There is a proper time for the elementary level of spirituality just as there is a proper time for physical childhood. The youthful stages of both the physical and the spiritual life are essential to further development. The Lord does not dislike us because we are children!

In due time the spiritual (and physical) adolescent should be growing toward adulthood and will proceed along a satisfying and fruitful course when he is in contact with Christ. Growth to a higher development should be neither forced nor delayed or else the process may get out of harmony with God's plan for the individual.

Growing up spiritually can prove to be a frightening experience. The person senses in himself the ever-deepening consecration and death to the self life which necessarily accompanies the increasing development of resurrection life. He has been called, like Abraham, to leave the familiar and to wander in a strange country.

There is a deep appeal in the call of the Spirit toward the fullness of the life lived in the Presence and power of God. There is a heavenly joy that accompanies total consecration. But there are transitional pangs as one is crossing from the life of the soul to the life lived in the Spirit of God. The transition means death to the "old man." Death is not a condition into which a healthy person rushes with joy.

He who would go "all the way" with God, as did Abraham, must be prepared to be fully obedient, as was Abraham. He must be faithful in the things of God (Hebrews 3:2).

We "Pentecostal" people are in just such a transition today. On the one hand, we may attempt to go back and recapture the "fun" we had during our "Courtyard" days: the musical programs, the "old campground" atmosphere, the Christian games and contests, the good times with others of the newly-saved, the reminding of each other that we have been born again, the lively testimony meetings. Surely these all are profitable activities for Christian people.

On the other hand, we may have come in contact with teachers of the deeper life who call back to us from a place farther out in the spirit realm. We begin to think about "higher planes" and "passing through the veil." The Spirit of God in us testifies to our spirit that there is a land of promise out there where the spiritual grapes are ripe and abundant; where the good things of the "earth" can be harvested—no more of this light "manna" coming down each day! There is a place where the Father and the Son live in and commune with the Christian believer in a far greater manner than we have known (John 14:23; I Corinthians 13:10).

We stand at Sinai, as it were. We turn and look longingly back toward the familiar, toward Egypt, for there God wrought miracles for us—wondrous deeds the world does not understand. We look up at this Sinai and wonder if we will be able to live with the dread Lawgiver who rumbles and thunders in His holiness until "we be all dead men."

Then we turn and look northward toward the land of promise, a place where we have never been. There are no familiar faces, no friends, no relatives. God has said we will be happy there, but we do not know . . . we just do not know!

To be continued.