The truth is, Jesus wants every single one of us to grow to maturity. However, many of us fail to develop spiritually, which is called spiritual retardation. And when this happens, the church family will suffer.

In fact, by definition, retardation is "the action of delaying or slowing the progress or development of something.” So a question we should all answers is, is there anything stunting my spiritual development?

When we intentionally focus on God, He transforms us into a new person, or changes the way we think. No focus = no change = wrong ambition. When that happens, we will become humble, thinking of others as better than ourselves. So an intentional focus is the first thing. The second thing, is to regularly spend time reading and studying the Bible. These two things will help us to be “force enabled”.

When persecution scattered the believers out of Jerusalem, Peter eventually went to Joppa, where he had a huge “What the what?!” moment while dreaming on a rooftop, and then saw God pour the Holy Spirit out on Gentiles, which made him and his Jewish companions have an even bigger “What the what?!” moment… And through all of it, Peter learned that God’s plan includes reaching the Gentiles. Which meant it was time to abandon all prejudice and unnecessary traditions.

Many of us go through life with a mindset that God’s ultimate purpose is to bless our life and sustain it for as long as possible. And when God doesn’t, many blame God, and some bail on God. So our mindset must change! Instead, we must see our lives (and the lives of our loved ones) along with our deaths, as belonging to God.

Many of us go through life with a mindset that God’s ultimate purpose is to bless our life and sustain it for as long as possible. And when God doesn’t, many blame God, and some bail on God. So our mindset must change! Instead, we must see our lives (and the lives of our loved ones) along with our deaths, as belonging to God.

Gabriel was notorious for causing others to have serious “What the what?!” moments as he provided guidance or protection. And in each instance, these moments were handled very differently. And the truth is, God currently uses angels to provide guidance or direction to us, and faith is still the best reaction to any encounter with them.

If our country was being led by a narcissist like Nebuchadnezzar, could you still enjoy God and glorify Him, while maintaining respect for that leader? Doing so might cause a What the What?!, moment that could change someone's life! This is exactly what Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel did with Nebuchadnezzar (not to mention his officials). 

Like Gehazi with Elisha, Judas with Jesus, or Ananias and Sapphira with the disciples, some people associated with “the work of God” are actually looking for an opportunity to further their own plan while appearing holy. All of them tried to hide their actions from God and others, and all of them found out it's not possible...

David refused to kill Saul, even though he could have claimed it was self defense and justified it because he was anointed.

Instead, he let God deal with Saul and during this entire time of waiting, God proved to both David and Samuel that He was with them, and that they could trust in God’s promise to David even though things didn’t make sense.

It took twenty-two years for the promise of Joseph’s dream to become a reality. This begs the question, do we let What the What?! moments stop us from believing in the things God has promised us? We can trust God to keep His promises even when things don’t make sense. Which means, no matter what it is that each of us have been called to as individuals, or as a church, we can be confident God’s going to take care of everything.