The finished work of Christ guaranteed that when we believed, we became new spirits, born of God, fully capable of acting like God. That is why as mature spirits, when we speak to disease in faith, the disease thinks Christ spoke to it and leaves. Likewise when we speak to mountains, trees, storms or evil spirits, they obey us, as they would Christ. It is also why we can be holy like God. Holiness is behaving like God, not being religious.
However, new birth suggests babyhood. Regardless of potential , newborns are wholly powerless. If you saw Samson as a baby, he would have been completely at the mercy of his environment. Napoleon Bonaparte who helped shape world history, must have been powerless as a baby. When you get born again, although predestined for Christlikeness, you are a baby, totally at the mercy of the systems of the world, as Bishop Burton said last Sunday. A baby conforms to its environment and can be easily destroyed if not protected. Little wonder baby Jesus was whisked away to Egypt.
As a baby spirit, the systems around me will dominate me, unless I grow up. If my environment says it is okay to sin once in a while, I will soak it up. If my environment says I am the righteousness of God, I will conform. If my environment says it is okay to be jobless and dependent on the welfare system, I will conform. As a grown up new creation however, I act, talk and think like Christ, in my specific area of calling, so I am a natural system breaker, like Jesus.
How do I grow? Unlike physical development, time is not a big factor in spiritual development. In spiritual things, I can mature in an area of my life in very little time. We grow spiritually through consistent nutrition (knowledge) and prescribed exercises (obedience), which is also a function of knowledge. The scriptures say the new man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” We are transformed into the image of Christ by knowledge. Without knowledge, we will be dominated by the systems around us, instead of dominating them.
Much more than what we hear on Sundays, knowledge is revelation we receive in personal word studies Sunday through Saturday. The good thing about revelation knowledge is that it drives you to action, just as faith drives you to speak like God. As faith is dead without works, so is knowledge not applied.
I am very far from Christlikeness, but I am determined to keep learning and acting on what I know. I vehemently refuse to remain a baby. Even if I fall while attempting to walk, I will rise up again for I know deep down that I will dominate world systems just like Jesus did. I was born to do it, and I will grow into it by learning and doing.
–Tolu
