Lesson two
Avoid wrong company
Eph 5.11
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
2 Cor. 6 :14-16 (NIV)
14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial[a]? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people
An ungodly person who does evil work is like a person with an infections disease. Just like a healthy person must keep away from a person afflicted with an infectious disease, so the children of God must keep away from ungodly people and evil doers.
Sinful works are of darkness and they are unfruitful, profitless, unrewarding, whatever profit is pretended by them. We must therefore have no fellowship with them,
Psalm 26:4-5 says, 'I have not sat with vain person nether will I go in with dissembles. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked’
In Okeigbo, there is a big river called Oni. Like most big river that have so many smaller rivers and drainage water fed into them regularly, Oni is not a clean river. There is another stream from which people fetch water for drinking and cooking. It is so clean that you would think it has been treated in a water station. In fact, the people living near it prefer its water to pipe-borne water.
At a point where we sometimes conduct baptismal services, the clean stream, Omi Iye, join with the big river Oni. From that point, the two bodies of water flow on together, not as the clean and drinkable Omi Iye, but as the unclean and undrinkable river Oni.
This a striking picture of what happens when a Christian get mixed up with the dirty world. He loses his purity and holiness. If you are running around with a rough crowd, some of the roughness will rub off on you. ('Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners' 1Cor 15:33).
A Christian who must grow must be separated unto God from the sinful world and from anybody who refuses to walk God.
Draw Close To God
James 4:8
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
The nearer and closer to God you are, the more rapid your spiritual growth will be , and the more powerful you will become. God is the Source of divine power and grace from whom we can only receive the power and grace to grow up spiritually and minister effectively.
A non-magnetic iron that is attached to a magnet would be able to magnetize other non-magnetic iron. But it loses its power when separated from the magnet. A Christian has marvelous divine power when He clings to the Lord. But he becomes a powerless being when he separates himself from the Omnipotent.
You become close to your friends by spending time with them, talking with them and going out together. In the same way, you become close to God by spending time with Him, talking in prayer with Him, and walking closely with Him.
You become close to God by spending time with Him.
If you must grow up spiritually, you must make a practice of spending some time with God daily. For some it may be thirty minutes. For some it may be one or two hours. For me it is usually several hours. At times I stay before Him for more than five hours. That is how important spending time before God means to me.
Time alone with God was an essential of the life of the Man Jesus. Mark 1:35, 'And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.' This should challenge every Christian to ask himself some searching question: “Do I start each day with the Lord? Do I long to do His will in everything? If I do, how do I expect to know His mind concerning every aspect of my life if I don’t spend time with Him daily? Do I desire His power for my daily sustenance and my spiritual growth? If I do, how do I expect to receive this power if I don’t stay close to Him by spending time with Him?” Don’t forget a pot receives heat it needs to boil or cook whatever is put in it by staying very close to the fire.
If you are too busy to spend some considerable time with God, then you are too busy!
You become close to God by talking with Him
Prayer is an important part of spiritual growth. If you want to grow spiritually, you just must learn to talk to and with God regularly. It is during such time of communion with God that you can receive the instructions, guidance and enlightenment essential to your spiritual growth.
At times, Jesus spent whole nights in prayer before God, talking with His blessed Father, an action that bound him tighter to His heavenly Father and ensured His spiritual growth. But did Jesus need to grow spiritually? Yes. Of course, the Jesus, the God of heaven and earth, didn’t need to grow spiritually. But the Man Jesus needed to grow – physically and spiritually (Luke 2:52). Remember that Jesus was not in the world as God the Son but as a true Man.
You become close to God by walking with Him
A Christian who must grow spiritually must be close to God by walking closely with Him. Abraham had been walking with and serving God faithfully before the story of Genesis Chapter 17. But God knew that to be the fully matured believer He wanted him to be, Abraham just had to learn to walk more closely with Him than he had been doing.
Genesis 17:1 'And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.'
Abraham listened to the Lord, His God, and became the spiritual giant he was at the end of his life.
Friend, if you really want to grow up spiritually, you must learn to walk closely with God. Remember, the man who walks with God will leave no room for the devil to come between.
Have fellowship with other Christians
Acts 2:41-42
41Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
The three thousand people who received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour on the day of Pentecost ‘…continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship…’ That is the secret of the rapid spiritual growth of the early Christians.
I was brought up in an area where firewood was generally used to cook. I had to learn the art of preparing fire with firewood. When the food is done, all you need to do to put out the fire is to separate the pieces of wood that keeps the fire burning. When you remove a piece of firewood, it ceases to burn like it has been doing when with other pieces.All the devil has to do to keep your spiritual fire burning is to separate you from the other Christians.
A coal burns brighter when with other children of god. A coal burns brighter in the company of other coals. Separate a life coal from other life coals or a burning stick from other burning sticks and it stops burning. A child of God will burn brighter when with other children of God.
The Bible warns, ‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching ' Hebrews 10:25 (NIV).
See to it that you spend time with other Christians of like faith and belief. The communions of saints is a great help and privilege, especially for new Christians. Christian fellowship is a good means of steadiness and perseverance.
