Your Age In God

Your Age in God

9/8/18

How many of us know that we have an age in God?  I know that up until a short time ago I knew about growth in God but had never placed it on this age level.  All of us have an age of growth and it is this growth level that defines just how we have grown in God and in the physical as well.  God never made us to be stagnant in any type of growth yet for various reasons we choose to remain at a young age when it comes to our growth spiritually.  Do we not know that when we do not grow we cannot be a part of the Kingdom of God and that we are hindering His work in our lives?  It is time that we bow before God again and ask for forgiveness in this dereliction of ours, for if we do not then God shall be forced to reveal His supernatural power over this country in such a way that will not be conducive to life.  God loves His children but wants them to live in complete obedience to His Ways.

Now, some of you may know that I am not a very tall man and for the majority of my life have been below the national average for height in men.  While I have climbed to that national average now my body has reached its potential physically and is not beginning to shrink a bit.  When I was young and trying to keep up with the big boys, the doctors told me that I would one day regret trying to be like them and that I should take my height as it comes and go with what I could do naturally.  My heart remained stubborn and my will just as hard-headed and I plugged along with my personal plan, but today I feel the words that those wise men once shared with me for they were correct about how my body would react at a later date.  I grew from those words but not until years down the road and I can only imagine what shape my body would be in today if I had just taken it easy and allowed myself to grow naturally and pushed so hard.  I was caught up in someone else’s dream of a life and when I tried to apply it to my own it sufficed for a while but later on took its toll.

As my physical age continued to advance my body kept up with my mind and heart in their growth as well, but there was another part of my life that was stymied and that part I am referring to is the spiritual.  Many of us can be placed into this category for it is common that we as individuals subject ourselves to what is going on inside of us in order to appease our inner being.  Most of the time, this appeasement includes ignoring the spiritual simply because it is easier to delay our convictions than to go with the flow of the moment.  If we continue in this stymied pattern, our spirituality and communication with God becomes a secondhand thought thus hardly giving it another thought becomes our echo.  I understand this for this was my admonition for quite some time in my life even though I was a minister’s son.  My spiritual growth was basically at the newborn stage and had no signs of life or growth at all.  It is this position that Satan wants all Christians to be in for when we are he can easily manipulate our minds enough to overwhelm us with false information concerning the world that we no longer have time to think about the Word of God much less live in the Word.  It is this specific type of growth that God is concerned with for it determines all eternal aspects of our life and the lives of others.

When Jesus was walking this earth, there was at no time that He places Himself over the Father’s will nor did He ever delay such messages to His people.  We read that even at a young age Jesus was in the Temple teaching as His parents were looking for Him.  His growth was superior to everyone else yet He was confident enough in His mission that He showed many people how the truth could be grown through their lives, the ultimate teaching about the advancement of God’s Kingdom.  While we as individuals have no control over how tall, short, deep or wide we may be our spiritual growth is strictly determined by the choices we make to grow or not.  It is this spiritual growth and development that needs to be present in order to be able to defend the Faith of Christ, to spread the true gospel of Christ to the dying world, and to defend against the attacks of the enemy both on a personal level and around us.  Jesus did such things so why have we not been doing the same?

There can be no question that the physical age of the Church is well up in its years, for it was started shortly after Christ left this earth with informal roots with formal roots coming later.  But is there a way to determine the spiritual age of the Church ever since her establishment on the earth?  This spiritual growth that the Church believes in is measurable and does have a record that can be tracked quite easily but it is also a record that does not and will not bode well with many for when the facts are told; her spiritual growth is still in or around the 2-3 year age category.  This may be harsh but it serves as a true embodiment of how the Church of Christ has made due over the centuries.  What is more embarrassing is the fact that all throughout Church History, the clergy responsible for teaching the biblical knowledge to those who are supposed to be going out and spreading the entire gospel of Christ only teaches so one side of the biblical issue.  Even today, with the so-called enlightenment status of the modern world we as Church leaders fail to recognize that there are two sides of our existence God’s side and our enemy who is continually trying his best to destroy us.  So, why is it that all we want to teach about is God’s love?  It is this aspect that it is easily stated that we have not grown much over the millennia.

We must first consider the condition of the disciples when talking about Jesus’ mission and testament while He was here with us on the earth.  Some of the time we read that the disciples seem like they have got what Jesus was saying to them and to those around Him who would listen, but most of the time we read the actions and words of the disciples and shake our heads with disbelief wondering why they would act in such a way.  But is it that uncommon for us to act in the same crazy manner as the disciples did for we have the presence of God all around us and we have His Word as well so is it fair to assume such ridiculousness coming from us as well?  When we look at the actions of the disciples we have various amounts of things to consider yet when you put them all together Jesus oversaw their differences and showed them how to work together for the advancement of His Father’s Kingdom.  While this setting is not considered to be a “Church” per say it does define the foundation of the Church and the manner in which she should direct herself, for Jesus never had the time to argue anything against the people but had all the time to show them the Way of His Father and what it meant to be completely separated from the world’s spirit.  By the way, look at what their separation from the world cost them; do you see this pattern occurring today in our modern societies?

How do you view the epistles of the New Testament, I mean do you look at them as letters to churches and to the Church about what is going on within their existence?  You should, for every epistle that is contained in the New Testament deals with certain issues and problems that that specific church or group is facing.  The New Testament books are not easy to follow if one does not understand the history of what each church or church group was enduring at that time.  Even though there was no internet, email or telephone systems present during that time the word of mouth transportation was present and presented an excellent line of communication for people to correspond through writing.  Now, the delivery system may have been greatly slowed but the information passed is just as effective today as it was back then, so when one wrote about an issue it was received as such from the abiding authority.  Once again, the Church was faced with the fact of either receiving such information or rejecting it but what the Early Church failed to recognize was that it was these personal interjections of feelings that were causing such grief for countless of newly converted Christians.

For the majority of time that the Early Church was in existence they faced a multitude of tragedies and torturous events.  There are accounts of horrific atrocities that they faced from both the general public to the supreme leaders of the empires of the times.  Yet, with all of these controversies occurring around them they still found time to bring in their own diversities when it came to how they were interpreting the life, death, and resurrection of Christ not to mention all of the other ideas concerning how people believed about specific instances with the Old Testament and newer writings of the leaders of the time.  When you combine all of the varying degrees of perceived information into one organization it is easy to see that problems will arise and if not squelched can lead to further and more permanent divisions.  It is here that our enemy took the teachings of Jesus and twisted them enough and long enough in the hearts of the Early Church that their growth became wider yet not forward.  Can you tell me where Jesus allowed His own personal ideas come into His ministry while He walked the earth? 

Let us move forward a few centuries and refer to the Middle-Aged Church.  Can we see the growth that she had gained from the time she moved out of the Early Church era?  By all means, her physical growth expounded without count for kingdoms now were indebted to the Church for their recognition and some their existence.  Societies were even defined by the presence of the Church within the territory but one slight flaw in this structure became an enormous pattern that problematic for that time and for centuries to come.  The power of the Church grew tremendously over this time period and the once-persecuted Church became the persecuting Church that levied a heavy hand over countless lives during this time period.  The pure brutality of the physicality of the Church was present in all homes and hearts and if one dared to cross this power they would find themselves being tortured by measures beyond belief.  Can you tell me where one can find Jesus torturing the people that were around Him when He walked this earth?  To be honest, I can see Peter’s beliefs and actions coming into play during this era of the Church; I shall drop this here and leave it to think about for a while.

Throughout this period of time, one cannot argue that the Church grew but through its own admission its growth came in physical size rather than in spiritual size.  The ways and means that the Church demonstrated their power and demanded from their people was downright Satanic and had no biblical foundation or truth to her measures.  This is not the picture that Christ painted and portrayed for His Church to act and it is easily noticeable that the spiritual growth of the Church was still in its infancy or might be on the 2-3 year age in God.  By far their physical age had grown consistently but when one places it on a personal level a 50-year-old man may be advanced in age but what is his real age in God is it close to the same physical age or is it much lesser?  It is this pattern that we can find in children who refuse to grow up and take responsibility for their actions even though their training and upbringing has been one of a good standard.  It is difficult to understand this type of behavior unless one knows what the bottom line of the truth by which life exists and should function.

Moving to the present day and age which is considered to be the Modern Day Church we must look at the same types of growth patterns as the previous eras and ask the same questions.  When I was a teenager and in my early 20s or so I fell into a trap that many Christians find themselves in as well and that was I believed that my knowledge of the Bible and what it meant to my life was at its peak and that I could not know any more information; the definition of growth sideways but not forward.  If you read in some of the past articles that God has shared with us I mention some certain instances where my attitude was far-fetched in its understanding which allowed me to continue to grow but in an outward appearance instead of an inner or spiritual manner.  During this time frame the Modern Church experienced exponential growth and it was popular to be a Christian or to be associated with any church organization, and while this growth continued in the numerical sense our growth in spirituality basically stopped and I can provide an example that will upset many people around this local area but it is one of truth that cannot be denied.  Then we shall continue with this specific time period in the age in God.

When I first came to this small community in Colorado, I was part of the era where spirituality was still considered to be the highest calling of a child of God.  The youth group that was at my father’s church was fairly small but well oiled in the Word of God.  Many of the kids that were in that time frame of our youth group graduated high school and had a burden for ministry and thus went on to various accounts of ministry.  I cannot accurately say how many did go into the ministry but what I can say is that the majority of them did.  It was clear that as long as the leadership of our church was strong and conducted themselves with the authority Jesus gave to us over the kingdom of the world, that percentage of kids continued to pursue ministerial goals.  But once dad left and the mission and focus changed, so did that percentage of kids who had a heart for the lost even though the numbers of that youth group skyrocketed!  They were and still are spiritually numb to the truth and do not care about the advancement of God’s Kingdom with many of them not even knowing God has a Kingdom, yet they know exactly who to contact if they want some drugs or alcohol.

Over a period of a few decades or so it was amazing to see how many small churches became super churches or what they are referred to today as mega churches.  The influx of people into these churches is confounding and for a while became the symbol of what many believed the growth of the Church should represent.  But as time progressed cracks began to see noticed and with more time passing leaks began to produce an odor that could only be sourced from within.  The so-called Modern Day Church had reached its peak in the public eye and through her own inner and interior lies the truth came out.  Church attendance is now in a steady decline, the number of denominations – I cannot stand that word – that are having difficulty in finding people first and then ordaining leaders is on the rise and looks like there will be no stopping this increase in the near future either.  The number of physical and sinful allegations amongst the leaders of all denominations is continually coming into question and in combination with the lack of understanding in the spiritual realm is accumulating in the rash of pastoral and church leadership suicides.  We do not even understand that our spiritual age is so young that we cannot fight our enemy on the level that he is attacking us even if we wanted to.

Our spiritual immaturity is so vast and predictable that our enemy just has to look in our direction and we fall into his arms and coo over what he is projecting.  We cannot even identify what is right and what is wrong any longer, which means we have fallen into the “truths” of the foundation of the world and its leader.  Oh, yes, we are numerous in population but that does not mean a lot when our foundation is glued in with the world.  So, with all of this information present how would one grade our age in God?  See, God measures us by our hearts and not our physical for our physical is already doomed and it is our spiritual that represents eternity.  Our spiritual contents are what will either provide our protection from our enemy through the Blood Covenant of God or it will define our eternity as one who chose to side with the loser and doomed failure known as Satan.  Either way, we shall fight and strengthen one side or the other as we breathe every day.  Here is something to ponder for a while, when you are separated from the world one cannot coddle its world and values and still expect the sovereignty of God to be manifested through your words and actions.  It is this type of action that the Church boldly proclaims as being from God and people are flocking to its doors in belief that they can keep their doctor no matter what occurs around them.  THAT saying was proved to be a lie and the belief that one can keep their worldly ways and expect to remain in heaven after their judgment is also a lie!

So let us now take an overall look at your age in God and see if it really has grown as much as we would like to believe.  During the discipleship era when Jesus was on the earth, it is fair to say that if any Church state was present that it would be in its infancy stage at best with the hope that a great spiritual future would have been on the horizon.  It would also be of common belief that the Early Church would have learned from the ways of the disciples and would not have made the mistakes that they did but as we can see the Early Church even through its deadly persecution continued to will their own human beliefs into the Church and was thus the subject of the New Testament writers.  We can see some spiritual growth becoming evident which would allow us to place the spiritual age in God at about 0-2 category.  This growth category is a small inclination but one that still has great potential if the people would lose their human input and focus on God alone.

Then we come to the Middle Age Church with all of its robust numbers and wide array of expansion and corresponding power.  The numerical status of the Church has grown exponentially but with a superficial bias that not even the lowest of peasants can ignore.  While territory after territory fell to the allegiances of the Church the spiritual content of its leaders filtered all the way down to the servant in whom they now believed that their behavior and all of its heinous activities would be blessed by the Church and without question to boot.  It is this stage of our age in God that is troublesome for it depicts a new pattern of solubility with the standards of the world that leaves out Christ’s mission that He gave for us to do.  Conversion at the expense of protracted torture is NOT what Jesus had in mind for His Father’s Kingdom and in NO way ever would Jesus teach the methods of torture to make clear the agenda of the Church.  So, I guess we can place the Middle Age Church’s age in God at about 3-6 years old for the way she acted during this period of time resembles a child of such age.

Okay, now for the ultimate growth test in age we must consider the Modern Day Church and all of her extravagant wealth and splendor.  Just from the first sentence of this paragraph, one can foresee the age of this time frame for she follows directly as the young teenager does and conducts herself in the exact same manner as today’s teenager.  Being a teenager should be a time of learning with knowledge and wisdom combined and a sense of discipline interjected in order to activate a congruity of life experiences into one gigantic act of extraordinary life.  While this type of living is present in most teenagers there is a mole that has been placed into their lives that tends to tell them that they know everything and that they do not have to listen to any other authority figures other than themselves.  Look at how she incorporates individual and selfish ways into her “theology” and then defends this worldly practice with gnashing teeth and violent hearts.  The “Jesus clothes” are now lined with satanic art and graven images that are held close to her heart than the Word of God they are supposed to be living under.  She has gone her own way and has defiled the most sacred of unities in which sex is now an act of ludicrous behavior instead of the holy institution of being one.  And all of these acts come from the mouths of those we hear not necessarily from the hidden courses that flow behind closed doors.

The defense of God’s Word and the foundation on which the Church stands is continually mocked and spat upon by those who sit in the pews of church buildings and by those who never have claimed to set foot into a church before.  Her actions are promulgated simultaneously without them even knowing what the other is doing or promoting.  Their worldly spirituality is thriving and growing by leaps and bounds all the while their physical lusts are being fulfilled as soon as the next protest against obedience is completed.  Do I have to make an admission about what the age in God today’s Church is?  It seems to me that she is stuck in her teenage years and has no imagination or inkling of wanting to advance in spiritual age in God at all.  People, you must understand that I am talking about people who go to church and consider themselves to be Christians, here!  I am no addressing the ones who go against every aspect of the Church, I am referring to the Church, this is the way we act today and we cannot even notice that I am talking about the Church that is how far away from God we are and have become.

The Church is over 2000 years old in the physical realm and that is a large number of years but spiritually we are a teenager.  Something does not add up people!  I understand that there is no way we can be 2000 years old in God but being only a teenager?  I cannot stand here and state I am 50 years old in God for my attitude and lack of God for many years have blanked me with this equality in age, but I know my age is growing because more and more I desire to do what is right in the eyes of God.  My days start with prayer and reading His Word, God interjects messages for me to write to His people, and still, then I feel separated from Him in such a way that it hurts.  Where is this daily prayer and longing to be with God from the Church?  It is obvious that our hearts have turned away from our Creator and the One who created the Church.  We have ignored His Word for so long that we would not even recognize if God Himself were to walk into a church sanctuary, mainly because our heads would be in a downward position looking at our cell phones.

When I was a kid, I would look up to the adults and want to be like them someday and while it took a while for me to figure out that I might not be as tall as they were but I was convinced that my heart was going to be just as big as theirs.  That desire for inner growth is what God wants from us for when we want to grow in Him it means that we are fully committed to the cause He has for our lives.  I know that there are numerous people within the congregations of our churches today that honestly love God and are fulfilling the mission that Jesus commanded, but the majority of people who classify themselves as Christians are not yet believing a lie from our enemy that they are.  It is obvious that many Christians do not know their Bible, that statement from President Obama – which was made in mocking terms – is actually a fact and should penetrate each heart that considers themselves a Christian.  I now know the grave error of my kid like thinking about the Bible in the past, but as each day continues to roll past I learn more and more new life-giving truth from this precious gift of God.

There is only one way possible for your age in God to grow and that is to once again live and believe in God with a whole and pure heart.  You are the Church and you represent God on this planet and this means that it is strictly up to you and me to let the world know that there is a way out of this quagmire that we have made.  I have no idea about how long I shall draw breath on this earth but it is my deepest and most sincere prayer that my age in God continues to grow each day so that I may understand my Creator enough to tell those who are hurting and who are lost that there is an eternal Truth that cares about their life enough to have provided a way for all to live forever.  The Early Church and Middle Age Church eras are gone and nothing can be done to bring them back, but we can still turn the Modern Day church around and head her back to God, it is not too late for we have but a short moment of time remaining but we need to start now.  We can still grow in age with God because God wants to know that He can increase your age in Him and that is why He continually asks you: what is Your Age in God?

DLB