Friendship – Being A Good Friend – To Yourself
Blessed Destiny – Part III
Study Text – Galatians 4th Chapter
1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2
But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the
world:
Blessed – “empowered to prosper”
Destiny – “a predetermined course.”
Blessed Destiny – “A course so great, so wonderful, so fulfilling that just
knowing it exists empowers you too much to turn back.”
During the past two weeks we have shared with you how God has a predetermined
destiny, “Blessed Destiny,” for each person. However, we all
know that many people never attain it. So this week we are going to address one
thing that keeps us from reaching our “Blessed Destiny” — Lack of
Spiritual Maturity.
Over a year ago, I was blessed by a sermon entitled, “Your blessing
before it’s time will blow your mind.” Just as the title stated, as
long as we are not mature enough for the blessing, God won’t deliver it.
Sure, we all receive blessings from our Father, but guess what? He’s so
big, so wonderful and so great — some of those are not even His best. So let’s
look at our text and see how spiritual immaturity hinders us from the fullness
of God.
The first verse says, “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a
child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all.”
What we are given is an example of a child who has an inheritance. Even
though the child may know about the inheritance, he/she can not partake of it
as he/she desires. Why? Because the person leaving it for him does not
feel he is mature enough to handle it with wisdom yet.
So instead of being a Lord the child is a slave (servant) to the tutors and
governors (administrators) of his/her estate (2nd). I don’t know about
you, but it would bother me to have other people handling what was mine and
even telling me I can’t have it yet. However, the key word is “Yet.”
The second verse tells us when the “yet” is—“the time
appointed of the father” or in other words, whenever we become spiritually
mature so that particular blessing or even the release from a curse won’t
“blow our minds.”
Now I can hear the critics, “You’re telling me that curses are due to
spiritual immaturity?” That is exactly what I am telling you, and
the 3rd verse confirms it: “Even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world.” What was the cause of some
of the heartache or bondage in your lives? Lack of spiritual
maturity. Primary example — relationships. Many people never experience
“Blessed Destiny Relationships” because of lack of spiritual
maturity. Instead of seeking God for revelation, they seek the flesh for
gratification. Then when it doesn’t work out they say, “Lord, how
did I get into this?”
Well based on our 3rd verse, when we act like CHILDREN we lead ourselves
into bondage. We wanted to have what we wanted right then, expected God
to bless it and then wondered why it failed. Not only that, but if we
look at the 3rd verse again we see a “double negative” to some
degree. We see the word “bondage” followed by the word
“under.” So this childish, immature spirit will not only lead
us to and keep us in bondage, it will also keep us under the elements (the most
basic things) of this world. Imagine that! Not being able to break
the bonds of the simplest things that come from the enemy all due to an
immature spirit.
Also we must expound on this little bit because this is not only limited to
relationships. Having a mature spirit will have a tremendous impact on
every area of your life. So many times, we have been in a business
deal/purchase and wound up feeling that, “something was just not right.”
Later we said, “Something told me to bail out, but I didn’t.”
Well, it probably was not a something but a Someone, The Holy Spirit, “Our
Friend within.” But we didn’t really know how to receive the warning
because of an immature spirit.
How do you mature your spirit? Even though the answer is actually another
series we will simplify it in two parts for now. The first is to feed
your spirit the word of God. As you feed your spirit and learn God’s will
for your life, your spirit will be empowered to grow and overtake your
flesh. The second way to mature your spirit is to nurture your
spirit. In other words, you need to be careful what you put into your
spirit. For example, if all you put into your spirit is Matlock, then if
you need healing, you’d better hope Matlock is praying well that day. If
you don’t put any God into your spirit, no godly results can come out. So
be a good friend to yourself by realizing that your “spirit” needs to
grow and mature so that your whole being (spirit, soul & body) can reach the
blessed destiny and gain your inheritance!!