SIMILARITIES IN DOG TRAINING AND NEW BELIEVER TRAINING
Reading a magazine article about training a dog, the author had 8 commands he felt were necessary for a dog to learn. The first was to SIT. The two reasons were that it is a natural position for the dog to be in and an easy command to learn. They not only learn the command, but they learn the process of learning a command. 
COMMANDS: COME, STAY
The author believed these to be the next most important bc if your dog can obey these commands, then they can more easily obey the others. In fact, the author believed that if they didn’t know these commands, they couldn’t truly learn the others. We must learn to sit before we can do anything else. Sitting/resting in the Lord must be our starting place.
Then, I’ve seen time and time again where the Lord actually teaches us to stay even when it seems we should go, and to come unto Him in all things long before He ever teaches us to ‘go’. 
Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee
USE IN A MIGHTY WAY THINKING
We are so eager to go, even sometimes encouraged to do so long before we are ready to.
Example: prayer right after baptism for brand new believers to “be used in a mighty way for the Lord”. The picture in my mind is a mother sitting in her hospital bed holding her brand new baby and visitors coming to see the baby, telling the mother that they hope she uses her brand new baby in a mighty way. Or worse yet, leaning over to the baby and telling the baby that the Lord wants to use them in a mighty way this year. 
Yes, the Lord will actually use that baby in a mighty way, but without any help at all from the baby. The baby will simply live. Grow. Be. and by his very existence will impact the lives of his family. However, the family will also be used in a mighty way in the baby’s life. Providing abundant love, care, and protection – actually “doing” far more than the baby.
The baby learns by WATCHING first and then TRYING WITH HELP long before they ever go off and do on their own.
Working off the wrong GOAL!
PROBLEM WITH THIS THINKING
Pragmatism: an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.  If it meets the goal then do it.

* Teaches the end to justify the means. If the end is considered “converts” just about any “means” are acceptable to reach that goal.
* “If it works let’s do it” is unspiritual because it depends on technique rather than God to produce the desired effects- Form/Practices produces life vs life (God) giving birth to form(practices)

Leads to: Burn out, depression, never enough, under constant scrutiny, leaving the faith, spiritual immaturity
Natural talent is the driving force
Youthful ambition spent on “doing” rather than developing Christ’s character
Character vs Natural Talent
Our strength vs the Lord’s strength
The Character of the Lord’s Worker by Watchman Nee
GROWTH OF NEW BELIEVERS
How different would the growth of new believers be if instead of encouraging them to go out and do something for the Lord or be someone for the Lord we simply brought them into the family and loved, cared for, and protected them the same way we do a newborn? What if we actually waited until they had some growth in them before we started encouraging them to act.
So people are using the wrong spiritual growth chart  to measure their progress and find themselves either
Never measuring up
Prideful – I’ve already got it together- I have been a Christian for years
God’s view of spiritual maturity is