Spiritual Maturity 2

[HKHaugan]

Spiritual Maturity 2

“Spiritual maturity is completely turning over the mental, emotional, motivating and physical processing of your moment by moment life to the risen Jesus. It is allowing the mind of the Father, the heart of Jesus the Son and the energy of the Holy Spirit to elevate and bring into balance the mind, heart and spirit in us.” This was the conclusion presented based on Paul's quote from Colossians 1:27-28.

We want to hold this thought. I'm sure for Paul it arose from Jesus' two Great Commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:37-39).” Jesus is the only one who did this. Yet, that is the bar He set for us. This brings maturity into the light of God's grace and love. He accepts our limitations, loves us and is willing to provide a way back to Him through His Son's death and Resurrection. What He's saying is our heart is central to His work in us. But He is also saying we have limitations that can be overcome if we are willing to identify them. Here's His measure: “Where your treasure is, that's where you'll find your heart (Mt.6:21).” His grace is expressed in His letting us be the judge of what we value most knowing full well sin has a huge part to play in what we really value in our hearts. There are two treasure centers, worldly and spiritual, from which we have the choice to take.

Starting with the spiritual it's what you can't see that beckons us. When the Father gave His Son Jesus to be a sacrifice for our sin He played an open hand. He showed all His cards. It was the physical demonstration of the spiritual motivation, God showing His love through offering His Son as a sacrifice, His life, to replace sin with its fears, aloneness and desperation clutching to secure the moment. That's how valuable we are to God. He gave the richest treasure He had to secure us to Him. That's how He treasures each of us and placed His heart right out there in the open on the Cross for all to see. He offers an eternal personal relationship with His Son to ease the momentary issues that hobble our walk between birth and death. It's not what you can see that makes a treasure. It's what is behind what you can see. But isn't it what we can't see anyway that motivates us to believe our treasure is in what we can see?

Now compare that to what we treasure in this world. It's what you can see that beckons us. The material world is calling out to us in the every day goings on in our personal mind, heart and spirit. Think of the things we desire we feel will make our day a bit brighter, more secure, with minimal conflict and topped off by how we are recognized and accepted by others. Those are treasures we all understand because they flash before us every time we have a choice and a decision to make where an ethical or moral response is necessary. What do I treasure most as I am making my way through the day? Is it satisfying my needs, preserving what I have, common sense, personal freedom, better neighborhood, financial security, getting a better job, physical health, rising up the ladder, relational peace, family unity, reputation, being number one, or just 'fitting in' to what or who will make me feel a part of something meaningful, significant, purposeful. Do these bring balance of mind, heart and spirit within us? Inner satisfaction is an unseen commodity. But in what is that satisfaction found?

While all those are the blinking road signs we pass on the way, we come to a fork in the road. One fork has all those signs together offering immediate solutions flashing “Just ahead. Welcome. Everything you want is right in front of you.” The other fork has only one sign, a Cross, and beneath it these words, “Come to me all you travelers and I will give you rest not only while you are on the way but also forever.”

So let's concentrate on the Cross fork. The Cross is the pattern for meeting every next moment yielding to the Holy Spirit. That is the first step. It is placing every next moment as a spiritual destiny journey. It's God choosing to reveal His presence as we step into each moment in faith, faith in the presence of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. We see ourselves as an image and child of God knowing His presence through His Word. Our sight becomes spiritual sight, our hearing spiritual hearing, our emotion spiritual emotion and our motivation spiritual motivation. Once alone in our sin with all the fear and pride keeping us locked up inside, shadowed by the devil, we now walk with Jesus in the Spirit eternally alive, being loved, leaving the past behind, looking forward, making every moment a new experience.

We have a spiritual family of sisters and brothers. In it we have spiritual gifts that give us new identities among one another, that give us a ministry to one another and give us a purpose, to bring others into the family where Jesus is Savior and Lord. Spiritual gifts are given us to mature, to share in the perfection of the work Jesus finished on the Cross. Spiritual gifts are how we come into our own, fulfill our uniqueness, how we come of age through an ageless life that we can experience now. They are how we take up our cross, which is faith in Jesus, in the Body of Christ and then as we meet people outside the Body, we share with those who don't know Him. Spiritual gifts are the 'Body' language we speak and apply as images of God.

If we go back to the fork in the road, the one on the left with all the signs that promise we can have what we want right now, can't fulfill the promise that being an image of God calls for. Each of those signs leads into a lonely cul de sac of alienation, isolation and death. The fork on the right that has the one sign, a Cross, fills every next moment with life, a family, stability, balance, personal significance, meaning and purpose, all eternal. That's the Jesus road, His way, His life, where the open arms of the Lord await us at the gates of His Kingdom.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Passages to ponder:

Luke 8 Parable of the Sower
Eph.4:11-13
Php.3:7-15
Col.4:12
Heb.5:14, 6:1, 10:1-14
James 1:3-7, 19-27