will do the right thing, while it is necessary to plant the Word in him from his childhood to form him. You are not suppressing him, but teaching him.
If you are leading someone spiritually, it is very important that you put boundaries between you and him, and do not allow him to deal with you as a friend but as a shepherd, even if you are younger than him. And you must explain to him that you are working on him spiritually, if you do not teach him and leave him as he is, he will not listen to you later, because he didn’t hear from his childhood, and got used to it. Childhood determines what he will be like in the future. If you let the person to pretend about certain things in front of others and do not adjust his motives, you then put him in danger.
1 Samuel 3:13:” For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not”.The Lord considered Eli the priest responsible because he did not stop them, despite the fact that his heart is wonderful, and he knows the ways of the Lord, as evidence that he taught them to Samuel.
2 Timothy 3:15:” And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”. Timothy knew the Word since childhood because of the explanation of his mother and grandmother. When you sow the Word in a child, you will see huge results in his life and he changes easily and smoothly in anything due to the strong effect of the Word. Hallelujah! If you do not believe in the effect of the Word, this means that you did not grow in it yet.
This is the responsibility of the father and mother in the first place, and if they do not agree with each other in opinion (one of them is lax and the other is strict) and each of them insists on implementing what he wants, the result will be: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand (Matthew 12:25). Huge problems will then happen and their children will become children of hell. If your relationship is like this, the solution is to pray and not be sad.
Malachi 2:15:” And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth”. If you and your wife are not united in your way of thinking, then you should wait and not give birth to children, since agreement is a divine principle. The Word makes it clear that God made you two because He seeks divine offspring. The goal of the Lord in childbearing is not for your parents to rejoice in their grandchildren, but for you to bring forth divine offspring. So if you don’t put the Word into practice, don’t expect the Spirit of God to work in your life in a huge way because you’re breaking His written Word.
Psalm 78:1-8:” Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God”.
It is the responsibility of every father and mother to teach their children the commandments of the Lord, and then their children will teach them to their children and so on. Because the Word is not taught or taught incorrectly, you find believers struggling in practicing their faith. You must first live the Word and teach it to your child or whomever you are building spiritually in order to make him depend on the Lord.
The secret that your child does not rely on God is your permanent reliance on mediators to solve your problems, experiences or your preoccupation with phone calls, and him not seeing you studying the Word or praying. Know that your child is your reflection, and everyone who sees him infers your personality through him. This is what the Lord Jesus said in John 13:35:” By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples”.
Proverbs 22:6:” Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. Train your child in the path you want him to follow, because he is still a child and does not know the right way. Know that if you see anyone who is negligent in an issue, this means he was not trained in it, or he may have been trained but communicated with people who spoiled him. Create a lifestyle in those you take care of spiritually, and teach them how to behave in the situations of life as the Lord Jesus taught his disciples how to salute and communicate with others Matthew 10:12-13:” And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you”.
The earthly or the spiritual father teaches you how to walk the path so that when you are mature you do not deviate from it. Train your child to attend the meetings and to hear the Word. Do not allow him to play during the meeting, so as not to create in him a disrespect for the Word.
Proverbs 13:24:” He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes”. The Word makes it clear that hitting your child does not mean that you hate him. Rather, if you do not do that, you hate him, because at first the child does not understand words, but rather understands the body language and the physical pain, but after a time he will understand your words and you will not need to use the method of beating. And it comes in other translations, “Seek early discipline for him.”
Adam accepted Satan’s dominion over his life, death entered the world, and every human being now needs to be born of God. The child will accept Jesus in his heart at the age of realization and awareness, so he needs to be formed. You need to set controls and rules for him and not leave him be.
Proverbs 22:15:” Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him”. Foolishness is bound in the heart of the child, and there is no solution to get it out except the rod, and this is in the early stages of the child. Your child will try you and do certain things to see how you react, and if you say no, he will try to see if you mean it or not. And if you do not mean it and let him do what he wants, you will raise him to disobedience and increase the foolishness inside him, when you need to deal with him strictly.
Do not follow what psychology says that you will break the child’s psyche if you raise him in this way, and psychology has returned to prove that when rules are set for the child, he feels safe in his life, and if you leave him without rules, you create insecurity inside him. Any child needs to be taught, except the Lord Jesus because he did not take the demonic nature, and yet the bible said about him in Hebrews 5:8:” Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered”. He learned from the pain He went through as a result of the circumstances of His life. Most references mention that Joseph died early, so Jesus became responsible for the house, and worked in Joseph’s place, while He came for another goal, which is preaching the Kingdom. Strictness also includes changing the voice, or taking something from the hand of the child because he doesn’t understand the language you are speaking.
Proverbs 19:18:” Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying”.
“Chasten thy son while there is hope” in other translations, “Discipline your son as long as there is hope in him”, but beware of destroying him by shouting and hitting him until you vent your anger as a result of his disobedience to you.” If you deal with him with the Word, you will after a while you will not use any form of violence, but it is necessary for him to hear the word “no” from you in situations and matters, because God Himself prevented Adam from the beginning from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Proverbs 29:15:” The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame”. He who lets his child do as he pleases will eventually be put to shame and he will wear him out; Therefore, you need to always specify for the child what he must do. Make him spend time with you praying and let him learn from you how to pray as the Lord taught his disciples. Note that no one would interrupt Jesus while he was praying; rather they would ask him after he finished praying. Parents must unite and have one opinion in front of their children.
If you underestimate your wife in front of your children, you are destroying your family without realizing it. It is important for your child to realize that not one parent agrees with what he wants and the other rejects it, because then he will go to the more flexible parent to ask him for what he wants. And if he asks you for something you agree on but the other partner don’t, then refuse and later on agree with your partner on his request.
Timothy learned everything from Paul 2 Timothy 3:10:” But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, and patience”. You learn from the person who is caring for you spiritually and from his way of living.
Proverbs 23:13-14:” Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell”.
You determine where your child will be headed to later on in life. It is not about beating, but rather for your words to have an effect on him without any punishment. Don’t worry about him if you hit him for he will not die but you save him from the bottomless pit. If you train him in this way, you will rest later because he will take the form that you have drawn for him.
Love and firmness
Isaiah 66:12:” For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees”.
Surround your child with love and let there be firmness in this love because the foolishness of a child is not expelled except with a rod. If he does something wrong in front of people, do not embarrass him in public. But if he does the same mistake twice, correct him in order for him to know that it will not pass.
If your child does not refrain from doing something unless you yell at him, then he will get used to it and he will unintentionally disobey you. Offer your child enough love by spending time with him helping him understand the Word of God and always affirm to him your love and do not quarrel with him if he does something wrong. Do not tell him such words like “you made me sad” because these words will always bring you condemnation. Trust that the Word will make him flexible and will change him.
And be firm at the same time. Teach him that you correct him out of love, as the Lord Jesus said to the Church of Pergamum in Revelation 2:13-14:” I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication”.
Beware of those who steal your child’s mind like cartoons and their heroes, lest they replace the Lord Jesus in his eyes and explain to him the reason for not watching these movies. When you prevent him from something, you must give him the reasons for that. Some movies give a message to the children that there is someone who can save humanity other than Jesus. These movies are inspired by evil spirits and they have destructive goals so that he sees the supernatural life in matters far from the Word.
Tell your children that Jesus is the source of everything. Tell them Jesus is the one who gives you money to buy them what they want so that they would adore Him, and for them to be able to distinguish between the right and the wrong things because you trained them to. Likewise, surround the one whom you nurture spiritually, who brings you the ideas of the world, with the Word, teach it to him, and guide him, if you do not do that, you give him human principles. Do not let him continue on inaccurate teaching, for example, if you hear him say: “Lord, forgive me,” correct him, and prove the matter to him from the Word and go down to his level.
Titus 2:1-5:” But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed”.
“The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness” in another translation, “Do not be preoccupied with anything but teaching the younger ones how to walk in the right way in life.” It is expected that any mother or a mature person in the Word becomes a teacher to his children. Hebrews 5:13:” For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe”.
Proverbs 5:17:” He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth”. In the Greek original, it says: “He who walks in the correct teaching is on the path of life, and he is the path of life for others. He who refuses discipline is a stray who leads others astray.” By this we understand that we lead others through our behavior without even realizing it. Romans 12:1-2:” I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”. The Word of God changes your appearance, your values and the amount of things you have, as well as your motives and principles by changing your mind. Unless you change your way of thinking, you will not change. The Word of God replaces ordinary human thoughts with the thoughts of God. Submit to the Word so that you will not be ashamed when you pray for things and do not see results.
There are fierce and violent children because their parents gave room for evil spirits in their lives and they did not correct it, so the evil spirits found an entrance in their lives. And parents suffered to make their children submissive and meek, not recognizing that the spiritual world has an influence on the sight.
Proverbs 21:16:” The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead”. The person, who does not walk in knowledge, lives in the midst of evil spirits. Watch out! He did not call them but he attracted into his life them because he is not walking in the Word. You either attract angels or evil spirits.
John 8:38:” I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.” Jesus made it clear that their father is the devil in verse 44 “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires” but the question is “how did they see their father’s work to do the same as he?” for they did not sit personally with the devil but they study the law very well! What happened is that the devil found a place in their minds due to their lack of enlightenment in the Word and them being responsive to the thoughts that the devil offers and their refusal to accept Jesus.
If you do not have the light of the Word, the devil will easily use your mind to put his thoughts in it, and sometimes he will use the biblical truth wrongly; so be awake and conscious, because when you receive the light of the Word, you save yourself and your family from destruction. If you are depressed, the cure is not for someone to pray for you, but rather for you to close the door in the face of the devil’s thoughts that are presented to your mind.
John 8:30-37:” To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word”.
“Because you have no room for my word” in other translations it says “my words have no entrance in you because they are not true disciples. There is a way that you must follow to be a true disciple, which is to prove the words of the Lord in you.
John 6:60-69:” On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[a] and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
You must be the disciple of a person in order to become a spiritual man. A disciple is a person who learns and adheres to commitment, and he has the right to ask questions as the disciples of the Lord were never afraid to ask Him. The disciple must ask and understand in order to be convinced. The correct upbringing of your child is for you to explain to him, clarify things, and to tell him the correct ways, not to always reject.
The discipleship through handed down teachings
John 8:28-29:” Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is”. Moses was not around at the time, but because he has put the law and they followed it, they became his disciples. There is a generation that learned from Moses personally, and they taught the next generation, and so on until we reached the time of the Lord Jesus. The Lord acknowledged that, which shows that there are those who are disciples through handed down teaching. The church needs discipleship to have spiritual men.
John 19:38:” And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus”. There are those who follow and become disciples in secret, like Joseph of Arimathea, and follow the teaching of the Lord Jesus secretly, but this is neither the correct nor the ideal form for dependency. Discipleship is teaching and reproofing through the Word of God and sticking to the biblical way and method.
Matthew 26:17-19:” Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the Passover”. There is love and communictaion between the teacher and the student, and the evidence for this is that John was able to lean his head on the chest of Jesus. But there is a prestige for the teacher so that the student will be able to receive from him. The Lord did not command them to prepare the Passover for Him, but they took it as orders, and this helped them during the three years to become disciples in the correct way properly. God’s people know very well the importance of submitting to the teacher and the law, and showing respect and proper submission to those who speak of God.John 15:1-2:” I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit”.
John 17:15-17:” I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth”. You can protect yourself from evil by the Word of God, for although the Lord prayed for every believer, not all of them are preserved from evil; not everyone knows and walks in the Word. The Word of God has the effect of isolating you from the world and its principles, and protecting your children from the pollution of the world, so fear not.
If one of your children has been shaped with wrong principles, treat him as the father dealt with his lost son. He did not prevent him from anything, as it was too late for that, and he left him making wrong decisions. But he surrounded his son with love. You intercede for your son or your daughter so that they will be touched by the biblical truth, and do not consider this truth as a temporary solution or like an anesthesia to the reality because this is the right solution that brings results.
The principles of care or parenting
1- Whether you are a pastor, a father, or a mother, you need to be mature, to have a stock of knowledge and to continue growing in the Word in order to avoid becoming a sensory person. In that way, you will be able to lead your household or any spiritual person because you either lead him to God or to hell. There are those who do not know when to reject or accept their child’s request. It is necessary to deal with your child with extraordinary love, and not to be psychologically selfish. Do not provoke your spiritual or physical child when he does not obey you or when he attends another meeting. If you are a pastor providing real food to your people and changing their lives, they will stick to you without you seeking it. You do not have the right to control the choices of your people as long as they do not give you the right to do so, and you do not have the right to curse them if they leave you. When some of the disciples left the Lord Jesus, he said to the rest of his disciples in John 6:67:” Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”
2- . Trust and believe in yourself from the Word so that you can instill confidence in your child through the principles that you plant in him and when you give him praise tell him the reason behind it like the Lord explained the reason for His praise for the seven churches in Revelation 2:19:” I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first”.
Do not be shaped by the character of the Egyptian people who do not know how to make mention of the good benefits but instead they only rejoice in big things. Walk in a biblical way and rejoice in every little thing that the Holy Spirit does in your life, as the psalmist did in Psalm 103:2:” Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits”.
3- Instruct and teach your physical or your spiritual child using the Word. You do not lead people with principles from outside the Word of God. Whoever rejects those principles today, they will not produce results in his life when he goes through tribulation, as the Book of Proverbs mentioned to us in Proverbs 1:20-26:” Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh”.
There is no tool for training other than the Word of God. For example, if your spiritual caregiver tells you to pray for an hour in tongues every day and you find it difficult, then you need practice and train to crucify your flesh and subject it to your spirit, and it will appear as if it is really difficult at first. And if he told you to read some articles and you did not read them, he will not be able to help you. If a doctor prescribed a medicine for you, and you did not take it, he will then not be able to help you.
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