Basics of the Child Phase

The Child in spiritual growth Song of Songs 2:8-3:5

1 John 2:12  “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.”

Phases of Growth

1. Basics of the Babe phase 1:2-1:7
2. Basics of the Child Phase 2-3:5
3. Young man 3:6-5:1
4. Strong young man 5:2-8:4
5. Father/Mother fully adorned 8:5-8:14

Characteristics a the Child

The child has changed from a babe to a child and is in between the babe and young man.  The child needs to learn how to put on his armor.  So if you think you are a child then read the young man phase as well because you need to know that phase to become a young man.

The Child’s experience with the Love of God

1. The Spirit of Truth convinces you that you are a child of God, a rose of Sharon.
2. They changed in God’s timing. Song 2:7
3. You have learned to hear His voice Song 2:8
4. Your relationship with God is blossoming “in bloom” Song 2:15
5. You know the rains are over and gone  Song 2:11,16  “Your sins are forgiven” It feels like heaven on earth! and is Your Greatest Interest.
6. “For his Names Sake” 1 John 2:12
7. Obedience is happening more sooner than later in many area’s Song 2:13
8. You learned that God loves to hear you sincere prayer/confessing sin, but hates the sin.  Song 2:14 “Your voice is sweet and your face is lovely”
9. The child has learned to be sincere, not coating over any evil, and you do this without fear of punishment in prayer (Song 2:8-2:15)
10. Your doves eyes have proven themselves and now you are His dove. “My dove” 2:14
11. Your clinging closer to God for help in catching the foxes. Song 2:15
12. Your learning that God disciplines those “children” He loves.  Hebrews 12:5-7
13. You look forward to being able to be “Coming up out of the wilderness of sin” Song 3:6
14. You look forward to crowning Jesus King of your whole life.

1 John 2 :12 “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.”  You have assurance of this!!  You know for sure that your going to heaven not because of anything you have done but because your sins have been forgiven for His Names sake.  Praise the Lord, some babes never get assurance that someone could say this truth to them (1 John 2:12) “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.” “My beloved is mine, and I am His.” Song 2:16  You are sure of this!  Praise the Lord!!  You are His child!!

The Transition from Babe to Child

So your becoming a child, you have grown in your understanding of God and His love for you, and you have been growing in your understanding of the Bible, prayer, witnessing, basically you are continuing in obedience.  Assurance of salvation, assurance that you are a child of God only belongs to the continually moving forward repentant believer.

As you got closer to God by reading the Bible and obeying you saw your sin (When you see your sin it’s because you saw God better, mainly His Holiness and Majesty.  You would sometimes fear God’s wrath when feeling guilt for you sin yet you grew in your understanding of Christ’s love and grace to you.  Your sins are forgiven no need to fear punishment, Christ paid it for you and imputed His righteousness to your account.  “No greater love has anyone than this, that He lay His life down for His friends” would cast out this fear of punishment.  Though sometimes you went long periods of feeling condemnation you are now getting over that or need to.   You have been growing in your virtues and keep remembering the cross not forgetting that you have been cleansed from your past sins.  2 Peter 1:5-10.  If you claim He elected you then you make your calling and election sure by doing 2 Peter 1:5-10.   You have assurance of your salvation.  Or maybe your just starting to come to the conclusion that Christ really did die for you and that you really have been forgiven for His Names sake.  And you are living for Him, not perfectly but your life is diferrent, your thinking about life is different and you are a new creation.  Old things are passing away and new things keep coming.

You have been joyfully drinking up the Bible all the time so you can grow.  You still want to grow.  You have a thirst for it.  I want to be like my older brother is your thinking so you read and obey.  Reading more and more and obeying.

You have been memorizing various scripture and thinking about them throughout the day so that you can obey God.  Your stating to think more often about what would please God rather than yourself.  Not only external obedience but the Word of God is also cleansing you thoughts and emotions.  Your more and more wanting to know God and thus you purify your heart so you can see Him.

As His bride you have been gathering many and better jewels or rather commands of God understood and obeyed from your heart, Song of Songs 1:10, and Christ has been faithful to Song 1:11 in making you more beautiful.  God has given you some sort of assurance that you really are His child.  This is the joy of your salvation.  Knowing that you are saved and forgiven for His Names sake and not because of anything you have done.  This is a great joy for you, and you are sure of this because you know what Jesus has done for you, is doing for you and promises to do in the future.  Having the assurance that He really is yours and you are His you will experience of joy like never before!!  Yet sorrow for disobeying Jesus may be mixed with the joy because you now see your sin.  This is good, you should forever see your sin as dark, darker, really dark, the darkest of hearts is your own, you are “the sinner” so grieve, confess and change your mind about how you think and live, you repent, repentance has been the mark of your life since you were born again and thirsted for His Word.  Since you have been doing a lot of reading your Bible and obeying then you have changed your mind about quite a bit of things in your life and heart.  This done by the power of God’s Spirit in you and thru a growing understanding of His love for you, this makes you very swift, fast and fearless like a “mare” in battle (Song 1:9) in your pursuit of the closest and most intimate relationship with God as fast as possible, it’s like you are in a “hurry” Song of Songs 1:4, you see the truth and you know the Bible to be the Word of God, convictions are getting stronger, and you know the Bible guides you and you don’t want to waist any time whatsoever getting close to the one you love.  Yes, you stumble and fall and may seem to be going backwards sometimes, and you haven’t the “graceful legs” of the strong young man in Song 7:1 yet, but you persevere despite how bad and ugly things may get.

The Babes Experience with the Love of God

1. Song 2:1  Assurance of who you are.  “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys”  “Sharon”  was an evil town.  I am a rose who once lived in an evil place.  I am beautiful like a lily yet I came from a low valley, poor and wretched slave.  She is not giving her history here, although that could be.  She could be saying she was literally from Sharon.  But the metaphor is there to communicate an evil place.  Sharon was an evil place.  So she is morally beautiful now like a rose, washed in the blood of the Lamb from a very morally evil place.  “A lily of the valleys”
2. Song 2:2 “Like a lily among thorns”  She is a morally beautiful lily and her life is fragrant with love and grace, even among those “thorns” who would harm her.  Before people would gossip, grumble and swear and she would also, but now she is a lily among those thorns.  She is not like them.  She is the Lily and they are the thorns.  What she used to do she now hates to do because she is looking forward to crowning him King of your whole life, heart and soul.  She is an adorable flower full of glory and beauty, but the thorns are to be avoided, they are dangerous, yet they also serve to protect the beauty of the rose.
3. Song 2:3 A citron/Apple tree and Solomon.  She thinks about Solomon and she thinks about sitting in the shade of an apple tree.  She draws some similarities between Solomon and the tree.  Protection and nourishment for spiritual growth is what she see’s he could do for her.  She is the little Lily among thorns.  And he is this great citron tree.  He can provide for all her needs.  He is all sufficient to her.
4. Song 2:4  The child has experienced God’s love and wants more of it!  Let me experience it to the fullest.  Experiencing God’s love through Solomon was wonderful.  Let me have more, higher, deeper, longer and wider.  She keeps asking for more and you should also.
5. Song 2:5  Here the child experiences it to such a degree that they can’t handle it.  They grow faint.  They need God to sustain them.  This is so that the child that wants to experience the Love of God to a greater degree will realize that the reason they aren’t experiencing it to the fullest is because of their own weakness.  The fault lies in them not God.  So he overwhelms them.  She can’t handle it.  Back it Song 1:2  she wants more of it and in Song 2:4 she wants more of it and now she can’t handle it once it is poured out into her heart to such a degree that she is asking for anything to help strengthen her.  Ephesians 3:16
6. Song 2:6  Now she realizes that the only way for her to be where she is now is to have his powerful arms holding her there.  Now if you know this is possible and you desire the closest most intimate relationship with God and want to experience His Love then you will want this ASAP, this is why you have the warning in the next verse.
7. The child is changed in God’s timing. Song 2:7
   1. Do not arouse or awaken love til it so desires. 3:5  This is a warned to not go to far to fast or to use umbilical means to try to awaken God’s Love and Grace.  Go Here to learn more about this verse.
8. You have learned to hear His voice.  Song 2:8 “Listen, my beloved” John 10:3 “the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
9. Your relationship is “blossoming” and he is proposing. Song 2:12-13 and 2:15  Solomon promised in Song 1:11 that He would make her more morally beautiful.  She learned and obeyed. Learned some more and obeyed.  This made her more beautiful.  She grew and applied all diligence 2 Peter 5-7  “applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing” you will be assured of His calling and choosing you. 2 Pt 1:9
10. You know your sins are forgiven. “the rains are over and gone”Song 2:11.  This also is what helps the child be sincere in prayer. Song 2:10-2:14.  They have assurance that they are saved  (Song 2:16) They are assured Christ is for them, and Christ is not against us, He is revealing His wrath to them, and Grace to us.
11. “Your sins are forgiven For his Names Sake”  As a Child you know your sins are forgiven for His Names Sake.  For His Glory.  Not  by your supposed good works.  No one is good only God.
12. Obedience is happening more sooner than later in many area’s. Song 2:13 “the fig tree forms it’s EARLY fruit”
13. You learned that God loves to hear you sincere prayer/confessing sin.  Song 2:14 Psalm 51 is a good example of confession
14. They have learned to be sincere without fear of punishment in prayer (Song 2:8-2:15)  Be sincere in letting him hear your inner most thoughts and feelings as he proposes and desires a closer with you.  Song 2:7-2:15. Draw near to him and he will draw near to you. No coating over your sins, say them for what they are and speak to your Lord who loves to hear your sweet voice and see your lovely face.  You see He says lovely face when you are thinking its not, remember you are dark yet lovely, both, you will learn to balance these out.  In so doing you grow closer to God.  You are in a safe place so talk to God He hates the sin but loves to hear your confession.  This confession will also bring to clearer reality the truth. Some people prefer to write it out and then confess. When you confess your sin and open your heart toward God,  Remember to put whatever darkness He reveals to you into the idea of your darkness, dark and I yet lovely, yes dark am I, I chose to sin, I did it, I disobeyed God, dark am I, I am evil, wretched, destitute of righteousness, I am not good, black am I like the tents of Kedar  and getting darker, I see it darker as the Sun reveals it to me.
15. Your doves eyes have proven themselves and now you are a called “My dove”. Song 2:14 yea you are His dove (she had doves eyes in Song 1:15), Her faithful focus on Him prompts Him to call her “My dove” 2:14.  He calls you this for the first time, Dove, meaning Love, He calls her “My Love”, How could Solomon be meaning that it is God wanting him to call her “my love” because God did and wrote it down, Solomon had the love of God in Him,  She had the love of God in her, I doubt Solomon to be a liar, so He calls her what she is to Him “My dove” therefore he could call hers “my love”  “My Dove” they both had the very flame of God in them (Song 8:6) so that the Love that was what she wanted shown to her over and over again could happen.  Both having the flame of God in them and then uniting them to be one.  Growing in the image of God, His renewed image on their hearts, she saw His Glory in the temple, she saw His Glory reflected in the courtship.  She saw His glory reflected in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.  The glory of the Lord being revealed to her and everyone around her.  Beholding His glory is where her eyes have learned to focus and stay focused. Doves eyes, so beautiful so lovely are her eyes focused faithfully only on the one she loves.  Your doves eyes have proven themselves by His Grace, so you are His Dove.  So Christ on the cross is calling you “My dove”  Keep your focus here, the wounds in my hands and nail in my foot.  My sins in His Hands on the cross and the serpents nail bite at His heal and the cup of God wrath poured out and swallowed up by the love of Christ during those 3 hours and dying and rising.  Death could not stop the very flame of God from accomplishing its purpose.  No greater Love than Jesus dying for his friends. Your His dove keep your eyes focused on Him and His Love, shows of affections, kisses, Your doves eyes are focused on receiving His love kisses.
16. Your clinging closer to God for help in catching the foxes. Song 2:15 Your relationship is in bloom but there are some foxes ruining the blossoming.  Your recognizing your inability to catch the foxes on your own so for the sake of the “us”, for the happiness of the both of you, it is best to work together to catch the foxes.  Your learning to “lean more on your beloved” by Song 8:5, being fully mature you will have mastered this, but for now it is good that you know it is His desire and yours that you will work out your salvation with fear and trembling because it is Him that  You still lean much on your own understanding.
17. Your learning that God disciplines those “children” He loves.  Hebrews 12:5-7
    1. Your learning how the loving yet painful Hand of God’s discipline works. Your learning that you can’t get away with things that you could before.  You know better now, God will discipline you now and you know it.  He is treating you as a son Hebrews 12:5-12
18. You look forward to being able to be “Coming up out of the wilderness of sin” Song 3:6  Your not “up out of the wilderness” yet till you are a Young Man.  You are coming up out, but not out.  The child should have assurance of this coming up out of the wilderness of sin because their life is changing and God has given them assurance of this they are moving forward.  But if you are continuing in sin then you shouldn’t have this assurance of coming up out of the desert wilderness.
19. You look forward to crowning Jesus King of your whole life.  You hate sin and it seems to be reigning in an area or two of you life.  Look upon your King, crown Him King in all area’s of your life, just like you earned by His Grace your doves eyes so now the business of your life is to crown Him King, catch all the foxes, hold onto Christ tightly and don’t believe the lies the devil tells you.
20. Romans 8:14  For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
21. When you get assurance of your salvation, you get the spirit of adoption, meaning the holy spirit will communicate to you the truth that you are forgiven for His Names sake, you will be assured of this, not saved by anything you could ever do, but forgiven for His Names sake, His Glory.  The Spirit of Adoption will convict you of your adoption, meaning you were not a child and now he accepts you as one by assuring you of the fact that he Chose you and loves you, like an adoption, you understand this metaphor and it gives you assurance, great conviction with joy that this is true, the fact that you are adopted into the family of God at your engagement in Song 2:16
22. Romans 9:8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
23. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”  The Spirit Desires to do His Role.  Reveal the Glory of Christ to my sole.  Set your mind on what the Spirit desires.
24. Children should have a testimony.  They were Babes but now are Children, they should remember what it was like as a Babe even though there still is much of a babe in a Child. And it seems like the more mature you get then the less of the earlier phases show up.  You have learned those lessons and your moving on even though the same lesson may repeat in duration, frequency and intensity.
25. Some could stay children and never mature to overcome the evil one.

BASICS OF THE BABE

Further detail about the Child Phase is in my commentary on Song 2:1-3:5 (not yet online)