Unto Full Stature - Preview: The Only Foundation Upon Which to Build Full Stature

This is a sample chapter from Unto Full Stature by Devern Fromke

The First Question We Must Settle:

In analyzing the problems of missionaries and Christian workers, a discerning missionary executive writes: “It is a lack of maturity that is chiefly responsible for the young missionaries who return defeated and disillusioned from the mission field. And behind much of the frustration which plagues us on the field are these same traits against which we must carry on an unceasing, exhausting fight.

Under fire or pressure, the immature individual cracks up; he can’t take it, and unconsciously seeks to run away. Where no special emergency or pressure is brought to bear upon him, he manifests his immaturity by a general lack of self-disclosure in life—in work, personal habits, social relationships, spiritual culture, witnessing, etc.

You say, but isn’t maturity a matter of growth and won’t that come in due time—as a result of experience on the field? Yes, to some extent it is a matter of growth. But there is a foundation that has to be laid long before one ever gets to the mission field, and it’s because so many of us did not lay down this foundation properly that we have such a hard fight now—and some of us have given up. It frightens one to see so many child adults today in full-time Christian work (Child adults beget child adults spiritually as well as physically). That is why I cannot think of anything more important in preparation than this laying down foundations for ministry.” 

I think we all should be amazed could we actually know how many who have entered Christian service have never experienced a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus. But even among those who have, there is an alarming misconception regarding His Lordship and rightful authority over the life.

Perhaps the misconception begins at this point. In this present generation there has been so much emphasis placed on the crisis act of believing the finished work of Christ that many have either neglected or misunderstood the continuous work of the Spirit. Many have believed, but God intends for us to be a believing believer every day. Many have received his Life, but know little of daily receiving His Life by the flow of the Spirit. Many have, in a crisis act, acknowledged Him as Lord, but care little for the involvements in a daily acknowledging Him and living under His full authority. Thus we see there is the finished work of Christ which we appropriate in a crisis act, but there is also the continuous working of the Holy Spirit, which is a daily participation.

Now the whole issue boils down to this: how much is to be expected in a crisis act and how much is to be left to the process of growth? There are those who put so much emphasis on any crisis experience as to leave little room for the process of growth. Yet others relegate so much to growth that the initial crisis in a life seems almost insignificant. What is God’s intention?

To understand we must go back “before the beginning” where in our Eternal Father’s heart we see how He purposed to share Himself with a vast family. Thus it was not man’s sin or defection that determined this purpose of sharing. Oh no! It was in the Father’s original planning, long before man was ever created or before he sinned, that He determined to share Himself through His only begotten Son.

Then what happened when man did turn to his own way? God’s plan has not changed one bit! He will still share Himself through His Son, only now He has provided redemption through the Cross as the important gateway (X to Y). It is just at this point man has such limited perspective. When God lifts fallen man out of his lost predicament (X), it is by a crisis act: man believes, receives and acknowledges a new Lord in his life. But having believed and received this divine Life, God then intends for man to move along the high-way (Y-Z) of believing and receiving. Alas, too many have been content to stop at (Y). They have been most interested in the crisis act in which they believed and received—for in this act they seemed to benefit the most. But they have had little heart for moving along on the high-way of believing and receiving which would allow them to daily live by the Life of Christ—the resource for fulfilling the Father’s original intention.

Thus we have pictured both the finished and the continuous work. In God’s sight He reckons the finished work of Christ a finality and wants us to reckon the same. But there is also that which He designs as the continuous work of the Spirit which makes possible a daily receiving or sharing of God. Both of these are absolutely necessary in their proper order and right balance. Until one is clear in the finished and the continuous work—there is no adequate foundation upon which to build spiritual stature.

It must be recognized that some would seek to enter the highway of continuous believing and receiving before they have appropriated the finished work. To do such is to ignore man’s awful defection into sin and rebellion (W-X-Y). For all of Adam’s sinful family there must be a crisis of regeneration when we first “believe unto righteousness” or “receive Him” as divine Life. And having believed and received we are then ready to enter the high-way of “living by faith,” i.e. a believing believer. “The just shall live by faith.” Following the crisis there is then our continuous participation.

It is just here we see the glaring weakness in many fundamental circles. Too many emphasize the past-tense crisis act and almost ignore the privilege of the continuous present participation. They rejoice in the finished work, but know or seemingly care little about the continuous operation of Life within them by the Holy Spirit. It is one thing to have received “Life in the Son,” but it is surely an equal privilege to enjoy this vital participation in Life every day by His Spirit.

As with the missionaries and workers considered in the opening, perhaps there is a reader who inwardly longs for this daily sharing. You are weary of the defeat and frustration in trying to “live the Life.” You are dissatisfied with only a past-reckoning and long for a present-reality. You know you have believed and received, but there has been no believing and receiving daily. There is no escape! Before any of this writing will produce any lasting benefit there must be a daily flowing and receiving by our union with Him.

Why not now, without reservation, determine that the first crisis of Lordship you experienced long ago will now become a daily acknowledging His Lordship. Having made this deliberate, glad-heart recognition of His authority, then just as deliberately honor the Holy Spirit in His continuous sharing of Life, Light and Love into your being.

With this Foundation settled, resting in the finished work of Christ but also enjoying the continuous work by the Holy Spirit, we are now ready to consider the other levels in moving Unto Full Stature.