I am thinking about all of those who have thought they were walking with God, but they were not. To use an old exercise term, they were “running in place.” They were not going anyplace, because they did not have the faith to move on. This message is important because God is bringing forth so many things—and some are going to miss them unless they heed very carefully this Word.
There comes a time in which we sense that the Spirit of the Lord has moved upon people and said, “Go ahead.” But they cannot go ahead because they are too busy murmuring and complaining; they are so busy looking for some kind of attention that just cannot be given to pilgrims on the road. It cannot be given to soldiers who are ready to go into battle. This is not a time for special consideration for those who are immature by choice.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. II Timothy 2:3–4.
Hebrews 5:12 tells us, For though by this time you ought to be teachers (you ought to be teachers—this does not mean that you are; but by this time, chronologically, you are old enough in God that you could be teaching others), you have need again for some one to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
Notice, you have come to need. From the original Greek we can see why the King James Version says: “You are become such as have need.” You have come to need! It is something that happened to you because you insisted upon it. And that happens every time in those who are deliberately immature.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for some one to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For every one who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Hebrews 5:12–14. It is because of what they have done and the way they have moved that they are ready for solid food.
It is very important that you see this principle: you ought to be teachers, you ought to be moving on, but are you? If not, why aren’t you? The Word has come; the instruction has come; the Living Word has given implicit instructions about how to be a ministry thoroughly perfected unto all good works (II Timothy 3:16–17).
And when we look into Deuteronomy, we find that the book opens up with the same warning for God’s people to move on.
Deuteronomy 1:6–7: “The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country …’ ”
The time had come when they could not journey around the mountain anymore. They were all through with jogging in place. That may be good exercise, but it doesn’t take you anyplace. You must realize that there is an objective for you to reach in all of your efforts. We can jog around the mountain for a little while and feel that we have done a great thing; and then we are very tired and can’t wait until tomorrow morning when we get our share of manna. We can’t wait until we get to our teachers who will give us some more milk and feed us the flattering words that we want to hear But these things cannot be any longer!
Is yours a prolonged infancy by your own deliberate choice because you have decided that you would stay the way you are?
The whole purpose of all the restoration that God has brought for these many years is described very clearly in the fourth chapter of Ephesians, where Paul wrote about the gifts of apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They were given for a purpose—for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:12–13.
The whole thing is maturity. Some people complain that we have more emphasis on trying to perfect the saints than we do on winning babes to Christ. Well, you can have a whole flock of chickens hatched out, but if you are not watchful, the hawks will pick them all off! In the same way, you have to bring the babies past the place where they are spiritually immature; you must bring them into their protections, to their destiny in God, to that which glorifies God in a mature life. And that is what Paul was doing; he was laboring to present every man perfect in Christ (Colossians 1:28–29). He was warring mightily by that strength and anointing which was within him.
And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. Colossians 1:28–29.
We are to come up … to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:13–15.
In other words, God wants all of us to grow up! If you don’t, you can be taken by the craftiness of deceitful scheming. There have been those who have gone around the country, trying to find the little babes who are weak or who are going through a testing; and they try to pick these little ones off. Isn’t that just like the Amalekites, who came to pick off the little children and the stragglers? (Deuteronomy 25:17–18.) God hated that. When Amalek fought against Israel at Rephidim, Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands all the day long while Joshua went out to battle and defeated the Amalekites. Then God said, “I am going to have war with the Amalekites forever” (Exodus 17:8–16).
Don’t think that it is any different now. These false shepherds have come against the people of God everywhere and have tried to pick off the babes. They do not really care whether these immature ones go on with God or not; they just are determined to get them out of this walk with God. Then they leave the babes to die in the wilderness of their own immaturity and confusion.
God says He will deal with that. But I am wondering—when God deals with that, how can we ever put the blame solely on the false shepherds who come against the spiritual authority which God has raised up, and against the Word that God has brought forth in this generation? How can we say, “They are the only ones to blame”? What about the ones who are deliberate babes, who get picked off because they can’t handle the things that happen?
They are babes by choice. They do not apply themselves to the ministry that God gave in His gifts of apostles and prophets, to enable them to come to the place where they would not be tossed to and fro (Ephesians 4:11, 14).
I tell you, the devil really has a picnic. The devil’s picnic specializes in tossed-children salads. He delights in taking the children whom he can toss to and fro, and he devours them. A wicked one like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour—that is Satan (I Peter 5:8). Yes, we can blame him; but there is also a measure of this blame which belongs on the shoulders of those who are the victims when they did not need to be victims. They could have easily appropriated a revelation Word which they had heard and grasped, and then moved into it themselves. But to be unnecessarily defeated until their faith is gone and they have no hope—that is really foolish.
Are we coming into this hour of leaving the wildernesses of devastation only to go back and reestablish a nursery full of cribs over six feet long to accommodate those who are willful babies? There is a demand upon people that they must relate differently. The immature will have to get the Word and be followers of the Word, not followers after a man. Let me make a personal reference to myself, because it is very important. If you follow me as a man instead of as an oracle of Christ Jesus, you can easily fall into the same difficulty that happened to the Corinthian church.
Paul wrote to them: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? I Corinthians 3:1–4.
In other words, you cannot get your eye on the man. He may be an oracle of God to you; he may have blessed you very much. But you can become so caught up in the orbit of a man’s ministry that you miss all of the wonderful blessings which that ministry is supposed to bring forth in you.
Of course, there are legitimate relationships which exist between people. In a family, for instance, when a baby is born the woman who bore the child relates to that child as a mother. She relates to the father of that child as a wife. This means two totally different relationships at the same time. And that home can be a happy home, unless the husband, the father, insists that he be treated like the child. Or, if the child arrogantly insists upon drawing all the attention to himself, then in a sense he becomes the dominating head of the family, though he has neither the experience nor the emotional stability to do that. And that is the same thing that happens in the Body.
There are those who have come to me, saying, “I can’t take ministry from some of the other brethren. I have to have the ministry only from you.” No! You are missing the whole purpose of a ministry. If you continue to say, “Give me milk,” you are making the ministries, who are given for your maturity and your perfection, into a wet nurse—and sooner or later God will remove that source from you or disillusion you with it, because God does not intend for that kind of a relationship to exist.
I have an anointing and a ministry from the Lord to impart to you. I can lay hands upon you and it will be a tremendous source of blessing to you. But if you are hungry for God and you have that deep desire within you that wants to walk on with God, then you will have to partake of the Living Word, and you will have to exercise yourself in that Living Word. And you will have to receive the ministries who are available to help you. Don’t receive them as wet nurses who are to nurse you along! Receive them as those who shall impart to you, as those who shall impart a ministry of faith, the gift of faith, as those who will help you. Those of you who are filled with unbelief, get back to the Word, the Living Word. Go back to the prophecies that came over your church, and over you, and get rid of this immature concentration span which you have.
A baby has a very short attention span; its attention can be held for only a few seconds. Trying to develop the concentration span of a child becomes a big thing that the teachers work on when he starts school. A child can concentrate just so long and then he gets restless and shifts his attention. That is always the case of the spiritual babes and the immature. They cannot hold their focus and their attention on the Lord that well, because they are not living in the Word. Just about all that a baby wants is to nurse at the breast—periodically and very frequently; afterward, he plays a little bit, and finally, he goes to sleep. In all of this there is a certain kind of consolation and a comfort that he gets. And how much like that have a lot of the people been, the ones who continually say, “Oh, I’m in trouble. I have pains.” Those pains are hunger pains; nurse them, and they will be all right for a little while. But soon they will be back again: “Give me another blessing; tell me again how wonderful I am. Tell me that I can make it.” Instead of becoming dependent upon the Word, they have become dependent upon their nurses. They have not taken the Word with a determination to grow strong. And any time a child is big enough to lead his mother behind the door so that he can nurse, there is something very wrong.
Let’s go on a little further. If you have not taken advantage of the provisions which are available to you, then you will be walking without the gift of faith that so many have been receiving. You will be missing the impartation that has come to hundreds of people. People have been coming from far and near; they have said, “We have to have hands laid on us. We have to receive the impartation that is coming.” This is the day of singing and rejoicing! Rejoice in the Word that is coming. Rejoice in the worship that is coming.
If I could paraphrase it, I would say that these are “days of psalms and palms,” because the psalms are being sung from the heart and the palms, the hands, are being laid upon the heads of the people. It is a day of praises and prayer.
It is a day in which we worship, and we have the Word, and we have the work in the Word; and these three things seem to go together more than ever before.
What are we going to do in these days to come? Shall we go on blaming only the false shepherds for picking off the babes? Or shall we say to the babes, “You don’t need to be this way. You don’t need to be defeated. You don’t need to have somebody say, ‘Oh, you poor little thing. You went through so much.’ ” Everybody goes through these things!
It is appointed that before the fullness of authority and the greater works come (John 14:12; Ephesians 4:13–16), the Body of Christ shall be filled with the Spirit and shall be driven into the wilderness to be tested by Satan for a season. We go through the same pattern as our Lord did (Matthew 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13), because this now is the Body of Christ which is going through the same thing.
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. Hebrews 2:1–4.
The big thing is not how much God has given us, but this: How are we going to escape if we neglect it? And there are many who have been negligent.
I have been taken out of the active flow of my former schedule, only to find my heart being given very much to the Word and to the writings. This change is very much of God.
God has been in everything that has happened to me; He has been teaching me that I am not to drive myself just to see how much I can do for the people. Rather, I am to speak to them a Word and let the people see how much they can do for themselves.
We will begin to view the Living Word as a do-it-yourself kit (Philippians 2:12–13), handed to us by the hands of the Heavenly Father through His blessed Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and ministered to us by the Holy Spirit and through the apostolic Word, so that these days should be days in which we may attain (Hebrews 1:1–2; Acts 2:42–47; Philippians 3:12–16).
Perhaps you are thinking, “I really do need some attention.” Maybe you do. But I don’t think the ministry should become a nursery for old babies; too many new babies are being born! I often see a child, maybe a firstborn or a secondborn, who has been spoiled; he has received a great deal of attention. Then mama is delivered of another pregnancy. And one day, while she is giving all the attention she can to that new baby, the older child comes over and slaps him. He is jealous because he is no longer the baby in the family.
You don’t need to be spoiled and jealous older siblings. You that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please yourselves (Romans 15:1). You ought to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).
It is time that we train troops in the spirit of Joshua to possess the fullness of the Kingdom. Let’s not go back again to continually ministering the milk to the babes who ought, by this time, to be teachers, as Hebrews 5:12 said. They ought to be teachers.
And so, all of the counsel that our brothers give to these who are having problems and troubles should be designed for this one thing: “Get into the Word, and do the will of Christ; find out what God wants you to do!” Do not come to present your problems like whining babies who want a sugar tit. Instead, come to inquire, “How can I break out of my immaturity? Give me the Word that will help me. Give me the laying on of hands that will impart to me, so that I can rise and go forth and do the will of God with all of my heart.” We can absorb strength and life, if we are determined to do so. We can be hungry for God.
And we can let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly until we are speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19). Oh, there is so much in the Word about this! So many times, the Scriptures keep bearing this out, that we are to help one another. Over and over again, this is one of the main things that God emphasizes.
In the sixth chapter of Galatians are some verses that you really need: Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourselves, lest you too be tempted. Galatians 6:1. We must have this ministry of restoration for those who have been wounded. There has to be a time of healing for people.
But the Word goes on to say: Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Galatians 6:2–3.
This means that if any man thinks he is something special, in himself, when really he is nothing, then he is deceiving himself. But every one of us has our place in the Lord.
Verses 4–5 continue: But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own load.
We help each other and restore one another; but the bottom line is that everybody is going to bear his own burden. One translation, sensing that these are military terms in the original Greek, said, For every man will have to shoulder his own load. Galatians 6:5, Weymouth. The soldier next to you shouldn’t have to carry your load when it is time for you to be carrying it. And yet, in the days of weakness, in the days of being wounded, there is a healing for you. We will bear one another’s burdens. We will restore one another in a spirit of meekness (Galatians 6:1, KJV). We will get each one on his feet! But then after his strength returns and he gets a Word from the Lord, let him draw that strength from God. Let him absorb life from the Lord. Let him say in his heart, “God has a purpose for me to fulfill.” Then he begins to bear his brother’s burdens; he begins to look out for the thing that belongs to his brother’s life.
This we ought to do: We ought to bear one another’s burdens. The Scripture says that we ought to be teachers—and yet we still are babes needing the milk of the Word, instead of solid food (Hebrews 5:12–14). We ought to bear one another’s burdens and not to please ourselves, even as Christ did not please Himself (Romans 15:1, 3). I John 3:16 says, “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”; I John 4:11 says, “We ought to love one another.” This is what we ought to be. We ought to be teachers; we ought to be mature believers.
And there is nothing that God could judge you for more than this: not for your mistakes, but for your failing to become what He said you could be. He will not excuse you when some false teacher takes you off-course. For God says, “This is what you ought to have been. This is what you could have been if you had stuck to the Word that I gave you. If you had taken the blessing I gave you, none of your problems would have occurred. This you ought to be.”
I know that God is going to judge those false shepherds, those wolves who are trying to prey on the flock. But I also know that the greatest salvation is not to have a wolf hurt and to fight with carnal means. The greatest salvation is to look to God in the Spirit and strengthen ourselves so that every one of our people become little Davids who can fight off the wolf and the bear and the lion.
We have to do this in the Spirit. We have to see a need in our lives. God grant that soon our need will not be for milk anymore but that it will be for the bread which belongs to the children, for the meat for the young men. May God say, “Blessed be the young men because they are strong and they have overcome the wicked one” (I John 2:13–14).
All of these things, of course, are exactly what God would bring forth now. Everywhere in the churches there is the healing of the Lord. But it is not a healing to put you back in a crib; it is a healing to get you on the front line. It is a healing to get you into the flow of His Service.
It is amazing that in every place where devastation ended, there have been meetings to train people to work in the Word. That is a significant thing: God is getting the people for working in the Word—for editing, for gleanings of the Word, for digging out the Kingdom Proverbs; and they are beginning to grow. They are coming to the Word and to work in the Word—and that is spiritual maturity; that is what maturity is all about.
You see, it is your faith in the Word. You must have faith to apply the Word to yourself (James 1:22–25). It is unbelief that causes you to wander in the wilderness and to murmur and to complain and to be bitter about what has happened to you (Numbers 11:1; Hebrews 4:6, KJV). But it is faith which says, “I have to pass through this wilderness because my inheritance is on the other side. And I must make haste to get there.”
God grant that every one of us receive this Word with faith! And I urge those who counsel the babes and the wounded: Be merciful and kind to heal those who need healing. But at the same time, do not allow them to return back to an infant stage in which they draw upon just a few ministries, upon one or two.
I have learned by experience that the ones who got the most milk are also the ones who vomited the most and often turned the other way.
The ones who felt they were some special little one to be babied are the ones who had difficulties. But the ones who had really received a Word from God—when they fell, they were helped back up. Whenever something happened to them, they could come and get help and prayer. But it was for one purpose: to help them to get on their feet again so that they could go on and be what God wanted them to be.
Don’t think that only one certain person can help you and meet your need, because even if he were to meet it on your terms, he would not have met it on God’s terms. You must be met in such a way that you will become a mature person.
I am concerned that you be no longer children, but that you come up to maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13; Colossians 1:28–29). There cannot be any other objective in my ministering to you. And there cannot be any other vision or realization of the ministry in the Word that comes, unless you say, “Yes, I see it. Lay hands on me and give to me so that I may give to another. Give to me, so that I may stand and walk with God with all of my heart and soul and mind and strength, doing the perfect will of God.” Many times people have come to me and said, “You love me; but the other brothers don’t love me like you love me.” But I don’t agree. They have what I have. I have imparted to them what I have.
If you believe that God gave it to me, you must also believe that I am able to commit it to faithful men who will be able to reach and teach others also (II Timothy 2:2). If you don’t believe that they love you with the same love that I have for you, maybe you do not have faith in this whole process of impartation that God is bringing. Maybe you do not have faith in the Timothys who can minister as well as Paul. But God is seeing to it that the spiritual sons come forth with the same anointing as the spiritual father who laid hands upon them. The Timothys kindle again the gift that is in them, and the people come to be blessed and to receive at their hands (II Timothy 1:6).
The whole picture is often not a lack of love so much as it is a lack of faith. And if we have the faith, we can turn loose our love, too. Have faith to love greatly. Go one step further and have faith in the love that is being ministered to you. And in that love, you will have faith for the brothers.
“But they don’t love me.”
Well, maybe you don’t love them either. Maybe your lack of love is holding up the whole faith process by which you could be blessed of the Lord and the mighty flow could come straight down from the heart of the Father, right to your heart, and warm it with a holy anointing such as you have never known before!
Perhaps you are thinking, “You are shifting the blame from these who come in to split and to rob and to destroy the churches (John 10:10), and you are putting the blame back on us.” No, if you really hear what I am saying, you cannot think that. But I am laying the responsibility back on you, that there not be this immature approach anymore. There must not be that unbelief in your heart. You are going to be a believer. You will walk only a little while and then you will fall out, unless you realize that all the testings were meant to be a trial of faith to you. It was not to destroy you. It was to reposition you so that your optimism would not be based upon the congenial relationship which you had with a shepherd, but your optimism and your hope and expectancy would be based upon this one thing only: God has spoken. God has spoken a Word and sent it forth in the earth. You have to see this. You have to believe it!
“But I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
You are going to do exactly what Paul spoke about in the Word.
When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. I Corinthians 13:11.
Paul did exactly that; he put away childish things. And when you set your heart to do that, these things begin to fall off. There comes a time when a person says in his heart, “I’m not going to play with dolls anymore. I’m not going to be out here just playing with soldiers, or playing cowboys and Indians. It’s time for me to get into something that is more mature.” And that is what Paul was saying.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:12–13.
In other words, we are coming to the day of faith and hope and love. But we are also coming to a day when these will be functional and real in our lives because we refuse to be children—we refuse anymore to be children tossed to and fro (Ephesians 4:14). These little babes and children are not to be a tossed salad for the devil’s wolves. We are going to believe God, and we are going to walk in that victory of the Lord.
Be more open to other ministries. Be more open to seek God yourself. Stop coming with your questions to get an answer. Instead, seek God yourself and get the answer—and then come to submit it for confirmation to those who are prophets of the Lord, who know the voice of the Lord.
“Are you sure they would know?”
That is what you have to believe for. I have learned that if you have faith for a man, you can generally have faith in the Word he brings, too.
Let’s believe God. Let’s walk with the Lord!
The problem is not the need of the immature, but the demands of those who are immature by choice.
A Christian’s prolonged infancy is usually his own deliberate choice.
The ultimate purpose of nursing is weaning. The ultimate purpose of the ministries is the maturity of the flock.
The devil’s picnic is tossed-to-and-fro children salads. He feasts on those who are babes by their own choice.
The Shepherd’s Creed: I will be all to you that the Great Shepherd wants me to be, but no more. I serve you on God’s terms, not yours.
We grow by psalms in our hearts and palms on our heads and His principles written on our hearts.
The important thing is not how much God has given to us, but how are we going to escape if we neglect it?
God will not judge us for our mistakes so much as He will judge us for failing to become what He said we could be by His grace.
Bitterness and complaining keep you in the wilderness; faith gives you Canaan.
If you have faith for a ministry, you usually can have faith in his Word.