GROWTH FROM INFANCY
GROWTH FROM INFANCY
Eternal life is the gift of God. The moment there is a divine work in the soul the purpose of God has begun there, and that purpose is that you are to be “in Christ”. It is not the question of how much you know of this new work which has begun in you. The only standard and measure of that work is Christ. Every one in Christ is a new creature. The first part of your history is simply infancy, a babe cannot speak (as Paul uses the word) - there is another word for children in [p. 442] John. I think infancy proper is, I may say, when you are not weaned. You have to be fed with milk, you are not properly in history yet. In infancy you are not in any way independent, you have, as it were, to be fed and carried; you do not appear while in this stage, you are not as to your heart and conscience over the Red Sea; this is a very protracted period with many. You are like an infant all this time, occupied with your own wants. When you emerge from this you can speak - you can say, “Abba, Father”. It is said that the first word that a child attempts to pronounce in any language is a word that means parent. Now if you are a child you are on your own account, you have the sense of your relationship, and your attention is directed to your food, you have the ability, the unction of the Holy One, a true taste to guide you as to your food. The better your food the more you grow, the more you are able to separate the precious from the vile, and the stronger you become. You are of a divine generation, you have to grow into this part from and as one superior to the life and nature you are in as a man; and yet the body is Christ’s vessel. Now as you grow in strength you also come in contact with the god of this world. If you do not resist him and overcome him, you do not advance. All this time the eternal life is yours, the Spirit of God is occupied with forming you in it, and thus freeing you from every hindrance. You are growing up in Christ Jesus, and doubtless tastes and enjoyments of that life break in on you now and again.
In the manna, though only wilderness food, the heart is sensible of the new clime where the life of Jesus comes from.
But having grown and become strong, the word of the Lord abiding in you, you have grown out of infancy, you have overcome the wicked one; now you have to love the Father’s things, which are not the things of this world.