So are you starting to wonder where the brick wall fits
into all of this? Or are you thinking I
had forgotten about it? Well I haven’t
forgotten, we are just working toward it. Let’s just say that Jesus has us in
the process of being formed into bricks.
Today let’s consider what it might look like to cooperate
with the Holy Spirit. As I noted over the last several weeks, the goal of
a Christian is to mature or to pursue maturity instead of going back to the
initial basic elementary rules of Christianity. We are being formed into
individual bricks in the process
In Jesus' last words to the disciples, He said
He had to go so another would come. In John 16: "It is for your
benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come
to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the
world about sin, righteousness, and judgment". See Act
2: After Jesus' departure
from this earth, the disciples, apostles, were filled with the Holy Spirit.
After we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, I believe we begin a journey with Him by the Holy Spirit. (Consider it a journey of learning to allow Him to be the Lord of our lives.) We begin to learn to listen and be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit. This process I am breaking down into 3 phases in order to simplify this discussion.
After we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, I believe we begin a journey with Him by the Holy Spirit. (Consider it a journey of learning to allow Him to be the Lord of our lives.) We begin to learn to listen and be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit. This process I am breaking down into 3 phases in order to simplify this discussion.
Phase 1: Infant Stage of Cooperating with the Holy Spirit: Initially, similar to an infant learning to walk, our walk with God may look awkard. We are not sure how to fully cooperate with the Spirit. We may even be a little resistant, but we are trying to learn. We may fall a lot during this time just as a baby falls a good bit when they are learning to walk. We let go of His hand and grab back on a good bit, but that is part of learning just as a toddler does. Which leads us to the "I do it myself" time. Each one of these represents growth, but also these represent our desire to be independent from God. -- On a side note, as others begin their journey from infancy, let's walk beside them with encouragement. Just as a mother would not scold their child as they fall while learning to walk, let's give that same grace and freedom to newer believers. Let's remind one another that God is not calling us to "do it myself", but He is equipping us, enabling us, leading us and maturing us; but we have to be willing to be dependent on Him and obey His leading -- we will talk about this later.
Phase 2: Teen Stage of Cooperating with
the Holy Spirit: This phase is a place where the independence is worked through,
and we begin to test our boundaries. We have a bit more of a defiance and
perhaps a bit of rebellion during this phase, but this phase helps us
understand we cannot do it on our own. It teaches us we were not called to do
it on our own. Unfortunately, many of us find ourselves during this phase,
"doing for God". It is a time of failure and testing. It is a time
for us to see where our dependence lies, and it is not with ourselves, but it
is with God by the indwelling Spirit. This is where we begin to discover
God is reliable. (Just as not every teen rebels or is defiant, nor does ever
believer... I am just demonstrating a time of hashing out our boundaries of where
we end and He begins. Similar to a teen discovering their independence from
their parents.)
Phase 3: Mature Adult Stage of
Cooperating with the Holy Spirit: This is a lifelong process as is the majority
of our physical life is spent as an adult. This is where we have become
convinced of the sufficiency of God and our own insufficiency. This is a place
where we surrender to Him and learn to allow Him to lead us. This is the phase
of our walk where we learn to abide with Him. In this phase, I
believe the believer becomes an ambassador for Christ. -- I believe God uses us
during all of the phases, and God can be glorified in us during each stage. But
I believe we will see the kingdom expand exponentially when the body as a whole
cooperates with the Holy Spirit, let's Him complete His refining process and
become mature in the faith. This is where the individual brick is formed and
ready to be set in place in the wall figuratively speaking.
Ponder these phases. Each of us may find that although we are mature in one
area, we are indeed still an infant in another area of our life. We may find
this to be true with our fellow co-workers in Christ as well. So let's offer grace
to ourselves and to one another as we move through these phases of growth. We
need to understand that we all can use some encouragement seasoned lightly with
correction in love. Let's come to an understanding that we too are not
fully mature in all areas. This is a process of sanctification. Thankfully God
doesn't sanctify us all at once. I wonder if He did, would we be able to stand
it... I say it would simply destroy us. Thankfully He takes us from glory to
glory in this refining process. Just as a silversmith would heat up the metal
only enough to melt it so the impurities would rise to the top and be removed
but not so hot to destroy the metal, circumstances in our lives become the heat
to allow our impurities to come to the top to be removed. The cool thing about
refining silver, the silversmith watched the silver and knew the silver was
ready when he could see his reflection in the metal. Hmmm. That is Jesus' goal
for us. He watches over us and takes us through each stage until we reach
adulthood where He continues to develop us. He is taking us from glory to glory
until He sees His reflection in us. (forming us into usable bricks.)
Are you READY!
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