GROWING UP SPIRITUALLY BY KENNETH HAGIN PART 1

                     

               PART I

Chapter 1 

LOCATING YOURSELF

".. When he (Christ) ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men...And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pas­tors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the

GROWING UP, SPIRITUALLY

sleight  of men,   and cunning  craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speak­ing the truth in love, may grow up into hi mi n all things, which is the head, even Christ.," -Ephesians 4:8, 11-15

Evidently Paul didn't consider the church at Ephesus to be grown up yet. Did you notice he said, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up...."?

And, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man...."

This is the King James translation. I think when it says "perfect" our minds tend to run off on a lit­tle tangent and we miss what he's saying to us. Moffat's translation reads, "until we reach maturity." The Amplified translation says, "that we might arrive at really mature manhood." Paul is talking about growing up to be a man, or a mature person, spiritually. "That we henceforth be no more children." He's talking about growing up spiritually, about reaching spiritual maturity, about becoming a full grown man spiritually.

God wants us to grow.

And the Bible teaches that there is a striking similarity between spiritual development and physical development. It speaks of at least three stages in spiritual development which correspond to three stages in physical development. They are:

LOCATING YOURSELF

babyhood, childhood, and manhood.

As we look at them in just that order and notice subdivisions under each one, you'll find that some of the characteristics true of each stage of natural development are also true of the corresponding spiritual stage.

And I believe somewhere we can locate our­selves.