Spiritual Maturity Development Network

Feeling blessed by God's grace and love is a natural spin off of His love for us. But what is the actual purpose that He made us for? It has been a while since my last blog post was released and interestingly enough it has been a season of a paradigm shift and perspective change for me. I have seen it on so many occasions where people as God for direction on a personal matter and wait on the Holy Spirit for His divine guidance. Although this is a noble approach I do believe that it should be the exception rather than the rule for the average child of God. In our baby years as believers, we are so often taught that we should wait on the Lord so that we would have our strength renewed Isaiah 40v31. We are also taught to use phrases like “if it is your will” like we see Jesus use in the garden of Gethsemane when He asks His Father to let the Cup or burden of the crucifixion pass over Jesus. I do believe that Jesus was intensely aware of what he would be going through and His prayer is...

Over the last few days, the SMDN social media pages has been focusing on the concept of rehashing your day in the presence of Jesus. Rehash seems an unusual word and simply means to add things to a conversation while you are talking about something else. Or at least that is what it meant when I was trying to earn a living off of cold call sales as a younger man. So often God’s children spend substantial amounts of time doing Christian things like going to church, watching Christian movies or listening to gospel music while we are driving in our car. All the peripheral things that fill our day are actually important because they fill the bulk of our time and thinking space. As much as these peripheral things have value and add to our Christian walk and meditations there is something that is by far more important than anything else we can do in our daily lives. That is to invest dedicated and calculated time to separate ourselves from the world and sit at the feet of our Lord and Master ...

  When I listen to their responses it often becomes clear that their perspective on their faith in Jesus is strongly based on time spent with motivational teachers or speakers. They sound quite charismatic when they speak and are eager to share their testimony of encounters with Jesus. It is incredibly easy to be drawn in by their enthusiasm for Jesus. How important is it for a child of God to understand or grasp the meaning of scripture? Often I come across believers when I reach out to promote Spiritual Maturity in their hearts. So often I come across people that are hyped up and zealous for their faith. I love seeing people energised about their faith and when they share their experience it is often with joy passion and even with a spring in their step so to speak. In the presence of such energised people, it is very easy to feel they are in a good place and doing well spiritually.   Just recently I was in a store looking for a specific bible when I engaged with the s...

  How then do I know what season I am in? Should I push to grow or wait in the Lord till the winter is over? How does one know? Every person that I know strives to be validated as a person. We have these ideal and mental pictures of what it is that makes us successful. So we find ourself chasing after these goals and ideals in life hoping that it somehow will make us worthy of recognition. Even top executives like the monopoly giants in the world seem to be constantly pushing to have their latest idea voted in as the right thing to do. In my profession, I see perhaps more than my fair share of homeless or destitute people, and it has been my experience that even for these people striving for recognition or social acceptance is key to their survival on a daily basis. When I look at my own life it’s clear that I am also driven by this need to be seen and validated by an external source. I am constantly seeking approval from God, my wife and even on some levels my peers. This morning ...

We CAN claim to be victims like Adam did in the garden of Eden or we can take ownership of the personal space the Lord gave us to subdue and bring our life under His governance as obedient children that are eager to please our Heavenly Father. While it is true that we are very seldom able to chose the people that come over our path we DO have a say in who stays in our life. We also decide how long they stay. Some time back I heard a statement that went something like this. “People come into your life for a reason, season, or a lifetime.” I guess the challenge is trying to. Identify the purpose that someone serves when they come across our path In life. Some show up for a reason like changing our life direction or altering a mindset for us. Other may have more change to bring to our lives and so we may find that these people stay for a season. A very small portion of new friends stay or remain friends for the rest of our lives. How often are we reminded that we should only allow those w...

Consider the Lord's example. Jesus made the commitment to invest in the lives of those He called to follow Him. He also travelled, fished, ate, and taught them every day. Discipleship as a concept is somewhat of a mystery to modern-day believers. It’s so often that we hear that we need to make disciples of all nations. So we go around regurgitating the teaching we receive with the latest updates from our best-liked teacher or preacher. Personally I am a very strong supporter of self-study of scripture so that we can get our head around the meaning behind the bible verses that we find quoted so often in Christian circles. When we do this something pops up that turns our understanding on its head. We start to realize that the classic version of this verse goes like this.Mat 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,(ESV) In contrast we see the older translation of the King James version.Mat 28:...

Some people may think that they can hide behind their weakness and use it as an excuse to keep living a life of sin. For a season this may very well let you have your way, but when you realise that the very same mindset is keeping you from growing in your relationship with God To sin, in layman’s terms, is to act or omit an action that then causes offence. In the broadest sense though sin is mostly seen as an offence against God. The reality is that sin can also be committed against our neighbours and even against our own bodies. 1Corrinthians 6v18:” Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” It is very possible for us to face the challenge of how to overcome sin in our lives and yet find that it is more of a progression than a momentary breakthrough. Taking this into consideration its important to KNOW that we are all born into sin and as such we are never without sin entirely. This the...

1 Tim 1v4:”   and occupying themselves with myths and endless genealogies. These things promoting controversies rather than God’s ongoing purpose, which involves faith. 5 the goal of this instruction is love that flows from a pure heart, from a clear conscience, and from a sincere faith.” The deep and precious teaching that God has intended for the edification of His bride has sadly been distorted to the point where getting to the essence of a godly principle has become a laborious endeavor.  It’s no wonder that our fellow believers find themselves reading the bible and struggling to grasp its life-changing meaning.  I am a firm believer that things need to be grasped or understood.  I have seen people with a massive academic ability that can memorize entire chapters of the Bible and still really battle to explain what it means in practical daily living.  Learning something word for word does not always mean it can be practically lived out.  Understanding o...

Many pastors and religious leaders may teach that we forgive something once and then the matter is handed over to God. I believe that the matter is more complex than that. There are massive amounts of information on the web about the importance of forgiveness and how it is of vital importance to our spiritual well being. Few verses have gained more exposure than  Matthew 6v14-15 . It reminds us that we need to forgive in order to be able to receive forgiveness. The act of forgiveness is so important to God that He makes it clear that He will not tolerate unforgiveness. I have also written on the topic of forgiveness in my book. Interestingly the topic of forgiveness is one that matures as I study it. Forgiveness is a key part of a chain of healing that restores righteousness and peace to our hearts both internally and with the Father. In the ideal world we want to live in peace. In fact Jesus promotes such a life when He says:  “This is how everyone know that you my disciples,...

I was pondering the question and took my search to the Bible and put my trust in the Holy Spirit to show me the way. Here is what I was able to come up with... My question is why? Why is the prayer of the righteous effective while God does not listen to the prayer of the unrighteous.? James 5v16b   :  ”The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” John 9v31 :  “We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he does listen to anyone who worships him and does his will.” I was pondering the question and took my search to the Bible and put my trust in the Holy Spirit to show me the way. Here is what I was able to come up with… The very basics of prayer works like this. When we speak in prayer God hears and then replies. At. Least that’s what we hope for. That is what I was taught from Sunday school. Does God hear and answer all prayer? He is the Supreme omnipotent God and knows everything all the time. So to be fair one must say that God knows and therefore hea...

  My life was changed forever. The revelation became my new direction and my focus changed.... In my conversations with him, I realized again how easy it is for us to get buried in a godly purpose. As a young Christian, I was full of passion for my faith. My zeal for Gods kingdom was rivaled only by my sinful nature. I felt driven to spend more time in Gods presence, but my battle with my childhood baggage clung to me like wet clothes on a rainy day. Like most young Christians I found and settled into a welcoming church where I quickly grew. True to my nature it was not long before my head-strong nature got me into trouble with the church leaders. During this season in my early adult life, I was also exposed to the “deliverance ministry”. I consider myself fortunate to have seen and experienced the things that I did during that time. These experiences became my reason to oppose the kingdom of darkness in my efforts to become the ideal Christian. I invested myself to become as wel...

How can anyone think soundly and choose wisely about any matter unless they have the guidance of the Holy Spirit How often do we find ourselves in a place where we are dissatisfied with people in positions of power? I know many people that are quite outspoken about the actions of people in power over them. I very often find myself commenting on choices that people in my work based management make. The more their choices impact me the more vocal I tend to be. Recently I was very frustrated about an issue and like any child. I went to my Heavenly Father and complained about the apparent injustice that I was placed under. someone upstairs made some choices that did not go the way I thought they should have. Fortunately for me, the Lord has a sense of humor and drew me out a bit. He let me speak my mind until I felt that I had said it all. He listened to me complain until I felt satisfied that I had said enough to convince God to step in and fight for my cause. Anyone that has been in love...

  God is absolutely interested in our well being however, He is still the Father of His house that wants to see His children GROW, MATURE, AND REPRODUCE SPIRITUALLY. In every country across the globe, people trade in vastly different ways but seldom without currency. Money had been a key building block for civilization for millennia. Ever since people started making use of cash to trade there have been those who look for ways to exploit the use of currency. Traditionally those who were tasked to protect the integrity of currency have kept devising ways to prove the authenticity of their particular currency. Sadly there will always be those who keep working on new ways to steal the value of a currency just so they can have the perceived liberty that comes from it. The power that comes from God’s presence is no exception and people have been trying to control or own it since biblical times as we see in Act 8v18. WHAT THEN IS THE CURRENCY OF GOD’S HOUSE OR KINGDOM? Faith: Heb 11v6 Now...