Spiritual Growth – 11

A Lesson From The Parrots                               Bible Reading: Romans 12

If you have ever seen where parrots are raised, you must have noticed that they are able to easily mimic the sounds they hear. Let’s assume we have three parrots and one was raised by an Asian, another by an African while the third was raised by a Briton. If the only sound these parrots learnt in their lifetime was the sound of “good morning”, you will realize that these parrots will all be able to echo “good morning” but in a different intonation. This is simply because their coaches have different accent. Human beings most times behave in a similar way – Most things that echo out of our lives are a result of what we have been exposed to. At every time in our lives, we are mimicking something or someone.

You know many times we hear or read a good message and we are quick to say “Oh! I will never do that bad thing again. The things I used to do, I will do them no more”. But as the events of life unfold, we see our actions constantly contradicting our intentions. Why? Intention alone is not enough. If the parrot raised by a Briton have the intention of pronouncing “good morning” like the one raised by an African, it may never be able to do so unless it is exposed to the same coaching. Likewise, despite our best intentions to grow spiritually, if we do not expose ourselves to the right “sounds”, we cannot produce the desired sound (growth). If all the ideas we are exposed to were gotten from mere men, we will naturally produce the sounds of mere men. So here’s the way out prescribed by God:-

Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transformyou inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Rom 12:2 (GNB)

Did you catch that? If you do not want to conform to the sounds echoed by the world, you have to pick up coaching of the kind of sounds you wanna produce. God has to transform you by a complete change of your mind. Imagine if those parrots desire to echo “good morning” like God will do, what sounds should they be exposed to? God’s of course! That’s the formula. Ephesians 5:1 (MSG) says it clearly – “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents”. Go listen to God’s sound. If you must let God transform you, you have to expose yourself constantly to the thoughts of God. God has declared in Isaiah 55:8 – “my thoughts are not your (men’s) thoughts”. So every believer should also gravitate to a point where they also say “my thoughts are not the thoughts of men” just like a parrot can say “my sound is not like that of other parrots”.

How will this happen? Will God come to you every minute to whisper into your mind? Yes and No. I say “No” if you are expecting a mighty rushing wind and a voice that starts with “My son, my son” or “my daughter, my daughter”. I say “Yes” because his word is already near us and reading or hearing it regularly is as potent as his live whisper. Psalm 1 says “Blessed is the man whose delight is in God’s law and he meditate on it day and night”.  We have to expose our minds to the thoughts of God constantly. Technology has even helped us to have all the verses of the Bible in an audio CD. Play it in your car while you drive or in your house while you do other things. Have audio Bible in your iPod and always listen to it. If you are not busy talking with anyone, you should be busy allowing God talk to you; you should be busy listening to the sound you want to produce in your life. Saturate your environment with the word. Do not be moved if you are called an extremist because you constantly allow God to transform you inwardly by a complete change of mind. Get excited about it and you will see yourself experience spiritual growth.

– tope aladenusi