Thursday

Related Verses
Col. 1:28-29
28 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ;
29 For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.

Heb. 12:10
10 For they disciplined for a few days as it seemed good to them; but He, for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness.

Col. 2:19
19 And not holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

Col. 3:10-11
10 And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
11 Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.

John 10:10
10 The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.

2 Cor. 1:8-10
8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living.
9 Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead;
10 Who has delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver us; in whom we have hoped that He will also yet deliver us,

Related Reading
The meaning of the word mature in Greek is “at the end point.”…This word is used many times in the New Testament, referring to the believers’ being full-grown, mature, and perfected in the life of God…Although we receive the life of God when we are regenerated, after regeneration we still need to grow and mature unto perfection in this life. 

Colossians 1:28 and 4:12 show us that the laboring of the apostles in Christ for the believers and their struggling in prayers for them are all for the believers’ growth and maturity, that they may be presented and displayed full-grown and mature before Christ. (Life Lessons, vol. 4, pp. 69-70) 

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The discipline of the Holy Spirit refers to what the Holy Spirit is doing in our outward environment; it refers to His arranging of all people, things, and happenings, through which we are being disciplined. 

The major work of God toward us through the Holy Spirit, aside from the Holy Spirit as the anointing, is in His outward discipline…For example, Romans 8, which speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit, first tells us that the Holy Spirit, which contains the law of life, is able to set us free from sin and that by Him we can put to death the practices of the body. This chapter also tells us that the Holy Spirit guides us so that we may live according to Him and finally, that He helps us in our weaknesses and prays for us. All these activities are the work of the Holy Spirit within us as the anointing. In the latter part of this chapter we read that “all things work together for good to those who love God” (v. 28). This speaks of the discipline of the Holy Spirit in our outward environment. The work of this outward discipline coordinates with His inward moving and leading. The Holy Spirit arranges and determines all that comes upon us according to the will of God. Although in many instances this causes temporal pain and trouble, in the end it is for the good of those who love God, that they may be conformed to the image of His Son. This arrangement is what we mean by the discipline of the Holy Spirit. 

When the Holy Spirit moves and anoints within us and we obey the feeling that He imparts, God’s will is accomplished, and His attributes are increased within us. Therefore, the inward anointing of the Holy Spirit is to some extent sufficient for the obedient ones. However, if we are stubborn, if we do not obey the inner anointing and rebel time after time, the Holy Spirit is compelled to raise up an environment to chasten and discipline us, thereby causing us to submit. Therefore, the anointing of the Holy Spirit within us is a sweet act of God’s love toward us and is His original desire, while the outward discipline of the Holy Spirit is an act of God’s hand, an act that He is compelled to perform. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Experience of Life,” pp. 429-430) 

Maturity is a matter of the enlargement of capacity…To escape God’s arrangement just one time is to lose an opportunity to have our capacity enlarged…A believer can never be the same after passing through suffering…For this reason, when believers are passing through suffering, they must pay attention and they must realize that maturity in life is the sum total of receiving the discipline of the Holy Spirit. People may see a person who has matured in life, but they cannot see the accumulated discipline of the Holy Spirit which that person has received secretly day by day throughout the years. (Watchman Nee—a Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age, pp. 143-144) 

Further Reading: CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Experience of Life,” ch. 12