The scriptures gives us a detailed guide in identifying a carnal minded believer in the gatherings of Christians. It says:
“These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever…
…These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.”
Jude 1:12-13, 16 NIV
We need to take a very careful note of these descriptions, because the body of Christ is full of such people today. As the scriptures mentioned above, these are Christians who do fellowship with other believers in Christ; but they have no spiritual fruit to show for their fellowship within the body of Christ. They do have no desire to grow spiritually in the things of God.
It is impossible for a born again child of God, not to have the desire for the sincere milk of the word of God that got him saved. God’s word is the very foundation of our faith. We can’t bear spiritual fruit without God’s word being rooted and grounded in our lives.
Any Christian who desires spiritual growth, needs to grow in God’s love, as he is growing into being rooted and grounded in God’s word. The love of God is not only revealed to us through His word to us. But His love is also experienced through His actions in saving us. God expressed and demonstrated His love for us, by giving His only begotten Son, to die as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. God’s love for us is not only in words, but His love is always followed by corresponding action. Just as faith is dead without corresponding action, love is dead also without corresponding action (James 2:17). Faith and love always works together (Galatians 5:6).
It is the love of God working inside of us, that gives us the desire to grow in the things of the Kingdom of God. We got saved as a result of the love of God towards us, which we tasted and experienced as being good. We then continued to grow in love, as God’s love increases our desire for His word in our lives. We love God’s word because we have experienced His love for us.
But love is actually a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is not a gift. There are those who will often try to characterize the love of God as a gift. This is an incorrect understanding and understatement of God’s love for us. God’s love is not a gift. Otherwise it would have been used up.
But Jesus Christ is the gift of God to us (John 3:16); while God’s love in us is a manifestation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, through which the gift of God (Jesus) came to us. God’s love is always yielding in its fruitfulness. It can never loose its value in our lives, because of its fruitfulness in us. God’s love is therefore the medium through which God’s gift (Jesus) was revealed and presented to us. And it is because of the love of God, that God’s gift to all humanity – Jesus, can never loose the value in His name. It is the love of God working in our lives, which shows us as the children of God (1 John 3:10&11). That’s why it is normal for a Christian to love. God’s love in us is the natural environment for our spiritual growth.
WE LOVE MORE BECAUSE WE WERE FORGIVEN MUCH
Jesus once said about the woman with the alabaster oil:
“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”
Luke 7:47 NLT
A person who shows little love or desire for the things of the Kingdom of God, does so because that person has been forgiven little. And there are those who are so religious in their Christian background, but who do have no desire for the things of the Kingdom of God.
This is due to their self righteous attitude, towards the Kingdom of God. They are self righteous to the extent that, the love of God is not being visibly manifested in their Christian character. These are often the “grumblers and faultfinders”, as described by Jude above.
On the other hand there are those who are fanatical, about their love for God; like the woman with the alabaster oil. Their love for God is blind to the faults or sins in others, because they had been forgiven so much to be thinking about all of that. The more they had been forgiven, the deeper their love for God is. They do know from their personal experience that, it is the love of God in us that covers our sins, and not our works of self righteousness.
It is God’s love in our lives that can actually transform a “cloud without rain” (see Jude 1:12) or a carnally minded believer, into a fruitful and gifted vessel of God. God’s love is the initial manifestation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us.
THE HEART THAT LOVES GOD IS TEACHABLE ABOUT GOD
But we can’t grow spiritually at all, if we are not teachable. The teaching of God’s word helps us, to grow in love and in the other manifestations of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There has to be a sincere and deliberate desire in hunger and thirst, for the word of God in us as believers in Christ.
Apostle Peter said:
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
1 Peter 2:1-3 NIV
A Carnal minded Christian will change to become a fruitful vessel of God, when he makes the decision to get rid of carnality out of his life. This will open up his heart to becoming more teachable, as he desires the spiritual milk of God’s word, so as to grow spiritually by it. The sincere milk of God’s word will cause us to grow in love as we walk by faith.
Jesus once declared:
“The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.”
Luke 6:40 NIV
A self righteous believer will always think, that he knows more than his Bible teacher. This is the type of mentality in the carnally minded Christian. But instead of growing in love, he ends up creating problems and divisions within the body of Christ. It is often the absence of good and sound biblical teachings, that causes Christians not to grow up into spiritual maturity.
It is however good to listen to good and sound preaching. But we do need to realize that, the Preacher can only encourage and motivate us, into doing what we need to do in accordance with the will of God. A Preacher can’t show you how to practically apply the word of God in doing what he is encouraging you to do by the Holy Spirit. That’s what a Bible Teacher does!
This is how the five fold ministries within the Church compliments one another in edifying the body of Christ. The Preacher or the Prophet can’t do what the Bible teacher does best. A Preacher often functions under the prophetic anointing to motivate the congregation. But he is limited in what he knows by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul told the Corinthians:
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”
1 Corinthians 13:9-10 NIV
Completeness comes when the teacher or the pastor does his job. This is the healthy way that the Lord has designed the body of Christ to function. Each one of the five fold ministries has to know, and acknowledge what God has called them to do. If we all are walking in our callings, then the body of Christ will indeed grow stronger and bolder in faith and love, to the edification of one another in love.
It is however the teaching of the word of God, that can practically help the believer, to grow in love and in faith towards God. Good preaching is never and should never be a substitute for good teaching under a corporate anointing.
A good teaching of God’s word must be practicable and applicable, to the actual life of a Christian. Good and sound biblical teachings do not ever major on the things, or teachings of the secular unsaved world. It focuses on what the Bible says, and makes it applicable to the real life situation of a believer. Sound biblical teachings has nothing to do with psychology, politics or social engineering. But rather it is focused on the application of the word of God in solving real life spiritual problems of the believers; so that the body of Christ may be fruitful in proclaiming the gospel to the end of the earth.
THE GOSPEL OF LOVE TO THE END OF THE EARTH
Taking the gospel to the end of the earth is the original mandate that Jesus gave to every believer in His name. He never called us to build up an image or a name for ourselves, but to lift up His name. We need as the body of Christ to get back to the basics, of the proclamation of the gospel. The basics is to the end of the earth. We must do it now. The Lord is coming soon. We don’t have the enough time left, to be building up our own little kingdoms here on earth.
It’s time for the Church to wake up, and get back into the original mandate of Jesus to us all (Mark 16:18-20). Our way back begins in our spiritual fruitfulness. And as we grow stronger and bolder in faith and love towards all men, our adversary will be under our feet. Christ will surely and indeed be reigning over all of this whole world as Lord.
