Psalm 49:13 This is the fate of those who are foolishly confident, And of those after them who approve [and are influenced by] their words. Selah. (AMP)

I remember those teenage days and hanging out with my friends. If it sounded good, we would do it. I am the only one here that ever did that. Right?

“Everyone was doing it!” That never cut any weight with my mother. Enough said?

Spiritually it looks like this. Spiritual teenagers put their faith in activities wherein they are part of a group, included, because that is what fellowship is all about. Is it? Is that what fellowship is all about?

Philippians 2:1-2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Fellowship of the Spirit, be likeminded, one accord, one mind, has everything to do with agreeing with the Holy Spirit, not each other. Spiritual teenagers find it easier to join the gang than to seek God’s will.

The opposite end of that same effort comes from hearing God and gathering others in support of what God has called you to do.  Lack of confidence, seen in many a teenager, will cause the spiritual teen to gather others around. If failure occurs, well, it wasn’t just me that failed.

Can you relate to any of this? Are there other teen qualities that might be seen in spiritual growth?

John 20:28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

Continuing on with comparing natural birth with spiritual rebirth, let us grow up and leave the terrible twos, shall we?

Now we are out on the playground. We are mixing it up with other children our age, our spiritual maturity. We are not allowed to play with the older kids. They might accidently hurt us. Maybe not accidently. Older kids play rough. They are bigger, stronger and capable of inflicting wounds.

So let us deal with being in a peer group. We are all equal on the playground. Competition isn’t so much one on one as it is in where we came from. “My dad is ….” Now it is all about MY DAD.

It doesn’t occur to us that our spiritual dad is also their spiritual dad. He is after all my dad. It is at this very moment when we start seeing the differences in denominations. We are Catholic. We are Baptist. We are Methodist. We are Pentecostal. We are all on the same playground, we are all peers, but suddenly now because He is my dad, He is better than your dad.

Matthew 12:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

Desolation is the aim of the enemy. Here we are on the playground of spiritual growth and we are at play. We have been under the protective umbrella of our spiritual family, what do we know of the enemy and his waring ways? We do not see the enemy at work, we see playmates who say his dad can beat up my dad.

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

What did we know about wrestling, we just want to play.

“Dad. Jimmy isn’t playing nice.” What can you do?