Without the milk of God’s words less mature Christians will die
Hos 4:6 (God) My people (Christians) are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected (or)… forgotten (or not been fed) the law (the words) of your God.
God says to the spiritually young: desire milk and submit to your elders who feed it to you:
1 Pet 2:1-3 Laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
as newborn babes (or babies who haven’t yet grown), desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious (have tasted, as in believed, God’s initial saving words).
1 Pet 5:5 Likewise you younger people (spiritually), submit yourselves to your
elders (the ones through whom God will feed you His milk)…and be clothed with humility for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
God says to the spiritually mature: Feed the milk of His words, as a mother, to His lambs:
John 21:15 (Jesus) “…Do you love Me…?” "Feed My lambs (the pure milk of My word)"
1 Thes 2:7 We were...among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children.
What then is milk? The words of the most basic teachings of Jesus Christ. What ere they?
1. The milk of laying aside evil, desiring God’s words and submitting to those who can feed you the milk of God’s words. Start by drinking in, that is believing with your heart, the milk of God’s words contained in 1 Peter 2:1-3 and 1 Peter 5:5 set out above.
2. The milk of remaining forgiven and righteous: Having been forgiven of all your past sins when you were born again, now If your renewed conscience within you convicts you of any new sin, immediately repent of it and re-receive God’s forgiveness. Understand the basis for your forgiveness. You will be able to do so as you drink (believe) these words:
1 Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (Why is it just for God to do this?)
1 Pe 2:24 (Jesus) Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree (the cross)
3. The milk of always granting others forgiveness: We only remain connected to God, who is righteous, when we stay forgiven of all our sins, for all sin is unrighteousness. This is how God keeps us righteous. If we want to keep enjoying this grace of God’s forgiveness we must always grant everyone else who may sin against us (or we just thought they did) forgiveness. If we don’t, we forfeit our forgiveness by God. Since it is not in our human nature to truly forgive, we can only do it if we drink the milk of (as in believe) these words:
Matt 6:12-14 (Our daily prayer) And forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven
TLB those who have sinned against us…(Jesus) Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, He will not forgive you (leaving us unrighteous in all our sins).
Do we wait to forgive others until “we feel like forgiving”? No, often we will not “feel” like it. Do we wait until they are first sorry for what they did? No, because often they won’t be sorry. Are we condoning what they did if we forgive them? No, God isn’t condoning what we did when He forgives us. Do we forgive intellectually reasoning that it’s the right thing to do? No, my intellect is not the real “me” and being corrupt can rarely do what is right. The real me is my heart or spirit, so to be real forgiveness must come from there; a heart that has drunk the milk of God’s words on forgiveness, knowing it is based on Christ having borne that person's sins against us, too. We forgive by faith in the truth of God’s words; we forgive in the name of, meaning we currently live in the nature of, Jesus Christ.
Matt 18:33-35 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant,
just as I had pity on you? ...So My heavenly Father also will do to you (leave you in the hands of Satan, where your un-forgiveness has put you) if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.
1 Pe 2:24 (Jesus) Who Himself bore their sins in His own body on the tree (the cross)
To not forgive others is to trample under foot the cross of Christ who died for their sins. It is like drinking poison myself, then hoping it will somehow harm the person I won’t forgive. God likens it to my having been forgiven of a $20 million debt to Him and then my refusing to forgive someone of their $20 debt to me. It puts me in Satan’s hands. To stay free I must constantly, daily, forgive everyone. Even then, Satan will try to remind me or give me a flashback of what someone did, to re-capture me, if I’m foolish enough to re-dwell on that memory. God chooses to not remember our sins. When the milk of God’s words on forgiveness is in our hearts we have His nature in us to likewise choose to forget sins.
2 Cor 2:10-11 (Paul)…I also forgive…in the (name and) presence of Christ, lest Satan
should take advantage of us…(and rob us of our finances or make us sick).
All un-forgiveness is rooted in pride. Pride is the chief characteristic of our unchangeably corrupt human nature. Holding on to any un-forgiveness means I’m not dead to the flesh. While we retain any offense toward another, before long we will have offense toward God. Christians die spiritually, and physically, for a lack of knowledge of this truth – of this milk!
John 6:57 (Jesus, God’s word)…He that eats Me (or drinks Me – by believing My words),
he shall live by me (by My nature in him, he will be enabled to live like Me).
The foundational teachings of Christ (Milk) numbers 4 thru 9 are all found in these verses:
Heb 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to
teach you again the first principles of the oracles (utterances) of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (And here’s that milk)
Heb 6:1-2 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
4. The milk of repenting from dead works. What are dead works? They are activities or words I do or speak independently from God, they neither have His approval nor His Spirit inspiring them. Without His life in them they are dead works. They’re the opposite of what scripture calls “good works” or works initiated and led by God. This is a radical change of direction, to want to stop doing my own will and only do God’s will. But it is a condition for receiving God’s Spirit who will enable me to do His will, and it proves that Christ is in me.
2 Cor 5:15 He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves,
but for Him who died for them and rose again .
Heb 4:10 He who has entered (God’s) rest has himself also ceased from his works…
5. The milk of faith toward God. God is a Spirit, he cannot be seen with our natural eyes, but He can be seen with the eye of faith. This faith, which is in our hearts or spirits, is not blind but can see, hear and experience very clearly the presence of God. Heart faith is our only connection with God, and the stronger our faith the stronger that connection. Without that faith connection it is impossible to please God, because we can’t see or hear Him or receive His grace. Anything that is not done in faith is un-righteous and hence sin.
Rom 5:2 ...We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand... KJV
Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...
God gives every human being a measure of faith as part of the spirit He puts in us when we are still in our mothers womb. It is this faith that we exercise to believe the initial saving words of the gospel by which we are born again. God desires to greatly increase this faith after our conversion as we let Him baptize us with and fill us with His Holy Spirit, and as we let Him feed our hearts daily the milk of His nature through His words. Our faith in God thus increased is nothing else but the faith of Jesus Christ now actively living in us.
Rom 10:17 ...Faith comes by hearing and hearing (with my heart) the word of God.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus (God’s word), the source and increaser of our faith ...
The opposite of faith is doubt, unbelief and fear. Faith and fear, which includes worry, care and anxiety, cannot exist together. Since God our Father wants us all to be strong in the faith of Jesus Christ, He wants us to be free from worry or care, and cast all our cares on Him. Which we can do if we drink the milk of His words telling us He will take cares of us.
Mark 5:36 (Jesus) ...Be not afraid, only believe. KJV
1 Pet 5:6-7 Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God (by believing or drinking
in these words)...casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
After un-forgiveness, the “taking of a care thought” which means our faith connection with God has been lost, is the most common sin among Christians. Please drink your milk!
6. The milk of the doctrine (or teaching) of Baptisms: Notice it is Baptisms plural, since there are three Baptisms. The first and most important is our baptism into Christ which takes place the moment we first believe, with our hearts, that Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead victorious over them, so that God could now forgive us of them.
By heart, not head, faith in God’s words, our spirits are immersed into Christ, God’s word.
This baptism was pre-figured by Israel’s exodus from Egypt (equivalent to our exodus from Satan’s kingdom) by passing through (with the baptism of) the red sea. We symbolize this spiritual baptism into Christ, in the natural realm, with the second baptism, water baptism.
Jam 1:18 ...He gave us birth as sons by His Word of Truth (believed)... AMP
Gal 3:27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (The word).
The third baptism is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This happens when a born gain Christian is willing to unconditionally surrender their will to the control of God. God only gives the Holy Spirit to those who are willing to obey him and really want to come under His control instead of being ruled by their corrupt human nature. As we continue to obey Him we stay full of and are led by His Spirit, but if we disobey Him it grieves the Holy Spirit and then quenches or extinguishes the Spirit, and we fall back under the rule of our flesh.
Acts 19:2 ...Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? KJV
After the new birth this baptism with the Holy Spirit is God’s top priority for each of us, as evidenced many times in the book of Acts. This is because only God’s Spirit can empower us to be His witness, can teach us the deeper truths (the meat) of His words; and can progressively sanctify us and conform us to the likeness of Christ. This is when Jesus is not just Savior but is now our Lord. It was pre-figured when Israel left the wilderness (a type of the sense-ruled Christian life) and passed through (was baptized with) the river Jordan, into the Promised Land (a life now under the control of the promised Holy Spirit).
Luke 11:13 (Jesus)...How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those (of His children) who ask Him (and really want to submit to Him).
Acts 8:12-17 ...When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
received the word of God (Jesus), they sent Peter and John to them, who….
prayed for them that they might receive (be baptized with) the Holy Spirit.
We receive the Holy Spirit by faith; that faith comes as we drink the milk of these words. That is, we want to be freed from the dominion of our flesh, we want to be under God’s control and serve Him. We believe His words that He now gives us His Spirit, and we now expect His Spirit to continually communicate with and guide our own re-born spirit.
Gal 3:2 ...Did you receive the Holy Spirit as the result of obeying the Law...or
AMP was it by hearing (more of) the message of the Gospel and believing it?
Rom 8:16 His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts.. TLB
7. The milk of the laying on of hands: God uses the physical act, by those He controls by His Spirit, of laying their hands on the bodies of others whose hearts are tender and trusting toward Him, to impart or transmit a gift from God. That gift may be the initial gift of or baptism with the Holy Spirit, the gifts of healings or deliverance, or the gift of a special empowerment, or greater anointing with the Spirit for service to God. We can only know this truth as we drink the milk of these words of God by believing them in our hearts:
Acts 8:17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Mark 16:18 (Jesus) In My name - they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
8. The milk of the resurrection of the dead: Who actually gets raised from the dead? Everyone, both the righteous and unrighteous: As spirit beings we cannot cease to exist.
John 5:28-29 (Jesus) ...All who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
Acts 24:15 …There is to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the righteous and unrighteous. AMP
The Bible identifies the next major period in human history as the thousand year reign
(millennium reign) of Christ on this earth with His saints. There is to be one resurrection
before the thousand years, of those who are sanctified (saints) who will reign with Him;
And a second resurrection after the thousand year reign of everyone who did not arise
in the first resurrection. We need to believe this, drink this milk, and let God sanctify us.
Rev 20:4-5 …They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest
of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished… Blessed and holy (sanctified) is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death (eternal separation from God) has no power…
9. The milk of eternal judgment: There will be two resurrections, and two Judgments:
(1) A Judgment at the seat of Christ of those who are His from the first resurrection,
(2) A great white throne Judgment of those from the second resurrection, where the deciding factor will be if one’s name is in, and not blotted out of, the Lamb’s book of life.
2 Cor 5:5-10 God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (of participation in
the first resurrection)…we walk by faith not by sight...for we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body...
Rev 20:11-15 I saw a great white throne…the dead...standing before God…anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Who are they?)
Rev 3:5 (Jesus) He who overcomes (the world, his own flesh and the devil) shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life;
Why do 199 out 0f every 200 Christians fall away within two years of being born again?
Are we feeding the spiritually less mature the milk of these basic teachings of Christ? Do they drink this milk, believing the words with their hearts? These words are Christ’s nature of humility, faith and love, which we need to be fully saved, for without them we will perish!
Hos 4:6 My people (Christians) are destroyed for lack of knowledge…for a lack of milk.
