Faith Growing Exceedingly

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FAITH GROWING EXCEEDINGLY – HOW I LEARNED TO WALK BY FAITH

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only… James 1:22-23NKJV

I grew up in California, in the San Francisco Bay area, and graduated from high school when I was eighteen. I then went out on a mission trip for a year to plant house churches with a small team of born again ones in Iowa and Nebraska, Midwest states here in the USA. I stayed another year in Nebraska as a state coordinator for house churches there. I lived by faith, working part time jobs, traveling, teaching and ministering continuously. When I was twenty, I went to Bible College, in 1975, and here my training in faith took leaps.

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, 2 Thess 1:3 NKJV

Our tuition, room and board, for BC was $300 a month, a large sum back fifty years ago. My parents paid for the first three months, and that was it. The school’s attitude was ‘YOU CAN STAY AS LONG AS YOUR MONEY HOLDS OUT. LOVE YOU!’ The challenge was unmistakable – you can stay if you learn to believe God! We couldn’t work outside jobs because the schools training was all-encompassing 24/7, so we had to learn to believe God. To overcome this obstacle I went to the woods to pray and ask the Lord for a strategy for success. He gave me thirty names of folks that I had ministered to in Iowa, Nebraska and California, telling me to ask them for ten dollars a month in support to get me through my three years in the College. These were the fruit of all the time I had spent those years ministering in the Midwest, and even before in California. Do you know that each one of them agreed to pay ten dollars a month for my education! That’s how I paid my tuition, room and board…

…And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.  9 Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, 10 nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food. Matt 10:7-10 NKJV

Our Bible College was very aggressive about teaching us faith. They would train us, then send us around the country to do ministry. I got the assignment – ‘GO TO NEW ORLEANS DURING THE FEBRUARY MARDI GRAS CELEBRATION AND PREACH THE GOSPEL FOR FIVE DAYS, THEN RETURN.’ I was expected, with my small team AND NO MONEY to travel close to a thousand miles to New Orleans, connect with local people as to where we would stay, preach the gospel on the streets during the celebration, and make our way back. You know what? We did it!

We learned to travel by hitchhiking in pairs on the side of the road. People would pick us up, buy us meals, and we would lead them to Christ. We learned to go to truckstops and talk to the professional truckers about getting rides. We were college students and we needed to get to New Orleans! One time the trucker pulled over and had me drive a twenty ton truck and trailer with seventeen gears and a manual transmission for over a hundred miles while he slept in the back of the cab. The joy was in the journey…

We travelled from Kansas to California and back, to Texas, to Louisiana and even to Ohio in the dead of winter by faith without any support. Some people even had their faith built so high and so creatively that they went to private airports and learned to travel by air without paying with private pilots. You can do a lot when your heart is pure!

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19-20 NKJV

Talk about provision…one time a farmer in west Texas called the Bible College to say he couldn’t get anyone to pick his onion crop, and if we would come down and pick, he would donate the profits to the school. I had my hand up first when they asked for volunteers! We hitchhiked down Interstate 35 from Kansas, through Oklahoma, to Dallas TX, then west on Interstate 10 to Amarillo, finally south on a local Texas highway to the onion farm. We worked from sunup to sundown for two weeks, through tornadoes and rain and sun, picking bags of onions, and having fun! I never got so dirty in all my life. When we got back, the Bible College credited all our accounts – the onion pickers – evenly with the profits from the onion sales.

When I came to Bible College I had nothing, not even a suit of clothes (another student kindly bought me my first suit!). When I left Bible College three years later, I had a surplus of $1500+ in my account, which I was then given…a large sum of money for a single young man in those days!

We learned that the limits we placed on ourselves were self-imposed prisons. We learned that we weren’t poor; that we have all the resources of Heaven and earth available to us because we are sons and daughters of the King. We determined for love’s sake that we would not place limits on ourselves. I still live this way. We learned to believe God!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13 NKJV

In summary, believe that what God tells you to do is right, and do it with a pure heart. Be creative in your thinking, and positive in your faith about any problem you face. THERE IS A WAY TO ACCOMPLISH THE WILL OF GOD ONCE YOU KNOW THE WILL OF GOD. Amen? Love you!

THE FIVE STAGES OF CHRISTIAN DEVELOPMENT

NEPIOS – PAIDION – TEKNON – HUIOS – PATER

Christian growth and development follows basically the same pattern as human growth and development. One starts out as a babe, then a young child, then an older child, then a full grown one and, finally, a parent. Although these stages of growth are almost automatic in a healthy human, it is not so in the spirit realm.

The new birth is a beautiful term describing the salvation experience. When a man is born ‘from above’ (ANOTHEN John 3:3), he becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus. His spirit is filled with the Holy Spirit. He is a new spiritual baby, a babe in Christ.

The term that describes this level of growth in the Greek New Testament is the word NEPIOS. The Word of God describes the new spiritual babe, the NEPIOS, as being carnally minded (1 Corinthians 3:1), tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14), and unskilled in the Word of righteousness (Hebrews 5:13). Yet, a babe can praise God (Matthew 21:16) and receive revelation (Matthew 11:25). Unlike a physical baby, spiritual babes can stay in this stage a lifetime.

The next stage of development is that of a young child, a PAIDION. The first thing we see about a PAIDION is that they are humble (Matthew 18:4). Indeed, this may be the characteristic that indicates a NEPIOS has begun to grow. They are to come unto their Lord (Matthew 9:24). They have begun to intimately know their Father (1 John 2:13). Think about a young physical child between two and ten years old. They are not ready for the world yet, but they learn to love and imitate their parents. PAIDION learn to ‘mimic’ their heavenly Father (Ephesians 5:1). PAIDION are, or should be, also under the tutelage of a spiritual father (PATER) in the Church. Jesus called His disciples PAIDION (John 21:5), thus indicating their level of spiritual growth.

Spiritual teenagers, the older children in the Body of Christ, are described by the word TEKNA or TEKNON. Here is where the training dramatically changes from just knowing God, to really dealing with the world. TEKNON children actively seek their Lord (John 13:33). This is a fundamental characteristic of this level of growth. They are commanded not to sin (1 John 2:1) and are not to be deceived (1 John 3:7). However, if they sin and confess them (1 John 1:9), they are to know their sins are forgiven (1 John 1:9,2:12).

TEKNON children are told to abide in Him, that they may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28). They are instructed to honestly love (1 John 3:18). You don’t expect this kind of love from a NEPIOS or a PAIDION. They are not mature enough yet.

TEKNON are still struggling to have Christ formed in their character, their personality, their life (Galatians 4:19). They must keep themselves from idols (1 John 5:18).

So we see as a NEPIOS the joy of new life in Christ. As a PAIDION, we begin to know God intimately. In the TEKNON stage of growth, we learn to deal with the world by dealing with sin, having Christ formed in us, and having real love for God, the Church and the world (John 3:16). Each stage builds upon the previous one.

The rewards of God are God Himself. At every stage of development, the Lord reveals more and more of Himself, more of the glory, more of the blessing, more of the joy! Your faith grows because you are knowing Him more intimately, more fully. Your transformation into His image which is the goal of every good parent – my kids are a better version of me – is becoming more perfect at each stage. He who sees you begins to see Jesus! ABBA sees Himself in you… ‘That’s My Boy, or Girl!’

Now we are ready to look at the HUIOS stage of growth. This is the word in the Greek NT for ‘son’ of God, as in Romans 8:14. The defining characteristic of a son of God is that they are led by the Spirit. Many Christians think they are at this ‘son’ level because they receive revelation. This is not necessarily so! The truth is that Christians at all levels of spiritual growth receive revelation, including and especially babes (Matthew 11:25). You have to know your Father, actively seek your Lord, and have a pretty strong ‘handle’ on sin in your life before you can be considered at this HUIOS level of growth.

The first thing Jesus said about ‘sons of God’ is that they are peacemakers (Matthew 5:9); not peaceful, or peacekeepers, but peacemakers. They go in and end fights. They love their enemies and pray for their persecutors (Matthew 5:45). They are completely matured, lacking no basic requirement of godliness (Matthew 5:48). They are the good seed, the sons of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:38). They are to be separate from unbelievers, iniquity, darkness and idols (2 Corinthians 6:14 – 18). They are heirs of God (Galatians 4:7) and are brought to glory (Hebrews 2:10).

They do not sleep spiritually, but put on the armor of God, exhorting and building each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:5 -11). They are offered up (James 2:21, Romans 12:1, Philippians 2:17). They learn obedience through suffering (Hebrews 5:8). They are chastened of the Lord (Hebrews 12:5). They are beloved of the Father (2 Peter 1:17). They are ‘as He is’ in this world, His perfect representatives (1 John 4:17).

They are led by the Spirit of God. This is their defining characteristic (Romans 8:14). When you see a Christian who says and does the right thing at the right time consistently, you can pretty well assess that you are in the presence of a HUIOS level believer.

Another word in the Greek NT that is closely related to HUIOS is NEANISKOI. The NEANISKOI are the ‘young men’. Perhaps this would be a category between the TEKNON and the HUIOS, because it would appear from Matthew 19:20 that NEANISKOI still lack the ‘perfection’ of the HUIOS. But NEANISKOI see visions (Acts 2:17) and serve leadership (Acts 5:10). Young men are strong, the Word of God abides in them, and they have overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:13, 14).

But a son of God is not the final stage of spiritual growth. There is one more growth phase that is absolutely necessary for the Church. A HUIOS needs to become a PATER – a father.

The Church in Corinth suffered because it had ‘not many fathers’ (1 Corinthians 4:15). Children need fathers, both in the natural and spiritual. Children do the works of their fathers (John 8:39). Men of God are called PATERES, fathers (Luke 16:24, Acts 7:2). The NEPIOS, PAIDION, and TEKNON need the continual attention, comfort and edification of the PATERES. HUIOS need a PATER as a mentor. Paul and Timothy were a ‘father and son’ team in the ministry (Philippians 2:22).

Fathers charge, exhort, encourage and testify to the believers (1 Thessalonians 2:11) to the end they walk worthily of God. PAIDION know God as their Father, but the PATER intimately knows Him who was from the beginning – the Ancient of Days, Jehovah Elohim (1 John 2:13, 14). This intimate knowledge of the Ancient of Days is the defining characteristic of a spiritual PATER.

These categories do not necessarily relate to physical age or ‘time in the Lord’. It seems that most believers regardless of their age do not reach the HUIOS level, let alone the PATER. This is the fault, I perceive, of the apostles, prophets and teachers in the Body, and perhaps to a lesser extent, the pastors and evangelists.

The fivefold ministries are charged with the perfecting of the saints (Colossians 1:28, Ephesians 4:12), which would mean taking them from the NEPIOS to the PATER level. The fivefold ministers must operate in ability that far exceeds their natural ability to produce this kind of fruit. A minister can be judged by the fruit in the people’s lives to whom he ministers. Is he taking them to the next level, or are they still babes, with the same revolving pattern of problems?

God wants us to grow up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:15). Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will so move in each member of His Body that every member will be brought to full maturity in the Lord. Amen? Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…