IT TAKES TIME BY PR. DENIS KALUNGI

KIREKA CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

IT TAKES TIME

“Everything on this earth has its own time and season {Ecclesiastes 3:1} so my brothers and sisters you could be there thinking it’s the time kindly wait for the perfect time. I am sure that God who began a good work in you will soon finish it. {Philippians 1:6}

It’s a process of spiritual growth and for more information, there is no shortcut to spiritual maturity so relax {2 Corinthians 3:18,} " But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."  If it has taken you years to grow from childhood to adulthood and it takes a full season for the fruit to ripen the same is true for the fruit of the spirit. “Our only security is our ability to succumb.”

The development of Christ-like character cannot be rushed. Spiritual growth is more like physical growth, it takes time. When you try to ripen the fruit quickly before it matures, it will lose its flavor.“Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.” 

While worrying about how fast we can grow, God is concerned about how strong we grow. God’s view for our lives is eternity, he is never in hurry.

1, There is a spiritual reason for that divorce don’t give up

2. There is a spiritual reason for the collapse of that business

3. There is a spiritual reason for the loss of your phone

4. There is a spiritual reason why your no longer have friends

5. There is a spiritual reason for that long waiting don’t give up

Read Ephesians 4:12-13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. “The world hates change/succumb, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”

Spiritual growth is a strategical process that God uses to pr prepare his children to attain a full measure of his fullness or his likeness. {Colossians 3:10}

Before Christ invades our lives at conversion, he sometimes has to soften us up by allowing problems we can’t handle, in due process, some open their lives to Christ for the first time but before that even he knocks on the door, most of us are resistant and defensive.

For most of us our pre-conversational experience is when Jesus said Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me {Revelation 3:20}

My experience is when I went to Mutundwe Christian fellowship for the sake of my business but not become a pastor but when I reached Mutundwe Christian fellowship one of the pastors told me to relax, little did I know that he had seen the calling upon my life. 

Actually, the moment you open yourself to Christ, God gets beachhead/ a base in your life. You may think you have surrendered all your life to him but the truth is there is a lot to your life that you aren’t even aware of “ I never dreamed to become a pastor” you can only give God as much of you as you understand at that moment.

But what is amusing ounce Christ is given beachhead in your life he begins the campaign to take over more and more territories until all of your life is completely his.

As he says in {Philippians 1:6} that he who began the good work in you will finish it. It’s a struggle and a battle but the outcome will never be in doubt.

Discipleship is a process of conforming to Christ, we are all called with our worldly characters like

1, Murderers  like Moses

2. Persecutors like Paul

3. Womanize

4. Slanderer

5. Drunkards

This explains what our Lord Jesus Christ says in {Mathew 9:16} that he cannot put a piece of new clothing to old clothing, more still in {Matthew 9:17}, our Lord Jesus Christ says he cannot put new wine in a vessel where there is old wine.

Until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. And until we attain mature adulthood and the full standard of development in us but here faith has more the meaning of trust than of mere belief – it's trust-based.  {Ephesian 4:13} Christ-likeness is our destination. But our journey will last a lifetime. So far this journey involves believing through:

1, Worship

2. Fellow-shipping

3. Discipleship every day God wants you to become a little like him.

You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you. This new life brings you the true knowledge of God. {Colossians 3:10-11}. Today we are obsessed/passionate with speed but God is more interested in strength and stability than swiftness /quickness. We want the quick fix, the shortcut, the on-spot solution. This is the reason why we have fallen victims to false prophets.

I personally went to Mutundwe Christian fellowship with all my personal desires full of quick, –sports solutions to my business, my enemies but later I realized that it was bait for me to be transformed to be like Christ.  We want sermons, seminars, or an experience that will instantly resolve all our problems, remove all temptations and release us from all growing pain. But really maturity is never a result of a single experience. No matter how powerful, growth is gradual it’s said in {2 Corinthians 3:18} our lives gradually become brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

It’s also said in {Isaiah 66:8} who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. {No lady has ever given birth to a child without labor pains or seen a lady who has ever given birth to a baby without blood}

Why does it take so long?

Although God could instantly transform us he has chosen to develop us slowly. Jesus is careful/deliberate in developing his disciples. Israel is his chosen child he promised him the promised land of Canaan, he had all the authority to give it to him in one day but he did not. He only told him you will take little by little Deuteronomy 7:22 {God prefers to work in incremental steps in our lives} this explains the reason why a child at the age of 6 cannot be a doctor whoever much he or she is wise.

We are slow learners. We often have to relearn a lesson forty or fifty times to really get it the problem we keep recurring, and we think, ‘not again’ I have already learned that. Yes, the history of Israel illustrates how quickly we forget the lessons God teaches us and how soon we revert to our old patterns of behavior. We need repeated exposure. {Exodus 14:10-12}

We have a lot to clean. Many people go to pastors with personal or relational problems that took years to develop and say I need you to fix me. I have got an hour, they simply expect a quick fix to a long-standing deep-rooted difficulty. Since most of our problems and all our bad habits did not develop overnight. 

It’s unrealistic to expect them to go away immediately. There is no pill prayer or principle that will instantly undo the damage of many years. It requires the hard work of removal and replacement. Taking off the old person and putting on the new person {Ephesians 4:22-25} is not an overnight processes 

Yes when you become a born-again you were given a brand new nature but you still have your old habits, patterns, and practices that need to be removed and replaced.“The greatest danger in times of turbulence/confusion is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” 

Growth is often painful and scary. There is no growth without change-there is no change without fear or loss and there is no loss without pain. Every change involves a loss of some kind.

You must let go of old ways in order to experience the new, we fear losing the old ways even if they were self-defeating. People build their identity around their defects, we say it’s just like me. It’s just the way I am. “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” 

The unconscious worry is that if I let go of my habit, my heart, or my hang-up who will I be? This fear can definitely slow down your growth.

We are afraid to humbly face the truth about ourselves. The Lord already pointed out the truth will set us free {John 8:32} but it often makes us miserable first. The fear of what we might discover if we honestly face the truth:

1, In Africa, people fear to test for HIV

2. In Africa people fear to face their characters and whoever mentions them deserves hell or death. This can end up becoming our prison.

As God is allowed to shine the light of his truth on our faults, failures, and hang-ups we can begin working on them. This explains why we cannot grow without a humbly teachable attitude. 

Habits take time to develop. Remember that your character is the total sum of your habits, you can’t claim to be kind unless you’re habitually kind, and you show kindness without even thinking about it. You can’t claim to have integrity unless it is your habit to always be honest. Your habit defines your character 

There is only one way to develop the habits of Christ-like character. You must practice them and that takes time. There are no instant habits. Paul urged Timothy ‘practice these things. Devote your life to them so that everyone can see your progress’ {1 Timothy 4:15}

If you practice something over time you get good out of it. Repetition is the mother of character and skill. These character-building habits are called spiritual disciplines

Do not get in a hurry

As you grow to spiritual maturity, there are several ways to cooperate with God in the process.

Believe God is working in your life even when you don’t feel it. Spiritual growth is sometimes tedious work, one small step at a time. {Expect gradual improvement} it’s written everything on earth has got its own time and season {Ecclesiastes 3:1} 

Sometimes you may have a short intense/strong burst of growth followed by a period of stabilizing and testing. It’s not bad to pray for a miracle but do not get disappointed if the answer comes through a gradual change. Over time, a slow, steady stream of water will erode the hardest rock and turn giant boulders/rock into pebbles/ graves.

Over time a small young tree can grow into a giant redwood tree. Be patient with God and with yourself. One of life’s frustration is that God’s timetable is rarely the same as ours. We are often in hurry yet God isn’t.  You may feel frustrated with the seemingly slow progress you’re making in life. Some of us we would like to have:

1, Pushy cars

2. Land titles

3. Buildings

4. Good family

5.companies

6. Good jobs yet you will have them but remember that God is never in hurry but he is always on time

Actually, he says in {Mathew 6:33} for the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

He can use your entire life to prepare you for your role in eternity. The bible gives examples of how God uses a long process to develop character especially when it comes to leadership, he took eight years to prepare Moses including the forty years in the wildness.

When God wants to make a mushroom he does it overnight but if he is to make a giant oak tree, he takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. {James 1:4}  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Be patient with the process. Do not try to get out of anything prematurely.

Keep a notebook or journal of lessons learned. This is not a diary event, but a record of what you are learning. Write down the insights and life lessons God teaches you about him, about yourself, about life, relationships, and everything else. Records that you can remember and pass to the coming generations.

It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off. If the old message delivered by the angels was valid and nobody got away with anything, do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation? First of all, it was delivered in person by the Master, then accurately passed on to us by those who heard it from him. All the while God was validating it with gifts through the Holy Spirit, all sorts of signs and miracles, as he saw fit. {Hebrews 2:3-4} 

Do not get discouraged. When Habakkuk became depressed because he did not think God was acting enough, God had this to answer ‘for the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.’ {Habakkuk 2:2-3} 

Romans 13:12 the night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

My call to friends, family members, my wife, my in-laws, daughters. Please be patient, God is not finished with me yet’ let me keep on moving forward even the snail reached the ark.

Prayer

My soul waits in silence for God only; from Him is my salvation my soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him” {Psalm 62:1, 5, nasb}.