God will sovereignly use persons, things, and events to empty us of everything that has filled us and to take away every preoccupation so that we may have an increased capacity to be filled with God (W. Lee, Life-Study of Genesis).
God’s purpose can be fulfilled only through a transformed and mature corporate man, and we as believers in Christ today are in the process not only of transformation but also of maturity.
In the process of transformation we have God’s divine life transforming and inwardly replacing our natural life, and in the process of maturity we have the divine life that transforms us filling our being to overflowing with blessing.
In the story of Jacob we see that God chose him, selected him, called him, and how He arranged everything for Jacob’s transformation and maturity. At the beginning of his life, Jacob was scheming and arranging everything so that he would gain the benefit, but at one point the Lord wrestled with him and touched him, and from then onward his transformation began.
As his transformation approached completion, Jacob still had a natural preference: he loved Joseph above all his brothers, and this natural affection for Joseph occupied the space in his being that was supposed to be God’s. Therefore, God took Joseph away for a while, and in this time Jacob’s being was open to God’s dispensing inwardly.
He no longer was seeking for gain; he eventually submitted himself to God’s hand in all his environment and situations. The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened inside of Jacob, but we can see from the result that Jacob was transformed and matured to become a person whose capacity was enlarged and who was mature in life.
Others may not see what is happening in our being inwardly as the Lord takes us through in the process of maturity, but maturity in life is the sum total of the discipline of the Holy Spirit (see Heb. 12:5-11). Nothing is accidental in our life; everything is sovereignly arranged by God for our transformation and maturity.
God will bring us to the point where we no longer scheme or arrange things according to our preference but we depend on Him and trust in the mercy of our all-sufficient God.
Everything is because of His mercy, and we know only to come to Him to enjoy Him, receive His dispensing, and enjoy His supply day by day for our going on with Him unto maturity.
Maturity is the Enlargement of our Capacity Through the Discipline of the Holy Spirit
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Source: Pics blog
Being brought on to maturity means the enlargement of capacity. God has allotted to each one of us a specific arrangement, a particular set of situations, people, and things that work together to limit us, and press us that we may be transformed and matured.
We should not seek to escape God’s arrangement, no matter how difficult it may be. If we try to change the situation or seek to escape, we will prolong the time required for God’s life to mature in us. But if we pass through sufferings as the Lord ordains them and we enjoy the Lord’s constant supply, we will not be hardened but rather enlarged in our capacity. “In pressure You have enlarged me” (Psa. 4:1).
In 2 Cor. 1 Paul describes the pressure he was under, saying that they was pressed so that they despaired of life, and the sentence of death was in them so that they would not trust in themselves but in God who raises the dead.
Today we can live a life of saving our soul-life and delay the process of growth and maturity, or we can keep practicing the birthright of enjoying the Lord to grow in life by touching the Lord, having many conversations with Him, and consecrating ourselves to Him, and He will give us many experiences that will bring us to maturity.
Maturity in life is actually the sum total of receiving the discipline of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 12:5-11). When others look at a mature person they feel their maturity in life, but what they don’t see is the accumulated discipline of the Holy Spirit which that person secretly received day-by-day throughout the years (see 2 Cor. 1:8-10; Gen. 47:7, 10).
Even though God took Rachel from Jacob and brought him through a long process of transformation, he still had a natural preference: he was preoccupied with his son Joseph and loved him very much. God had to take Joseph from him in a sovereign way so that Jacob’s being would be open and emptied of anything that preoccupied him, and God could fill his inner being.
God sovereignly uses persons, things, and events to empty us of everything that has filled us so that He may take away our every preoccupation for us to have an increased capacity to be filled with God (Luke 1:53; Matt. 5:6). It is only those poor in spirit and pure in heart that can see God and know God in an intimate way.
God wants to simplify us and un-occupy us from everything that preoccupies us and gets our attention, our time, and our heart. Many times we don’t know what’s going on and only sometimes we realize, at the end of a certain situation or event, that God has taken away something that preoccupied us and now we have an increased capacity to be filled with Him.
We need to just learn to be one with the Lord, open to Him, enjoy Him, and “pray to be prayed for” – pray that the saints would pray for your growth unto maturity, and you yourself cooperate with the Lord to pray for others saints to grow unto maturity.
Lord Jesus, we want to practice our birthright enjoying You, touching You, and consecrating ourselves to You so that we may experience You and grow unto maturity in the divine life. You know where we are and what preoccupies us. Lord, give us the experiences we need to be un-occupied and emptied so that we may be filled with You. We want to be filled with God more and more. Oh Lord, we simply pray that we would go on with You in our growth in life unto maturity. Enlarge our capacity to receive God, be filled with God, and express God!
Everything is Under God’s Sovereignty for our Transformation and Maturity
Everything that happens to us is under God’s sovereignty for our transformation and maturity; nothing is accidental.
From Jacob’s life we can clearly see that everything that happens to us as the people of God is under God’s sovereignty for our transformation and maturity. Nothing is accidental and no situation is random.
In Jacob’s case, he had to suffer the loss of Rachel and then the loss of Joseph, the treasure of his heart (Gen. 37:31-35). Later, Simeon was put in prison, and “that man” (Joseph) from Egypt requested that Benjamin would also be sent to him.
God sovereignly arranged everything in Jacob’s life and environment so that He would empty him of anything that preoccupies him (even his natural preference and natural affection) so that He would fill Jacob’s inner being with Himself.
In his early days Jacob always trusted in his own skill and ability. However, after the dealings in the last stage, his trust was no longer in himself, but in God. Jacob had come to know God’s mercy. In his experiences through all his life, he eventually realized that it was God’s mercy, not his skill and ability, that had counted in his situations. And he had also learned that this merciful God is all-sufficient, not only almighty, to meet his needs in every kind of situation. Hence, Jacob said to his sons, “May the All-sufficient God grant you mercy before the man” (43:14). Now his trust and rest are altogether in the mercy of his all-sufficient God, no longer in himself and in his ability. Here we see a man who has been fully transformed for maturity. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Genesis, p. 1201)
Upon reading this or when hearing about suffering and loss, I and many believers ask, Do I really need to suffer such a great loss so that I may be transformed and matured?
In our mind and imagination we may think that some kind of a great loss will happen to us, and we will be devastated and wrecked….and, naturally, we don’t want that to happen.
But we need to realize one thing: the Lord supplies us for the present moment, day by day. We shouldn’t worry about the future or imagine what would happen if… – we simply need to enjoy the Lord’s supply for today.
Come back from the future and live now, enjoy Christ, be filled with Him, and when things will happen, the supply will be there. When it is time to lose Rachel, the supply will be there. When it is time to enter the process of maturity, the supply will be there.
Eventually, we will be mature believers who learned that God is merciful and all-sufficient to meet our needs in every kind of situation (see Gen. 43:11, 13-14; 17:1; Phil. 1:19-21a; 4:11-12; cf. 1 Tim. 6:6-8). Our trust will then be altogether in the mercy of our all-sufficient God, no longer in ourselves or our ability.
We are still enjoying the Lord in the church life because of His mercy. We are still going on with the Lord because of His mercy.
We will come to the point where we can’t solve others’ problems, we will have no method to pray, we cannot offer advice to others for their situations, and we cannot trust ourselves anymore; all we can do is pray and depend on the mercy of our all-sufficient God.
Lord, we trust in Your sovereignty in arranging all things and situations for transforming us and bringing us on to maturity. We don’t want to worry about the future, and we refuse to imagine the great losses we may have to suffer. Lord, keep us enjoying Your bountiful supply moment-by-moment and day-by-day! Bring us on with You little by little until we full rely on You, trust in You, and know You as our all-sufficient God meeting all our needs in every kind of situation. Lord, bring us on to maturity!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 93-94, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 6 / msg 6, The Process of Maturity.
- 2nd picture source and more quotes on this topic via, Christian Pictures.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Thy anointing Spirit / Me shall permeate, / All my soul and spirit / Thou wouldst saturate; / Every part transforming / Till conformed to Thee, / Till Thy life shall bring me / To maturity. (Hymns #841)
# As we’re daily in this process / And by life are sanctified, / How we thank Him for the blessing / Of the church life He’s supplied. / Here God is our full enjoyment, / Practical and real to us; / Sons we are, and heirs together, / In the church life, glorious! (Hymns #1203)
# While I pass through tribulations, / Situations heated press. / Let me see Your hand most sovereign; / Oil anointing on me dress. / All my days, Your presence filleth; / Life and nature, God express, / Leaning on You, Staff, my Shepherd, / Flowing out to others bless. (Song on Being under His Shepherding)
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