Spiritual Growth

From the moment we are born we are growing.  We begin by having parents feeding us, teaching us, and love us.  We learn to crawl, then walk, and run. We are taught a language in which to communicate. We are taught to read, write, and count. We learn to interact with others and how to love. Eventually all these teachings help us grow into self-sufficient adults.  At that time we start that cycle over again by doing and teaching all those things we learned.

So where are you in your Spiritual growth?  "What is spiritual growth?"  Spiritual growth is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.  But what does that look like? Well just like growing up, someone took a great interest in us and taught us. Your parents can teach you about the Bible, they can tell you the stories about Jesus, and they can influence you by taking you to church.  But unless YOU accept that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, you cannot grow spiritually. Because having a personal relationship with Jesus, reading the Bible regularly, and studying the Word of God is the way we grow spiritually.

Jesus then will help you grow spiritually and teach you how to become a responsible disciple of God. This does occur overnight and can take longer for others. When we place our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit begins the process of making us more like Him, transforming us to His image.

2 Peter 1:3-9 Confirming One’s Calling and Election

 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.  Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

This tells us that by God's power we have “everything we need” to live lives of godliness, which is the goal of spiritual growth. Notice that what we need comes “through our knowledge of Him,” which is the key to obtaining everything we need. Our knowledge of Him comes from the Word, given to us for our edification and growth.

As we grow spiritually, we should pray to God and ask for wisdom concerning the areas He desires us to grow in. Ask God to increase your faith and knowledge of Him. God desires for us to grow spiritually, and He has given us all we need to experience spiritual growth. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we can overcome sin and steadily become more like our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once you start growing in Christ your role is now to become the teacher, a mentor, a disciple.  You may not think at this point I do not want to do that or that I am not capable, but God will give you that desire, He will equip you, and He will make you capable of helping others grow.

But it all starts by accepting that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and start that relationship with Him.

Galatians 5:16-26

16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

Become the adult that God wants you to become and see how fast you will grow.