resurrected will—2 Cor. 10:3-5.
harvest of His field—Rev. 14:4, 14-15. C. If we pray, "Lord, come back quickly," the Lord may say, "While you are
awaiting My coming back, I am awaiting your maturity; only your maturity can hasten My coming back." D. It is a great help for us to realize that if we are serious about awaiting the
Lord's coming back, we need to grow in life unto maturity. IV. To be mature is to have Christ fully formed in us; it also means that we have
been fully transformed into His image—Gal. 4:19; 2 Cor. 3:18:
A. Since the time of our regeneration, the Lord has been working in us so that we
may have His image—v. 18; Rom. 8:29. B. When the Lord has fully worked His image into us and is fully expressed
through us, we will be mature in life—Eph. 3:16-17. V. Chapter 3 of Song of Songs shows us the maturity of the seeking one, and
chapter 4 continues by explaining that such maturity is reached by the subduing of the will; the secret of the maturity of the seeking one is that her will has been completely subdued and resurrected—v. 4:
A. The neck signifies the human will under God; the Lord considers the
submission of our will a most beautiful thing—vv. 1a, 4. B. If we have a submissive will, our will is expressed like the tower of David
that holds all kinds of weapons:
1. First, our will must be subdued; then it will be strong in resurrection and like the tower of David, the armory for the spiritual warfare—Eph. 6:10. 2. The weapons for spiritual warfare are kept in our subdued and resurrected will—2 Cor. 10:3-5.
‹‹ Day 4 ›› VI. The goal of Paul's ministry was to present every man mature, full-grown, in
Christ for the one new man—Col. 1:28-29; 3:10-11:
A. The Greek word rendered "full-grown" in Colossians 1:28 may also be
translated "perfect," "complete," or "mature." B. Paul's ministry was to dispense Christ into others so that they would be
perfect and complete by maturing in Christ unto full growth. VII. Genesis 37—47 is a record of the process of Jacob's maturity:
A. In Genesis 27 we see a supplanter; in chapter 37, a transformed man; and at
the end of chapter 47, a mature person. B. The last stage of transformation is maturity, the fullness of life: