No Longer Infants

I've often read on the Internet, "We are not a body with a soul; we are soul with a body". Really? Then why do we act like we are a body? Why do we conform to all the rules of this physical world, thinking our God is also limited by them? If we are supernatural creatures why do we act like caged animals? Worse, we act like caged animals who don't have a clue what our life is about.

Our goal is not to collect the most amount of "toys", to have the biggest houses, to have a healthy retirement fund. Our purpose here is the salvation of the world and our personal goal is spiritual maturity. We live as if physical, mental, and emotional maturity is what we are moving toward but these things must follow behind the greater goal of spiritual maturity. It is with this spiritual maturity that we are able to attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

We know we are failing at pursuing the things of the Kingdom, one of which is the fullness of Christ, when we act like spiritual infants. When we have the whole measure of the fullness of Christ there is a great change in us:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:14)

When we have the whole measure of the fullness of Christ we have a spiritual maturity that recognizes fact from fiction, truth from fantasy. We gain a maturity that keeps us anchored to Jesus, preventing us from being blown around by every "new" teaching that comes along. It protects us from the schemes of men. It keeps our focus on Jesus alone and our hands busy with his purpose.

No matter where we are in our walk with Jesus we need discipleship. We need the trainers of the Body of Christ to be part of our lives, training us in every aspect of Christ but especially in the Spirit. We are in great need of discipleship in the Word but that amounts to nothing if we are not also being discipled in the Spirit. Remember the steps according to the Word of God, found here in Ephesians 4:

1. Submit to the trainers of the Church
2. Be trained in works of service (spiritual service)
3. Build up the Body of Christ
4. Reach unity in faith and knowledge of Jesus
5. Become mature
4. Attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Jesus

We need this so we will live as a soul with a body instead of a body with a soul. We need this to escape the traps and pitfalls of a physical world. We need this so we are not distracted by fine sounding arguments, the logic of man. We need this as the world gets more and more hostile toward us, attacking the minds and hearts of our children and wanting to throw off the influence of the Bride of Jesus. We need this to stay the course, to keep true to our purpose and to serve Jesus with all the power he works through us. We need to live the supernatural lives we were reborn to. Let's pray in those trainers that we can begin this journey in earnest.