Eph 3:14-19  For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 
	In our last consideration together, we looked at some of the difficulties that are ours as we grow in the Lord. While I will not recount them, it would be worthwhile to summarize the elements inherent in our spiritual growth. This will be a very simplified summation. 
	Initially, there is a general pattern evident for all believers coming into maturity. God has determined for each of us the time necessary to instill His truth, in life, into us. Spiritual maturity parallels our physical and emotional growth as children into adults. The timeframe is not the same, but the development, the trials, the situations and the circumstances of our spiritual growth have their counterparts in our physical and emotional maturity. 
	The other aspect rests in the desire of the individual to go on in Christ. If there is no desire in our hearts, God will not force Himself upon us. If we feel that we have all that we want, that we are satiated in our development, then our growth will be arrested, for a season, for a decade, for a lifetime. The choice is ours before the Lord, and Him only.
	There is much that can be ascertained within our hearts unto spiritual growth before the Lord. Lord willing, we will look at several aspects of what should be in evidence in the lives of those who have become desirous of the full meat of God in Jesus Christ. We must, however, be very careful to not measure ourselves against each other. There is no place to say ought against any other Christian. The only measure is the Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom we are all lacking. That measure must be taken in our own hearts before the Lord, in the wondrous working of the Holy Spirit. Any supposed sense of superiority over another serves only to establish the fact that we have a long road into maturity before us. We should, rather, be of a heart that is sincerely grateful to even be joined to the company of the Lord’s Beloved. 
	The other aspect that needs to be stated very clearly is that we are not looking at a formula or a series of how-to-develop steps. Spiritual maturity, growth, and development cannot be prescribed in a step-by-step fashion. Each one of us has to be brought forth in the life of Christ. There are truths and realities that pertain to all those who are in the Beloved, but the individual processes that are needed in each life is known only to God. That is one element of the fact of the great Love that is our Lord and God. He knows us individually. He knows our hearts, singly and personally. He knows us and He still loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to bring us unto Himself. We are not an unidentified quantity, subject to general patterns of numerical data. We are, each one, held close in the heart of God and specifically dealt with in the manner that He knows will bring forth the Glory of God throughout this whole of creation.
	2 Cor 9:8-11 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. One who has become desirous of the Lord’s good work, is one whose life shows forth several elements of growing in the bounty of the Lord’s life, as presented in this passage. 
	There is evidence of reliance upon God to meet every need. How is this reliance developed? It is as we are taken into circumstances and situations that only can be met by the effective power of God. These situations and dilemmas serve to bring forth the knowledge that we are not able to stand before the onslaughts of this world age apart from Christ. There are several elements that enlarge us in this regard.
	One, as we are faced with conditions, that are far beyond our abilities, we begin to value the Word of God in greater depth. We find solace and comfort in reading the scripture. We find that the things we are faced with have been faced by many others in similar and worse situations, and that everyone of them was upheld by the victorious power of the Lord. We find the truth of God leaping forth from the printed words and lodging deep in our hearts. There are truths that don’t seem to make any earthly sense, yet, embed themselves into our beings by the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit. We know them in life, and we value them in substance. The Word becomes our refuge and our source for strength, because it points assuredly and livingly to Christ.
	Yes, maturity develops as we spend time in the Word of God. Most often, we go to the Word in the above mentioned manner, seeking solace and instruction. However, as we become grounded in the Lord, we soon find that we want to read His Word simply because we thoroughly enjoy spending our time contemplating the marvelous ways that He has proven Himself over and over again. His precepts and His words of life instill our beings with a joy unknown apart from the knowledge of His Word. Sometimes a passage or a story, sometimes a verse, sometimes a song, or even a single word is blossomed, by the Holy Spirit, into a symphony of joy in our hearts. Yes, trials may get us to come to the Word, but the life He imparts draws our hearts unto Himself in joy and the knowledge of Christ. In living by His truth, we become ever increasingly reliant upon our God for everything.
	Our growth into maturity should be marked by a desire to know more about our God. Reading scripture is one element of that growth of knowledge. The reality of God, faithfully and effectively, proving Himself over and over again brings forth this knowledge in our lives. This develops as we spend time with Him in prayer. As we talk to Him, verbally, silently, heart to heart by the Holy Spirit, our relationship will  develop and bloom into one that is far greater than any that we have known. Spending time with the Lord, making Him the priority of our lives in prayer and fellowship, will open our entire being to His marvelous omniscience. There is no other way to truly learn the fullness of God apart from spending time with Him. We can listen to others, we can read books about Him, but we will not know Him intimately, unless we spend time with Him in His Word and in communion, one-to-one.
	He desires to have this intimate place in our beings. To know Him, as brought before us in our passage …that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;… is not a once a week type of relationship. Our entire lives must be so indwelled and centered on Him that everything we do, everything we say, everything we are, is based on our relationship in Him. That is a constant communion relationship that compels us to pray and to pray without ceasing. 
	Just as a husband and wife must communicate in order to grow together into a strong marriage relationship, so must we be in constant, prayerful interaction with our Lord. This prayer life in Christ is not a burden or a chore. It is both a necessity of survival, like breathing, and a joy of companionship. We love to talk to our God, and He loves to have our hearts focused upon Him. We spend time together, not because we have to, but because we want to share together in the glory that is ours in Jesus Christ. It is not a chore. It is not a burden. It is not out of a sense of duty. It is not because we know we should. We pray because we love to be in the presence of our God and it is through prayer that we have that knowledge that we are before His throne of Grace. It is a delight and a privilege to enter into His presence and to commune with Him in prayer.
	Along with reading the Word and prayer, there is another key to spiritual maturity in the words all saints in our passage of consideration. We cannot grow alone. We have been joined one to another in Christ Jesus. Just as we are part of the body of Christ, we are a part of each other. It is vital that we are in fellowship, one with another, just as we are in fellowship with Him. It is in our gathering together, that we are brought to the place of instruction in the ways of the Lord. It is as we are receiving instruction and exhortation together, that we learn to value the work of God in each other.
	This is not a matter of getting together so we can compare ourselves to one another, or to gossip about each other. No, it is as we learn to deal with each other in the Lord, that we see just how much God loves all of us. We are molded together, fit together in Him. Where one lacks, the other supplies, where one needs encouragement in the Lord, another supplies that support, pointing always to the Lord. One teaches, one ministers, one prays, one consoles, each as directed by the wondrous working of the Holy Spirit. There can be no sense of superiority, only a knowledge that we are all together in the loving arms of the Lord. We share in the joys, the sorrows, and the situations that beset us, because we see the work of God forming each of us into that which God desires. 
	Our oneness is not based on common interests or ideals. It is based on the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ brought us together in Himself. He is the One Who has done the joining. He is the One Who has supplied the life of Himself, to bring us into the perfect relationship of being His body, His representation on this earth. He is the One Who has manifested Himself in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we are joined. It is nothing that we can develop through methodology or ideology. It is in Christ, that we grow together, through every trial and tribulation, into that unblemished bride as His Church.
	This union, one with each other in Him, this body of believers throughout the earth, is focused on the element of being unto God that which will bring forth praise unto His name. We are brought together to learn of Him, and in that learning, we discover the truth that all this earth is  intended, through the effective witness of the Church, to bring praise unto God for the Great Love that He is. It is in the church, that the witness of Christ will be shown forth, in brilliant splendor, as the greatest creation of His hands. It will be the vision of the joining together of the heart of God with the hearts of man in the Lord Jesus Christ. None will be able to withhold from God the great praise which is His due. All of the universes of His hand will utter forth amazement and honor due His name. While that praise will be forthcoming from creation in the future revelation of the church of God’s Beloved, we, the body of Christ, should be giving Him that honor and praise now. As we gather together in praise, as we study His wonderful Word, as we fellowship with Him, and with each other in Him, we should be a living praise unto the One True God of Life and Love; Father, Son and Spirit.
	In that living praise as His church, our lives will evidence the same reality of Christ that has made us His very own. We should be alive in the fact that we are no longer living our lives unto ourselves, our wants, our desires and our understanding. We are living unto the glory of God on this earth. As such, as we have our dealings with all that the Lord brings into our lives, we should be expressing the same heart of Christ, Who now indwells us. This means simply, that our lives are now sacrifices unto others in love. As Christ gave Himself, as the means of bringing the Love of God in eternal life into this realm, so are we to live the same unto others. In us, the world should see a giving forth of love. Spiritual maturity involves the absolute knowledge that we are no longer due any recognition in this realm. We are no longer to consider ourselves as the end all of this universe. Who we are is centered only in the terms of Christ, Who now lives His life in us. Whatever comes our way on the sojourn through this realm, comes by virtue of the Hand of God. Everything that has any place in our beings is predicated on the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ and how He would choose to manifest the great Love of God unto others through the selfless giving of ourselves. 
	Another aspect to spiritual maturity is the value that we place on the Holy Spirit. He is active in every Christian. He is working in each one to bring about the glory of God on this earth. No one will deny that He is of vital importance in the lives of every Christian. There is a place, however, that He has in the hearts of those who have learned that He is more than a conscience. You see, there are many who see Him simply in terms of bringing to our awareness the reality of when we make a mistake. They see His function as a kind of policeman, calling our attention to the fact that we slip-up and giving us warnings when we are off-base. He does serve that place in our initial time as Christians. He works to bring about a sensitivity in us to the things of God. But that is the position that we put Him in only in our early stages of our walk in Christ. As we grow in the Lord, led by the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit, there should be a change in our attitude toward Him. We should begin to develop a great appreciation for the great Love of God to us ward in the giving of both Christ and the Holy Spirit.
	The Holy Spirit is no less a gift than is Christ. Both serve to bring about that which pleases the Father. It is through the Holy Spirit that our eyes of understanding are enlightened as to what God has accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that the Word of God becomes life within us. He is the One Who takes the written Word and makes it to become life within us. He is the One who guides our reading and our deliberations on the Word and brings forth Truth and comfort in His own ministry to the very depths of our hearts.
	Not solely in the Word does the Holy Spirit operate. He is the One Who helps us to pray effectively and through Whom our prayers, our souls, our hearts, and our spirits are opened up into union with God. It is Spirit-to-spirit that we are enabled to come into the presence of God, by virtue of the robe of Christ’s right standing before the Most Holy One. The Holy Spirit is the avenue of our becoming one in Christ Jesus and sharing in the reality of the glory of God throughout this entire creation. 
	Even beyond this glorious certainty, it is the Holy Spirit, Who becomes our source of comfort and sustenance on the sojourn on this earth. He is the One Who brings peace into our beings, no matter what is happening around us. We are the recipients of the greatness of the Lord in providing every avenue of respite from this realm in the abiding presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He never forsakes us. He is always with us, no matter what dealings we are facing on this earth. He holds us unto Himself and keeps us firmly attuned to heart of God. We know, beyond any doubt, that we are safe in the protective hands of our God.
	The other wonderful truth that we find, in the Holy Spirit, is that He is our greatest friend. He is with us in a relationship that is beyond any other comparison. He walks with us, He talks with us, He deals with our hearts and souls, He helps us and He opens His heart unto us. He operates in us in a most loving manner, not punishing our indiscretions, but lovingly showing us the better way to bring forth the glory of God in our lives. This is not a one way relationship. If He is grieved, we share that grief. If He is blessed, we share that blessing. If He is desirous to bring comfort into the lives of others, we share in that comfort. As we study the Word, we are blessed in His revelations of Christ and He is blessed in that truth. In every aspect of the life we live, He is there to prove Himself in a rapport that only grows stronger through the days, weeks, years and decades of our lives. We soon discover that He is our greatest joy each morning and our most wondrous thought each evening.
	He provides the sustenance of our growth into Christ. He is inseparable from the development of our spiritual maturity. He upholds us and encourages us and enthralls our every fiber. If we desire to go on in the Lord, it is only by the Holy Spirit, in all His grace, that our growth is established. 
	Next week, Lord willing, we will continue to reflect on more of the elements that are ours in the Lord, if we desire to grow into Him, in all His grace and truth.
	For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.