Let us take the second one first. It is not the ‘tenets’ themselves that cause obstructions, it is the absence of the right desire. If the desire is there, then God will help you reach the third stage with the turn of every page and the appearance of every thing that is observed. He will help us grow with books, with friends, with our thoughts and experiences - in fact, all that is embodied by the Spirit-within will play a part. But this can only occur if the desire to grow supersedes the fear of distractions and indolence. 

 

But what of the other reservation - that insecurity and reticence will forever obstruct genuine Christian growth and progression? Well, it is simply not true. Every one of us has been chosen by Christ to make a difference in our world. Everything we do is supposed to glorify His name; in fact, we are to God the aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15) - aroma that should be noticeable in every room we enter. But do not worry about things which you think are beyond you; they are less of a weakness than you perhaps realise. 

 

If you are a diffident soul, disquieted by communication - saddled, seemingly against your wishes, by a tremendous lack of self-belief, with hints of a shining light barely visible through a hazy mist of tremulousness, forever perturbed by a genuine need to belong - do not despair. God created you that way - your personality was part of His bigger plan, a plan that you do not fully understand; therefore do not fret about all the things that you think you lack. Or as the famous old Chinese proverb says; Don’t curse the dark - light a candle. Your composite being, far from being an affliction is all the time the very essence of the created plan. The real and ultimate nature of each of us is an expression of God’s work in earthly life - it is up to us to make good use of what we have. It is only an affliction if we hold back from desiring more of Him. Personality never impedes, or never should impede, our knowing Him, or the feelings we distill from wanting Him. Even the most timorous souls can wake up with their inner-fire for God at full blaze. 

 

Christ works in all of us, in accordance with our own strengths and gifts. And whatever is absent, whatever is between a man becoming more Christ-like, He will break it down, He will, if we let Him, reconstitute boundaries - making them wider until our desires progress further into the next stage. How is it that so many Christians have dwelled upon that fact? How is it that so many have been satisfied to drift through life courting temporal shadows - seeking enjoyment from bottomless things and looking at their reflection through shattered glass? Has the stupendous power of illumination that comes from Christ-within been supplanted for some kind of post-modernist Christian existentialism? If it has, it is the biggest crisis in the whole faith. Perhaps this is why God says that being ‘lukewarm’ is worse than being hot or cold. 

 

St Peter encourages us to Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). Now ignorance of the third stage may be an extenuating circumstance as regards this particular state: it would obviously be much worse if a Christian were deliberately holding back - but if a Christian is doing as he is supposed to do; that is, putting God first at every moment - he will have no trouble reconstituting his desires in the proper fashion. The reconstitution involves a changing of the desires to co-ordinate with Christ’s ultimate plan for you; realising that He wants you to be an Olympic runner, while you want to put your feet up. 

 

And if any of us wants to know how far away we are from stage three, we only need look at ourselves in those moments when the recognition of a change needed was suppressed for some expedient feeling of earthly comfort. It is those moments which reveal our real position. But equally, it is these moments that help us to realise that we cannot grow properly by ourselves. In fact, if we are to become part of the divine, the best we can do (at the build up to stage three) is to desire it; after all, we are going beyond the realms of mere discipline - we are heading for an almost transcendent experience. 

 

Some people at this point might still be unsure about what their role is and what God’s role is in all this. It can be difficult, and if we are not careful, we end up carrying on as normal, waiting to feel changes occur within us. We do not do everything, neither does God - it is a partnership. It is God who does everything that we cannot do. In other words, so long as we desire stage three, the Spirit inside us will speak to the Father on our behalf, conveying to our Heavenly Father all the things which are beyond what we presently understand of our own journey into the divine. And just as parents talk to their children as though they are adults so that the children can learn (eventually) to be adults, the Spirit will - if our desires are strong enough - in a strange way that no human mind can understand, talk to the Father as though we have grown further than we actually have. It is like a child putting down his ‘Join The Dots’ book and picking up a Children’s Encyclopedia. 

I do not wish for anyone to think that stage three is a prestigious reward for trying hard, an earthly commendation for gallant efforts. It is not so. It is far more - it is the whole of our earthly knowledge of Christ. Our dwelling in the second stage was never part of His plan for us; He wants us to experience and enjoy so much more. 

Some people might be daunted by the prospect of a stage beyond the one in which they are currently residing - but to see it as a burden is to lose the real quintessence of its glory. It has to be seen as a pleasure; no other anticipatory feeling will do. If we see it as a burden, we will very likely stop searching for it. We shall turn into the type of Christian who settles for what they currently have. 

 

Admittedly, it is far easier than attempting to leap into stage three. For what we are trying to do is to remain as we are, appreciating good friends, good Bible study, good prayer and good growth within stage two - but we are missing out on a better happiness. I do not doubt that this sounds strange, for here I am claiming a disparity between several, seemingly convergent and complementary things. I bet you know some people who seem to have both. Perhaps there are; or perhaps they are experiencing stage three in a way that is not always obvious from their introverted character. In fact, it does not seem at all feasible to me that a Christian can dwell in stage two and yet claim for himself the same type of growth and happiness that he would be experiencing if he were in stage three. 

 

In stage two, there is still a part of us that is trying to let our minds and hearts go their own way - centred on personal satisfaction, or pleasure, or ambition, or self-actualisation, and hoping, in spite of this, to behave as though every bit of Christ which the Father had planned for us is already, or soon will be, upon us. We are, in a sense, trying to serve two masters. In the fullest sense, it cannot be done. I admit that it takes a good while, and perhaps some experience, to realise that we cannot do both. We cannot try to reach stage three without leaving behind the things which were, all the time, impeding our growth. Just as people do not pick grapes from thornbushes, Christ does not give full growth to withering plants. We must be re-planted with better seeds; we must be preserved with better care than before. But when it arrives we will be in no doubt that it was part of Christ’s plan for us all along. In fact, it will occupy a permanent place in our daily Christian life. It is the difference between writing a note on your hand and having it written on your heart.

 

You have seen, in stage two, little glimpses of what we are talking about here. You have seen that love is drawn into beauty; that its very presence makes love a thing of giving, not to receive but to adore. You have seen that in bad people, good friends have made them a lot nicer than they would be without such friends. And you have seen, perhaps too infrequently, some whose fire for God is able to hide his less-agreeable traits; such as when a brief conversational aberration reveals the true inner-humility which, without the Spirit inside, would have been papered over with proud rhetoric. We are all, at this moment, like a painting waiting to be finished by the artist. The more we desire a better picture, the more God will put into it and the better it will look in paradise. It will be a picture fit for the walls of Heaven. 

 

One of the preliminary steps towards stage three is the realisation that nature will not direct you there. Those who look to nature first nearly always end up as inert Christians. Nature, by herself, does not teach anything about our own hearts. A true heart-felt conviction may sometimes validate an experience of nature; an experience of nature cannot, by itself, validate a conviction of the heart. Nature does not attest to anything theological, she merely helps to display its true meaning. Nature was created so that we could, by a gradual process, learn enough about ourselves to have a relationship with the One who created nature. Nature gives us many glimpses of what is really going on and in many respects it reflects it. 

The ascension towards the fullness of the divine will not work if we attempt any advancement in godliness purely for the rewards, in fact, it is probably impossible to do so, for the rewards have to be commensurate to the desire - you would not really know to desire certain rewards unless you were connected with God in such a way that those rewards could be given. In fact, as regards each reward, we should not even think about it until we have drawn close enough to Him that we might understand its relevance in our lives. 

 

Earthly life provides us with many examples of desiring things for the wrong reasons or taking actions for reasons that are detached from those reasons which ordinarily give us the natural rewards. For example, weight loss is not the natural reward of eating fried food, so we would not think a man very clever if he were trying to lose weight by constantly eating egg and chips. Financial gain is not the natural reward of marriage, so it is a very bad thing to marry someone because of their wealth. But there are many examples of situations when the natural rewards are a part of the agent or activity to which the right actions and proper, prioritised, desires belong. Going to church solely for the purposes of finding a wife or husband is a bad thing, but there is a good chance that you might find a wife or husband if you go to church for all the right reasons. In other words, covetous distractions merely lead us away from focusing on Christ - whereas enhanced godliness, devotion and genuine passion to grow every day in every way will bring you closer to Him, thus improving greatly your chances of finding a wife or husband.

 

We have to be wise (or certainly in the right frame of mind) to see it. Those times when we think that God may have spoken to us through nature are the times that we should use to push us forward. It is quite obvious that if you feel a hint of God’s glory you should not look through it, nor must you find a path through it that you think will give you better fulfilment - the whole of nature swallows it up and chokes on it. The quickest detour is on your knees. Otherwise the love of nature is beginning to become a god itself. And if it doesn’t lead us to the devil it will certainly lead us to a lot of spuriousness. One of the big errors of modern thinking is man’s perception of how to locate these wonderful things - if God exists they think they can find Him by being overwhelmed with small things in nature, but it is not so. Try to feel personally touched by your search for Him and you will usually feel nothing. Try to search earnestly with all other matters put aside and you will usually feel personally touched. 

 

In the book of Lamentations, we see that God’s steadfast love never ceases - that His never-ending mercies can be, with the right determination, fresh and new every morning. Christ, if we so desire (and desiring is the key), will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body (Philippians 3:21). The Heavenly power enables Him, but we too can help Him by opening our hearts and minds to the glorious and stupendous gifts that He will give us as we strive with every effort to serve Him and tell others about His glory. In the book of Ephesians, St Paul tells us to find out what pleases the Lord. We are the light of the world; the light in the Lord - and it is this light which makes everything visible. Any personality defects that we thought were holding us back are mere flashes in comparison to His Heavenly grace bestowed upon us. The whole universe was created so that we could light it up. Atheists say that this is arrogance on our part, but the truth is very different. We are humbled, humbled into His presence - our light cannot shine if it is detached from its source. 

 

Let us forget about our past troubles and past insecurities. He knows about them, and only through desiring Him can we move forward with true purpose. This is our chance to reach our generation. Lost moments can never be brought back. Every new day brings with it fresh opportunities; how could we ever have thought that dwelling in uncertainty was an option? The glorious third stage of our Christian journey is the stage when it all comes together - when our longing for Him and His longing to bless us shine together, enabling us to illuminate everything in our vicinity. Others are in darkness and we are the light that can shine upon them. As our Lord says, do not be afraid - what can man do to us? If our candle is burning enduringly for Christ, there is nothing in the dark can affect us - for all the darkness in the world cannot put out a light. But the wind, the wind of distraction, the breeze of pseudo-contentment that sweeps into the soul can, as we all know, cause the light to flicker - and if perpetuated - blow out. That is why those whose preoccupations are with distracting things will find it hard to move from stage two to stage three; for we can only reflect fully, the divine wonder if the mirror of our soul is kept in pristine condition. 

 

And I think it ought to be noted, for the sake of offering encouragement, that any duty which will eventuate in divine illumination; any work that we are doing for Him for the purposes of Christ, is going to seem, at first, disconcerting. But we should not be too worried by this. Becoming one with Christ is not one big long affair; it is many short affairs one after the other. We do not move a mountain by one mighty effort - we move it by breaking it down and carrying bits at a time. This is the power of perseverance; this is the gift of tenacity; this is when true wisdom directs us towards a better understanding of the divine. 

 

As I said a moment ago; St Paul says that we should find out what pleases the Lord. Until we have a burning desire to please Him with every part of our personality, with every part of our desires, and with every one of our actions, we will not experience the wonderful third stage. We will remain encamped in a place of spiritual stagnancy. Our domicile will be subleased to Devilish tenants. But appeal to God for true spiritual wisdom - desire with all your heart that His divine gifts will be ceaseless and you will see that when our Lord says that all prayers (auspicious to His cause) will be answered, He really means it. One of the truest parts of wisdom is the art of becoming aware of which earthly things we should forsake, and which earthly things we should embrace. The true act of renewal is not mere contemplation of earthly improvements (although that is no bad thing) - it is having a little bit more of Christ inside us each day. The more of His divine wisdom that He gives - and the more of it we embrace, the more of Him will be inside us. Therefore it naturally follows that the more of Him we have in us, the more the Son can speak to the Father through us, and the more blessed we will be in our time on earth.  I started this message last week by exclaiming how great it is for any Christian to be in the third stage. I would like it to take it further - there is no other place to be; no other place worthy of His awesome nature; no other place on earth for which we were created.