The Call
Everything on The Consider Podcast and website has to do with the call for all men and women to repent. Such is an offer of mercy for those willing to follow Jesus by hating their life and picking up their cross. After all, even the demons believe in God, but they are terrified. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. James 2:19
Growing Up
Audiobook
Text Growing Up
Peter, when first hearing the voice of Jesus to come follow Him, fell down and cried, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”1 But Peter had a lot of growing up to do. In fact, it wasn’t until Peter had been with Jesus for over three years that he went out and wept bitterly as a man of faith. The brokenness at the start was child’s play compared to what he experienced next to the cross. How foolishly we think we have received all the brokenness there is for us in Jesus. Peter understood all too well that we must grow up if we want to understand what the voice of the Lord tells us.
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (1 Peter 2:2)
How sad to see many who have just come to Christ think they can hear and understand the voice of the Lord. Sadder still, so many churches let this assumption be accepted among new converts. Leaders feel so afraid of offending new members, driving them from the church, that they remove the offense that could mature them. Throughout the New Testament, being born again is compared to childbirth.2 The Bible clearly portrays that, like babies, we must grow up in Jesus Christ.
No newborn can understand what his parents say. Even those who have had their parents speak to them in the womb cannot understand words once they are born. It takes years to speak, understand, and gain wisdom from what a parent says to a child. Indeed, many parents can testify that their children did not really gain wisdom until much later in life. So it is with us in Christ. It is a long, hard, narrow road to maturity and you must give God time to teach you. We must allow the cross to do its painful work daily if we desire to gain ears that can hear. Paul communicated this to the Corinthians.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. (1 Corinthians 13:11)
Until we allow the cross to crucify us to our childish ways in the Lord, we will not have mature ears that can hear. Let us then, in humility, let the Lord teach us as little children. Jesus said we must come to Him as little children, and we only hinder our maturity when we think of ourselves too highly. We must think of ourselves with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God gives us at the time.3 Even after twenty years of following the voice of the Lord, I still have certain areas where I need the help of others, areas where I know my flesh remains too strong to hear God.
At first, like a baby, everything had to be tested with great effort. I was a baby crawling on the floor; later, I toddled across the room and then walked. It took years before I could run and there were a lot of bumps along the way. This is why the Bible tells us to be slow to speak and quick to listen.4 If a man interrupts me constantly, I know he interrupts the Lord when the Holy Spirit tries to talk to him. If a man always listens to me and never says “Amen,” then I know he too never acts on what God wants to tell him. If a man continues to say, “I know that,” then I know God cannot teach that man anything new. If someone always jumps in with their opinions of why something cannot be done, I know they are defiant in faith and will always tell God something can’t be done that he asks of them. How we listen or don’t listen to others shows us how well we can hear God. In fact, many individuals never grow unto maturity because they remain too stubborn to humble themselves. Let me repeat it: we must come to Jesus as little children.
And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3–4)
When someone is born again, they must humble themselves and admit that when it comes to the voice of the Lord, they are infants, babies that can’t feed, clothe or even burp them- selves. They are helpless, needing constant protection and guidance. As time goes on, the child must pass through the toddler state, the teenage stage and finally, years later, adulthood.
Jesus said we must “change” but few are willing to be changed into a child. We want to keep our dignity as sinful adults while we try to be children of God. Such a combination can never mature you into a man or woman of God. In fact, this is a salvation issue. Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we can’t go to heaven.
A child must be taught everything. So, too, we must allow God to teach us everything. What words mean, how to use those words, and which words are bad words. We must let God tell us what He means just as a parent must explain to a child what they are saying. Any parent can tell you they often have to say to a child, “That is not what I meant.”
Ears to hear means that instead of us telling God what the Bible means, we let God explain it to us. Instead of telling God what we will do for Him today, we must let God tell us what He wants us to do. We must let those who have suffered on the cross, putting their flesh to death, teach us how to hear God’s voice. Unfortunately, too much pride fills the church today for men to allow a godly man to teach them how to hear God’s voice. The vast majority in the church would cringe at being addressed as mere children in the Lord.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:4)
How easily we become indigent when God either personally, or through those more spiritually mature than us, reveals the fact that we are mere babes, children in Christ. If we want to gain ears that can hear, then all pride must be confessed in the Light so that we can be healed. When we make mistakes in what we think we heard, we must admit our sin and look to the reason we failed.
Think of the twelve apostles. For over three years, what did Jesus reveal to them about themselves? Every child learns by being corrected a lot. Jesus constantly rebuked, admonished, and put them in situations that revealed their pride and sinful nature. Jesus even went so far as to refer to Peter as Satan. God desperately wanted to break their self-assuredness and pride. Jesus applied the first pains of the cross that would execute their self-righteous dignity. Even with natural children, we speak of the pains of growing up; how much more when we as Christians know we must carry our cross as we head toward heaven? We can only gain ears to hear by humiliation on the cross.
We must admit we need breast milk and baby food. Understand that solid food is for the mature who have constantly heard the voice of God training them to know right from wrong.
Chapter 5: Growing up
- Why is it important to come to Jesus as a child if we hope to mature?
- What areas in your life do you find it difficult to receive instruction from someone else?
- List some things you know that God has been trying to instruct you in. Stop and pray for God to crucify these things so that you can have ears to hear.
Ears to Hear: Chapter 6 | [Continue to Next Chapter →]
The Consider Podcast
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The Salt Shaker Christian bookstore, because of persecution by Washington State Authorities, was destroyed and ran out of the town of Enumclaw. Just part of the proof that Sound Doctrine Church was walking the narrow road with Jesus.
For you, brothers became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men. 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15
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Cultural Christianity is part of God’s powerful delusion to decieve the “Christian” element of mankind.
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The Consider Podcast focuses on the importance of living a life of repentance in alignment with the complete gospel. This aligns with 1 Corinthians 2:2, which states, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
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