New Birth Excitement

Let me repeat a story many of us have heard or read.

One day train passengers were astounded that a teenager was behaving like a toddler on its first day out and his father did not seem to mind.

The youth was pointing at things he saw, even exclaiming that trees far from the train were running with them and many other stupid observations.

They were finally unable to bottle the kind of revulsion they felt and rudely asked the father why he could not keep his grown boy quiet.

What he told them made them ashamed.

He said that his son had been blind all his life and that they were from the person who was able to make the boy see. It thus was the first day he could see.

I see many believers behaving like those passengers when a new child is born into the kingdom of God.

We forget the awe we felt when we understood forgiveness for the first time. We forget the excitement we felt when we understood basic Biblical truths the first time. We forget how excited we were when the Bible sprung alive in our spirits. We forget righteous anger and response to people who were not towing the Biblical line. We forget how narrow-minded we were to people with different views to ours. In short we forget that one time we were spiritual babes. We forget that someone who comes to Christ is translated from darkness to light, from death to life.

It is a new life whether they are in their childhood or old age.

Like that father on the train we should get excited because we know what has happened.

And we know that a child can also be messy since they must learn everything from sitting to feeding themselves. And they are also noisy as they must learn to communicate.

We are therefore in error if we do not give spiritual babes the space they need to grow.

But we are not only supposed to allow them to be childlike, we must also create the space for them to grow.

Many believers who appear to understand spiritual children do not place any expectation for them to grow, and grow up. They are content to have a whole congregation of toddlers so that they convert pastoring to running a breastfeeding centre.

Seeing a year old unable to talk or walk is not a major concern (though I have had to calm parents who panic at that). But having a five year old unable to do so is a clear indicator of a developmental problem needing specialized attention.

Spoon feeding a one year old child is okay. Doing it to a teenager is clear indication of a crisis.

Sadly, many spiritual leaders, especially those who love being called spiritual parents do not have a problem with a child who should be taking care of his own grandchildren asking for the milk bottle from papa or mum.

‘Do not judge’ is the maxim of believers who do not mind fifty year old toddlers. In fact that papa idiocy is an indicator that the papa himself is a toddler.

(Let me say that there are people who like calling me papa, but it is not a title I enjoy in the least). Christ Himself said we call nobody on earth father because we have a father in heaven.

As ministers, we do not feed the people God brings our way all their lives. We are supposed to feed them until they are able to feed themselves.

If a believer must sit under your teaching for years without asking you to send them out to minister, please know that you are not feeding Christ’s flock. Look at these verses we love quoting everywhere.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: (Ephesians 4: 11 – 15)

Our ministry as ministers is to raise believers to be ministers.

But we must start by first appreciating their birth and those toddler years with the mind of making them not only independent but also able to take care of their generation.

That is what discipleship is. Or have we forgotten Matthew 28: 18 – 20?