It is God’s will that we should grow and become spiritually mature.
If, after believing in the Lord Jesus, we remain as children, this grieves God’s heart greatly. It is also a great loss to ourselves and to the church of Christ. But as far as God is concerned, His loss is the greatest.
For His sake, for God’s sake, we all need to rise and seek to be spiritually mature, so that His will can be fulfilled in our lives and His work can finally be realized, that He may receive the glory and the praise.
God loved us before the foundation of the world in Christ. He predestined us that we should receive sonship. This means that He has not only given the life of His Son to us, but He has also given us the Spirit of sonship.
The Spirit of sonship within us continually desires to work in us, that we may arrive at the place of sonship. Those who are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God.
Brothers and sisters, while we are on this earth, we need to obey the Spirit of God. He will lead us and eventually bring us into the place of sonship.
God saves us from our natural self. A natural man cannot receive the things of God. He can never understand spiritual things because he is spiritually dead.
A man of the flesh lives within his soul-life, his natural life. A natural man lives in himself. He cannot understand spiritual things, nor can he receive spiritual things.
One day, the grace of the Lord Jesus came to us. He quickened our spirit and restored our fellowship and communion with God.
The Holy Spirit indwells our spirit so that we may become spiritual persons. Previously, we lived a natural life. Now, through the Spirit and through His leading, we must live that life so that our soul may be redeemed and our body may carry out God’s will.
God’s will is for us to be spiritual people. Everyone who has been saved by grace should be a spiritual person.
But between the natural and the spiritual, there is another category: the carnal person.
This kind of person has the spirit, but he is not living by that spirit. He lives through his flesh.
A carnal person is not one who does not understand spiritual matters. Rather, he is unwilling to submit to God’s law. He knows, but practically he wants to live out of his own life and according to his own will.
Therefore, a carnal person cannot please God. Even though he may serve the Lord, that service will not be pleasing to God, because he serves God according to his own will and not according to God’s will.
A carnal person can never please God.
Among God’s people today, there are too many carnal believers. Therefore, we have developed a wrong conception: we think carnality is normal, and that being spiritual is something extraordinary.
But to be spiritual is ordinary. To be carnal is abnormal.
Because we are carnal and those around us are carnal, we think it is very normal and ordinary. If we find a few among us who are spiritual, we call them extraordinary. This is a wrong conception.
We must see that to be carnal is abnormal. We should not remain carnal. We should be spiritual.
This morning, we will consider some characteristics of a spiritual person. Yesterday, we considered the characteristics of the carnal person, using 1 Corinthians as our foundation.
Even though the Corinthians were richly equipped in speech and knowledge, and did not lack spiritual gifts, they were a carnal church.
This morning we will use 2 Corinthians as our foundation. There we see how Paul lived before the Lord, not only Paul, but also those associated with him.
Paul says that the spiritual person discerns all things, yet no one can discern him. This is the mystery of a spiritual person.
Why? Because a spiritual person lives in a paradoxical situation. When you look at him, you may be a little confused. You cannot easily make him out.
In 2 Corinthians, we find many such paradoxes.
The first paradox is found in 2 Corinthians 1:9:
We ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God who raiseth the dead.
On one hand, we have the sentence of death; on the other hand, we have resurrection. A spiritual person, on one side, is under the sentence of death; on the other side, he is experiencing the power of resurrection.
It is in the midst of this paradoxical situation that his spirituality is truly manifested.
Paul was speaking of his own experience. He said that he did not want the brethren to be ignorant concerning the affliction which came to him in Asia. They were burdened exceedingly, beyond their strength, so that they despaired even of life.
They had the sentence of death upon them. We are not sure exactly what Paul was referring to, but we know that when he preached the gospel he suffered much persecution and was attacked by many.
Perhaps this referred to his experience in Lystra, recorded in Acts 14. There was a crippled man there, and Paul saw that he had faith to be healed. In the name of the Lord, Paul raised him up, and he was healed.
The whole city was stirred. The people wanted to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, but they said, “We are men of like nature with you.” They testified that this was not their work; it was what God had done.
Then some people came from other places, persuaded the crowds, and stoned Paul. They dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. The disciples stood around him, and he rose up.
If we connect this with 2 Corinthians 12, Paul said that fourteen years earlier he had been caught up into the third heaven. Whether in the body or outside the body, he did not know.
Perhaps Paul was indeed stoned to death and then raised by the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus. But this is only an external illustration.
The deeper reality is that a spiritual person lives a paradoxical life. He receives much light from God. God’s light shines upon him, and he discovers that there is no good thing in his flesh.
Without heavenly light, we may think there are many good things in our flesh. We may admit that there are sins there, but we still want to preserve what we consider to be good in the flesh.
But when we are enlightened by the Lord, as Paul was in Romans 7, we discover that in our flesh there is no good thing. We agree that everything God has done in Christ is right.
At the cross, God took the old creation and crucified it. God knows that in the flesh there is no good thing. There is no way to repair it. Let it die.
This is the sentence of death. We all need to have this sentence of death upon us. This is not merely a teaching; it is an experience.
We need to be enlightened and brought to the place where we truly see that there is no good thing in our flesh. Then we discover that God has already dealt with this in Christ.
In Christ, He has already done this for us. We agree, and we accept that the sentence of death is already upon us.
But that is only one aspect. The other side of the cross is to bring us into the experience of His resurrection.
Paul, knowledgeable, capable, and powerful as he was, now died with Christ. He could say:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith,
the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me,
and gave Himself up for me.
Here we find the experience of resurrection life. Paul now lived by resurrection power. His conscience testified that when he came, he did not use the wisdom of man, but everything was by the grace of God.
This is not only Paul’s experience. Everyone who is spiritual has this experience. On one side, he is aware of the sentence of death upon him. He dares not move in himself or trust in himself.
On the other side, he lives by the grace of God and in the life of resurrection. This is the first paradox of a spiritual person.
The second paradox is the absoluteness of truth versus the liberty of the Spirit.
Truth is absolute, but in the Spirit there is liberty.
Paul loved the Corinthians very much. In 1 Corinthians 16, he said that he hoped to come to them, remain with them for a time, and perhaps spend the winter with them.
But he was not able to do it. He did not go to Corinth. From Macedonia, he went directly to Judea. The Corinthians criticized him, saying that he was changeable, unreliable, and acted according to the flesh.
They did not know what was taking place in Paul’s heart. Paul truly loved the Corinthians. But because of their condition and their reaction, Paul felt it was not the right time to visit them.
Paul had gone to Corinth to help them, but they rejected him. He wrote a letter to them in tears, hoping that they would repent. Because of their reaction, he gave them time and opportunity to respond.
Even though Paul changed his travel plans, his heart toward them never changed. His love for them never changed.
This is how God deals with us. His heart toward us never changes. He loves us, and He will love us to the very end. His will never changes, but His ways may change for our good.
Paul was in a paradoxical situation, but the Corinthians failed to understand. They criticized him as a changeable person whom they could not trust.
Yet Paul said that even though he changed his plan to visit them, the Christ whom he preached was always “Yes.” There is no “Yes” and “No” in Christ.
All the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ, and through Him is the “Amen.”
Here we see the absoluteness of truth. Paul could change his journey because he was being led by the Spirit. In the Spirit, there is liberty.
If a person says, “I have determined that I must come regardless of whether the timing is right or whether it is helpful,” that is fleshly stubbornness. In the Spirit there is liberty.
But liberty in the Spirit does not mean that truth itself is changeable. Christ is always “Yes,” because Christ Himself said, “I am the truth.” Truth can never change.
We may change, but truth never changes. Truth does not compromise, and it cannot lower itself, because Christ is the truth.
All the promises of God are centered in Christ Jesus, and through Christ these promises are fulfilled.
Our problem today is that we are not absolute toward the truth. We compromise truth because of people, circumstances, and many other factors. At the same time, we may become very legalistic.
These are manifestations that we are not spiritual people. A spiritual person knows that truth is absolute, yet he does not become legalistic. Neither does he use liberty as an excuse to compromise the truth.
Let me give you an example: Abraham.
In Genesis 22, God spoke to Abraham:
Take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac,
whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah;
and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Abraham loved God and obeyed His will. He took a three-day journey to Mount Moriah. He bound Isaac, placed him upon the altar, took the knife, and was about to slay his son.
Then the angel of the Lord called from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham.” He said:
Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him:
for now I know that thou fearest God,
seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son, from Me.
Abraham looked, and there was a ram caught in the thicket. He offered the ram in place of Isaac.
God’s command that Abraham offer Isaac did not mean that Abraham had to act in a legalistic way. Abraham had liberty in the Spirit. He was willing to be adjusted.
Some people are not willing to change. They say, “This is what God spoke to me. I cannot change.” They think this proves their faithfulness, but it may be foolishness.
Abraham had liberty in the Spirit. Truth must remain absolute, but liberty in the Spirit does not compromise truth, nor does the absoluteness of truth make a person legalistic.
In 2 Corinthians 2:12–14, Paul wrote:
Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ,
and when a door was opened unto me in the Lord,
I had no relief for my spirit,
because I found not Titus my brother;
but taking my leave of them,
I went forth into Macedonia.But thanks be unto God,
who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ,
and maketh manifest through us
the savor of His knowledge in every place.
Here we have another paradox: the fragrance of Christ and the limitation of being a member of the body of Christ.
Paul had sent Titus to Corinth to discover their true condition and whether they had repented. Paul and Titus had arranged to meet in Troas.
When Paul came to Troas, a door for the gospel was opened to him. Yet he had no rest in his spirit because Titus had not come. Though the door was open, Paul had no heart to work.
Some might criticize Paul and say, “You are too weak. How can you think of your own feelings when there is an open door for the gospel?” But Paul left for Macedonia because Titus had delayed in coming.
Here we see a weakness in Paul. Yet immediately he said, “Thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.” God manifested through him the fragrance of Christ.
From our point of view, Paul might seem defeated, as though he were retreating. But spiritually, he was in Christ’s triumph. No one can easily see through this.
Fragrance is something unique. What we see with our eyes is limited, and what we hear is limited. But what we smell may reveal something before we can see or hear it.
When you walk near a Chinese restaurant, you may smell it before you see it. The fragrance is there. You cannot conceal it. You may close your eyes and cover your ears, but the fragrance remains.
Consider Jeremiah 48:11:
Moab hath been at ease from his youth,
and he hath settled on his lees,
and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
neither hath he gone into captivity:
therefore his taste remaineth in him,
and his scent is not changed.
Wine must be poured from vessel to vessel so that the sediment may be removed. If it remains on its lees, its original flavor and odor remain.
This describes a person of the flesh. He has not been dealt with by God. He has not been poured from vessel to vessel. He has not accepted the separating work of the cross, which removes mixture.
There has been no dealing of the cross. He refuses to accept the cross. Therefore, the original aroma remains. You can smell the odor of the flesh; there is no fragrance of Christ.
We need to accept the dealings of the Lord so that the unpleasant smell of the flesh may be removed and we may have the fragrance of Christ.
This fragrance comes from the knowledge of Christ. But this knowledge is not merely head knowledge; it is the knowledge of life.
It does not mean that one attends Bible school and gains information about Christ. It means that one has been poured from vessel to vessel and has come to know Him through the dealings of the Lord.
Have you been poured from one vessel to another by the Lord? Have you been reduced by the Lord? If not, the original flavor and aroma remain.
The fragrance is present because the person has been dealt with by the Lord. Praise God.
Paul was dealt with very much by the Lord. Through the dealings of the Lord, he came to know the Lord personally. This was the deepest longing in his heart: “That I may know Him.”
Because of this, there was a fragrance of Christ in Paul’s life. No matter where he went, that fragrance was there unconsciously. He did not try to display it. It was simply there.
Yet although Paul knew Christ and had the fragrance of Christ, he did not become independent. He recognized that he was a member of the body of Christ.
Some members are larger and some are smaller, but no matter how large or small, we all have limitations. We all need the supply of other members.
Paul was indeed a great member, but he never came to the point of saying, “I am enough by myself.” Even Paul needed the brothers to be with him and support him.
Some people may know the Lord and have experience of the Lord, yet think that they are sufficient in themselves. They forget that they too are members of the body.
We must see our own limitations. If you recognize your limitations, you will see your need for your brothers and sisters. You cannot be independent. You need the support and supply of the body.
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul presents another paradox:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the exceeding greatness of the power
may be of God,
and not from ourselves.
On one hand, we have a treasure; on the other hand, we have an earthen vessel. This is something very unusual.
No one would normally place something of great value in an earthen vessel. Yet God puts the greatest treasure in the humblest vessel.
Often, when people seek to be spiritual, they think they must become nothing but spirit—without feeling, will, intellect, soul, or body. They think that if they could get rid of their humanity, they would become spiritual.
That is the trick of the devil. God never intended us to be merely spirits. If that were His intention, He only needed to create angels. God wants man, but spiritual man.
God put this treasure in an earthen vessel. The Word became flesh. The Lord Jesus is God, yet He came to be a man upon this earth.
He had a real human body and a real human nature, yet He was without sin. Outwardly He appeared as a man, but within Him was God.
The glory of God was manifested through Him, full of grace and truth. God is light, God is love, and in the Lord Jesus that light and love became grace and truth to us.
The humanity of the Lord Jesus did not limit God’s glory. Rather, it gave God the opportunity to manifest His glory.
Though He was a perfect man, He was willing to be broken. Throughout His life, He walked the way of the cross. He said, “Not My will, but Thine, be done.”
He said, “Apart from Me ye can do nothing.” He said that He could do nothing from Himself, that He could say nothing from Himself, and that His time was not in His own hand.
He lived a crucified life and bore the cross. Because the vessel was broken, the surpassing power of God was manifested.
This is our Lord Jesus. Yet not only the Lord Jesus—Paul also was an earthen vessel, and within him there was a treasure, for Christ is that treasure.
Because Paul was willing to be broken, his outer man was decaying, but his inner man was renewed day by day.
What you touched in Paul was not merely the earthen vessel; what you received was the treasure. The treasure was Christ Himself.
If you cannot be truly human, you cannot be a spiritual person. We often think that the less human we are, the more spiritual we are. But the truth is that if you cannot be human, you cannot be spiritual.
The treasure is in the earthen vessel. Though we may be afflicted, we are not crushed. The Lord arranges circumstances so that the vessel may be broken and the light of the treasure may shine forth.
Paul said that he bore in his body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might also be manifested in his body and in others.
This is the condition of a spiritual person. A spiritual person is truly human, yet when we touch that person, what we really touch is Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 5, we discover another paradox. Paul says:
Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord,
we persuade men;
but we are made manifest unto God;
and I hope that we are made manifest also
in your consciences.
He also says:
For the love of Christ constraineth us;
because we thus judge,
that One died for all,
therefore all died;
and He died for all,
that they that live should no longer live unto themselves,
but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again.
Here we see the fear of the Lord on one side and the love of Christ on the other. To the natural mind, fear and love seem incompatible. Yet a spiritual person lives in the midst of these two realities.
He knows the fear of the Lord. He knows that God is a jealous God and that He cannot allow anything to rival His place.
One day, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. This is not the judgment concerning eternal life or eternal death, because the Lord bore our punishment on the cross. But believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
If what we build is gold, silver, and precious stones, it will remain. If it is wood, hay, and stubble, the fire will test the work and it will be burned.
A person may be saved, yet so as through fire. He may have wasted his time and the grace of the Lord. But gold, silver, and precious stones will be enhanced in glory by the fire.
Our God is to be feared. Every day we should live in the light of His judgment seat. We cannot be careless, because on that day we will be exposed and revealed.
We want to serve Him while we are on this earth. Yet many among God’s people fail to recognize the fear of the Lord. Particularly in our generation, we ignore it.
Because we know the Lord as Savior, we may live carelessly. Our service may come from our natural self. We may work for people to see, and we may not be willing to pay the cost to produce gold, silver, and precious stones.
But a spiritual person fears the Lord. On the other hand, the love of Christ constrains him.
Christ died once for all. Therefore, we should no longer live for ourselves, but for the One who died for us.
We need to be constrained by the love of God. We must continually remember how He died for us. We can no longer live for ourselves; we need to live for Him.
We need to maintain our first love for Him. What God looks for among His people is first love. It is not merely activity; it is whether love is present in our hearts.
The one who lives within this paradox—the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ—is a mature Christian.
Another paradox is the foolishness of God and the revelation of the Lord.
People in the world want to be wise. We all think that we are wise. Yet Scripture says that God uses the foolishness of the gospel to save many.
The preaching of the cross is foolishness to man, yet it is the wisdom of God. There is a Chinese saying: “Great wisdom appears as foolishness.”
From man’s point of view, true wisdom may indeed look foolish. Who wants to be regarded as a fool for God?
Paul was considered foolish in the sight of the Corinthians. They wondered why he loved them when they did not love him, why he spent his life and energy on them, and why he was sacrificial on their behalf.
Are we willing to be fools for God?
Paul was willing, for God’s sake, to be regarded as a foolish person. But was he truly foolish? Of course not.
When we consider the revelation and vision Paul received, we discover that they were great. He had been caught up into the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, he did not know.
Paul heard things that were not lawful for a man to utter. We may be curious to know what he saw and heard, but God did not permit him to speak of these things.
A spiritual person lives in the midst of many paradoxes. A spiritual person is a mature person.
Where is the way to spiritual maturity? This is very important.
The way to spiritual maturity is simply to look unto Jesus.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. In all spiritual matters, the way is the Lord Himself.
The way we are saved is Christ. If we are to grow in Him, the way is also Christ. The way of growth is the way of knowing Him.
This knowledge is not merely intellectual knowledge. If we seek only knowledge, we may take the way of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the way of spiritual growth is the way of life, and this life is in Christ.
If we are to grow spiritually, we must know the Lord Jesus Christ in life. If we do not know Him through life, all other ways become obstacles to us.
The saints in Galatia had a desire to grow spiritually. They began by the Spirit, but they did not continue in the way of the Lord. They relied on the flesh to achieve growth, and they encountered many problems.
Paul had to labor again for them until Christ might be formed in them.
The saints in Colossae also had a good beginning and a desire to grow. But in seeking growth, they brought in philosophy, Jewish traditions, and Gentile ideas, mixing them together.
They thought they could attain maturity through these things, but their way was wrong. Paul wrote to them that the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ, and that in Him they are made complete.
Paul brought them back to Christ. Christ is the way.
The Hebrew believers faced difficult circumstances, and some wanted to go back to Judaism. The writer of Hebrews told them to leave the elementary teachings and go on unto maturity.
Christ is greater than the angels, greater than Moses, greater than Aaron, greater than the temple, and greater than everything else. Our Christ is the only One.
If we seek to grow spiritually, it is not in law, position, philosophy, or religious systems. It is in Christ.
Consider how Paul sought to grow. He wanted to obtain the righteousness that comes from God through faith, not a righteousness based upon the law.
He had tasted the goodness of Christ, and he wanted to go on. He said that he counted everything as rubbish in order that he might know Christ.
He desired to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and conformity to His death.
This suffering is not suffering for sin. The Lord’s suffering for sin was vicarious; He suffered for us. But we suffer with Him because we desire to be faithful to Him and follow Him.
Where do we receive the strength to suffer? It comes from the power of His resurrection. If we know the power of His resurrection, we can suffer with Him and be conformed to His death.
Everything outside of Christ must be put away. What remains is Christ Himself. Our hope is resurrection.
If we seek to grow spiritually, it must be in Christ. To seek growth outside of Him is very dangerous.
To grow spiritually, we must accept the cross. Christ is our goal; the cross is the way, the means.
Paul said that he determined not to know anything among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
The problem with the Corinthians was that they refused to accept the work of the cross in their lives. They received the grace of what Christ had done for them on the cross: His blood was shed, and they were saved.
But they did not want to receive the cross into their daily lives.
The cross of Calvary is the foundation that has accomplished every provision for spiritual growth. But if we would grow, we must take up our cross and follow Him.
If we do not take up the cross and follow Him, we are not worthy to be His disciples. This means that we will not grow.
We must see the relationship between the cross of Christ and our own cross. If we do not see the cross of Christ, we will have no power to bear our own cross.
On the cross, Christ accomplished everything for us. He removed not only the punishment of sin but also the power and dominion of sin.
The cross also separates us from the world. Paul said that through the cross, the world had been crucified unto him and he unto the world.
The cross of Christ removes the entire old creation. It defeats God’s enemy and exposes him as defeated. It also deals with self-love.
The cross of Christ accomplished everything. This is the cross of Calvary.
In other words, we accept all that Christ accomplished upon the cross. Then we are able to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
The Holy Spirit, through our environment, prepares the cross that we need.
Do not seek your own cross. We are all experts at creating crosses, often not for ourselves but for other people.
But the One who gives us the cross is the Holy Spirit. God has not entrusted to us the work of creating crosses. This work belongs to the Holy Spirit.
Do not take the place of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works according to the heart and will of God.
He prepares for each one of us the cross that we need. The cross you bear is different from the cross I bear. A cross is something very personal.
The Holy Spirit knows how to prepare the cross that you need. When a cross comes to you, recognize that it has been especially tailored for you. It is not mass-produced; it is personally designed.
If you see the cross of Christ within you, then by the power of the cross within, you are able to bear your own cross.
Have you discovered that taking up the cross is not a real burden? The burden becomes life, because it is the cross in you that bears that cross with you.
But if you fail to see the cross of Christ and try to bear your own cross in yourself, the cross becomes a heavy burden and it will crush you.
There is no spiritual maturity without the cross. God knows what cross you need.
If you are willing to bear the cross, the end is crucifixion. But thank God, the cross is not the end. Resurrection is the end.
Then you will discover that His life grows in you. Paul could say, “Let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus.”
The marks of the cross were evident in Paul’s life.
The way of the cross is the spiritual way. If we are not willing to embrace the cross, we will not grow.
It is a choice. If you do not want to accept it, you do not need to accept it. But if you do not accept it, you will never grow.
The cross and the Holy Spirit cannot be separated. Christ is the goal. The cross is the way and the means. The Holy Spirit is the power.
Those who are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts, and He is the Comforter.
What does He do within us? He teaches us all things in order to bring us to Christ. He wants to form Christ in us.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18, we read:
But we all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit: to cause Christ to grow in us. If we are not willing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, there is no way we can grow spiritually.
Only through the Holy Spirit can Christ become real to us, be communicated into our hearts, and become our personal experience.
We must exercise ourselves unto godliness. Bodily exercise has some value, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
If we want to grow, we need to exercise. A child who never exercises his teeth, but only drinks milk, will never learn how to use them. A child who is always carried will never learn to walk.
Hebrews tells us that the mature have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
God has given us a new spirit and a new life within us. We need to exercise this spirit.
We must exercise our conscience. The conscience is very important. If you quench your conscience, you will suffer spiritual shipwreck.
Our conscience must be exercised because there we have the life of God. We must serve God with a good, clean, and pure conscience.
We must exercise in prayer. We must exercise in reading God’s Word. We must meditate, and we will discover more and more from God.
We must also exercise our spiritual intuition. We should not be governed merely by outward information or worldly influences. We need to allow the Lord to lead us from within.
The more we exercise, the more our inner sense is aligned. Strictly speaking, this exercise has much to do with the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
God loves us, and He disciplines us as children. He uses the environment to train us.
When the Lord’s discipline and training come to us, if we do not exercise the godliness within, we may suffer and miss the lesson. But if we exercise our spirit, we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s arrangement and share His divine nature.
Finally, we need to diligently seek spiritual growth. This is found in 2 Peter 1.
God has already given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. He has given us His promises. Now we need to be diligent.
We are to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, so that we may have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God.
A lazy person can never be spiritual. Even the devil cannot use a lazy person.
If we are lazy today, it is impossible for us to grow spiritually. We need to be diligent. We need to seek.
God is not partial. Why does one person obtain more grace and another obtain less? It is because one seeks diligently while the other is lazy.
We wish that all of us, before God, for the sake of His will, would rise up to become mature spiritual people.
Lord, we confess that we often conceal our unwillingness. Forgive us.
We pray that You, Holy Spirit, would directly speak to us.