As we learned the last few weeks, God has us on a journey.  We were challenged to take our next step; to keep moving forward in our life in faith and obedience.

Yes, it’s important to celebrate our successes.  God instructed Joshua to build a memorial after crossing over the flooded Jordan on dry ground for generations to remember the goodness and faithfulness of God.  He set aside times and seasons for celebrating and feasting and rejoicing.

Marie shared God’s vision with us last week that we have arrived!  We are on a mountain top and have achieved a large degree of success at coming together in unity and finally moving beyond some things that held us back for so long.  God even paid off our mortgage and miraculously enabled us to be debt free!  He has given us so much to celebrate and rejoice in; more than we could even mention!

We’re beginning to see a move of the Holy Spirit bringing about the miraculous and we firmly believe that He’s just getting started!

God is now calling us up higher.  He is calling us to ascend to the next mountain.  We’re moving from glory to glory!

As Marie shared last week, there are several different ways to reach out destination and according to the Lord’s revelation; we choose.  God also has a purpose laid out on each of those paths.

Whether flying across on a horse or on the wings of eagles to help prophetically guide those below and to go ahead to cheer and encourage others on.  Whether running and not growing weary or walking and not growing faint as we walk in the Spirit and run the good race getting to explore firsthand the details and wonderous, deep revelations found in the valley.  Whether crawling or being carried, but doing all that we can to push forward into God’s destiny for us no matter what it takes to get there. 

No matter what, we’re all heading to the same destination and doing what we can to help one another be successful.  Our goal is to all reach our destination with no one left behind.  The key is that we keep encouraging one another along our journey, no matter what each one of ours looks like and what challenges each one of us face, so that none of us give up.

We’re all at different stages in our lives, we are all in different levels in our faith, and we are all different parts of Christ’s body.  We have unique perspectives and strengths and weaknesses and abilities and gifts.  However, the Holy Spirit is able to bring unity in the midst of all of these differences as we care for one another.

Maturing in our faith, however, is a bit like a double-edged sword.  There are huge benefits, but also some responsibilities that may not be comfortable for us.

Spiritual maturity can look a lot like our natural maturity.  In fact, Paul used this very analogy when teaching about how Jesus became perfect through obedience and suffering and discipline and fervent prayers and tears.

Hebrews 5:11-14

11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

The more mature we become, the more responsible we become out of necessity.  The more responsible we become, the greater things that God can entrust into our hands.

When we are born, we are reliant on others for everything and we receive everything we need exactly when we cry out for it every time.

As we grow up, we learn self-discipline and patience and how to do more things on our own to meet our own needs.

It’s a good and necessary thing, but it’s not something that any of us wanted to do.  Let’s be honest, adulting is no fun.  But at the same