How to Achieve Spiritual Maturity

I’ve told people many times, God has a storehouse that is just full of every kind of good thing that we will ever need for time and eternity. But the one who keeps the storehouse is the Holy Spirit. So, if you want to be rich in the blessings of God, you had better make friends with the keeper of the storehouse. Because if you don’t relate rightly to the Holy Spirit, you can be legally entitled to the whole inheritance, but in actual fact, enjoy none of it.

Bearing that in mind, if you want access to the wealth and the blessings and the provisions of the Father and the Son, it’s through the Holy Spirit that you will receive them. Everything the Holy Spirit does glorifies Jesus. Jesus said,

“He shall glorify me.”

That’s very important because once we cease to glorify Jesus in our services, in our lives, in our speech, in our actions, the Holy Spirit withdraws. He will not give himself. He will not impart his grace and his wisdom and his power to anything that does not glorify Jesus.

I remember in the local church in which I attend, some time back, we had a specially blessed and anointed service. And afterwards, I said to the worship leader, “You know why this service was particularly anointed and particularly blessed? Because everything from beginning to end focused on Jesus and glorified him.” And that pleases the Holy Spirit. And when we operate that way, then the Holy Spirit endorses us. He anoints us. He flows through us. But the moment we cease to glorify Jesus, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and he withdraws and waits until we come back to our primary task of glorifying Jesus.

You see, there are two essential roles that the Holy Spirit plays in our lives as God’s children. The first is, it’s through him that we become children of God. It’s through the Holy Spirit that we are born again, born from above, and become members of God’s family. Jesus speaks about this in John chapter 3, verses 5 through 8.

“Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’”

Notice that phrase, “born of the Spirit.” It’s by that experience that you become a child of God. There is no other way to become a child of God. The Holy Spirit comes in through your faith in Jesus and in the word of God, and he imparts to you a totally new life, a spiritual life, a life which is the life of God projected through the Holy Spirit into you. Jesus says there are two kinds of birth.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh,”

and can never be otherwise. In the flesh, we were born as sons of Adam, but not as children of God. But through the new birth by the Holy Spirit, we become children of God. We become members of God’s family. But we are only children. We are only babies. It’s not God’s purpose for us to remain permanently children. God has a plan for us to grow up into mature sons. But this is where we are again dependent on the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we cannot grow up. We cannot mature. Paul says in Romans 8:14,

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

The word “sons” there is not the same as the word “children” in the other passage. This means a mature son, one who’s responsible, one who is in control of his life, one who knows how to act, one who has authority. How do we come to that place of maturity? Paul says,

“All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

That’s the second great ministry of the Spirit in our lives as members of God’s family. It’s to mature us. But this only comes through one process: being led by the Spirit of God. There is no other way to maturity. And it is a continuing present tense, as is brought out by the translation which I read.

We have to be continually led, every day, every hour, in every situation, by the Spirit of God. That’s the only way we can live as mature sons of God. The tragedy in the church today is that uncountable numbers of people who have been born again of the Spirit of God have never learned to be led by the Spirit of God. Consequently, they never achieve maturity. They always remain, in some sense, retarded spiritually. Not because the provision isn’t there, but because they haven’t understood how to make themselves, to avail themselves of the provision. The provision is to be led by the Holy Spirit. This is the only way you can ever come to spiritual maturity as a true son of God, by being regularly, continually led by the Holy Spirit.