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“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal". John 12:24 MSG
God's expected Outcome for every parent on the LoL parenting program is that we allow ourselves to "become" by the mentoring of His Spirit and the Word. This is the second milestone of the LoL parenting program.
By becoming, God expects us to become His visible image as expressed in Christ. God expects us to leave the baggage of the past, the works of the flesh, and our former ways of living that contradict His will for us. God wants us to trust Him; He desires that we let Him make us, and when we "become" all He is making us, we will no longer be tossed by every new parenting fad out there because His Spirit can guide us into all truth.
"And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed."1 Corinthians 15:37-38 NLT
With all that is happening around us now, we can become overwhelmingly concerned about our children; the world around them, the friends they interact with, the internet and technology, and the many things that threaten to stifle the truths we try to teach them about God. Be encouraged and trust in God, for He has called and equipped you for your role as a parent for such a time as we find ourselves today. Release your heart and your many questions into His hands as He guides us on a journey to "become."
Overcoming and triumphing as a parent in these times is beyond the sophistry of modern education or psychology. It is the work for the Spirit. The Bible clearly states that our fight is not against flesh and blood Eph. 6: 12, therefore, our weapons cannot be man-made, man-taught, and deployed just by engaging psychological principles. Especially when you consider that human psychology legitimizes what God in His word outrightly outlaws (Leviticus 18: 22 - 23, 20:13).
The world and its systems have turned parenting into a battlefield, especially for Christian families. Knowing that this is God's battle and positioning ourselves for victory begins with allowing God to deploy His arsenal of weapons through us. That arsenal of weaponry is no other than His Christ (Col 1:27 - 28).
Becoming in Christ and attaining full maturity in the image of Christ has been God's purpose and intent for man from the beginning and through the scriptures. In Gen 1, God steps into the scene and creates the earth, after which He certifies it as good. Then He communicates with the hosts of heaven, an intention to bring administration over all the good things He had created. God realizes that a creature that can bring that administration would need to be like Him in appearance, form, and authority. So God created man in His image and likeness, with the capacity for administrating the earth (Gen 1:26-27).
Man fell and truncated the plan God had for him. God's plan for man is eternal, and when man fell, God came up with the plan of his salvation through the sacrifice and death of Christ. The essence of His sending Christ is to restore His original intent for man. God would use Christ to show us the whole picture He has for man - Christ represents the man of dominion God intended to administrate His creations. The Bible explains this "[That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him". Ephesians 4:13 AMPC
God's purpose for and mandate to man has not changed through the ages; be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth. Replenishing the earth with God's righteousness is the bane of human productivity, childbearing, parenting, and human leadership. The command to be fruitful and multiply is not restricted to childbearing but extends to all spheres of human productivity and influence. With God, men are raised into leadership and influence to establish the fruitfulness mandate in line with God's nature.
"Becoming" after the likeness of Christ is not optional for the born-again Christian; it is the only call God has called us into and should be our utmost pursuit. Jesus says to "seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness," and everything else gets added. That kingdom begins in us; it begins with our allowing the righteousness of God that we receive in Christ to possess and shape us. This is God's utmost intent for man, that man first and foremost takes His image, form, and likeness. In this state of God-likeness, man is meant to produce after his kind (the nature of God he possesses; everything God created, God, commanded everything He created to produce fruits after its kind. Therefore, man, created in God's image, form, and likeness, is meant to produce after that God-nature, not the fallen nature.)
As parents, God demands that we produce seeds after our likeness only after we have become like Him. He desires that as His word transforms us, we can bring forth fruits in His likeness and abide in Him. To become His likeness, every man must go through the re-birth and re-creation. Rebirth through the acknowledgment of our sins as men born through the Adamic frame and acceptance of God's redemptive work through the sacrifice of His dear son Jesus. The re-creative work comes after the rebirth, which the Holy Spirit accomplishes. (John 1:1-2, 3:5-6).
Our children will be only as godly as we are; God commanded every tree to produce after its kind. Our spiritual regeneration (how much of the spirit vs. how much of the flesh rules our being) and the spiritual climate that permeates our home will express a prevailing culture/environment within our home that will shape our children. When our children become acculturated to the word of God and imbibe kingdom values, God, by His Spirit, is able to work in and through them to overcome all the wiles of the enemy. Then our children will not be ashamed of their Christian identity and can boldly answer the enemy when he shows up in their space.
God sends children to us as fresh as freshly mixed clay so that we would mold them after His likeness. That is His intention and purpose for parenting. However, it remains a desire in His heart if we have not gone through the de-canalization of our flesh; flesh will produce flesh, and spirit will produce spirit. Knowing that every tree will produce after its kind, it is important we know what "kind" we are and seek alignment with that which is God. Then, we shall no longer be tossed around by every wind of "doctrine," especially at a time such as we find ourselves today.
How can we "become"?
Becoming in Christ can be seen across two dimensions: