If I persist in fearing my spiritual development being negatively impacted or contaminated by those outside of the Christian community because I ascribe spiritual health to dogma only, then is it an actual Person I'm trusting, or a dogma? This is exactly how the Pharisees and experts of the law in Jesus' days missed Him and His message. They were offended by Jesus because of their dogma.
If I continue to do this, I'll seek feedback and advice from Christians only and I believe I will be cutting myself short. There is definitely a time and place for this, but like all things related to growth (which is what discipleship is) there is a season to branch out beyond my comfort-zone, and trust in the True Vine as well as the Gardener (John 15: 1-2) to prune me as I expand.
When I did exclusively get advice and opinions, it only had weight if the person agreed with orthodox Christian dogma. It was necessary for me at the time, just as it's necessary for an infant to be around their mother much more to create a trusting bond at first, but there is a limit to the fruit of this as well because of the prolonged dependency that can get fostered, and then the fear of being stretched grows bigger and bigger. Eventually, an infant will venture outside of the mother's arms to get its needs met for growth and development. If not, physical growth and development take place, but emotionally the young adolescent is at high-risk for keeping herself in a perpetual stage of spiritual immaturity and dependency on others when it comes to gaining discernment for her life outside of others. I am finding myself experiencing a false sense of security when I hear Christians telling me their opinions. I think to myself, "they have the Holy Spirit, they are in a relationship with God, they pray, they know Scripture and want to live according to God's will, therefore, I can just follow their advice without having to exercise much discernment." Not so.
This is shifting..
There is a sacre sitting.
In order to mature and tone up my own spiritual discernment muscles, I need to be in situations where I'm consensually FORCED with the need to do this for myself. I think we who are in America where the religion of Christianity is a "norm" and not at all a minority group (like if we were living in Turkey or Thailand) get spoiled. We can easily run from the "secular" world into our many churches, Bible studies, seminaries, etc. and stay there for cover, and have that discernment muscle get sorely out of shape. I'm speaking from my own experience and observations here.
This has caused me to have my discernment radar down when I'm getting advice from other "wiser" Christians. I mistakenly rationalized that because I was in the company of Bible and Jesus loving Christians, it negating the necessity for me to have my own discernment about what was said. My discernment muscle got less and less used, so it got flabby. This did not mean I should listen to these people without using my own discernment and learning to trust God's ability to speak to me through WHATEVER avenues, including the secular ones, but I took it be as such, and got burned.
I can trust that He is big enough to cover over my humanity and my best efforts to discern His voice for any given area in my life,
I realize that bad company can corrupt good character, and that I'm not above being influenced by other's values that contradict mine or Scripture's. But my closest friends are not bad company. I am not dumping all opinions that come from Christians, I'm just willing to consider opinions from those outside the realm of church and seek them out. Recently, I've come into short contact with some pretty amazing people, who though they are not claiming to be Christians, they have more self-awareness, honesty and maturity than many Christians. They seem to reflect more acceptance and less judgment than the average Christian Jo Shmo, including myself. For whatever reason, I seem to feel more safe with them in some respects because of this quality.
I can learn to do what Jesus did, and what He continues to do, meet people where they're at. He doesn't mandate any pre-requisites for being in relationship with Him. He met the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the demon-possessed and the experts of the law wherever they were at and in whatever degree they sought Him out in.
Consider Nicodemus. He was a member of the Jewish ruling council (John 3) and he came to Jesus at night to seek answers for questions he was wrestling with. And Jesus met him there. Even though these experts/teachers of the law where the recipients of THE most critical and harshest words of Jesus (Matthew 23), He met one of them (Nicodemus) where he was at, even though it was at night, in the dark, and hidden. He didn't shame him, he didn't send him away with a critique of his life. On the contrary. He answered his tough questions. In fact, this is where Jesus give the infamous gospel in a nutshell..to Nicodemus at night, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16). I believe Jesus does not want or desire for Nicodemus to continue to follow him in the dark at night, but this, nonetheless, is where Jesus met him..for at the point, it was where Nicodemus was at, it was where he felt safe seeking out Jesus at that point, and He met him there with words of truth and revelation..not with silence.
He meets us where we're at, or else He would never meet us at all. For we're only brought OUT of where we're at by His meeting us there. That is the history of Grace, still repeating itself.
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