GOG - 18 - 226 - Some Signposts To Spiritual Maturity (Part 1)
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Some SIGNPOSTS to SPIRITUAL MATURITY
100km
(Part 1)
Pastor Nkechi Ene (Mrs.) I want us to examine some signposts to spiritual
The destination we are concerned with is
The Signpost Of Your Weight
maturity. I say “some” because I do not claim to
spiritual maturity and because we are talking
You can only be, and remain the weight you are
know all the signposts to spiritual maturity.
about spiritual maturity, some may be expecting
if you like it, but if you don’t like it, and you can’t
that these signposts would be very deep
change it, it means that your body is the one
spiritual things. For instance, some Christians
dictating to your spirit. When you take off your
think that if they can pray in tongues for Yifteen
clothes, and you stand in front of a mirror, you
hours, or if they have driven out ten demons in
have to feel good. If you don’t, then, it means
11 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting (maturing) of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
their lifetime, then they are close to their
edifying of the body of Christ.”
destination of spiritual maturity. However, a lot
Ephesians 4:11-12 (KJV)
God’s vision for the church is that every
of these signposts are not necessarily “very spiritual things.” As we examine these signposts,
member of the body of Christ be matured so
you will discover just how far or how near you
that they can do the work of the ministry. Once
are to spiritual maturity.
you decide to hear the Word of God you subject
your body is the one telling you what to do. One moment it tells you, “It’s time to have a meatpie.” Then two hours later, it tells you, “That was a nice meat-pie; now, I want a hotdog.” Then you get home and it tells you, “Today was a rather rough day, you deserve some refreshing ice cream.” This may sound very funny but I am talking about the control of your body.
yourself to God’s vision. In effect, you are
Your Ability To Control Your Body
expected to grow and keep on maturing in the
Man is a tripartite being made up of spirit, body
The Signpost Of Your Sexual Desires
Word of God.
and soul. Your spirit is the real you, not your
It is a sin for anybody to have any form of sex outside of marriage. You know, for instance, that premarital sex is a sin, but your body is boiling hot and is telling you, “If you don’t go and look for a woman or a man to have sex with now you will die!” Then you go and do it and your body goes, “Wow! That was a nice cup of cold water.” However, in your spirit you are weeping and saying, “Lord, please have mercy. I promise this will never happen again.” What is happening? Your body is telling you what to do because you have no control over your body.
body. The more you grow and mature the For every vision or every target you set, there
greater control your spirit should have over
has to be a way of checking your progress. This
your body. The measure of control you have
way, you will be checking to see just how close
over your body should let you know how far or
you are to your destination. Let me give you an example of what a signpost is. If I am driving along the road to Kano, I am likely to see signposts. The signposts will keep on telling me how near I am to Kano till I get there. At times you may be driving and you realize, “Oh, I didn’t know we were that near to Kano.” Some other time you say, “Oh! I thought we were nearer than this.” Well, some of us think we are mature and very near our destination. Some of us think we are not. Signposts clear the doubt. They tell you how near or far you are from your destination.
how near you are to your destination of spiritual maturity. 27 “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualiYied.” 1 Corinthians 9:27
In this Scripture, Paul shows his suppressive treatment of his body. If you are growing spiritually you should have great control over your body. Let us consider some signposts to look out for in your body.
A lot of times people control their weight because they want to look physically good, not necessarily because they are spiritually mature. If one is spiritually mature, bodily control will show in the control of their sexual desires also. Some people may not have sex because there is something on their body that they do not want
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GOG - 18 - 226 - Some Signposts To Spiritual Maturity (Part 1) anybody to see: a deformity or a scar. The fear of contracting HIV/AIDS may also keep one from having sex, but their body may be in control in every other areas.
The Signpost Of Your Craze For Fashion Does your body dictate to you what you should wear? Your body says, “I have to look good.” So you are ready to beg, borrow or steal to look good. (I dress to look good because my body is the temple of the living God; but my primary consideration in dressing is wearing something that covers my body and looks good, not necessarily something that is in vogue). When you are subject to something that is in vogue, you are saying your body is in control. When you cannot wear a three or four-buttoned suit because what is in vogue is a twobuttoned suit, and you can’t afford it but you look for a way to beg, borrow or steal to get it, then your body is in control. I have made up my mind as much as possible that as I keep on growing spiritually, I will beat my body black and blue. I will make sure that this body knows who the master is, and who the slave is. So when my body starts dictating how large I should become, I crush it. Not necessarily because I don’t like to eat what I have stopped eating; not because I want to just look good physically, no. My target is what the Bible says: to stay spiritually on top. Paul said he keeps his body under so that he may not be disqualiYied. Your body is such a wicked master, that if you give it control in one area, it will begin to gain grounds in other areas. If you want to lose weight or you want to get rid of those sexual desires that are holding you captive, then you must begin to think and realize that what is making you think and do those things is the part of you that should be the slave and make sure it remains a slave. Amen.
Your Ability To Control Your Tongue 5 “Yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.” Luke 18:5
keep buffeting your body, at some point it will break. It will give up the control in that area. Again, just like in body control, you may tell me you have been born again for Yifty-Yive years. You may even tell me you were “saved from your mother’s womb,” but if I see that you lack the ability to control your tongue, I won’t be moved by what you say. When you are in a gathering, do you lose sight of who you are and just begin to talk to the point where you even begin to talk about your man of God? Does that happen to you? As your spirit gets more and more matured your tongue should be brought under control. There are two dimensions in which you should control your tongue.
www.thecarpenterschurch.org There are many things I can say but I know that if I say, I would be putting my tongue into negative use. So I stop myself because my tongue has to be under my control.
Positive Use Job 13:19 says, “…If now I hold my tongue, I perish.” Doesn’t this sound contradictory to the other verse we just quoted from Job? In the other verse, Job said he will hold his tongue; in this one he said he will not hold his tongue. Putting these verses together tell me that there is a place to speak and a place to hold your tongue. When your tongue is speaking the Word of God, your tongue is being used positively. But when it is speaking your circumstance, it is being put to negative use. You’ve got to hold your tongue. The Bible says that the tongue of the righteous man is like choice silver (Proverbs 10:20). Your tongue has purchasing power and it has value. It is your decision what your tongue purchases for you. It can either purchase life or death for you.
Your Commitment To The Things Of God Negative Use
What do I mean by commitment to the things of
If you use your tongue negatively, it is clear indication that you are very far away from your spiritual destination. Lies, gossip, Ylattery, and the likes are all negative uses of the tongue. When some Christians begin to talk it is as though there is an invisible funnel pouring fuel into the Yire. Some of you have that problem and you know it. As you keep on talking you realize that you are beginning to lose control. You know you should just stop but there is some “sweetness” the gist gives your body and so you just go on and on. Then by the time you leave the place, you really feel a bit foolish. Does that happen to you some times? It used to happen to me. You rewind the scene that just took place and you knew you should have left that place twenty minutes earlier, but you lost control. If your tongue controls you and you know you should shut up, but you can’t shut up, then you are far from your destination of maturity. A lot of problems Christians get into border around these things.
God? Commitment means to be dedicated or devoted to something. For instance, when you made a commitment to your mate you were saying, “I am going to be dedicated and devoted to you.” How married are you to the things of God? If you are matured, you will be married to the things of God. I’m not talking about being a “jack of all trades.” You need to write me an essay to let me understand that you are spiritually matured; yet you go to church only on Sundays. It does not matter what title you bore in your former church; it does not matter how many demons know you personally because of what you have done to them, if you come to church only on Sundays, then you are not matured. In Haggai 1:2-11, the people of God were more committed toward building their own houses than they were to building the house of God. The same thing is happening in the church
The word “troubles” is the same word, “discipline” we read in 1 Corinthians 9:27. In that Scripture the unjust judge was saying that such buffeting and disturbance has the ability to make a person break. Therefore within context, the word “discipline” means if you
In Job 6:24, Job said, “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; cause me to understand wherein I have erred.” You need to be taught to know when a harmless discussion is turning into gossip that may hurt somebody to the point that they will be driven away from the faith.
today. Some Christians are so committed to their visions that they set time for their business meetings on their church service days. That is a signpost showing that they are very far from their destination of spiritual maturity!
The Carpenter’s Ministry: All rights reserved. No portion of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or any other, without the prior permission of the above.