Maturity found in being lead by God

When Jesus restored Peter at the sea of Galilee, He told him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go" (John 21:18). In saying this Jesus showed among other things that one of the marks of Christian maturity is found in a pliable yielding to the leading of the Lord. We are lead by another yet, we stretch out our hands to acquiesce to the leading.

This same thought is repeated by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:14, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (huios – mature sons) of God.” The more we are lead by the Spirit of the Lord and the more we easily yield to His influence the more mature we are in the Christian walk.

Again this can be compared to Ezekiel’s vision of the river (Ezekiel 47:1-5) with the water to the ankles being analogous to salvation, the knees to water baptism and a beginning to walk in the footsteps of Christ, the waters to the waist could be compared to the baptism of the Holy Spirit where the current and flow of the river is more felt than before, the final phase is waters to swim in which will take you along with them even as you swim in them. This is one of the promises of the New Covenant as see in Ezekiel 36:26-27, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

May God grant that we each day grow more and more pliable in His hands as we are lead by His Spirit! Amen.