Are you maturing in your faith? Here is how to find out...

Written by On Friday, 18 May 2018 20:02
Are you maturing in your faith? Here is how to find out...

Paul talking to the Corinthians, in a typical no-nonsense fashion gives us the impression that our walk of faith ought to be characterized by a continuing and increasing capacity. That is to mean that believers are expected to be growing in faith; from one level to another. Paul wrote that the Corinthians were still babies in their faith and had to be fed milk and not solid food. How did they demonstrate their infancy? By the fact that that they were still worldly in their dealings. He mentions jealousy and dissension as a show of worldliness. So this got me thinking, who is to say whether one has matured in faith or not? I did a bit of research and will talk about top three signs of maturity, by no means is this an exhaustive list, but what I found them to be true in my own walk with God.

Here we go.

BEARING FRUIT

This is a big one for me and I have been thinking about it a lot lately. Jesus in the book of John says that we did not choose Him but that He is the one who chose us. Why? So that we can bear fruit, and not just any kind of fruit, but the kind that lasts forever. In Mathew Jesus also gives this warning: “You will know them by their fruit.” He was of course giving a warning against false prophets but it is also a call to us who believe, especially when He says, “Every good tree bears good fruit.”

So, what kind of fruit are you bearing, what kind of fruit ought we to bear?

Pastor Michael Todd of the Transformation church has a certain series on Fruitfulness where talks about three ways that we as believers can bear fruits.

The fruit of the Spirit: the most obvious I think. Where do you stand in light of Galatians 5:22? A.W Tozer says that fruit of the spirit is unsuspected by the man in whom they are found, the most loving, most patient and most compassionate soul is unlikely to be aware of these graces. I tend to agree, we will most likely judge ourselves too highly or too harshly in any attempt at self-assessment. This is where the body of believer comes in. Why don’t you talk to your close friends about how you are doing with this and see what comes up.

Doing good works and impacting people’s lives; we bear fruit when we move beyond our little cocoon and look for ways to make a difference in the life of another. The good book says that there are good works that God prepared in advance for us to do.

Winning Souls for the Kingdom: The harvest is in plenty but the laborers are few. A major bottom line for us as believers; we are called to know our God and to make Him known to the world. Have you been talking about our God lately?

INCREASING DEPENDENCE IN CHRIST

Have you noticed that the more you experience the grace of God, the more you realize just how much you need it? An important sign of growth is the knowledge that literally EVERYTHING you have and own is by the grace of God. Even the very salvation is given to you- how then can you begin to think that you can maintain a level of righteousness without Christ? I am always intrigued by the Paul’s tone when talking to the Galatians about this. He is stupefied by the idea that we can attain our spiritual goals by human effort.

Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.

Sometimes we can get it a bit twisted in our understanding of salvation and how we live it out. When you surrender your life to God, there is a deep sense of awareness of your failure in maintaining righteousness. When the law of God is put before us we become aware that we have not kept and we are not able to keep it by our own strength and that is why we surrender to the righteousness of Christ. Somewhere along the way we forget, that it is Christ who makes us righteous. Suddenly we begin to measure our effectives in the faith by our ability to go to church every Sunday, to wake up at 3 AM for prayers, to give until we have nothing for ourselves. We take ourselves back to a legalistic lifestyle and forget the grace of God. Maturity in the faith comes with the realization that we succeed in the walk of faith only by the grace of God.

CONTENTMENT IN CHRIST

We live in a world that is constantly chasing the next big thing. The American dream of upward mobility has variations of it in any country or culture you visit. We want to acquire wealth position and status because otherwise what is the meaning of life, right?

Wrong.

At least for your dear believer.

In Mathew 6:33 Jesus promises that if we seek the kingdom first, He will supply all of our needs. But, that means that we seek the King of that kingdom first and foremost. To the church at Phillipi Paul wrote, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” and to Timothy he said “if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content”.

My own realization has been that in pursuing the next promotion, the next piece of land, marriage, academic papers or any other worldly source of satisfaction to find my sense of worth, was in effect telling God that He is not enough. I understand now that, the more I spend time with Him, the more I know Him, the more I realize that there’s really nothing that the world can offer that comes even close to what I get in the fellowship with the God-head.

Which of these three do you relate with the most? What other ways demonstrate maturity in a believer?

 

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