This title of the message bears the heart reason for spiritual failure.
It is the reason why in daily life, the believer breaks down, why the adversary has no trouble in overthrowing them in a crisis; the reason why they are a spiritual hitchhiker, always depending upon someone else’s prayers, someone else’s wisdom, someone else’s interpretation of the Word.
They have no life of their own, independent of others in the body of Christ.
In the family of God, they are a “yes man,” but it is always, “yes” in the wrong way.
The writer of Hebrews describes this person in Hebrews 5.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
I want you to be in depended on others in the Body. The Body of Christ is interdependent upon others, because we all have our place, but I want you to find that place you are to occupy that no one else can. And then stand in it. You must learn to hear the voice of God yourself, and then have it confirmed by the other members so that we come into the unity of spirit first, then the unity of the faith.
The unity of spirit, is the manifestation of the divine nature, the unity of faith is that we all believe the same way.
I am a gift ministry in the body of Christ, I stand in the office of a teacher,12 called for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4)
The book of Hebrews was written to a specific community of believers, generally believed to be a Jewish-Christian congregation.
They had forgotten the first steps in this divine life. Instead of walking out into the fullness and liberty and riches of His grace, they were immobilized. There had been no growth, no development in the divine life.
The Word didn’t mean much to them. They heard the word but were miserable, because there was no life in the Word they heard.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105), but it was not that to them.
The Word hurts and cuts and bruises and made them feel unhappy and fearful of persecution, when it should have been manna and food for them.
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation
Why? Because instead of living it, acting it, and taking their place in the Word, they remained a babe, an undeveloped spirit. Their mind was never renewed by the Word. You see it can’t be renewed until you begin to practice it.
Jesus revealed the root of it in Matthew 7:24–26: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.
The flood came and their house fell.
Some Christians have to be fed with milk all the time. You will find them in the nursery. They always have a bottle. Some of them have the wrong bottle. It is not filled with the sincere milk of the Word.
They are babes in all their conduct.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:3, “Are ye not carnal…?”
That means they live in the physical senses; they are ruled by the physical senses; they are guided by the physical senses.
He says they are walking after the manner of “mere men” of the world. Just worldly people. There has been no change, no growth, no development in their spirit life whatsoever.
They are treating the Word as though it is a common book. They can’t get their healing. Others have to pray for them, and they are a burden upon the church. They are a spiritual liability.
If they happen to be men and women of ability and of standing in the community, and the church gives them an office or a place of responsibility, they then become a deadly burden to the church.
They belong to a class of hitchhikers, spiritual vampires sucking the life out of other believers, to get some relief.
Their faith is always weak.
You will see them going to the altar, but they never get anything. The altar is a place for babes to get a desire to go to the Word and feed on it. It is not a means to an end. It is just a beginning.
But if you see them going to the altar year after year, you know they have become habitual, spiritual cripples. Satan rules them through the physical senses. They are afraid of death. They have thrown away life’s privileges because they lightly esteemed the Word of God.
SOME FACTS WE OUGHT TO STUDY IN THIS CONNECTION
When I ask another to pray for my healing or to pray for any of my chronic needs, I reject the fact that I was healed by his stripes, and I doubt the word of God.
I deny my own righteousness in Christ, and I refuse to take my place in Christ as a son.
I know that no one has a better standing than I have. No one has a better place in the vine than I have.
No one can draw life from the vine more readily than I can. I am what He made me in Christ.
My righteousness was given to me in Christ.
My right to the use of Jesus’s name is a gift, but I have denied it.
I have neglected to develop my gift. I have ignored the admonition of my Lord. I do not study the Word to live it!
I know that my sickness is because of a spiritual condition.
I know that I have walked according to the physical senses rather than according to the Spirit.
I know that healing cannot be permanent in my body until my spirit is adjusted to the Word correctly.
If sickness is not spiritual, He couldn’t have made Jesus’s soul and body sick with my diseases, and if my body is filled with disease, it is because my spirit is not in harmony with the Word.
I am rebelling against the sickness and fighting against the pain, but I don’t fight the cause of my sickness. I fight the effect of it.
You see, until I take my place in Christ and begin to act the Word and become a doer of the Word instead of a talker, I remain a failure.
Sickness is threefold: spiritual, mental, and physical.
All are sick in spirit before they are sick in body!
You see, here is where the trouble is. James 1:22 tells us, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
One can stay in that condition, until after a while, they begin to believe they are right and God is wrong, and you will hear them whining, “Why does God put these things on me?” and some unwise teacher will say, “He is trying to discipline you.”
I tell you, He never uses the devil to discipline His children. Disease is of the devil.
You are suffering the results of refusing to take your place in Christ.
You refuse to study to show yourself approved unto Him.
You have refused to feed on the Word. Or the kind of word you have been hearing was not a living Word from God.
You had opportunity to study and do what you learned, but you didn’t take it.
You would rather read the literature of the world than to read the Word from heaven.
The great heart of the Father is yearning over you.
Jesus’ intercession has been ineffectual so far. It can’t be effectual until the Word works effectively in your spirit.
You must study to show yourself approved of God.