Hebrews 6:12 – “Be not slothful, but rather, be followers of those, who through faith and patience, inherit the promises”.
Again, diligence is a God-quality. God is diligent. He wants us to be diligent; so, whatever you do, do it diligently. Sustain your focus on what you're doing, keep persevering in doing it - you will get there. I've discovered, in the walk with Christ, that diligence in following the Lord, and seeking the Lord, and doing what He wants you to do, despite everything else, brings you through.
Every believer needs to grow, and it's not automatic - it needs to be intentional. Some people think: if I just turn up, something is going to happen. No, our growth needs to be intentional; so, studying the word is an intentional effort; prayer is an intentional effort; working on your personal life is an intentional effort; going to a seminar to get healing is an intentional effort. All these things require intentional effort. Intentional means it's conscious, deliberate and you're doing it on purpose - you've got something in mind. When we understand our calling, then our response is to be diligent - very diligent; and as we're diligent, there are great and precious promises, that cause us to become transformed, and changed, and enter the kingdom magnificently. We can have an abundant entrance to the kingdom, or we can barely scrape in. I think it's better to have an abundance.
Then he talks about the consequences of not growing. Having given diligence to grow, and to change, he then talks about the characteristics of not growing; and then the seven qualities that we are to diligently work on. Let's have a look then, at the characteristics of Christians that are not growing - and you probably all know some of them. Essentially, there's a lack of life and freshness around them - they become stale, and old, and religious, because they're not growing.
2 Peter 1:8 – “If all these things are yours, and abound, they will make sure you're neither barren, nor unfruitful, in the knowledge of our Lord. But if you lack these things, then you're short-sighted, even to blindness - you've forgotten you were cleansed from your old sins”.
If we don't keep growing, then we stagnate. Stagnant water is not life-giving water. There's no freshness in your walk with God - no fresh insights, no fresh learning experiences, no fresh growing experiences - and people like that become quite shut-down, and passive. When people are not growing, they draw on their gifts, their talents, instead of a relationship; and they draw on past experiences, instead of what God is currently speaking to them. So, if we don't persevere in development and growing, then it results in the following things: unfruitfulness, blindness, short-sightedness, forgetfulness.
I'm going to go through the list of the five things that characterise people who are not growing. The consequences of not growing…
1) Barren. The word literally means ‘without labour’. They're not serving. They're not productive. They're spiritually unemployed. They live off the service and faith of others. Think of the Christians you know like that. They're never available to serve, they're not passionate for good works…
Titus 2:14 – “He's redeemed us to Himself… a people that'll be zealous for good works”
Where is the zeal? Where's the passion? They're negligent in their walk with God; they're not in a grow mode. Our serving the Lord catalyses the growing, because it puts you into difficult situations, which force your growth. You can't just grow just by reading the Bible - you've got to be engaged.
2) Unfruitful. From agriculture, most of the new fruit comes on the new growth; so ‘unfruitful’ means you're not producing the fruit you're supposed to produce. You lack the fruit of the Spirit, you're not actively involved in advancing the kingdom, you're not having a positive influence. Think of the sheer number of Christians, many people we know are like that - and they're not aware that they're disqualifying themselves from the First Resurrection. They're disqualifying themselves from their calling, they're disqualifying themselves from being part of the great coming age with Christ.