by Sandy Brunson

"Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light," Matthew 11:28-30

One cannot follow Jesus without seeing and hearing Him. Today, we do that through the study of God's Word and prayer and consider it a PERMANENT daily discipline! Anyone who will honestly answer God's call and develop into a disciple of Jesus Christ in this day and age needs to consider the actions of the original twelve disciples. Those faithful ones...looked unto Jesus! They walked and talked with Him. They followed Him wherever He went, spent time with Him, watched, observed, and listened intently to EVERYTHING He spoke!

They not only LISTENED...but they LEARNED and took their lead from Him by DOING as He did. They asked Him specific questions and listened to His responses. They interacted, daily, with their Master, worshipping Him and understanding that He was indeed, "the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" They loved their Lord from their heart and obeyed His directives as proof of that love. i Being daily in His presence impacted their lives in such a manner as to produce a change, not only in their nature, but also in their character, behaviour and speech.

We can do no less today!

Jesus is not here in the flesh, but we still find the fullness of His grace and truth as we experience His Word and His Spirit. This comes through doing the same three things which the disciples practiced.

THEY HAD JESUS:

1. to listen to, to ask questions of and to learn from

2. to fellowship with daily

3. to worship daily

WE, TOO, HAVE:

1. His written Word to study...to learn from

2. fellowship with Him in prayer, speaking to and listening to

3. opportunity to worship Him daily

As we do these things, we, too, will grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...just as the first disciples did!

Any person "gets to know" another person, relationally, as they spend time with them. Apart from times of closeness and openness, one only comes to know "about" another; they do not experience them personally with looking at them, being with them, speaking with and listening to them. It is no different in relationship between Jesus and us! The disciples lived, daily, experiencing these vital, connecting, interpersonal things; and it is our reasonable responsibility as Christians today, to also be found responding to the drawing and calling of God in all these ways. These are the essential things that develop individual disciples into spiritual maturity in this life.

Healthy Growth

Natural, healthy growth in the life of plants and animals calls for proper nutrients of food and water and light. So does the process of growth in the spiritual life of the individual disciple. This is God’s way. To grow, we must take in God’s Word, partake of the Bread of Life, Jesus, and be refreshed and washed by that same life-giving water of His Word. We must walk in the light as He is in the Light by looking unto Him, and coming into His Presence through prayer and worship. These things are food, water and light to us. Our spirit is a living thing. It must be nurtured and cared for properly for it to grow and develop in the process it was designed to experience. If not, it dies. At best, it remains technically alive, but does not fulfill its purposed design because it is asleep… unconscious and unaware of the moving and working of God’s true purpose for it.

We need to look unto Jesus and learn to be awake in our spirit, our inner man. We learn by His supernatural help and grace to become aware of life in more than one realm at a time - the realm of the spirit and the realm of the natural.

God is a Spirit. We must be aware of Him in both realms to experience Him! His life takes place in the realm of the Spirit, which is unseen to the natural eye; but our spiritual eyes and ears can be trained to see and hear in the realm of the spirit even as we walk upon the earth.

Such an awareness comes only through a faithfulness and a commitment to put 2 Timothy 2:15 and Ephesians 6:18 into practice. These verses exhort the true disciple of Jesus Christ to look unto Him and: “Study to show himself approved unto God, a workman not needing to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” And also, “Praying without ceasing, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

Regular personal study of God’s Word and a lifestyle of prayer brings the awareness of God (from His realm of Spirit) into the realm where we live. It is the singular responsibility of the disciple of Jesus Christ to be willing to daily practice these disciplines and apply what is revealed if there is to be spiritual growth in their life.

The things found in Hebrews 6:1-6 are the foundation the Scriptures describe for the believer and disciple of Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews calls us “to go on to perfection (maturity), not laying, again, this foundation.” He implies that for the true disciple of the Lord Jesus, once this foundation has been laid and accepted as God intended…..it is God’s plan that the disciple go on to maturity, by continuing to build upon this sure foundation of basic belief.

Christian's Secret to a Happy Life

Many decades ago, a saint of God blessed the Body of Christ by writing with classic insight. Her name was Hannah Whitehall Smith, and she wrote a remarkable book called "The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life." This classic Christian work was pivotal in my own initial salvation, experience, and there are numerous testimonies that the Holy Spirit used her book mightily in the souls of thousands of people over the years.

Hannah Smith’s work was a tool which drew me, and my life’s gaze turned away from looking at myself and those about me to "looking unto Jesus" as my source. The Holy Spirit anointed the truth she shared, and the illustrations she used proved very significant to me. These are concepts of the Holy Spirit taken from her book, and drawing from her words, I put them into this nutshell of understanding:

“What can be said of man’s part in God’s great work of bringing His children to maturity? Each must continually surrender himself unto God and continually trust. The lump of clay could never grow into a beautiful vessel if it stayed in the clay pit for thousands of years; but when it is put into the hands of a skillful potter, it is shaped and grows rapidly, under His fashioning, into the vessel He intends it to be. And in the same way the soul, abandoned to the working of the Heavenly Potter, is made into a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and ready for the Master’s use.

“The maturity of a Christian’s experience cannot be reached in a moment, but is the result of the work of God’s Holy Spirit, who by His energizing and transforming power, causes us to grow up into Christ in all things. And we cannot hope to reach this maturity in any way other than by yielding ourselves utterly and willingly, to His mighty working. But the sanctification the Scriptures urge, as a present experience upon all believers, does not consist only in the maturity of our growth, but in purity of heart; and this may be as complete in the early as in our later experiences.

“The lump of clay, from the moment it comes under the transforming hand of the Potter, is, during each day and hour of the process, just what the Potter wants it to be and therefore, pleases Him; but it is very far from being matured into the vessel He intends it to be in the future.

The little babe may be all that a babe could be, or ought to be, and may, therefore, perfectly please its mother; and yet it is very far from being what that mother would wish it to be when the years of maturity shall come. The apple in June is a perfect apple for June. It is the best apple that June can produce; but it is very different from the apple in October, which is a perfected, complete apple.

“God’s works are perfect (mature) in every stage of their growth. Man’s works are never perfect until they are in every respect complete. All that we claim, in this life of sanctification is that by an act of faith, we put ourselves into the hands of the Lord, for Him to work in us all the good pleasure of His will, and then, by a continuous exercise of faith…..keep ourselves there!”

God Expects His Children to Grow

God expects His children to grow in His likeness and character because the basic transformation of their nature is from one of sin to one of righteousness as they "look unto Jesus" in the act of justification. Maturity into His character is the goal of the process of healthy growth and development. This comes as the result of the process of sanctification, a lifetime of looking unto Jesus and practicing what we "hear" Him say and "see" Him do. This is the plan of God for EVERY child of God. Each is called to be His disciple and to follow Him in manner and character of life.

I have personally illustrated it this way. I inherited three beautiful pitchers from an aunt. They are hand blown amber glass with unique green handles. They are identical in every way except for size. There is one large, one medium size, and one small. They are so beautiful that they remind me of three beautiful sisters each about two years apart in age from the other. The individual pitchers can each be filled with sparkling water and be full for its size and shape, but each does not hold the same amount of water.

I believe that the thing God looks for in us as His vessels is that we be as full of Him and His truth as we can possibly hold. Though a larger vessel may hold more of Him, He is looking for FULLNESS rather than amount. This illustrates His desire for us to walk in all the fullness of His grace and truth of which we are presently capable. We may mutually understand that the amount may increase over time as we grow spiritually; but for now, He is looking for fullness of Himself in the open vessel of each of our lives.

God desires for Himself a people that are His people in nature. He has made provision for a "glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish," (Ephesians 5:27). He longs for our "growth in grace and in the knowledge of His Word" above all things; for our doing so equips us to be able to commune and have rich and intimate fellowship with Him, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is a relational being, and He longs for us to draw close to Him so that He can enjoy us as His own and draw close to us. That we truly know and become intimate with Him is the desire of His heart.

This is "normal Christianity"……relationship and fellowship with God as it was designed to be from the beginning. This is Christian discipleship: growing daily, growing steadily, yielding to His will, humbling ourselves, being teachable in all the vast areas of life which we do not know, but in which He, alone, can teach us by His Word and Spirit. It is to be found walking constantly in the attitude related in Job 34:32: "Teach me, O Lord, what I do not see; if I have done wrong I will do it no more."

Through such a teachable attitude, Jesus draws His disciples into a continual hunger and thirst for righteousness from the core of their being. He designed that our lives show a "steady progression" in holiness and purity. He molds our character into His example of integrity; and as we grow, our righteous nature expresses itself as one that:

"Loves God completely ~

Loves ourselves correctly ~

Loves others compassionately" Ken Boa: Face to Face

The one who will look unto Jesus can learn to love in this correct way. Spiritual growth is growth in the character and likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Growth into this character then becomes the behavioral pillars and structures that are built upon the sure foundation laid in Hebrews 6:1-6. It is around these pillars of maturity that we find the ever increasing responsibilities of ministry and service formed and fashioned.

Without the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, and this sure foundation of the basic belief in the life of a disciple, there would be no structure built up of the "glorious church" corporately. Without foundation and structure, there would not be fruitful ministry and service expressed on behalf of God to this world.

Ken Boa, author of "Face to Face" , summed up these two great commandments found in Matthew 22 by addressing these three relationships we each have to face in life. We will never be able to truly fulfill them unless we look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. For there must be appropriate love in our relationships with God, ourselves, and others if we are to fulfill the design and purpose of God.

Before any individual is ever fully released into ministry that would appropriately represent their Lord in Spirit and in Truth, these three areas of relational love must be fulfilled. After all, it is Him we serve and His Kingdom we represent. It must be done on His terms and for His sake. We are not our own, but have been bought with a price. He sets the standard of love, and He changes not. The proof of maturity is the relational evidence of His standard of love found in our lives. Jesus said that the world would know that we are Christians, by the love we demonstrate. That is what we are distinguished by, for love never fails; and His standard has never lowered.

THIS demonstration of His love is Christian maturity. THIS is mature discipleship, definitely looking unto Jesus and following in His footsteps. His was a life and ministry of honest, honorable humility. His character was pure. His behavior was characterized by integrity and holiness - full of grace and truth. His actions were timely and marked by wisdom that is from Above. His expression of love honored and welcomed others. His life was one laden with the fruit of righteousness. He was holy in all His conduct. This is the one we are to look unto. He called His people of old to this, and He calls the same things to us today; for Jesus Christ is the same……yesterday, today, and forever! (Hebrews 13:8)

Maturity is not age, an amount of knowledge, nor a grasp of factual information. Rather it is how we live our lives in relation to God, ourselves, and people - the most precious of all God’s creation.

Do we live it in the fullness of His love and purity, or do we live it unchanged, selfishly pursuing our own desires and dreams apart from Him? Search your heart. Honestly see where your choices and commitments have positioned you. Are you looking to self and success in the culture around you, or are you looking unto Jesus?