5 LEVELS OF MATURITY

 These apply individually and corporately.

Most revival only 2-3years because people haven’t gone through these stages to maturity. We have the power to make or break revival according to our level of maturity, which is a huge responsibility!

    NEPIOS: (maybe where we get the word “nappy” [babe, child] Means “no speech, or baby”. From birth to 1 or 2years.

Babies eat and make messes. You don’t give them any responsibility. Young baby Christians have a real hunger for God. They just want to eat & eat but they also make messes.

In the beginning stages we crave for revival & thirst for the river of God but often don’t mature past that. We make a mess of it. We want, we want, but don’t understand responsibility.

This is ankle deep- in the river.

    PAIDION: [childish, a half-grown boy or girl.]

This is the growing stage. You learn more in this stage than in any other. You are still not trusted with authority or responsibility.

Strongs says this word also means “an immature Christian.” It usually denotes a child up to 11 years old.

This is the same word used of Jesus in Luke 2:40 - “The child grew & became strong”. This is the knee-deep water. If we handle it, we get more. If not, God shuts it off.

 

    TEKNON: [child]

This is the term for teenager. A teenager is a person who most wants to act like an adult before they are one. You often allow them some responsibility but not out from under authority. You put boundaries around them. This is often where mistakes are made in churches.

We should enjoy every stage of our children. God enjoys us.

Spiritualty, this is a time when the gifts manifest: prophesy, preaching etc, but there’s often more gift than there is character. There’s something about us at this stage that we think we can fly before we are able. We want to push the boundaries. This is where rebellion can come in if it is not properly harnessed. Scripture has clear boundaries that we are unable to see at this stage.

We are to teach and train people to move in the Spirit and those with gifting, how to handle the gifts- the responsibility. In a Hebrew family a child is TRAINED to take over the family business. They spend time in this stage under a tutor.

The charismatic movement wasn’t built on character or maturity, but on gifts, and how fast you could run. It was more on sensation. People were not mature enough to handle the gifts.

This is the waist-deep level. But you don’t think you are deep enough. We use the anointing to go deeper than we are really able to go. Don’t think that because the anointing is there you can go deeper than you should. There must be true sobriety in the Spirit. There is still a long way to go. You must go on. Don’t measure growth by fun, growth, size. Measure it by how much you are willing to lay your life down; by character.

Waist deep water is for the refreshing of the people of God. Deep water is for the Nations.

    HUIOS: [a son] fully matured

This is a teenager who has moved into the release of running the family business.

Romans 8:14-17

14: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (huios) of God. 15: “For you have not received a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, [the spirit producing son-ship] in which we cry, Abba Father.

16: The Spirit Himself testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God.

17: And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.

This passage makes the distinction between the children of God and heirs of the promise. Vs14- those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. We know what He is thinking. We think the same way.

When the son takes over the family business he knows exactly how to run it as his father did.

    ADOPTION: adoption as sons was a ceremony. We are born into God’s family. We are given a new nature.

The adoption was when those who trained the child brought him to the father. The trainer would say when he was at a stage when he could be trusted. This was not the Bar Mitzvah. This was about the age of 30yrs. This is strange to you in a western culture, but cultures like the Chinese will train a man up, even after he is married, until he is around 30yrs.

The father would put his hands on the son and say, “this is my beloved son”, like Jesus at His baptism. This showed that the son knew how the father thought. He could be trusted.

Jesus didn’t go out into ministry before this stage. No one should be sent out from tutors without oversight. This is the same as going into full-time ministry until they are ready. Jesus did no public ministry before this. Isaiah said, “unto us a CHILD is born. Unto us a SON is given and the GOVERNMENT shall be upon his shoulders- the SON’S shoulders, not the child’s.

    PATER: [father, parent]

The son matures beyond the point of son-ship and now walks in wisdom and the heart of a father. His greatest joy is raising up other sons; which is the true heart of an apostle.

Eph 4:ll-14

We go through these stages in our gifts and callings. You may be in stage 2 individually but be in the corporate body at stage 2. If people are thrown in a higher stage than they are at, you get a mess.