GRADUATED LEARNING

 

 

    As it is in the spiritual, so it is in the natural.  Since I know that learning here on earth happens in graduated degrees, I can assume that the same would be true in the kingdom.  Jesus refers to that in his statement here to Nicodemus.  There are kingdom principles that are difficult to grasp, even stressful, if the maturity to handle them is absent.  There is the milk of the Word and the meat of the Word.  Feed either to the wrong audience and there will be indigestion.

    You can't expect an infant to walk.  A two year old knows nothing about how to cross the street safely.  A kindergartner can't solve a calculus problem.  A teenager can't lead a company.  And so on.  Just as each person in these stages of life must be given information that is in line with their maturation level, so it is with the maturity level of children of God in the kingdom.  A fifty year old believer may look like he can handle the meat of the Word, but because of his age as a new Christian, he can't.  He must have a milk diet.  Try to speak of 'testings by trial' to a new believer and you will have full blown panic.  Their faith is not mature enough yet to handle such a load.

    When re-parenting a baby believer, God has to start at the beginning.  That usually means hand-holding, teaching them elementary precepts, one at a time.  The first one is, "This is what my love is like."  There are no shortcuts here.  It takes as long as it takes and that depends on the previous life experiences of the Christian.  If he has only known distorted love and abusive authority, this initial stage will take some time. 

    One more dynamic comes into play here, and I know it from experience.  Some are raised in Christian homes but were never given the time to experience God as a spiritual infant, toddler, or elementary school student.  We were thrown into graduate level courses, all head-stuff.  Our Christianity is as dry as a philosophy class and we can't figure out why God isn't more real to us.  Often, God allows a wilderness to bring us to a place where we have to cry out to Him, like a child, "I'm hurting, are you there?"  The spiritual desert is usually a time when God takes us back to some basics, critical basics, so that we are plugged into His heart.  I learn how He loves me, what His voice sounds like, and how to let Him lead me by the hand.  Such lessons are are the foundation of doctrine.  When the heart of Christianity finally plugs into the Christian education, the result is a firestorm.

 

Christine Wyrtzen
Daughters of Promise