Maturity

From Jacob’s experience we see that everything that happens to us is under God’s sovereignty for our transformation and maturity. Nothing is accidental. God’s eternal purpose can only be accomplished through our transformation and maturity. Jacob’s experience is an excellent illustration of this. 

In his early days Jacob always trusted in his own skill and ability. However, after the dealings in the last stage, his trust was no longer in himself, but in God. Jacob had come to know God’s mercy. In his experiences through all his life, he eventually realized that it was God’s mercy, not his skill and ability, that had counted in his situations. And he had also learned that this merciful God is all-sufficient, not only almighty, to meet his needs in every kind of situation. Hence, Jacob said to his sons, “May the All-sufficient God grant you mercy before the man” (Gen. 43:14). Now his trust and rest are altogether in the mercy of his all-sufficient God, no longer in himself and in his ability. Here we see a man who has been fully transformed for maturity. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 1200-1201) 

How Christ Cleanses (Beautifies) the Church

After the Lord Jesus gave Himself for us in the flesh, He was resurrected and in resurrection became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the life-giving Spirit, He is the speaking Spirit. Whatever He speaks is the word that washes us. The Greek word rendered “word” in Ephesians 5:26 is…rhema, which denotes the instant word, the word the Lord presently speaks to us. As the life-giving Spirit, the Lord is not silent; He is constantly speaking. If you take Him as your person, you will discover how much He desires to speak within you. How can we know that Christ as our person is present with us? We know it by His speaking. If we do not have His speaking within us, we do not have His presence. But if we turn to Him to mean business to take Christ as our life and our person, His speaking will begin again.

This Spirit is the water that washes us. The more the Spirit speaks, the more we are washed, cleansed…This cleansing is a metabolic cleansing that removes what is old and replaces it with what is new…By the inward, metabolic cleansing…we have transformation. By the metabolic cleansing that comes from the speaking of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, we are truly changed, transformed. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 453-454)