Wisdom Charge: Grow Up

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. Hebrews 5:12 (NLT)

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Growth is one of the most essential aspects of life. Physically, mentally, spiritually, morally, in career, we must grow. This growth involves an advancement in knowledge, an exhibition of a more refined way of conversing, a more mature way of handling situations, and so on. A living organism that has refused to grow is dead already.

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Every organization, no matter how professional or crude, will try to appoint the brightest or one of the most mature members into its leadership positions. A person who is accountable, one who is intelligent, who comports himself well; someone who is bold, who exhibits a level of self control, and so on. Nobody wants to make a child a leader, else such an organization or community will crumble.

Leadership is not a function of how long you have spent on a job or in a congregation, it is not a function of how many people you've met as a result of your involvement in an organization. This is what many people get wrong; they think because they have been in an organization for many years, then they should qualify for leadership positions. For example, a person gets a job with a diploma certificate, then relaxed that he has gotten a job and stays in that position, while others have gone ahead to do higher degrees and professional certifications. When it is time for promotion, such a person will see those others mounting higher than he and will be able to do absolutely nothing, except to dislike them.

There are church members who have stayed in the congregation for many years, say twenty years or more. Many have joined the church, and many others have left or relocated but these ones have remained, but remained only as members, not building themselves up spiritually, not surrendering themselves for stewardship in the vineyard, shying away from spiritual activities like prayers, evangelism, bible study and so on. All they boast of is the number of years they've spent - the biography of all the pastors that have worked in the church, etc.

When this category encounter little challenges, they stagger or fail in faith because there is no spiritual rooting for their faith. If when you're supposed to be a teacher, it is found that you yourself are devoid of the necessary traits or understanding of what you are supposed to teach, then you will have to remain hidden in the congregation, just one of the others. Nothing will be committed into your hands to oversee or undertake. Growth is important, do not be complacent, do not be too used to a position, there's more grounds to cover; more exploits to be made.

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Whether or not you have the intention of leadership, there is a need to build up yourself so as to be useful for yourself, and so that you can have boldness to stand in the midst of the elites.

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By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago!. - Hebrews 5:12 (MSG)