The Pathway to Christian Maturity

I sat in the Chaplain's office within the gray forbidding walls of a famous London prison. Padre Joe was a longtime friend and one of the best chaplains the prison had. Our conversation was interrupted by a timid knock on the door. Joe responded with a hearty, "Come in." The door slowly opened and a man who must have been in his early sixties entered. He smiled, standing awkwardly in his prison garb. "I'm leaving tomorrow," he blurted out, "and thought I would drop by and say thanks for all of your help." Joe rose and went over to him, and shook his hand warmly. Then smiling, said, "That's great, Al. I guess we'll be seeing you again soon!"

I was speechless. Joe had casually taken it for granted that prisoner Al would be back. Al nodded in bright-eyed agreement. I'm sure I will, Padre – there's no place like home!"

He shuffled out and the door closed behind him. I looked at Joe in amazement. "Joe, how could you say that? You gave him no hope. You actually encouraged him to come back!"

Joe nodded thoughtfully, smiled and said, "That man will be back here, or in some other jail within forty-eight hours. The last time he was released he threw a brick through a jeweler's window and waited for the police to come and arrest him." My mouth dropped open. Joe continued, "There are a lot more in here who are the same way." Sitting on the edge of his desk, he looked at me in my confusion. "The outside world is too much for the likes of Al. Look at it through his eyes. In here his life is ordered for him from when he gets up to when he goes to bed. Every hour of the day he is told what to do; he doesn't have to worry about food or drink or a job, everything is provided. He has a life free from responsibility and decision-making. Tomorrow he will walk into a cruel world where he has to decide everything he does; he will assume all the responsibilities of life and have to live by his own choices instead of someone else's. To Al, the gates of this prison are the warm arms of a parent welcoming home a little frightened baby. He is willing to surrender his free will to enjoy what he understands as security!"

As the guard unlocked the doors that led me to the courtyard and across the drab stone to the massive main gate, I could not get Al out of my mind. That a man would exchange freedom for a prison cell in order to be protected from the harsh responsibilities of life was beyond me.

It was many years later after pastoring many churches in more than one country that I came to the conclusion that there are many grades of "Al" mentality. There are millions who will give away their free will in order to avoid becoming the responsible, choice-making adult that God intended them to be. Millions will follow the voice that promises the ultimate experience that brings the adherent into the Utopia where there are no decisions to be made and no responsibilities – only joy and peace forever.

There is a pseudo-gospel that depicts God as the ultimate jailor who will make all of our decisions for us, saving us from all the hurts of life as long as we sit back and believe Him. There is no such God in the Bible. Such a `God' originates in the imagination of the "Al" mentality.

We were imprisoned to darkness, slaves of distorted self and Satan. Christ, in His death, resurrection and ascension, has set us free, bringing us out of the jail to be the full humans that we were intended to be in a unity with Him. That demands that we make our choices and accept responsibility for them. To miss this is to miss the heart of the Gospel; but, sadly, thousands have missed it.

Some time ago I hosted a morning prayer time for a week over a local radio station. I was appalled at the "Al" mentality that was in the nature of the requests called in.

"Please pray for me that my temper will go away." "I have been submissive to my elders and my husband, but I still get hurt in life. Pray that I will see what I am doing wrong." "Join me in prayer that God will deliver me from all my enemies and give me joy." "I know that if I was in God's will all these bad things would not be happening to me. Pray that I will find his perfect will." "Pray that I will be humble... full of love..."

These people phoned in these requests because they were puzzled. They thought that becoming a Christian was signing up for a luxury prison, where all the hurts in life would mysteriously disappear and all the bad habits they had would be replaced by virtues pleasing to God. They obviously believed that they would never have to do anything again – that is why they were asking God in prayer to hurry up and act on their behalf.

When I gently told the listeners that there were certain Scriptural things that they should do rather than sit back and expect God to live their lives for them, the station dropped me. They, too, believed that Christianity was a spectator sport where we watched God make our decisions and shield us from all hurt.

We must understand who we are. God never made us to be coddled and kept from harsh situations, but to be His adult sons who would fellowship with Him in ruling His universe. When God made man, He immediately placed him in a garden that had the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst. He warned man that to eat of it would mean death, but then left man to make up his own mind what he would do about it. It was God who chose to allow the devil into the garden to tempt Eve; and while he did so, God did not interrupt or contradict him. Eve had to make a free choice about God on the basis of what He had already said. God forced man to face the uncomfortable fact that he was not an animal, but a person made in God's image – not fully man until he had made a choice.

Ever since that day, man in sin has blamed God for his sin and all the hurts on earth, still refusing to face up to the fact that God demands that we choose and be responsible for our choices. There are some who would like to picket heaven with banners stating that God is unfair to the human race, believing He should get more involved and use His power to make people act in love and goodness. But God has chosen to create beings who make eternal choices and stand responsible for those choices.

The Church of today has brought this worldly thinking into its theology. We present our lists to God and expect Him to do everything for us while we passively watch. Victory in the Christian life is looked upon as having attained the position where God keeps us in a situation where none can hurt us and we are rocked in a blessed cradle with no responsibility, knowing that He is looking after everything. Luncheons, dinner meetings are filled with eager saints all looking for the ultimate experience that will insure that our bad tempers, impatience and bitterness are taken out of us in a moment. They line up to be "slain in the Spirit" and go back for more to be sure it has taken.

They are waiting for the Holy Spirit to hijack them to heaven, but this is a gospel that cannot be located within the Scripture. Whatever parts our experiences with God play, when all has been said and done, we must deal with our wrong attitudes and make right choices.

Paul never prayed that God would take away bitterness, anger and malice; he told his churches that they should put it away based on what God had already done in Christ. God has a family of adult sons who make choices out from their real union with Christ, not a house of morons who forever need someone else to make decisions for them.

The Christian's life is summed up in Philippians 2:12: So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

God does not live in our lives for us or make our decisions for us. He shows us what He has done in Christ and who Christ is within us, and then tells us to go and work that out in the daily grind of life and all its hurts. In our choices we live out His life and the infinite supply of His Person. The marvel of Christianity is that God is fully Himself in us without us losing anything of ourselves. Rather, we find our true selves.

Satan takes away our will, but God gives it back to us in Christ, honors it and puts us in situations where we realize the awesome responsibility of being human. He walks us into problems, situations that threaten us and hurt us, and then apparently leaves us there and does nothing. Why? The Christian who wants a God who is the ultimate jailor screams that he has been cheated. These are the first to throw in the towel and walk away from a God who seems to have reneged on His promise. Others call upon everyone in sight to pray for them that somehow God will come through and rescue them.

The truth is that in that very moment God is turning a spiritual babe into an adult. He is a unity with that person, and all they need in the situation they find themselves in. He is saying, "I am all you need. Choose to act on that and you will find the infinite river of supply is rising within you and all around you."

Israel was the scale model of the Church, and their history speaks directly to our problems. The stories of Exodus 14-19 tell of how the Lord led them into the desert to teach them how to walk in unity with Him. Read them again with our subject in mind. They face an impassable sea and know the fear and despair of watching Pharaoh's armies bearing down on them. They know stomachs gnawing with hunger and lips cracked and swollen with thirst. In each case, God led them into the situation and then seemed to go on vacation.

Israel cried in rage at the God who acted in this way toward them. Why didn't He look after them and make sure things like this didn't happen? Why didn't they walk into a mountain of manna and realize they would be needing it in a day or two? Why not a river to greet them an hour or so before the water supplies ran out? They felt God had let them down and were ready to lynch Moses and quit.

The truth is, God was the ultimate supply. He was their bread, water and deliverance, but He did not just act on their behalf. They had to choose to recognize that and ask of Him out of their helplessness. In their choice to do so, the infinite supply of God would be made known. Resting in God is not passivity, but activity of the highest order.

Israel wanted a God who would protect them from life and from making choices about Him and themselves. They wanted to be eternal Peter Pans, a company of children who never grew up. God would not let them. Having shown them, His greatness demanded that they walk out into the world to live Him in their decisions.

It is the same today. God could bring us to perfection with a word of His mouth, I suppose; but He chooses to bring us to adulthood by the choices we make. He never intended that we be a vast multitude of praising idiots, spectators in a cosmic stadium, watching Him do everything. He is making a family of adult sons who work in a vital unity with Him. We are not God's robots, but participators in His life.

But we cling to the old lie that God does all and we are the passive nothings. In one of my meetings a brother sang a number of songs that brought blessings to us all. Afterward, I thanked him for the ministry he had brought to us. He gave me a pained look and said, "It wasn't me, and it was the Lord." I shook my head and apologized, "I'm sorry I mistook you, but I was certain I saw you singing on the platform." He was displaying a false humility that was, in fact, part of a great cop out. He was trying to tell me that he was not involved or responsible – only a robot in God's hands.

The truth is that God has chosen not to act without the choices of a human being involved. Israel languished in their trenches, trembling before the armies of Philistia and the mockings of Goliath (I Samuel 17). Every Israelite was in covenant with the Lord, but God did nothing.

Heaven appeared silent before the leering face and blasphemous words of the Philistine giant. Some probably said, "If God loves us, why doesn't He do something? If He is our covenant God, why doesn't He act against our enemies?" Others returned from the noonday prayer meeting and said, "We prayed that God would strike Goliath. Let's sit back and see what He will do."

But still, God did not act for six weeks. He was waiting for someone to go out and act as if all that He had said was true. Finally, David came from the hills and within the hour God had given great victory – but through the choice of the shepherd. For the six weeks the rest of the army had chosen to do nothing. God honored their choice – He didn't do anything either!

Faith is choosing to act on the basis of what God has said. Faith never sits back and says, "God, you do," but rather says, "God has done; therefore, I will now do."

Faith chooses to look at life as it really is and not as it appears to be. It sees through the appearances to God the reality. We do not sit in our circumstances and say, "Why did you allow this...what have I done wrong to bring this on myself?" We recognize that we are in it in order to choose reality over against the appearances that confront us. Jeremiah sat in the ruins of Jerusalem. What was once the city of David was now a rubbish heap. He poured out his soul in sorrow in the book called Lamentations. But he did not only sorrow, he chose to see reality and wrote:

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. (3: 19-23)

Yet, none of us want to be adults! The Church gravitates to the voices that tell us that God will do all as long as we expect Him to. Others surrender their right to make decisions in life to a self- styled elder who promises Utopia in exchange for mindless and absolute obedience. This is as old s man and has kept people from adulthood in Christ in every generation.

Israel stood before God's presence at Mt. Sinai. Out from the flames and smoke that symbolized His presence, they heard His audible voice (Exodus 20: 1-19). It was the only time in the history of the world that an entire nation heard God speak audibly. God did this with Israel because His plan was that they should be His nation of priests in which every person would know God's voice and live it before the world. The response of the people was amazing. They refused! The responsibility of being the hearers of God's voice was too great – let another do it for them. Moses was appointed the mediator who would hear the voice of God on their behalf and interpret it into their lifestyle.

They gave away their right to hear God's voice and placed themselves in the hand of another human, telling him that whatever he said they would do. What a tragedy, and what a cop-out! They had made themselves babies for the rest of their lives. They had always opened the door for every false prophet and priest claiming authority to come and lead them astray. From that time on Israel had a history of being tossed to and fro by every person who claimed he had heard from God.

The Church was born to be the final Israel, God's nation of priests in Christ. But from the beginning, they took the same route. Within a few hundred years they had handed the right of knowing God face to face over to an individual. Whatever he said, they committed themselves to do. The modern revival had hardly begun before the same old cop-out raised its head and thousands signed up to be spiritual babes forever, mindlessly obeying another human.

You are a priest in Christ, and you are responsible to live in this world making your choices and acting out of the infinite life that Christ is in you. We honor the ministry gifts that are placed in the Church, but we never give away our will to another human being – however spiritual he may be. We check out every word we hear from any teacher with the Word of God and the Spirit of God within us.

What must you do? Realize that God is not the kind of parent that turns His children into spoiled brats. He is placing you in situations that demand you choose to act out of His life within you, even though at the time you may not feel that life. It means that we stop complaining at God and forever begging the Church to pray for us. We arise and act out of the fact of who we are in Christ.

We stop praying that God take away our unforgiveness, bitterness, anger and evil tongue. Instead, do as He said, "Put it away..." (Ephesians 4:17-32; Colossians 3: 8-14). We can, for Christ is our life. We stop drifting, always looking to others to live life for us and walk out to be the adults that God intends for us to be in His infinitely adult Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.