Stages of the Christian Road Pt. 3

Part 3: Spiritual Fathers

"I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning."

The word Father here means Parent in the greek. So again, this is for male or female.

Here we have arrived at the stage we must all aspire for. As you can see, John only said ONE thing about the spiritual fathers; those who are mature. "You have known Him who is from the beginning." You see, spiritual parents have moved on from knowing God simply as a forgiving Father, and Warrior King. They still know Him in those ways of course.  However they have come to understand deeper, eternal aspects of Him. For certain, even spiritual parents have MUCH to learn and will spend eternity learning about God. Despite that, they have at this point reached a maturity where they can understand the great secret of this saying, "I AM". They know God like Moses, Elijah, Paul, and John. They speak to God as a friend, their relationship with Him is so deep, they drink from His love and power profoundly. They are like the great oaks planted by the river of life. They are the ones who should disciple the children and youth.  Unfortunately there really aren't very many of these spiritual parents around. We all know how much we need them, and we all know the great desire for more discipleship. However with this there is a great responsability, when someone is a spiritual father or mother, they are the ones that people flock to for help, they very often don't have privacy, they don't get much rest because of the constant flow of people who need.  These are the people who when you see them, you see the eyes of Jesus looking back at you.

These fathers and mothers are the ones that people see and they can feel the presence of Jesus, when you see one of these elders, you know they have been with Jesus. Most people don't make it here because this is the narrow path, this is the group of people who truly have been crucified with Christ, they have made great sacrifices and found the great treasures of heaven that most of us long for. We need these great men and women of God, and sadly they are so hard to find. 

To conclude I want to make one clear point, these different stages of the Christian road are based on spiritual levels. They have nothing to do with age, Timothy was young, and Paul told him to be an example, and not to let anyone look down on him because of that youth. I have met pastors who have led churches for thirty years, and yet are still immature in the faith. I have also met teenagers who truly have intimacy with the King.

What will you become?