A Baby Cannot Decree

You are walking down a street, minding your own business. Suddenly, you come upon a baby issuing commands. It catches your attention like the burning bush caught Moses’s attention but this is even more weird. And that is because a baby cannot decree. It will never happen. Babies do not decree, they do not command; they only exist to eat and do other baby things. If you are a father or mother, you know what those other baby things are and how they are the opposite of commanding.

We use the illustration to highlight our critical need to study the Bible, just like God said. Because unless we understand that the word of God is the milk on which we grow, we tend to put Bible study off.  We are so unhappy with God that He insists we study the Bible. Does He not know how busy we are? Why can He not understand that we have to make a living? On and on the excuses go. I call them excuses because if you can find fifteen minutes to eat physical food, you can surely find fifteen minutes to eat spiritual food. Simple.

Otherwise, you remain a baby. And yet God wants us to have dominion over our environment. So, He lets us know that if you do not study the Bible, you remain a baby and, a baby cannot decree. That is why we cannot progress to issuing decrees until we receive instructions from Him. Trust me, it is great advice. We cannot continue as spiritual babies and hope to command illnesses to be gone, as in my case.

A Malnourished Baby Cannot Decree

We have heard this illustration before but it is such a good one we do not mind repeating it. Many preachers use it to illustrate that you would not grant too much power to somebody who is not trained. No father would give his car keys to his two-year-old toddler. In the same way, God will not hand the keys of heaven to His baby who is not trained And unless we study the Bible, we are not trained in spiritual matters. Such a Christian is a baby, and you know that a baby cannot decree. 

The situation gets even scarier when you think of the believer who fails to give attention to the word of God. I do not know if you have ever seen a malnourished child. You pity him. All he can do is breathe and you are afraid his most recent breath might be his last. Imagine that such a baby desires to command the malnutrition to be gone. It would be a sorry sight because a baby cannot decree, let alone a malnourished one.

Jesus tells us He is the Bread of life but we do not come to Him to eat. We prefer to starve and develop malnutrition. We do not realize that a malnourished baby cannot decree anything, and hence we suffer and struggle. Or, as a commentator said, we wonder why God does not answer our prayers. There is no problem with God. He remains faithful to His word.

We Must Stay With The Course

The problem is with us. We are malnourished because we fail to come to the Bread of life. I can tell you that sometimes I try to solve my problems by myself instead of befriending Jesus. On those nights, my sleep flies away from me. How stupid, you say. No problem. You wait until it is your turn to try and take over the issues of your life.

This is the point at which I feel like stopping. However, because I need to get rid of my struggles, I do not have to be offended by any of the earlier points. Unless I keep learning, the struggles will continue because I might remain malnourished. And, as you know, such a baby cannot decree. And yet, I want to be able to decree and command. I like to think you are with me on that. So, let us come to Jesus, the bread of life. 

We must receive instructions from God, not our pastors or social media; most definitely not from social media. Getting your spiritual food from social media is like eating hyper-processed foods (HPFs). The information has been processed several times until almost all is false and dangerous. Have you noticed that the more HPFs a person or nation eats, the greater their risks of disease, especially cancer? 

Besides, the purpose of social media is not information; it is to become influencers. Do you recall the first creature to crave influence? That is right. Satan. We will not be like the devil in Jesus’ name. As we take our instructions from the Bible, before too long, we shall start to decree. I will stop being the baby who cannot decree. I hope you too will now be able to command the illness, poverty, or whatever to go and it will go. We shall not remain babies since a baby cannot decree.

Maranatha!