Be Firm In The Word

 Reverend N Murambadoro 

Thursday showers of blessings come from Ephesians 4:14 "So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead."

Paul presented both the negative Vs.14 and the positive Vs. 15 side of spiritual growth. Vs.14. connects with the preceding verses 11-13 to show that the purpose of the gifts are to demonstrate that the church should no longer stay children in maturity but reach an adult-like maturity in CHRIST. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to address a maturity issue in the local church. The church that has reached the level of maturity is not an underdeveloped organism. It is an organism that has grown to full bloom. Church development is likened to infant stage of developments. There must be visible developments but if it fails to grow, you recognise it by how it acts and functions.

Grant's verse by verse book reveals that we measure our growth by marking the distance we move from childhood to further development. Immature Christians and churches are fragmented because they only occasionally dip into the Word or go from Sunday to Sunday before they absorb God’s Word. They exist in a state of spiritual inertia.

People in immaturity often cannot draw on God’s Word for a particular problem because they don’t know or recall what God has to say about the situation. These believers may have been Christians for a long time but have never grown in Christ. They never come to the place where they attain an edification construct in their soul. They have not assimilated enough principles of the Word to give structure to their souls. Neither have they exercised what doctrine and principles they have learned.

The reason people cannot metabolize the Word in their souls is because they don’t know it. If it is not digested in their souls, then they can’t apply it. They have not come to the place of spiritual adulthood so that, whatever situation they face, they know how to handle it from the Word of God. Therefore, they are unstable Christians tossed by every distorted idea that comes along. They do not have enough truth in their souls to recognize untruth, nor can they challenge or address human viewpoint that may attack their souls.

Blessings and Shalom

Rev and Family