WHERE THERE IS LIFE THERE IS HOPE

WHERE THERE IS LIFE THEIR IS HOPE

                This morning I woke from a dream in which I was speaking and most of what I was saying in my dream has faded away, but one emphatic statement remains. “Where there is Life, there is hope.”

                Our subject for this week is about moving on into maturity. I have been teaching the Sunday school lesson at our church for several weeks now and I do a lot of praying about it even as I pray about this writing ministry. It is not enough to simply review age old truths that we have heard a hundred times before. We need more than that. We need for the Holy Spirit to use us to breathe life into those who need life as well as to stimulate those who are living with good spiritual food.

                Becoming mature does not mean becoming sedentary.  We shouldn’t develop an attitude of “Been there done that.” If we aren’t learning and we aren’t growing, then we are dying. But we are also warned in 2 Tim. 3:7 that there are some who are forever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. Knowledge is in knowing something, but wisdom comes from having applied that knowledge to real life. As long as truth remains theoretical, we can bat it around and argue it and debate it while never gaining anything from it.

                At creation God did not say, “Hear this oh universe. I would like to propose to you the idea of light.” Instead God said, “Let there be Light.” And there was light!” When God speaks things happen. And when god says, “Let there be maturity.” He will also bring it to pass for every soul that responds and cries out for maturity. God is in the business of making mature Christians as we trust in Him.

                Our lesson on maturity comes from the book of Hebrews. There the writer exhorts them to press on to maturity by going beyond the elementary principles of Christ and to move on to perfection… that is to the completion of their Christian life in spiritual maturity. He likened spiritually immature readers to those who were laying again and again the foundations, but never completing the building.

                It is, of course important that when teaching, we both water the seeds as well as to bring the plants to maturity and for that we need the life of the Holy Spirit breathing life through us in vibrancy and hope and instruction and encouragement and exhortation.

                The writer of Hebrews  calls to us saying: Therefore leaving the principles of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.” Hebrews 6:1, 2. In other words there comes a time when we are no longer asking: “Does God really exist?” or “Is Jesus really the divine Son of God?” And we need to move into the realities that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and therefore we are containers of His presence. This means that we have become missionaries of His presence and ambassadors of His kingdom and wherever we go, demons should be fleeing the scene and people being left clothed and in their right minds.

                Jesus didn’t do the things He did just to impress us with His power. He did those things to teach us how to live in this world. We are the light. We are the salt. We are the temples of His presence in a dark and dying world. Just being here should make a difference. The world is changed by those who come to realize that they are living oracles of Jesus Christ.

                If we have been born again, then we don’t have to keep asking the elementary questions. We know the infinite power of God that lifted us out of darkness and hopeless despair. We know the presence and power of God that sustains us and anoints us to minister to others… and if we don’t know it then we are perhaps among the dead rather than among the living.

                I am here to tell you that if you have received Christ then you can walk in Him and live and move and have your being in Him and that without any particular effort on your part, you have become a light in a dark place and there are friends and co-workers around you that are bathing in yourt light, while others are hating that light and trying to impose their darkness upon you. If Christ is in you, then you can no longer be neutral in this battle between darkness and light… between Christ and Satan.

                Because of the relative peace and prosperity that we have enjoyed in America, we have been lulled into thinking that there is some kind of demilitarized zone… some sort of neutral ground where we can just be human and casual and non-comital. But if there has ever been such a place (and there has not) then we are in for a rude awakening because all neutrality is fleeing away and we are wittingly or unwittingly being dragged into the greatest spiritual battle of all time.

                There is a solemn responsibility that comes with having encountered Jesus Christ and having received Him as Savior and Lord, so the writer of Hebrews says: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame.” Hebrews 6:4-6

                There is a song that goes: “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.” We have stepped onto a train that is headed for glory. It is a train that is picking up speed so that if you jump off of it, you may not be able to get back on. Of course repentance and forgiveness is always there and we all make mistakes and we are in a battle with our own sinful nature , because as Paul showed us in Romans seven, Our spirit has been born again, but our mind and our body has not been born again. The things we want to do we don’t do and the things we don’t want to do we end up doing because we are at war and a whole lot of that war is within us. We are our own worst enemies, for our flesh doesn’t want to serve God or obey Him, but we have received a new spirit in us and we are learning how to live by that spirit rather than to serve the flesh. This is what Romans 8 is all about.

                So we are not deluded into thinking that we are somehow perfect in our flesh, but we are learning every day that we are temples of the Holy Spirit and as such, we are learning how to live by that Spirit rather than by our flesh.

                Isn’t it absolutely amazing that God uses us to bring His light and truth to others? He takes a huge risk in using us as His ambassadors since we can so easily misrepresent Him. So first and foremost, moving into maturity involves becoming knowing carriers of His light and His power to make a difference in those around us.

                Paul said in Col. 1:26-29: “(There is) the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to the saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY. And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor striving according to HIS POWER WHICH MIGHTILY WORKS WITHIN ME.”

                Now why did he say that this mystery was something that the Jews were to pass on to the Gentiles? Most certainly he was talking about those Jews who had received Jesus as their true Messiah. It is because the template of who we are in Christ was demonstrated in the tabernacle of Moses and then demonstrated in Jesus Christ and then sent to us at Pentecost, so that we too become living temples of God and His Spirit dwells in our spirit even as the presence of God dwelt in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle.

                Because the world is presently growing more and more hostile toward God, we are being forced into maturity and prepared for the harvest. As in David’s time, the Ark of God’s presence is being brought back to the threshing floor where the wheat will be separated from the tares even as we who are the wheat are being separated from the chaff that has kept us from maturity. Did not God say that He would restore the tabernacle of David in the last days? And I am not talking about the temple that they are planning to build in Jerusalem. For Satan himself will enter that temple even as he is infiltrating the church and pulling many away from the truth.

                The real temple that God is building is a temple made of human hearts and in this tabernacle there are no veils, nor walls. The light of God can be clearly seen by those around us, for the walls and the veils are being removed … and Satan hates the light.

                So we are either going to fall for Satan’s delusions and lies, or we are going to become mature in Christ. We have choices to make and prophetic wisdom to gain in this battle and maturity to enter into as we move ahead by faith in the One who is able to save us to the uttermost and to operate in and through our lives.

                I learned a wonderful secret about the leadership of our church last night as I was privileged to attend a meeting of the elders. Our pastor explained to me afterwards that He learned a long time ago as a revelation from God that they as the board of elders would only go ahead with decisions if there was 100% percent agreement. If even one elder said no to a decision, they would table the matter for one month and pray about it. Then if when the month was over the one elder still said no, then they would table the decision permanently.

                The Pastor said that this was done in order to give the prophets in their midst a voice to speak and he gave an example of one time when they were voting on a certain person to run the youth program and he seemed like the perfect person for the job with all the right talents and abilities and willingness… but one of the elders said “No.”

                “So, our pastor asked him after the meeting, “Joe, why did you say no and Joe said, “I don’t know why, the Lord just said “NO.” So they tabled the matter for the customary month and before that month was up, the reason God had said “NO” became evident as a serious problem was exposed.

                Well, that elder probably didn’t put out a sign on his door saying “Joe the prophet” but the Lord used him in a prophetic way to guide in the decision that would make a difference in the health of the church and this is the kind of spiritual maturity that we need in church leadership as well as in our own personal lives. We need to learn how to live by that Spirit of God that dwells in us, for as I say so often quoting Romans 8:14. “For those who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

                I quote this for my own benefit as well as for yours. We all need to understand this and to live by it.

                So let us move on into maturity learning how to live by the Word and by the Spirit, for even though our flesh is at war with the Spirit, we have become temples of the Holy Spirit and greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4.

                Where there is life there is hope. So “stir up the gift that is within you” (2 Tim. 1:6) and let the Lord shine through your life.  “You are a letter from Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink; but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God.” 2 Cor. 3:3, 4