I recently attended a one-week training that was held in Bower House and I can say that it was the most memorable week in my life. Some are dreading to go to training but in my case it was different. Months before the much awaited week I was already so excited about it – I was like a kid who can’t wait to go to an amusement park with her loved ones.
Everything was perfect – I had a week off from work so all I had to do is to open myself to the Lord and enjoy Him. I really enjoyed all the messages and experiences that we had during this wonderful week. It was major turning point in my life. I also appreciated the fact that if only for a week I was called a ‘trainee’.
The Lord knows how badly I want to go to the full time training – so the one-week training for me is like “a dream come true”.
I want to share one of my top enjoyments from the training. It is related to the subject of, ‘Life Grows by Regulation toward Maturity and Function’. All Christian believers know that our life is a mingled life – the mingling of the human life and the divine life.
It’s so marvellous that the highest form of life – which is the ZOE life – is now mingled into our human life! We are created as vessels to contain the divine life. This is one of the greatest mysteries in the Bible. Our spiritual life, the divine life, the zoe life, needs to GROW! It doesn’t need to grow in God, but it does need to grow in us.
Col. 2:19 says “Holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.”
In the morning revival for this week 1 Cor. 3:6 says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” Furthermore, we need to grow up into Christ the Head – Eph. 4:15 “But holding to the truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.”
Our organic union with the Head depends upon the divine life mingled with our human life by faith and baptism – Eph. 4:5 “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” In this mingling we need to grow in the divine life into Christ the Head.
Brother Lee said that life grows by regulation. This sentence stayed with me ever since I first heard it. We have to admit that we all hate regulations. We always want to be free. When we are free, we are not growing. But we need to realize that in order for us to grow in life we need to be regulated.
The training is the perfect environment for this. The training is strict and trainees are highly regulated. We Christians who want to serve the Lord need this kind of teaching, this kind of training, this kind of regulation. In the training, you are restricted. Such restriction and regulation helps us to grow.
One more example is marriage. Marriage is God-ordained, it is initiated by God. In our marriage, we are being regulated by our husband or wife. In every situation we are in, we have to be obedient because it is sovereignly arranged by the Lord for us to be regulated.
These verses really touched me and became a rhema to me when I read it during the training: Gal. 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” and Phil. 3:16 “Nevertheless whereunto we have attained, by the same rule let us walk”.
Saints, when we became a Christian, we were automatically being charged with a commission – a heavenly commission. We are like the royal family here in UK – they have to be trained from the time they are really young. Without such training, one would never be a king or queen.
They would not be qualified to be a king. A loose person doesn’t need training but for us to become overcomers and co-kings with Christ we need the top training, and the top training is the strictest regulation to help us grow.
The regulations produce certain character traits, such as, being genuine, being accurate, etc. The training is the best environment for us to grow. Hallelujah! The Lord is training and perfecting us to become kings!
Of course this growth by regulation has a goal – maturity and function. We are not entering into a seminary to acquire biblical knowledge according to the book. We are cooperating with the Lord that He may give us more growth, that He may give us the maturity that we need. When we are matured, we become useful.
Have you ever seen an immature one who is useful? The same principle applies spiritually. Babies cannot function in a useful or meaningful way because they are short of maturity in life.
As a little child grows, his function increases. This little child has to grow to the full age. When we become useful in the Lord’s hand, it is our function. The usefulness is function and the function issues from maturity.
We all desire to be useful in the Lord’s hand but we need to realize that we need the maturity. This maturity comes out of our growth. Without growth, even if we have the divine life, there is no maturity. The life plus the growth brings in the maturity. This growth always comes from the coordination of regulations with the divine life.
The divine life is precious, the regulations are lovely, and the growth is so valuable because it issues in maturity which gives us the function. This is the aim and goal of the training. The goal is to carry out God’s divine and heavenly commission.
We are like the virgins and the slaves mentioned in Matthew 25. As virgins, we need the growth to reach maturity. We should always be full of the oil which signifies the Holy Spirit. The spiritual oil causes us to grow reaching maturity. The more we grow, the more we will be filled within with the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God is the divine life and the infilling of this Spirit of God is the growth of this divine life. Moreover, as slaves of the Lord we need to function. Our function depends upon our diligence. Oh, how we need to pray to the Lord, fellowship with Him, receive His enlightenment, and be dealt with by Him day by day!
‘A slothful person would never contact the Lord regularly’. (W. Lee) The slave who would not invest his talent is evil and slothful. He would not use the talent given to him by the Lord. He hid his talent in the earth.
I am still on the learning process to be filled with the Spirit that I may grow in life to reach maturity. And also I can testify that exercising myself to be diligent is not an easy task. But I need to do so because I love the Lord. I want to use my ability in maturity to serve Him to produce something for Him. [sharing from sister R. working in London, from her enjoyment and experience in her 1 week training in Bower House recently. Check out the next time the training is on via Amana Trust.]
