I guess I’ve become used to calling our younger daughter a baby. So the other day, while praying and laying hands on them, I said, “Father, bless our baby…”, but to my utter amazement, she revolted while in prayer, “I’m not a baby!” I tried to control my laughter. Then after the prayer, I told her, “stop behaving like a baby if you know you are not one.”

Friend, are you still a baby? Are you comfortable being called or treated like a baby? Are you still at that point where someone has to do everything for you? Do you allow the privilege of babyhood to debar you from the responsibility and blessings of growth? You need to make the right decisions.

“For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again…” (Hebrews 5:12). If God opens your eyes to see where you are supposed to be in destiny, you would quit behaving like a baby. Can you imagine someone who should be instructing and guiding others, but still needs to be taught and guided into what is right? It aches the heart of God, just as it does every genuine parent.

“And he said to the gardener, See, for three years I have been looking for fruit from this tree, and I have not had any: let it be cut down; why is it taking up space?” (Luke 13:7). We can infer from scriptures that the maximum number of years that God has given every genuinely born again person to grow up is four years (Luke 13:7-8). God seems to be saying that if you pay attention to His dealings and provisions in the Kingdom you would not remain a baby beyond those number of years.

What you are exposed to for the first 3 to 4 years of your salvation experience would determine the trajectory and the strength of your growth in the Kingdom. Quite sadly, a lot of people are not rightly exposed at this stage; they only go about playing truant around God and the things of destiny. If nothing is done urgently at this stage, such people might remain a burden for life.

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1). You need to know the marks of babyhood so you would not behave like one unknowingly (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). Some people are still holding on to feeding bottles when they ought to be cracking bones in destiny. While we are encouraged to remain child-like at every juncture of our walk with God, we are challenged to drop childish behaviours (1 Corinthians 13:11).

© ‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria