Hebrews 6:1 (Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying the foundation of repentance from dead works again, and of faith toward God.)

The day a Christian is born again is the day of his new birth into the family of God, and he is given a new identity: a child of God.

He becomes a new creature. Old things have passed away, and all things have become new. He is no longer identified with family curses or family patterns of problems. He has been transferred from the genealogy of Adam into a new life in Christ.

His desires change, and so does his will. He no longer lives by his own will but by the will of his Lord, who redeemed him from destruction and death.

A Christian who still clings to his own will, contrary to what is written in the Bible, has yet to know God. Your will must be buried in God’s will.

You have been buried with Christ and raised with Him. Therefore, your affection must be on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not on the things of the earth.

As your baptism signifies that you died with Christ and that your life is hidden in Him, you are no longer your own. You belong to God, who will preserve your life by His Spirit until the day of the resurrection of the dead.

You are no longer comfortable with worldly friends, for your associations and your company have changed. You can no longer sit with the scornful or stand with sinners, but your joy is in the presence of God, in the midst of the saints.

His Word becomes the desire of your heart as you long to know Him more and more, and your love for Him grows day by day.

As the deer pants for water, so your heart begins to thirst after God. This is the sign of a new creature. It is not by might nor by power, but by the working of the Spirit of God.

A little child puts whatever he sees into his mouth because he has not yet learned to distinguish between what is harmful and what is nourishing. As he grows, he begins to know what to eat and what to reject. If you have been a believer for ten years and you still follow strange doctrines, it may be that you have not yet experienced true salvation, or you are merely pretending. The fruit of your life will reveal where you belong.

A natural child who is not growing is a matter of concern to his parents. Likewise, a Christian who remains a spiritual babe for years needs a spiritual checkup.

A Christian who refuses to grow may have a spiritual hindrance stagnating his life. He needs a spiritual checkup to discover what is wrong.

A Christian who cannot discern the voice of his Shepherd from the voices of wolves is not in fellowship with his Master. A child of God must know when the devil is speaking to tempt him and when God is speaking to encourage him.

The growth of a Christian is toward the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ, not after man. Someone who remains behind another person for thirty years shows that he has not progressed, or perhaps his teacher is still growing as well.

You grow in the kingdom by learning divine principles daily in His presence. You become like the one who teaches you. If Christ is not your Teacher, you remain earthly, because a student cannot grow beyond his teacher. But if Christ is your Teacher, your growth continues until it reaches the measure of His stature, which is infinite.

Unfortunately, many Christians are not growing because they use their leaders as the standard for measuring their growth. Whatever their leaders do, they imitate, even when it is contrary to the will of God.

Someone who stopped wearing jewellery but began wearing it again simply because she saw her leader wearing it is not actually growing. She has lined herself up behind her leader instead of behind Jesus Christ. How then will she grow to meet the standard of Christ?

If such a leader is on the way to hell and you choose to follow, you have made that choice yourself.

Satan has used hierarchy within the church to divert the growth of God’s children. Many are no longer following Christ; they have chosen instead to follow whatever their leaders do. This is what stagnates their growth.

He uses hierarchy to distract the children of God from meeting divine standards. “If my pastor divorces, I too can divorce my spouse. If my pastor steals, I too can steal. There is no sin in that.”

If, after all the years you have spent in God’s presence, your character remains the same as when you first started attending church, and your nature is still that of Adam, you are not alone. Judas Iscariot is your companion. He lived with and listened to Jesus for three and a half years, yet he still chose to follow Satan. Even while learning from the greatest Teacher who ever lived, he chose not to listen.

“You shall know them by their fruits.” If you despise the fruit of holiness while professing to be a child of God, it only means that you have not yet crossed over by embracing the cross and being identified with the people of God.

There is no way you can truly encounter Jesus Christ and remain the same. The life that is in Him will quicken every dead area of your life because you have come into contact with the Resurrection and the Life.

Some people say that until they receive a direct revelation from Jesus Christ, they will continue in their errors. Do not worry. If you are truly one of His sheep, you will not listen to the voice of a stranger or mistake the voice of the wolf for the voice of your Shepherd.

If you are truly growing, there will be a clear separation between you and the world, for a child of God knows that there is no friendship between God and the world.

The signs of spiritual growth include maintaining the spirit of holiness, both inwardly and outwardly. If you are unable to maintain it, you are a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

If the world loves you because you have become like it, it means you belong to the world. There is no way your light will shine in the midst of darkness without the world hating you, just as they hated the Lord Jesus Christ and sought to quench His light. But the more they tried, the more His light shone, bringing people out of darkness.

What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination before God. The world’s acceptance of you can reveal the state of your spiritual growth. The world will always love its own. If you have been chosen out of the world’s corruption, you should not expect to be loved by the same world, unless you are willing to trade your salvation for a morsel of bread or exchange your love for God for the love of the world, which many Christians are doing today, thereby hindering their spiritual growth.

Instead of growing in Him, they have sold their eternal inheritance for people’s love. They have exchanged the Word of God for men’s acclaim and traded the truth for the world’s approval. Yet they have forgotten that they will not be judged by the world, but by the unchanging Word of God.

Prayer: Father lord, make me grow in you to reach the level of your stature, in Jesus’ name and