THE MYSTERY OF GROWTH 2

And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people. Luke 2:52 MSG

The journey through life of anyone that pledge allegiance to Christ Jesus is often characterized and evaluated by some virtues and godly standards scattered around in the Bible. One of such entities of evaluation that serve as a weighing balance to checkmate all that we do as believers is the concept of growth. Unlike in the physical realm where growth is very evident and glaring to everyone; spiritual growth takes time and serious attention to make it work and also show forth to everyone around. The absence of growth in the life of any believer will mean the absence of fruits that shows that the person is saved. We have been called to bear fruit, and to ensure that the fruits abound. The major ingredient that makes us able to bear fruit for God’s Kingdom is our level of growth and understanding of God and His purposes for our lives. This makes growth very important to any believer. In this second episode of the mystery of growth we shall be taking detailed look at the instruments necessary for the spiritual growth of every believer. The tools that will be discussed are all proven tools that has helped believers in time past and present.They are still helping believers find their bearing through the process of doing God’s will for their lives. Welcome to The Fire Place!

In our focus verse, the bible gave us details about the changes that characterized and led to the unusual manifestation of Jesus Christ to His world; at the age of twelve, the bible bore record that Jesus matured, He was growing up consistently not just in body, but in spirit! The fruit of which is seen as both God and people blessed Him! In all that we do here on earth, Jesus is our perfect example. Our savior was described here to be growing up and getting matured in His spirit beyond the scope of getting fat and looking fresh. In our own world today, we give more attention in ensuring that we look good outwardly and presentable which in itself is not bad, but when this is done at the expense of paying equal or rather more attention to the growth and development of the spirit man; then it is hazardous to our pleasing God! It is important for us to note that, only those that sow today will reap tomorrow. Also, the kind of seed we sow in our lives today determines the kind of fruit we will reap tomorrow. If all that matters to us today is to grow up and mature physically, time will reveal how empty and spiritually useless we are even though our physical appearance depicts us to be at the best of our health!

If all that matters to us today is to grow up and mature physically, time will reveal how empty and spiritually useless we are even though our physical appearance depicts us to be at the best of our health.

Jesus Christ paid close attention to balancing bodily growth with intense spiritual growth and maturity. What are the things that constitutes the curriculum of our growth as believers? The first tool stands tall as always; THE WORD OF GOD. The bible is more than the most complete outline of history in our world. It is essentially the written word of God, divinely inspired and capable of feeding us with everything we need in understanding the ways and patterns of God and leading us through the journey into destiny fulfillment. No man can rise in God without paying close and detailed attention to the word of God! It takes more than reading the bible in a church service to understand what is written there.

No man can rise in God without paying close and detailed attention to the word of God!

The first pointer that shows the seriousness of a man in growing up spiritually is the sincere hunger for the study of the word of God. We are to study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed! Whatever truth you have not encountered in your life cannot bless you and become your revelation! Spiritual maturity is never in the measure of the years you have spent as a Christian but rather the level of your revelation about God! When you seek God with all your heart through intensive study of the word of God, you are positioning yourself to be equipped by the fire of God’s word. How potent and powerful is the word? For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. HEB.4:12

Spiritual maturity is never in the measure of the years you have spent as a Christian but rather the level of your revelation about God!

The next instrument of growth is PRAYER! A prayer less Christian is a powerless Christian! The bible is quick to communicate the efficacy of the subject of prayer to all men through the different words and instructions about prayer scattered around the word of God. Both the Old and New testament of the Bible pictured prayer as a powerful tool that cannot be avoided in our pilgrimage journey through this world. Prayer is a two-way communication with God. We pray, He listens and then answers our prayers by speaking to our hearts in response to our prayers. It is sad to note that, we have been wrongly modeled to believing that once we pray, we do not need to hear anything from God, we have been molded wrongly into assuming that once we pray, we can go about continuing living our lives without paying attention to what God may have to say about what we prayed about, where as, we keep expectant of the same prayer we never finished praying! That’s hypocrisy of the highest order! How many believers truly believe in the power of prayer? How many believers truly see prayer as their only edge and means of advancement over this world? How many believers truly believe that prayers truly save? Only a few!

we have been wrongly modeled to believing that once we pray, we do not need to hear anything from God, we have been molded wrongly into assuming that once we pray, we can go about continuing living our lives without paying attention to what God may have to say about what we prayed about, where as, we keep expectant of the same prayer we never finished praying!

It is sad to note that the same activity that can be said that Christians do the most is the same thing we know the least! Many don’t know how to pray, they only grew up following the way they saw others praying during church meetings. The disciples of Jesus in their wisdom and curiosity having detected that the uncontestable and undebatable success Jesus commands in ministry can be traced to His prayer life as they all have watched Him retire back to the mountains to pray at night; they asked Him to teach them how to pray! How wonderful and helpful would it have been, if believers can truly cry out to God and search through the scriptures about the true ways to pray and seek God’s face in prayer! Until we see prayer as our means of advancement and edge over others in this world, our growth in God will never become a reality! Prayer for believers is more than a means of requesting answers from God. Prayer is our lifestyle! Jesus explained that men ought to pray and not faint. All that we can achieve for God’s Kingdom on earth can only be accessible and achievable through the ministry of prayer! Through prayer, we bind, cast, uproot, build up, insure our lives and legislate the eternal agenda of God in this world. Consistency in prayer is the required catalyst to speed up and fire up our growth in God.

Until we see prayer as our means of advancement and edge over others in this world, our growth in God will never become a reality

Furthermore, we can say this is the best time to be a child of God ever in history. Why? More than ever before, the materials of growth and means of advancement for God’s Kingdom has never been this accessible to God’s people. There were times in history when no believer can boast of a personal bible, rather they had to depend on what the priests of their days would read for them during church meetings. Today, we not only possess personal bibles, we carry it around on our smartphones and other gadgets! This is one of the reasons why no excuse will be tenable before God as the reason why you did not grow up in God in this dispensation! This advancement in technology and means of sharing information opens believers up to a wide range of tools and instruments of growth that were not available ever before now. In our days now, we can access the recorded teachings of great ministers of God, we can access their materials and we can reach them wherever they are in the world! This threefold instrument is essential in building every 21st century child of God!

Today, we not only possess personal bibles, we carry it around on our smartphones and other gadgets! This is one of the reasons why no excuse will be tenable before God as the reason why you did not grow up in God in this dispensation!

Therefore, we must make moves to access the sermons and teachings of trusted men with proven results in God to further grow up in God. We must pay attention to getting reading materials that will further push us forward in growing up in God and finally as much as possible, personal discipleship is necessary in our growth as believers. We must ensure that we have a spiritual covering (head) over our lives.
In conclusion, growing in God is a journey that will always worth it over and over again. The fruits that our lives will start to show forth as a result of our growth in God will not only depict our union with Christ, but also it will make us responsible Sons of God as bearing fruits that will abound will become our daily experience. In our next episode, we shall be discussing about biblical pictures of men that grew into God and what their lives looked like after encountering the ways and patterns of God.

The fruits that our lives will start to show forth as a result of our growth in God will not only depict our union with Christ, but also it will make us responsible Sons of God as bearing fruits that will abound will become our daily experience

Were you blessed? Kindly share your testimonies and views in the comment box below. Thanks for visiting The Fire Place!