Becoming Spiritually Mature

[Omar]

Yes, there is always a choice. But when it's not even needed to make that choice consciously, I find it truly wonderful

[AndrewBill]

Yes, there are a lot of people who aren't conscious about how our world really is like.
You called them asleep or ignorant... there are a lot of these I believe but also there are in one hand some I personally call influenced and in the other hand distracted people.

It doesn't matter how one call those people... I was one of them and am happy for not being like that anymore but it's important to not get angry with those ones. Lets love them for what they are and pray for their awakening.

I am Roman Catholic since my Baby-Times knowing times without faith in God... 20 years later... Since August 2008, I started to believe in Jesus and began to read and test the Bible... I got baptised again in March 2009. So I got baptised two times - I personally say that in my situation the first time was a baptism of religion and the second one a baptism in faith. For someone with a traditional Philippine Roman Catholic background it was not an easy step but it was worth it. My religion is the same but my faith and my whole personality has changed a lot.

Nowadays I got a Bible Study Group called GIFTED, means "Growing In Faith Totally Empowers Dimensions"...

In my relationship with God, my view of the world has had a lot of changes. Starting by being conscious about spiritual acts, remembering dreams after 10 years of a "non dreaming time" (some of them really happened), knowing what will happen in a concrete and actual situation and the growth of love.

The growth of love is something very special for me... One time I was at a Main Station, it was after a motivation event my friend and I was invited to preach - I was crying - somehow feeling the emptiness and pain of different people. I knew it was a time of prayer for those people.

Love the people you think they are ignorant or asleep. Pray for them, bless them. If they awake, they may be able to see or love more than oneself. Don't be angry or something like that... forgive them... learn how to love even enemies.

1. Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse 1-13:
(1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (3) If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

(4) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (5) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

(8) Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. (9) For we know in part and we prophesy in part, (10) but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. (11) When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. (12) Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

(13) And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

If you for example received the gift of seeing more, learn to live with it in love. You will grow and there will be fruits of life for others.