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. 1 Peter 2:1-3.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Infants are not capable of understanding what adults do. It is just beyond them. They are primarily exploring the physical world around them and themselves. But as they grow and mature they become intellectually and physically developed to handle more and more responsibilities, assignments, and to solve problems. They begin to show concern and care for others and not just themselves. They see and hear things they could not see or comprehend as babies. It is a whole new way of being.
And how to babies grow into strong, healthy, mature adults that can be trusted with responsibility and can solve the problems and challenges successfully that they face in life? It comes down to the food they eat, the exercise they do, the diligence they apply to study and learning skills, and the moral virtues they are trained in and accept as their own.
It is the same in the spiritual life. When people first believe in My Son and are born again from above by My Word and the Spirit, they are spiritually immature. Their spirit is now alive to Me and I have put My Spirit in them, but their minds have not been renewed. They are still thinking in the ways they always did from what they learned in the world. They need to grow and mature in the spirit. Their spirit must become stronger and be the dominant and primary determining of their lives no matter what the world, their flesh, or the devil are telling them. They are saved, their spirit is born again, but their soul (the mind, the will and the emotions) is not yet caught up with that. “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” James 1:20. My servant James wrote this letter to believers who were saved and yet he is teaching them that there is more to the process of maturing spiritually and you do this by planting the Word into your heart and cultivating it there so that you become not just a hearer but a doer of My Word.
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.” James 1:22-26.
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2. So to mature and become skillful you must do two things: submit your bodies to My service (offer your dominion authority for Kingdom purposes rather than the purposes of Satan and the realm of darkness) and renew your mind so that you are transformed to the new creation you are in Christ in your whole being, spirit, soul, and body.
So it all starts with changing the way you think, for My thoughts are higher than your thoughts and My ways are higher than your ways. Mine are the ways of the Spirit, and these are higher and stronger than the thoughts and ways of the flesh. I see from a different vantage, for My eyes behold all at once. But if you choose to put your mind above where I have seated you in the spirit with Christ at My right hand you can see as I see. “The oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered.” Numbers 24:4.
It is all a matter of retraining your focus. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. And He is My Word and that is how you keep your eyes on Him today. “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 flesh. 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.
Here you see that growing in your spiritual life depends on how you handle My Word. Do you value it enough to pay attention to My Words above other things you enjoy listening to on the television or internet? Do you read it before you reach for the daily newspaper? Do you store My Words up in your heart as a treasure and think about them during the day? “Your Word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” Psalms 119:11. Do you speak idly and talk many words that do not match up with Mine? Do you stay away from social gatherings, parties, and other forms of entertainment that you know cause immoral conduct or where words contrary to Mine are spoken? “Your Words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers, nor did I exult. Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone.” Jeremiah 15:16.-17.
See what you answer to those questions to see if you have a heart for My Words, which is a heart for Me because I am My Word. But you will find that once you truly begin to delve into My Word, My Word to speak to you and you will love the treasures it contains. “I rejoice at Your word, as one who finds great spoil.” Psalm 119:162. David sang of My Words, “They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:10-11.
The more of My Word you delve into the larger your capacity to receive will become. “I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.” Psalm 119:32.
My Word is packed full of instruction for growing in the spiritual life, and growth in My Word flows over to health and success in your physical life. You work out what I am working in you by My Word.
And Moses told the Israelites the same, “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as days of Heaven upon the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:18-21.
And I instructed Joshua, who had the spirit of faith, that just as My Word kept him in youthful vigor for forty years in the desert where his generation died out, to be successful in the conquest of the land I had given them he had to do even more, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” Joshua 1:8.
So how is it you become mature and skillful in the things of the Spirit? As you see, I tell you how to do this in multiple places in My Word, starting in Genesis to the book of Revelation, but it is always the same. First, you must eat a constant diet of My Word, going from the milk of the Word to the meat of the Word, because faith comes that way. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word concerning Christ.” Romans 10:17.
“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.” 1 Peter 2:1-3. You must come to the Word and divest yourself of the old mindset to take on a new mindset in accordance with My Word. You cannot live in malice and deceit and receive My implanted Word. The soil of your heart will be so hard, like the footpath in the first parable My Son taught, that the devil steals away the seed of My Word and it cannot find a way into your hardened, bitter heart.
“Concerning Him (Jesus as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek) we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the Word of God, and you 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. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14. The mature are those who see with the heart, that is, can see with their spirit into spiritual realities.
Besides feeding on My Word, you need to exercise your faith by speaking the Word and acting upon it in your life, this includes speaking the Word to physical things that need changing and spiritual things that need changing. You must learn to answer the arrows of the devil aimed at your mind and heart and resist the devil so that you trample him under foot and cast him out. Without doing this you will be wavering in your trust of My Word which will undermine your faith with fear.
You develop your skills in the spiritual life by receiving instruction from anointed teachers, books, and messages, but above all by spending time with Me in My Word and seeing what My Spirit teaches you and reveals to you. Then you must also apply what you are learning by walking in love with others. In other words, walking with Me in a manner worthy of the calling you have received to My Kingdom and My glory.
And this involves hearing from Me just what you should say and do to be most effective to solve problems and edify, encourage, and exhort others. Your words should give grace and nothing else to those who hear you. It may be exhortation but it should never be done in anger and trying to prove yourself right by outshouting others who do not wish to acknowledge what you believe to be the truth. Ask Me for My what I want done in the situation before you act definitively. Always consult with Me before you react to the conduct or words of others. I have given you the wonderful Counselor ever with you and in you, learn to make use of so great a treasure. It cost My Son every drop of His blood to bring you the Promise of the Spirit by faith.
“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seeds’ seed,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.” Isaiah 59:21.
To see with the heart, you must have a heart towards Me that is filled with My Word. Then My Spirit can remind you of all I have said at any time in any place and give you the enlightenment of how it applies to your situation at any given moment. John 14:26. And this all has to do with growing up spiritually. The more you grow and understand the great power and treasures in My Word that I have entrusted to you for your own use, the more humble you will become. And humility goes before riches and honor. “The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honor and life.” Proverbs 22:4.
And when you fill your heart with My Word there finally is no room for anything to the contrary. You will not tolerate it. You will close it down in your mind or imagination immediately. Be stern about this. My people when they conquered the Promised Land left many of their enemies there rather than destroy them and that proved to be a downfall to many. Leave no place for Satan and his unclean team. You cannot straddle the fence; you are either all in or all out. You cannot serve two masters; it does not work. And that is part of growing up spiritually, you have to decide whom you will serve. Choose life that you and your seed may live.
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15. Joshua wrote that and you know what he had been doing—meditating on My Word day and night and speaking nothing else. He made a wise choice because he was full of My Word and had seen how My Word enabled him to conquer the Promised Land and take possession of any place his feet tread. And you know who I told you to tread on.
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.” Luke 10:19.
I love you. I have given you My Word, grow thereby.