A cat sauntered across the street this morning in front of Hunter (my dachshund) and I this morning on our walk. Hunter began to pick up speed at the sight of this four legged furry animal crossing the street. The cat just continued its pace into a garden bed and jumped up on a slightly elevated utility box in the yard.

The cat then laid down and just looked at Hunter with this, “Can I help you” look that only a cat can give. Hunter barked at the cat a couple of times and thought about putting his front paws on the elevated platform where the cat was, but refrained. Hunter turned and walked away and the cat never moved.

Watching this play out this morning, made me realize cats are truly of the lion kingdom, just in a much smaller body. The way that cat laid there, without any fear, as though the cat knew who he was and who was in his lineage. This cat was a lion just smaller.

I also noticed how mature the cat was, it did not flinch, run, raise its back when it saw Hunter coming. This cat had seen dogs before and was not moved by mine, not one moment this morning.

I thought bout the role of the Ephesians 4 gifts Jesus gave to the church. The apostle gift, the prophet gift, the evangelist gift, the pastor gift, the teacher gift. I thought about how they are gifted to mature the body of Christ, so the body of Christ can do the work of the ministry.

I then realized the reason we, the body of Christ, individually and corporately, panic at the sight of dogs on leashes that come moving toward us, is because we have not been discipled into maturity. We have been discipled in fear based theologies of raptures, horns, dragons, beasts, and every other creature in the book of Revelation, but not in maturity.

Wisdom is a sign of maturity; staying in an elevated position is maturity; remaining laying down is maturity. When you know the barking dog is on a leash, there is no reason to be moved, but that takes maturity.

We need to maturity in the body of Christ so we stop allowing every barking dog to get us moved from our elevated, lounging position. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org