Now I say, as long as the heir is an immature child (nepios), he does not differ at all from a slave although he is lord of everything, but he is under guardians (administrators) and managers until the time appointed by the father. So also, we, while we were infants (nepios), were held in slavery under the rudimentary principles of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under law, so that He might redeem those who were under law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (huios, mature sons). Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:1-7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
You really do not have to look far to find Me. I am right there with you. Just seek and you shall find. Ask and you shall receive. It is about dialogue. It is about relationship. But above all, it is about growth, attaining to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13. It is about learning how to soar, how to rule and reign in life through Christ with Me. It is becoming a game changer.
An eagle teaches its young to fly. At first the eagle will carry its young on its wings, and then it will knock the growing eagle out of the nest so the little one can try its wings and then catch the little one on its own wings. But one day that little eagle will mature sufficiently to fly with the other eagles and one day teach other little ones to fly.
By this time many who have believed in My Son ought to be teachers, but they have never renewed their minds and are still acting out of the flesh, like babies who have no self-control, and have need again for someone to teach them the elementary principles of My Word, and have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant (nepios in Greek). But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Hebrews 5:12-14. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the anointing, press on with Me to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith, of instruction about baptisms and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Hebrews 6:1-2.
You have to learn to hear from Me. You know that your own children are maturing when you can have a meaningful conversation with them and entrust them with things to accomplish and do. A big part of maturity is knowing how to get answers and instruction. Knowing that you cannot do everything in your own strength but need resources and need to know how to get them.
I call Jesus your Teacher and He is My Word made flesh. And He told you that the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and guide you to all truth. And Truth is My Word. My Word is very effective, it cleanses you in truth, sanctifies you and sets you apart as mature in all the trials of this world. David sang of My Word, “Your testimonies also are my delight; they are my counselors.” Psalm 119:24. And he continues on to sing, “O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Your precepts.” Psalm 119:97-102.
If you will diligently renew your mind to My Words, you will mature quickly and they will cleanse you of evil desires as well as fear and depression. For David let you know too that he was not a mere hearer of My Word, but a doer also, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your Word. I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your Words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.” Psalm 119:103-104. When you keep My Word your life becomes sweet. It becomes an adventure—a journey on a path the gets brighter and brighter till perfect day. For My Word is a light to your path and a lamp to your feet. As you mature, the more I can entrust you with, the more Kingdom assignments I can give you.
David had matured. How? By meditating on My Word and acting on it. He learned how to rely on Me as his source of battle strategy, government decisions, and basic operation of his life each day as he interacted with enemies and friends. He was vigilant to keep in line with My Words.
If you step out of the path of My Word, you can destroy your life and that of others. Adam did this. This is not a mature way to act. A mature person is a faithful person. A mature person is one you can rely on. Stay on the path of My Word and you will grow. My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil. Proverbs 4:20-27.
How do you recognize a believer who is still a “nepios?” That is, behaving like an immature young child? It is not by physical age, David sang that he was more mature than the elders in My Word. I will tell you, and check your own maturity out in this also. If you are sloppy about arriving at appointments, classes or functions on time, you are immature. If you gossip, judge, speak with malice, and cause divisions you are immature. If you get angry and fly off the hook, so to speak, with others when they offend you, you are immature. If you are jealous, envious, and mad when others receive good things or do great things, you are immature. If you are only interested in yourself and what you are doing, you are immature. If you find it difficult to allow others to speak and keep taking over the conversation and pointing it back on yourself and your accomplishments and what you think, you are immature. If you cannot take correction, direction, or instruction, you are immature. If you are rebellious against your parents, teachers, and bosses, you are immature. If you lie, you are immature. If you take others goods and properties, you are immature. If you fight with your siblings and friends out of greed over money, you are immature.
My apostle Peter understood. He had matured from when he first began to follow My Son into a mighty man of valor for My Kingdom. And addressed those that had just been born again and come to love My Son on how to mature and grow in their relationship with Me, “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:1-5.
You are individually maturing but you are also maturing together with your brethren in the Body of Christ, being built together in love into the powerful edifice that is the Church on earth. The called-out ones. My own special people who are My mature sons and daughters that I can call upon at any moment to go out and do the works of the ministry in their daily lives and errands— the C.I.A. – Christ in Action—going about healing, saving, and BLESSING, bringing Light into the darkness, reconciling the world to Me. For you are agents, ambassadors, priests and kings of another Kingdom, and you are taking territory as the Body of Christ, doing the works Jesus did and greater in the earth through Him, with Him, and in Him.
This was My plan of partnering together from the beginning. I do not control you, I empower you to partner with Me in your dominion and stewardship over the works of My hands. I desire above all that your life is a journey of prosperity and good health, even as your soul prospers. And this happens by walking in the truth. For when you continue in My Word you are truly My disciples (mature believers) and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free—the freedom of the sons of God! Overcomers and more than conquerors, redeemed from the curse, and empowered by grace! For whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and where My Spirit is there is liberty. Slaves are immature, they do not make their own decisions, they do not partner with their masters, and they do not know what their masters are about. But I no longer call you slaves, I call you friends, for I have shared My Word with you and you know what I am about. But how can two walk together in partnership, in friendship, in fellowship, and in unity unless the agree? And that is maturity. I desire unity. Jesus prayed that we would all be ONE.
I love you. I once told Moses to tell the Israelites that I redeemed out of Egyptian slavery: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exodus 19:4-6. And that is now fulfilled in you who are in Christ, for by His blood He has released you from you sins and made you a kingdom of priests unto Me, so now I say to you who are in Christ: You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, My own treasured possession, so that you may proclaim and distribute the excellencies of My glory in the world, lights shining brightly in the darkness, radiating My Light for I have called you out of darkness into My own marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are My people, My children, My partners, and My friends; you once had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy, for Jesus has made us One. Grow into who you are! Relationship is about growth together until we are one.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.” Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:4-32.