Spiritual Maturity

As we increase spiritual maturity, our journey of truth seeking begins.  This journey of truth seeking is rewarding, but it is challenging and comes with a price.  Truth is not for the faint-hearted.  With increased spiritual maturity comes increased discernment.  This discernment should be directed to the examination of every aspect of our life.  Each of our beliefs must be scrutinized and reconciled with scripture and the new maturity.  Common concepts and actions of society which were once acceptable to the believer beome unacceptable as maturity increases.  After all, our actions always follow our beliefs.

Areas of life that must be re-evaluated are:

Pagan Religious Practices -  

Holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc are pagan religious holidays that mainstream christianity has tried to clean up.  

Roles of Men and Women -

Failure to lead and failure to follow subverts scripture’s ordained roles and duties. Men are to be the priest and spiritual leader of the family.  They are responsible for the teaching of their wives and children. 

Competition -

Striving for preeminence to elevate ourselves over others is contract to the example of Messiah.  

Finances -

Serving mammon and incurring dept is opposed in scripture. Using insurance to seek to mitigate all loss is counter to faith.

Employment -

The type of work or business must be consistent with our gifts and talents as we prepare for the Kingdom.  A boss can become another master which can cause the believer to compromise.  And forcing a wife to work for another master can be a form of slavery that her from being her husband’s help mate. 

Education -

Fathers cannot contract out to the government, church, village, or spouse the teaching of their children.  Subjecting children to 40 hours a week in an environment that is opposed to scripture, hostile to the Creator, and promotes unrighteous lifestyles practically guarantees they will be worldly not godly.

Dating, Courtship, Marriage -

Short term relationships established by dating are practice for failure.  Youths practice making and breaking relationships quickly and frequently. Unchaperoned teens in today’s hyper-sexed world subject to extreme peer pressure is a prescription for disaster.  Biblical requisites for purity must be maintained for marriage.  Marriage and divorce after knowledge of the truth is adultery..

Entertainment -

Controlling the influences in life is the only way to maintain the purity of  mind.  Discernment must be directed toward movies, internet, television, music, sports., etc.  We must ask not “Is it sin?”, but “Is it Holy?”

Health and Nutrition -

Our bodies are the temple of YHWH.  They should not be polluted with unclean foods, sugar, chemicals, or drugs.   The true believer does not succumb to gluttony, and takes responsibility for maintaining the temple through diet and exercise.  Health care is the individual’s responsibility and  scriptural guidelines for healing are optimal. It should not be delegated to others with potions and knives.

Birth Control and Abortion -

The womb is opened and closed by the Creator.  We try to usurp that power  when we take artificial measures to promote or prevent birth.

Politics -

True believers are aliens and sojourners in this world.  YHWH chooses the kings as HE sees fit.  As we exercise political influence, we may be working counter to our Creator.  Democracy is not YHWH’s way…the lesser of two evils is still evil.

If voting really worked, it would be illegal. 

Agriculture -

Each believer has a responsibility of stewardship toward the land, air and water. Extravagance in living adds to pollution and wastes natural resources.  We should shun genetically modified foods and seeds.