Sustained And Ordained

1 John 2:12. I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. 13. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. 14. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

Recently I was thinking about some of the different lessons the Lord has taught me and how he brought me up step by step. This section of Scripture in 1 John 2, kept coming up in my spirit. Over and over I would hear these words. What an awesome God we serve.

Growth is part of everyday life. We can’t avoid it or run from it if we want to mature in the things of God. Sustained growth is the plan of God for each one of us. I would like to say that anything less than this is outside of the plan that God has for us and can lead to stagnation. I don’t think any one would consciously say I want stagnation for my life.

James said that our life is like a vapor. We are just passing though.

James 4:14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Compared to eternity we have such a short time here in this life that we have been given. At the same time God is so wonderfully awesome that we will spend the rest of eternity learning about Him and growing in His ways. Then how is it that we think we know so much when we learn a little bit about our wonderful Creator. I know this, the more I know about Him and grow in Him, the more I realize how much I don’t know. Realizing this can help keep you humble. Humility will allow you to receive more grace from God. We don’t always have the answers but must simply trust in Him. None of us have all the answers, we are all in some stage of growth and development. Thank God for His grace. I know I could not get by without it. James also said this very thing earlier in the same chapter.

James 4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.''

Humility puts us in God’s greater grace. We might ask just what’s the purpose of greater grace. As we read on in James we see the purpose of greater grace,

7. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Greater grace enables us to walk in victory. When we are submitted to God, God’s greater grace will be given, and we are then commanded to resist the devil and are told exactly what will happen. He will flee. Glory to God! I’ve heard Christians say things like, I’ve tried that and it didn’t work. If we are submitted to Him we will be recipients of God’s greater grace, then when we resist the devil, he will flee. If he is not then we need to find out the area or areas in our life that have not been submitted to Him. Many little children in the faith fail for lack of understanding and want to blame God, when in truth they haven’t learned or grown to the point of walking in this victory. Many times especially with baby Christians, they haven’t yet developed to that stage. It is the responsibility of those with more maturity in Christ to help the young ones grow.

As we look at our opening Scripture we see this very thing. John was writing about and to three different maturity levels in the Christian faith, little children, young men, and fathers.

We can not expect little children to function at the same maturity level as young men or even much less, fathers in the faith. They know their sins are forgiven for His names sake. They haven’t however yet learned to walk in victory over the enemy. John went on to say… I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. We have to be honest with ourselves if we want to grow up in the things of God and evaluate where we are in our growth in Christ. The number of years we have been a Christian doesn’t always reflect our maturity level. If we know our sins are forgiven yet have not come to the place where we can say we’ve overcome the wicked one, then we need to realize we haven’t grown to that point yet. That doesn’t mean we won’t get to that point, only that we have some growing to do. There are no shortcuts in this process, we have to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. Growth is a process and sometimes there are growing pains involved. Growth should be an exciting time as you realize you are definitely not stagnant, and you can watch as God takes you from faith to faith and glory to glory. Each step taking you into a deeper walk with Him and a revelation of His righteousness. With each God ordained step you will see victory after victory over the wicked one.