Time to Prepare: From Discipleship to Spiritual Maturity
We must always remember that we are disciples of the Messiah, disciples of Christ, as written in Scripture. We must become disciples, not merely believers, for even the demons believe and tremble. In the early days, those who were saved devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching because this instruction helped them grow spiritually and mature in their faith.
The Holy Spirit needs no growth, for the Holy Spirit is great, exalted, and is God Himself. It is our spirit that must grow and mature. There are certain things that help our spirit grow, and foremost among these is the teaching of God’s Word. God’s Word serves as nourishment for our spirit: first as milk for spiritual infants, then as bread, and finally as solid food. Just as a newborn cannot immediately consume solid food, we too must grow gradually in our understanding of truth.
Teaching brings light, while ignorance brings darkness. God never said that work was wrong. When He created Adam, He placed him in the garden to tend and keep it. However, blessing cannot simply fall upon someone who is unprepared – it would crush them because they wouldn’t know what to do with such blessing.
We are free people, yet our thinking can remain in bondage. This happens when a person does nothing with their mind: shows no interest in God’s Word, doesn’t pray in tongues, doesn’t attend prayer services, doesn’t consistently gather in God’s house, and doesn’t listen to preaching. Such a person fails to renew their mind, and though they are liberated, they think like slaves. As a person thinks, so they live.
When the human spirit fails to grow, the soul cannot be renewed. When the spirit doesn’t mature, it becomes suppressed by the soul. Our soul encompasses our perception, mind, will, and emotions. We must renew our minds with God’s Word. If someone needs healing, they must immerse themselves in this realm, searching God’s Word for every passage about healing, highlighting them, praying about it, and proclaiming the truth.
Moses spoke to the people of Israel about entering the Promised Land, preparing them for what lay ahead. “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth” (Deuteronomy 28:1). This isn’t a one-time hearing, but a consistent pattern of listening to what the Lord says. It doesn’t mean listening two years ago and then living however you please for the next two years.
God desires to speak daily through the Scriptures. When a person opens Scripture, God begins speaking to them, but they must be properly instructed in God’s grace. Blessing doesn’t depend on God; it depends on the renewal of our minds, and the renewal of our minds depends on how much our spirit grows in God.
The Apostle Paul writes: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13). Even the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch continued preparing themselves: they ministered to the Lord, fasted, remained in God’s Word, and prayed.
The greatest enemy of mankind is vanity of mind. Vanity leads to anxious thoughts, and a person begins chasing after wind, yet nothing happens. Therefore, the Lord says: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). We need knowledge from the Lord, understanding from the Lord, and we need to grow in faith.
“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:13-14). When we pray in tongues and abide in God’s Word, our soul becomes subject to our spirit. Our senses become trained through practice to distinguish good from evil – not because we feed from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but because we feed from the tree of life, from God’s Word.
The time of preparation is the most important time because nothing happens without preparation. It’s impossible to become successful in any sphere of life without proper training. Whether in business, ministry, or any other area, knowledge that comes through faith is essential. We are not infants who need circumstances to remind us of the necessity for spiritual growth. No one should have to force us – we ourselves are interested in growing spiritually because we need this for receiving the blessing that rightfully belongs to us.
Pastor Oren Lev Ari