Contending For The Faith (the Pathway To Maturity) by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Every Believer Has a Great Destiny in Christ

The Bible calls that destiny the hope of his calling — meaning there is an expectation in the heart of God when he calls men. God does not call people without intent. When God calls a people to himself, there is a destiny attached to that call. His joy is made complete when those he has called evolve and become portraits of his expectation.

Unfortunately, many believers — if they are believers at all — do not grow. They do not transit to the point where they bring satisfaction to the heart of the Father as reflections of his glory.

Revivals are ignited and sustained primarily to the degree to which God finds vessels that are available and yielded. There are no dates for revivals. Revivals happen the day God finds vessels that are yielded and available.

Romans 8:18–19 — I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature awaits the manifestation of the sons of God.

Creation is waiting for God to reveal who his sons truly are.

The New Birth Is Not the Finish Line

The new birth experience is not the totality of the believer's experience. It is the starting point of the journey.

At the point of salvation, many believers shut down their hunger. They shut down their pursuit. They become casual churchgoers, maintaining themselves around the corridors of salvation — not knowing they are called to start a journey by accepting the lordship of Jesus, but that it does not stop there.

John 1:12 — As many as believed in him, he gave them power to become sons of God.

Power to become. Those who have already believed are given power to become. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us — that we should be called sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be. The word "sons" in Greek is huios — one who by reason of knowledge has attained the same status with his father. When Jesus called God his Father and claimed that equality, they accused him of blasphemy. God's goal is not for us to remain children, to remain weak. He wants us to be reflections of his glory.

Three Kinds of Believers

With respect to this journey of transformation, scripture reveals three kinds of believers:

1. The Infant

   Saved but void of knowledge and void of transformation. Called babes. There are babies who come out looking like adults — but they are still babies. The infant is in Christ but has no capacity. He has not grown to a point where he can be trusted with the destinies of others.

   The danger of remaining an infant: an heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a slave — even though he is lord of all. When you see a believer who is an infant next to an unbeliever, their results can look the same. The only difference is that one has believed in Jesus Christ. The potential is in him — that incorruptible seed is there — but in experience you may not find any difference.

   These are the kinds of people who consistently misrepresent the Christian faith. If you learn Jesus from the lens of a believer who remains an infant, you will see nothing from his life that draws you to Jesus — same pain, same challenges, same ignorance, same oppression as before he was saved.

2. The Transformed Believer

   One who has submitted to the systems of growth that produce maturity. He has opened himself to the ministry of the word. He has allowed himself to be mentored and built. He understands the rudiments of the kingdom. When you speak with a transformed believer, you find everything God. His spiritual understanding impresses. But when it comes to demonstrating the kingdom — bringing God to the scene here and now — he may be at a loss. Enlightened, but lacking the grace component to manifest and defend what he knows.

3. The Empowered Believer

   It is the believer who is saved, transformed, and empowered who becomes a witness. Not just one, not just two — all three.

   Jesus was already mentoring and teaching the disciples, but he never called them witnesses. When he was done with his lectures he said: tarry in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. From the day the Holy Spirit came upon them they became apostles, they became witnesses. They were never called disciples again.

   If you are not saved, transformed, and empowered, you may be called a believer — but you cannot be called a witness.

Three Ministries That Drive This Transition

This process of transition from infant to transformed believer to empowered believer is enhanced only when you encounter three unique ministries:

1. The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

   The Holy Spirit has a threefold ministry. First, he is the life-giving force to all creation. Second, he has a unique ministry to unbelievers — conviction, drawing them to Jesus. Third, he has a ministry to believers: making them alive to God, giving illumination, providing guidance and direction, and eventually bringing empowerment.

   Micah 3:8 — Surely I am full of power by the spirit.

   The Holy Spirit is the custodian of the power of God. It is impossible to see the power of God move through a life, a nation, or a church outside of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the one with a unique ability to search the mind of God and reveal to the saints the things no eye has seen, no ear has heard, things that have not come into the comprehension of the heart of man.

   1 Corinthians 2:10 — But God has revealed them to us by his spirit. For the spirit searches all things — yes, the deep things of God.

   When you get saved and are not introduced to the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit, even though the Holy Spirit plays a role in your being saved, there is a separate encounter with his person and ministry. If you do not have this encounter, there are levels of illumination you may never reach, levels of direction and guidance for your life you may never access.

2. The Ministry of the Word

   The logos of God. John 1:1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him.

   Acts 20:32 — I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified.

   If you are exposed to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and not exposed to the ministry of the word, eventually you will begin to practice all kinds of things that look spiritual but will be demonic. The assignment of the word is to give boundary and to help you understand how the Holy Spirit operates. God operates within the jurisdiction of scripture. His dynamic operation is within the jurisdiction of scripture. Many people call any experience God because they have no basis for judging experiences — they have not honored the ministry of the word.

   Philippians 2:5 — Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

   Victorious living is a product of victorious thinking. There is a belief system — like software — that must be implanted within your spirit man and your mind. That belief system is what transits an individual to a sign and a wonder, or leaves them in spiritual mediocrity. The difference between any two believers is principally the level of light, the degree to which they have allowed the ministry of the word to prevail over their minds.

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   Even Satan depends on the word of God to afflict believers. When he came to Eve, his first move was: what did God tell you? That is what I need to know before I know how to attack you.

   Four Ways to Engage the Word

   1. Study — Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
   2. Listen — Faith comes by hearing and hearing. The first hearing produces awareness. The second produces conviction. There is a layer of hearing that only brings awareness, and a deeper layer that brings persuasion.
   3. Speak — The word in Greek is homologeo — to say the same thing, to repeat. Something happens when you repeat. "I prophesied as I was commanded and the moment the man repeated, creation happened." Destruction happens when men repeat the enemy's words. Creation happens when men repeat God's words. When God says a thing, say it like him. When Satan says a thing, stop it there — do not repeat after him.
   4. Obey — Obtain grace to obey the conditions that commit God to perform for you.

3. The Ministry of the Teaching Priest

   Jeremiah 3:15 — And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

   You are as fortunate as the quality of the teaching priest that God connects to your destiny.

   The kind and quality of teaching priest you access on your journey to becoming can make a whole difference in your spiritual adventure. There are people today whose stunted spirituality is not a product of rebellion — their hearts are ever open — but they have been ill-fed because of the quality of the teaching priests they sat under.

   There are sincere believers in whom you see the passion to grow and to learn, but it was unfortunate that they came under a teaching priest not enlightened enough to produce the kind of nourishment that translates to power. Some of them are still undoing what poor mentorship produced — painfully reversing a process that took 10 to 20 years to build.

   When God wants to help a man, he brings him to a teaching priest. If Samuel never met Eli, he may never have become Prophet Samuel. What Eli told him formed the foundation of his prophetic ministry.

   If you find a man of God that God brings to your life — one who serves you grace with truth, with character, with love — honor such a man and place value on him forever.

   Something happens to you when you dishonor the Holy Spirit. Something happens when you dishonor the word. Something happens when you dishonor the teaching priest sent to you. The anointing flows through the vessel of honor. The channel of honor. You can be around the anointing, but it will fail to bless you — because the investment of the spirit placed upon that life can no longer reach you.

Prayer Is Not Optional

Acts 6:4 — But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

No believer is given the liberty to choose prayer or the word. Some say "I am a prayer person." Another says "I am a word person." Both are in error. The Bible never creates a dichotomy between prayer and the word. Every time you see the ministry of prayer, you see the word — and vice versa.

This was demonstrated in the life of Jesus at his temptation. The Holy Spirit led him into the place of prayer. When the forty days were done and Satan came to tempt him, he did not say "I have prayed." He said "It is written." The weapon he used was not his prayer record — it was the word that the prayer had built in him.

Your prayer life is as powerful as the scriptures that support it. You can pray amiss — even zealously. What gives life to prayer is fervency and word-compliancy.

1 John 5:14 — This is the confidence we have in him: that when we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Give God Time

There is an apostle within your spirit — but he cannot emerge until you give God time. There is a prophet within your spirit, but you need to give God time. There is a worshipper, a kingdom entrepreneur locked up within your spirit — but you are not able to access the wisdom that produces what you seek because you have not given God time.

You are too distracted. The Lord is calling for time. More time in the place of prayer. More time in the place of worship. Some of you need to reduce visibility — go back to the secret place. It is better for God to see you so that men can celebrate you. If men celebrate you alone, your relevance will be exhausted. The secret place is where you find the fountain of endless relevance.

The level of investment you make sowing in the spirit is the level of harvest that comes through your life. You will not become a person of stature when you are in a hurry with God — in a hurry with prayer, in a hurry with the word, in a hurry with the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

It is line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. Give God time. Give the Holy Spirit time. Give the word time. Give prayer time. Give the teaching priest time — so that you are built and made, though in an accelerated manner.

The maker wants to make. But give God time.