This Last Days church will never survive without it.

The power of the gospel to save is as real today as it ever was. Its power to heal our hurts, to comfort our hearts, and to do all kinds of tangible miracles is still available, too.

But what about the power of the gospel to actually mature believers, particularly to bring spiritual maturity to the collective members of a local body so that we are led to measure up to the stature that belongs to Jesus Christ? Is that power still available? Yes! It is still available, too! But it must be believed and appropriated in order to be realized in the same way that the gospel’s power to save, heal, comfort, and do miracles must be.

We are so far from understanding the theme of spiritual maturity that many believers do not even know that it is a part of the gospel message. This is true even among many who believe in spiritual gifts. Only a tiny percentage of Christians really have a vision for the fullness of Jesus Christ in the body, or even see it as a part of the gospel message. But the gospel is a whole life message. It brings change immediately, it saves ultimately, and between the two it grows us up.

How We Got Here

There are several contributing factors which have led to our present spiritual dilemma. The primary one is that for the last 500 years we have prioritized preaching for saving over teaching for spiritual maturity. Another one is that it is much easier to preach the saving part of the gospel than it is to submit to the maturing part of the gospel. And finally, the natural man likes things that can be measured and boasted about, and preaching for saving usually yields a headcount. But there are no immediate grand results from submitting to the power of the gospel for spiritual maturity. They come over time.

Even though Christianity today is accustomed to prioritizing salvation over spiritual maturity, this does not change the fact that we are spiritual creatures, born after God Himself. As spiritual creatures, whether we feel like it or not, our new default is to be spiritual. But the natural man fights the spiritual man for all he is worth (which is not very much, by the way). As born-again believers, we are reprogrammed away from the natural man altogether, but we are all too familiar with how difficult it is to keep him in check. Nonetheless, our new spiritually advanced DNA leads us to preach not only the gospel that saves, but also the gospel that grows us up into the full measure of the stature that belongs to Jesus Christ. I do not discount the great importance of preaching the gospel that saves, but only advocate that we also teach and practice spiritual growth by it, too; and it is through our growing up spiritually that we will see more people saved, anyway.

Reformation but Not Spiritual Maturity

I mentioned earlier that a major contributing factor to our lack of spiritual fitness is that for nearly 500 years we have prioritized numerical growth, giving very little attention to spiritual maturity. Allow me to give an overview to show you what I mean.

By the time of the death of the beloved apostle John, the center for the church for all practical purposes had moved to Rome, under the leadership of Clement of Rome, who was later named the bishop of Rome. Within just a few short generations, succeeding church leaders began dominating Christian thought and doctrine entirely. Having left the Spirit’s leadership and fallen captive to Satan’s religious bondage, the early church evolved into a damning religious institution. Roman Catholicism purposefully set out to bring all people everywhere under its thumb. Its leaders interpreted the scriptures to say that all souls who wanted to claim Christ would have to come under the established church. Thus they taught that any hope of salvation had to come from the Catholic Church; and their dogma reigned supreme throughout much of the world for nearly 1400 years.

Amazingly, it still enslaves more than a billion souls today!

Then, about 500 years ago, God loosed Truth that resulted in the freeing of countless souls throughout the institution’s horrid domain around the world. Whole families and even nations had been under the Roman religious system for generations, but finally God raised up Christian reformers who, in the face of papal authority, established soundly through the scriptures that anyone could be saved by grace through faith in Christ alone – apart from the Catholic Church or any other institution. And with that, the battle for proclaiming Christ alone through open evangelism had begun!

A dozen years or so later, after Martin Luther openly challenged papal supremacy, new authority was assumed by King Henry VIII over the Church of England, and he continued the fight against any unbridled Christian who preached that souls are saved by faith alone. But the cat was already out of the bag; and by the grace of God, within just a few decades, multitudes of people who had lived in the darkest dungeon of humanity’s existence for centuries burst into the glorious light of the gospel! Countless numbers of people were set free to read the Bible for themselves for the first time (at least as quickly as they became available) and to evangelize. And for the first time in more than 1000 years, the world discovered that any and every man, woman, and child was a priest in his or her own right through faith in Jesus Christ. Surely the heavens shouted in delight when, after so many centuries of hellish religious bondage, earthly humanity realized that it was not in Jerusalem, or “in this mountain” (John 4:20-24), or under Rome’s Catholicism, or the Church of England, or anywhere else that they would have to worship! But as wonderful as that was for the gospel to have been loosed, the road to spiritual maturity had only just begun. At this point, the deeper understanding of the believer as a new creation and his enablement by the Spirit to actually grow up into Christ’s image was not even known, much less pursued on a large scale. And since so much of our modern-era evangelical doctrine finds its base in Reformation theology, I dare say that, in spite of great spiritual awakenings around the world over more recent centuries, today’s most vocal voices in Christianity are more influenced by John Calvin from 500 years ago than by the Spirit of God of eternity past! Authentic spiritual understanding for authentic spiritual maturity is provided for by Christ in us, the hope of the glory of God on earth; but mainstream evangelicalism is still in the dark ages on this truth.

The apostle Paul knew this revelation was deep and easy to overlook. He prayed earnestly that believers everywhere would come to an understanding of all that had been accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ for His glory to be revealed in us here and now, as well as for our eternal glory (Ephesians 1:15-23)! It is in knowing and appropriating those benefits which we have received for this age that we are made a truly spiritual people in this age – something that only segments of Christianity have touched in recent centuries.

Is there any wonder why we are not growing up into the image of Christ? And what about taking on the demonic battles that are lurking at our doorstep? How many among the Christian community are ready to take on Satan’s spiritual forces as he marches against this Last Days church? Can you not hear the Spirit of the Lord crying out to you and me that we MUST become a spiritually mature church if we expect to endure victoriously the times in which we live? Let us look at more evidence of why we are still spiritual babies, not ready for this late hour.

Great Awakenings but Not Spiritual Maturity

The Great Awakenings of the 1700s and 1800s boosted preaching for salvation and renewal for those already saved – and it was very effectual. God used a few inspired men to call the world to attention. Men such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley started, followed in the next century by Charles Finney, James McCready, Barton Stone, and others. These led tens of thousands into repentance from sin and faith toward God. Their preaching set on fire hundreds of other fiery preachers, then thousands. From England to America, makeshift pulpits popped up on busy streets and in the open fields, wherever there were people. And this was wonderful! Oh, how many of us would love to see this kind of revival preaching now! But it would have to happen on the streets and in the fields, since the churches far and wide, large and small, are in their own Dark Age and will NOT let God in! And many do not even realize it! Again our point is made that, as wonderful as this power preaching for salvation was then, there was still no knowledge of or emphasis given to spiritual maturity as it relates to the whole body coming into the image of Christ.

In the same way, there is lack in that area today. In the largest denomination in America, in fact, the call for salvation (watered down though it usually is) is still the focus of preaching every Sunday – even to those who are already saved! Is there any wonder why the body of Christ is so spiritually immature? Oh, what a spiritual awakening we need to get us out of the nursery! Limiting ourselves to the traditions and priorities of revivals past will not allow God’s people to come into lasting spiritual maturity – which was God’s goal from the beginning, and which is an absolute MUST if we are to endure these last chapters of these Last Days, not to mention our need to become His spotless, glorious bride!

Sunday School / Bible Studies but Not Spiritual Maturity

In the continuing evolution of evangelical Christianity, Bible study was first given emphasis through what came to be known as Sunday School. Most historians attribute its origin to Sunday Bible-reading lessons for children that took place in England, starting in the 1780s. As a part of the industrial revolution, thousands of young children were forced to work in awful conditions and for unthinkable hours six days a week, making it impossible for them to attend school; so God raised up a man named Robert Raikes, an Anglican evangelical, to start teaching these underprivileged children to read the Bible on Sundays, their only day off. From that was born Sunday School, which eventually spread to America. From that humble beginning, Bible study became a regular part of early elementary education. Then approximately 100 years later, when the state began to take over the responsibility of educating children, Bible training began to be moved out to the churches for Sunday study only, where it became a mainstay for the next 100 years. More recently, evangelicalism has largely turned from authentic Bible study in Sunday School to opinion-based discussions about God, with perhaps an accompanying Bible reference or two to support free thinking. Even so, the early Sunday School program set the pattern for regimented Bible study among 20th century evangelicals. Of course, there have been many other outstanding programs for Bible study that have contributed to excellent Bible training as well. But the point is that even 200 years of consistent Bible study has not solved the believer’s handicap of  Spirit-life underdevelopment.  Again, this is primarily due to our unwillingness to progress beyond doctrines and traditions established in centuries past.

There are those believers who, in their earnest pursuit to walk with the Lord, have returned to the land where He and His apostles walked. They have gone to Israel, as well as to the lands of Paul’s missionary journeys. Other believers have pursued a closer walk with Him by going back to get seminary training, and some have even learned a little Greek and/or Hebrew, so they can read the Bible in its own language; but few have come away from any of those things having grown deeper in their spiritual understanding of all that has been accomplished through Christ for us in real time. To truly walk as Jesus walked still seems far away; and to pursue the fullness of Christ in the body is, for all practical purposes, foreign. Once again, Christianity as a religious practice has failed to actually yield Spirit-filled Christ-likeness on a large scale. Millions and millions of genuine believers today have been kept in the state of the natural man by traditional thinking and doing which can be traced back to early religious ideas since the Reformation. Oh, if only we could break out of the nursery and enter into Bible study and fellowship with spiritual understanding that would lead us all to spiritual maturity! Indeed, the world is waiting!

Pentecostal Denominationalism but Not Spiritual Maturity

Consider the Pentecostal denominations. Their origins can usually be traced back to truly authentic spiritual awakenings at the turn of the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. Some churches that considered themselves Pentecostal genuinely sought to allow the Spirit to have His way. Their meetings were obviously accompanied by the Spirit’s presence, evidenced by the activity of spiritual gifts just as was the case with the church of Corinth. The opportunity was certainly there for believers to develop into spiritual maturity and deep Christ-likeness. In the end, however, they followed in the footsteps of the church at Corinth, too. They had all the gifts but never reached spiritual maturity. Eventually they gave in to a religious form, and the Spirit’s power faded; but they continued to duplicate the habits and practices of their early stages, nonetheless, not knowing that the Spirit had moved out.

The largest Pentecostal denominations in the world have become nothing more than giant religious institutions. Just like their more spiritually conservative brothers and sisters in Christ have done, their system is tiered, weighty, and burdensome on local churches. They have long snuffed out any hope for true spiritual development. Here again, the effort of the Spirit to bring about deep spiritual understanding that leads to a deep spiritual walk was overwhelmed by Christianity becoming religious.

The Charismatic Movement but Not Spiritual Maturity

I should not neglect to mention a genuine move of the Holy Spirit that started in America in the 1950s and spread around the world, called the Charismatic Movement. The Spirit of the Lord moved afresh on God’s people of every denomination. Tens of thousands of churches were started in America alone by believers who came out of traditional churches which refused to allow the Spirit His liberty in their meetings. Many of those newly organized churches sought to mature spiritually – not only in their worship meetings, but also as corporate bodies growing up into the measure of the stature of Christ. But they experienced burnout when too many became so emotionally driven that they moved away from a truly Biblical foundation. Today, theology among the remnants of the Charismatic Movement, for the most part, is about as emotionally exaggerated and theologically twisted as it could ever be. Yet when evaluating that movement along with all the others, we must separate what men have done from what God was trying to do through men. If we discern between God’s way and men’s results, we can take the good and grow while leaving the bad behind. 

Even though God’s work in that season of spiritual awakening did not lead to widespread spiritual maturity, it was certainly an authentic work which  impacted the body of Christ around the world on a scale that no previous move had done. Yet we still groan within ourselves to become more like Him. God has not failed; we have. And even though we know there is something missing, and we read the scriptures spelling it out, we have yet to make the connection for the long-term. Oh, that God would take us to the fullness of Christ’s measure soon!

But Jesus Said: “I will build My church.”

Regardless of the tremendous spiritual warfare that keeps the body of Christ as spiritual babies, our Lord said that He would build His church. Any true believer who honestly evaluates the general spiritual condition of Christianity today would have to concede that the Lord is not the one who put this mess together. He has built the church indeed, in that He is the author of our salvation individually; but we have built ourselves together corporately. Nonetheless, based upon His promise, He will build His corporate body His way; and just like many of you, I can hardly wait to see it come together!

We have all the ingredients. The scriptures declaring what we should become are clearly seen in the Bible. The example of how we are to follow the Father’s perfect way was set by His Son. His aid and guidance are freely offered by the grace of His Spirit within. And His promise is sure.

We need only to ask Him to show us every area in our thought and practice that should be removed, and then remove it, or allow Him to do so. We should seek a continuing infilling of His Spirit and provide a place that is wholly hospitable for Him within. We should abide in His Word and believe it completely. We should come together when He calls us to. We should wait patiently on Him and be sensitive to obey. We should not lose hope but instead take heart. We can appropriate and facilitate His work by doing these things, but only HE can do the work itself. Let us not frustrate His Spirit but yield. This Last Days church will never survive without Him!

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