The first thing that attracts you to a baby is its innocence. People say, "You sweet little innocent thing." No one thinks of a baby as having a past. It doesn't have one.
Do you know something? If you are a newborn babe in Christ, you don't have any past. You may have been as mean as the devil. You may have been the worst wretch that ever walked. But no matter how you may have lived, when you were born-again you became a new man in Christ Jesus and you don't have any past. God looks at you as an innocent babe.
II CORINTHIANS 5:17 17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Even though innocence belongs to the babyhood stage of Christianity, it is one characteristic we should never outgrow. We should maintain this state of innocence for the simple reason that if we don't, we will fall under the condemnation of the devil and be defeated in spiritual life.
A new convert is simple, full of faith, ready and willing to learn. We should always maintain that teachable spirit. Yet sometimes when we grow older we sort of come to the place where we have a "know-it-all" attitude; a "You-can't-tell-me-anything" attitude. Those people no one can help, including God Himself.
A group of men gathered in back of the auditorium after service one night in one of the churches I pastored. As I walked up to shake hands with them one of the deacons said, "Brother Hagin, what do you think about..." and he mentioned a certain Bible subject. I found out later he did that purposely to bring me into their discussion.
"Well, I don't know just where your discussion is," I said, "and whether I could fit in or not."
The man the deacon really wanted to help spoke up immediately, "Well, I'll tell you. You or anyone else can't tell me a thing in the world about that Bible subject. I know all there is to be known on it. I know all about it."
I said, "If you do, you've got me beat. And if you do, you have every other preacher beat that I've ever seen or known of, or any other person."
He said, "Well, I know all about it. No one can tell me a thing about it."
But to tell the truth, that fellow was the biggest baby in the entire church. He didn't know all about it at all.
Keep an open spirit and a teachable spirit, as well as an innocent spirit, toward God and man.
CONTINUE
