Six Godly Aims of Effective Christian Churches Part 3/3

Catalysts to maturity: meditation and seeing in the spiritual realm

Aim Priority #2 To produce mature & stable believers. (Our Commitment to God).

We need all of these Christian practices (below) to be active in our lives to help us grow and mature.

Prayer; personal and communal

Bible study and walking in the Spirit-see next slides.

Stop taking the Lord for granted.

Thanksgiving , Praise, and Worship

Fellowship with believers.

Recognising and operating in your own gifts

We will now focus on two of the above activities for growth, one  which is a  type of  bible study, and the other Walking in the Spirit.

Clean animals and clean Christians

Leviticus 11:1 And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.

3 Whatsoever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and chews the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

Animals which are cloven-footed, and which also chew the cud are called clean animals and can be eaten by the Israelites.

There is an interesting parallel between the clean animals and clean Christians  for if we chew the cud and learn how to be in two places at once then these things can accelerate us maturing.

Catalysts to maturity 1. Chewing the cud: Meditation

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

or set foot on the path of sinners,

or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law, he meditates day and night.

The best way to gain maximum benefit from your bible study is to learn how to meditate on God’s word. Christian meditation is a biblical practice encouraged in both the Old and New Testament.

Christian meditation helps reinforce the truth of God's Word in believers' hearts so that they remember it and live by it.

The purpose of Christian meditation is to bring a believer into closer fellowship with God through a greater understanding of his Word and a deeper commitment to his will and his ways.

Bible teacher Roger Price likened  bible meditation  to the process of how cattle chew the cud. Cows have 4 stomachs and as chewed grass is regurgitated back up into the cow’s mouth the cow begins to chew on it again to get the absolute maximum nutrition from it. In the same we should revisit each portion of scripture we are studying to get the maximum benefit from it. In this way the truths of scripture are absorbed into our being which cause us to grow and mature. Meditation is a practice that should occur daily according to Psalm 1. The words of Scripture are not merely to be read but to be heard  and are meant to go to our heart!

Muttering: Psalm 1 opens with a blessing on the man who “meditates day and night” on the law (Ps. 1:2). The word the psalmist uses for “meditates” means “to mutter.” St Augustine translated verse 2 with the catchy phrase “on his law he chatters day and night.” From this we understand that biblical meditation requires the use of both mind and mouth. Personally applied, this tells us that along with our systematic reading of the Bible, we ought to select especially meaningful passages to reverently mutter over (can be a verse or passage).

Catalysts to maturity 2- Bilocation

We need to become aware that believers live in two places at once i.e. in the spiritual realm and also in the natural realm.

 Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

What I mean is that our lives are lived and governed in two places which are firstly in heaven and secondly on earth. We need to walk in both places. Some believers are so earth-bound that they are not aware of the spiritual realm in heaven. They forget that they need to walk in and live the heavenly realities as well such as all believers are seated in heavenly places.

Spiritual truth may appear to contradict natural truth. When you are seated in your local church, you are also seated in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. Amen

Chariots of Fire

2 Kings 6:15 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Elisha was walking in two dimensions, but the servant’s eyes could only see the natural circumstances. Elisha had been reading the Psalms, particularly Psalm 91. The servant lacked the information that Elisha had.

You might not be able to see the angels guarding the people of your local church family at present, but they are with you right now. Lord open our eyes that we may see all your protection and provision. We get our facts about the spiritual realm from the bible. We need to realise that the things that the Lord says about the spiritual realm in the bible are just as true, if not more so than what we can learn from our five senses. We need to be real about the spiritual realm as well as the natural realm and this will help us to grow and mature.

Amen

Personal Prayer

Acknowledgement

This study is a modified version from the following bible studies.

Roger Price Fellowship Life Series Aims and Vision TaFLS 05.

Roger Price  Special Topics Series   Christian Maturity  STS 141.