BLESSINGS IN BEING SPIRITUALLY MATURE

My Dear Precious Child,
    Paul's exhortation of the Christians in Corinth included an insult saying that he could not talk to them as spiritual people because they were men of flesh, infants in Christ.  Previously, while he was ministering to them, he had merely fed them with the milk of the Gospel, not with solid food because they were not ready for spiritual food.  He told them in his first recorded letter that they were still not ready for spiritual food by being very much in the same spiritual place of being infants.  Then he identified the actions of the flesh that labeled them as being infants in the kingdom of God as there being jealousy and quarrels among them, saying that those activities are of the flesh, not of the Spirit.  He wrote that those actions are of ordinary people, not of people who had been born of My Spirit and baptized in My Holy Spirit.  He said that when some people claimed to be of Paul and others claimed to be of Apollos, that it is clear that they are still behaving after the dictates of their flesh, not the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 3:1-4)
     In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul asked the people who is Paul and who is Apollos?  He wrote that they were merely ministers through whom the church members had become believers, each only teaching what I had assigned to him.  He made clear the ministries by writing that he himself, Paul, had planted the seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that Apollos had watered the seed, but that I had make the seed grow.  So, therefore, neither the person who planted the seed nor the person who watered the seed is of any special importance because only I, as God, makes the seed grow.  He who plants seed and he who waters both work toward the same end, each receiving the same wages in proportion to the degree of work, both being co-workers while the converts are My cultivation and My building. (I Corinthians 3:5-10)
    Paul thanked Me for the favor that I showed him in allowing him to lay the foundation as a wise builder might do but now someone else must be careful how he or she builds the building of faith.  He stressed that no one can lay a foundation other than the one of Jesus Christ and that a different one built on that foundation that is of gold, silver, sticks, precious stones, hay or straw, that their work will be made clear in the times of persecution.  He said that that day will disclose which kingdom has been built, that they would be tested by fire and the ones who endure under the tests of the devil will be saved but he who succumbs to the fire will suffer loss.  He or she will be saved but only as one who had fled the fire.
    Then Paul offered the truth of the foundation of My kingdom of God, that being that they were My temples in the earth because My Spirit lived inside of them.  He wrote that if anyone destroys the temple of God that he will be destroyed because they were My temple of God and My temple is holy.  (I Corinthians 3:11-17).
     Paul asked that the Christians in Corinth would not be deluded by themselves and that anyone who thinks he or she is wise in worldly wisdom that they should all become foolish in earthly wisdom.  In that way, the person is able to become really wise with My wisdom because the wisdom of the earth is illogical to Me.   He quoted a scripture of Job in verses 5:13 and wrote again that I know the emptiness of the thoughts of those people who are worldly wise.  Therefore, Paul wrote, that he and I desired that there would be no boasting about any people and their ministries, but instead they must appreciate the fact that all things are theirs, whether it be of Paul, Apollos or Peter or the world or of life or death, or the present or the future because all things belong to them, because they are Christ's and Christ is My Son.  (I Corinthians 3:18-23)
    It is apparent from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians that he was upset with the church because of their divisiveness and their having made choices on what to believe, whether Paul's teaching, Apollo's teachings or Peter's teachings.  His opinion was that he had planted and Apollos and Peter were to water the seeds of belief.  The water must be the Truth of the Gospel of Christ and His resurrection and gift of sending the Holy Spirit to live in the lives of people who believe in His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.  He proved the faith of Jeremiah when he wrote, "Thy mercies and compassion are new every morning; and great is thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23)
    My children in your day and age must heed the warnings in Paul's letter to the Corinthians that My body of Christ should never be fragmented and as a result be separated from Me.  Instead, the words of My Holy Spirit unite My children in the Oneness for which Jesus Christ prayed before He went to hell for the sins of the world.(John 17:20-26)  It is in being one with Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that you become one with Me, not fragmented like people who are motivated by fleshly passions.
    Your Father of Unity in Spirit