Saints, it's time to grow up spiritually; your victory comes only through this process.  Now,
I'd like to share a message on growing up spiritually.

 In 1^st Corinthians 2:1-7, the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth, which has been experiencing turmoil within the body. And even today, there's a lot of division in the church because of folk not making up their minds that they're going to put away their carnal understanding of church doctrine and selfishness and start relying on the Holy Spirit's teachings and directions.

 There's a difference between "grown-up Christians" and "carnal Christians/baby Christians," who look and act more like non-Christians than they do children of the Most High God.

 "Baby Christians" don't know what other Christians --- "grown-up Christians" --- know because they don't spend time learning the ministry of the Holy Ghost within them, which makes it difficult to impossible to discern the things of God from the things of the world that have creeped into the church.

 "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God," Paul says, beginning in the first verse, adding, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."

 What Paul is saying, to break it down to you, is that it takes more than just having been educated in this world's system (degrees in theology and "book sense", bein' able to speak "eloquently" and pronounce "big words" properly, etc.).

 Because you can have the letter of the law without the spirit of the law. In other words, you can know, intelligently the Word of God, without ever having had a personal relationship with Him. Thus all you'll have is book knowledge without revelation knowledge. And if you're gonna be effective in ministry as a teacher or a student (or a church member in the pews), you're gonna have to spend time praying to Him in the language of the Spirit.

 Paul adds in the fourth verse, "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," adding, " that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

 What's being said, my friends, is that it is by the wisdom of GOD that I write what I write, the way that I write it. Those of you who belong to churches here in Fort Worth, churches where the pastors --- the undershepherds of our Lord Jesus Christ --- are not only filled with the Holy Ghost, but are Holy Ghost-LED, it is important for you to understand that your pastor speaks to you by that wisdom --- the wisdom of God.

 If your pastor preaches a message or talks to you about a particular thing that affects you directly, know that it is by the wisdom of God that he speaks. He's not just tellin' you what his OPINION is about something that affects you. He's not telling you what he thinks the Scriptures MIGHT be saying to you, based on how HIS interpretation (rather than the Holy Spirit's translation).

 A lot of times, strife comes into the church because you've got these "baby Christians," these "carnal Christians" who don't want to be corrected, bringing mess into the church, trying to start mutiny within the body.

 Let me tell you something, "babies," that man or woman, your leadership, spends countless hours per day just being in God's presence, inhaling His presence and exhaling His wisdom. When a man or a woman of God, not just pastors and teachers, but the saints who sit in the pews, spends hours per day with God, the wisdom of man (which is foolishness to God, by the way) in that saint is replaced by the supernatural wisdom of God (which is foolishness to man, by the way) in that person's born-again spirit.

 That's why your pastor can preach a message, and before you ("babies") get out of the parking lot good, that spirit of offense in you starts running rampant, and you're runnin' your mouth about dumb stuff, actually placing yourself under judgment (I'll save this for another column). You haven't grown up spiritually.

 And to you pastors/teachers who feel YOU don't need to be filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of SPEAKING IN TONGUES, you're having so much division in your church because it takes a divine word of knowledge and word of wisdom from God (through praying in the language of the Spirit) for you to understand how to nip in the bud those spirits of division that have infested your flock.

 You're worried about who's gonna get mad at you and/or stop sowing (financially) into your ministry. So you see mess brewing but you don't have the POWER that Paul talks about in verse four. The demonstration of that power, when you're FILLED WITH and OBEDIENT TO the Holy Spirit in you, will shut down strife before it has the opportunity to be successful.

 Just in case you didn't know, when you're saying what God says to say, the ONLY people that will leave your church are the ones that GOD drives out by His Spirit in you. If you don't put your foot down and "muddy the waters" in your church, the ones that GOD sent to you will leave. Get your act together.

(I'm out of time. To be continued next issue. Study 1^st Corin 2:1-10.)

 Donald Lee