Maturity, Responsibility, Authority

I have become deeply convinced that the level of our maturity should not be measured by how large our following is, or how deep our revelation is, or how powerful our miracles are. I believe that the only reliable measure of maturity is the responses we have to situations. The quicker we are to respond with something that has its source in the fruit of God’s Spirit, the more mature we are (Galatians 5:22,23).

It is generally unwise to trust someone who is immature with much responsibility. It us usually even more unwise to trust authority to the immature. The other side of those truths is that it is appropriate, if someone is mature, to give them responsibility, and when they are mature in their management of responsibility, to give them authority.

Describing the Kingdom, Jesus taught (Luke 19:11-27, Matthew 14-30) that a king gave responsibility to several people, and that the ones who handled it well (with faith, a fruit of the Spirit) were then given authority.

When Samuel allowed Yahweh to own his life and influence him, Yahweh rewarded his responsibility with authority – He didn’t let one of Samuel’s words fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19). When Elijah stopped rain from falling in Israel for three and a half years, what James called Elijah’s “prayer” (James 5:16-18) was, “As surely as Yahweh, the God of Israel lives, before Whom I stand, there shall be neither rain nor dew in the coming years unless I say so.” (1 Kings 17:1).

When will we become “profitable servants,” (Luke 17:5-10), who are valuable for more than simply “obedience?” When will we step into a level of maturity and experience with responsibility that is rewarded with genuine authority? If that’s not scary, we’re not thinking big enough about our futures, as the Sons and Daughters of God, who reign and judge as His family in His universes (1 Corinthians 6:3).