Text: Hebrews 5:12-14
Memory verse:
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭5‬:‭12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Someone once shared a story about a principal of a high school. He had promoted one of his teachers with ten years of teaching experience to fill a new administrative vacancy. However, on hearing about this, another teacher in this school came to him terribly upset and said, ‘Why did you put that teacher in this position? He has only had ten years of experience, and I’ve had twenty-five years, yet you passed me over in favor of him.’ Then, the principal simply responded, ‘I’m sorry; you’re wrong. You haven’t had twenty-five years of experience. You have had one year’s experience twenty-five times.’ What an illustration of spiritual babyhood.
This spiritual condition is characterized by a stunted spiritual development. Paul noticed this among some of the Hebrew believers. According to our memory text, when they were supposed to have advanced in knowledge and be teaching others, they still needed to be taught the introduction, the basic principles of the doctrines. They still needed the A,B, and C of the kindergarten instead of more advanced subjects.
It is right and good for a baby to be breastfed by his mother for a reasonable period of time. However, a case of an adult who is still nursing will call for concern! This arrested development is an indication of a serious problem.
This condition is not about age or intellectual capacity but an acquired condition characterized by an inability to listen to spiritual truth. It is not about their IQ, that is, their Intelligence Quotient but their SQ, that is, their Spiritual Quotient. They are not naturally slow, dull, or unintelligent, nor are they intellectually deficient, but they have become spiritually lazy. You need to hear their intelligent perspective when discussing secular topics or their commitment to social matters.
Like children, they have short attention span to spiritual matters. They have no appetite or desire to hear deeper teachings. They are bored with personal or church Bible study. They can’t endure long studying or teaching. They prefer and follow the teachers who give only the icings, the cheap things. They can’t discern, perceive, or judge spiritual things, for they are all foolishness to them (1 Cor 2:15). They are just unreceptive to the Word. They are babes and children in spiritual understanding.
Friends, is your spiritual development a true reflection of your age in the Lord?

Prayer points
1. Father, please revive me and create a desire for Your word in me, in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, please increase my spiritual quotient and my commitment to studying Your word, in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. I am not dull of hearing God’s word or lazy in studying it.
2. My manifestation depends on my understanding of God’s word and my practice of it

Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng