GROWTH
D. Jayasekar
I wish to speak about growth. Peter addresses us as newborn babes and in our spiritual life, however old we may be, we can go back over our spiritual histories and get help as newborn babes. My impression is as to “the pure mental milk of the word”. For the past few days we have been thinking of grace and of how the Lord Jesus as a Child “grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was upon him”, Luke 2: 40. He desires that we too should grow. The mind is a very dangerous thing if it is out of control. On Lord’s day we thought of Romans 12 and the truth of our being one body in Christ. What a great thought that is, and God has given us a part in that, leading on to the great mystery which He has purposed as to Christ and the assembly and our being members of the body.
We, as brethren, are separated from the world. A believer who gets into the world is polluted, so in Colossians 3: 1 Paul says, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is”. What a matter that is to think over! Then we are to have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2: 16)—a very important thing. Again in Romans 12 Paul says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. So we are to have the mind of Christ and have part in the body, along with all the saints.
I come to the point as to growth, and would refer to Moses. His history is given from its very beginning. His mother put him in an ark at the river’s edge. Then he was brought up in the wisdom of Egypt, but when he grew up he saw, after some forty years, an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew. It says, “He went out to his brethren”. He said in effect, ‘They are my people’. He did not want to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. That is spiritual growth. He was not willing to grow up and perhaps have the throne of Pharaoh, and God chose him to lead the thousands of His people, seeing that he must grow in order to be a leader to bring them out of their bondage. God is delighted in every one who becomes serviceable, maybe a teacher or an evangelist. God honours it and is pleased with it.
Also we see in Samuel how he grew, his mother making him a little coat and bringing it for him from year to year. “As newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word”—so we must have the desire to grow, and the Lord is pleased to help us in our growth.
David says in Psalm 23, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”, so we have many helps to enable us to grow. There are difficulties, but the Lord is helping us in our meetings and by the books of ministry, and the dear brethren who visit us, and it helps us to grow more and more.
I would like to say one word as to Malachi. “Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name” (Malachi 3: 16).
Well, whenever we come together and speak and pray, our God is hearing and He is regarding how we grow every day and month and year. What a wonderful thing it is, and God likes it and honours it. He says, “My son, give me thy heart”,
Proverbs 23: 26. Why our heart? Mr. Taylor said God is seeking our hearts so that they may contain the word we hear, to store it up, and use it. Samuel grew and Jehovah was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. In the parable of the sower in Mark 4 it speaks of thirty, and sixty, and a hundred-fold increase, so the believer’s interest is to grow. May the Lord help us so that we may help ourselves. We must have the pure mental milk of the word.
We all know the value of the milk—it is the word of God. We are in Christ, and in the assembly, and the Lord is delighted to see us and delights in our growth.
Word in meeting for ministry, Madras
25 December 1984