As we study spiritual growth we will ensure we keep communicating it until we see the fruit of the word of God fully in our lives and its manifestation because when someone is growing, it is seeable, there is evidence and proof of spiritual growth.
In Ephesians 4:11 we see that Christ gave gifts to the Church, as Pastors, Teacher, Apostles. The job of a pastor, evangelists and apostles is the building up of the people, the body of Christ, to basically grow the people. Jesus expects everyone that comes to him, that have received him as lord and personal saviour to also walk in him.
Pastors, evangelists, teachers, and apostles are gifts to the body of Christ and they have a responsibility to grow and build God’s people. They are called growth agents, not intermediaries between God and the people.
The essential job of a pastor is not to take the prayers of the people to God every time but to teach and build the people to a point where they have a relationship with God. There is no intermediary between God and man. The only mediator between God and man is Jesus. So any Pastor who wants to replace Jesus in the life of a believer is not doing a good job.
There is no intermediary between God and man; the only mediator between God and man is Jesus hence Pastors are not intermediaries but rather growth agents.
The scriptures tell us that as the body of Christ we all are meant to grow and although we do not grow at the same pace, it is still imperative we grow until we come into unity in our faith and knowledge. Therefore there is a context for unity in the body of Christ but this unity is not uniformity; but rather that all of us grow together. There is no difference between you and the pastor before God, “God does not have a better son”.
Your pastor can pray with you, for you and over you; but you do not have to go through him to go to God.
Power is given by God proportionally not in measure. It was given as a free gift in the person of the Holy Spirit and this gift we’ve all received at the point of our new birth experience.
The difference between you and the men you look up to is boldness so you should rather pray for boldness to give expression to what you’ve received.
Growth or lack of growth determines the way you function and the way you respond to issues of life. So as a child of God who’s grown, you should come to a point where you’re not afraid to meet with your father because He’s your father; Abba father.
The Dynamics of spiritual growth hang on two things
1) Growth Agent and
2) Growth Diet.
Growth Agents are the people God has sent your way. The gift the Father has given the Church; the Body of Christ
They come in the form of Apostles, prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers. Some of these are given and located in local churches. Some are given & released in the universal body of the church.
Primarily speaking, as a local church God has blessed us with a gift. As a church we are blessed because he has given gifts. He gave gifts to men and men became gifts to us (the church).The growth of a believer is tied to the ministry gift; to the gift of men that God has blessed you with per time. Your growth is tied to the growth Agent that God has sent your way over time. Everyone has individuals/people sent our way to feed us.
We have Teachers/Pastors over our lives. We have people who help us to learn more about the knowledge of the Son of God and we automatically grow in faith as we learn because faith is the knowledge of the Son of God.
And as we learn we get exposed to the knowledge of the son of God and we embrace and learn from it. Therefore, it automatically leads us to grow in faith.
Growing in Faith is growing spiritually and growing in faith is you learning and feeding on the knowledge of the son of God and it is a growth agent that helps you to learn more and more:These are the dynamics of spiritual growth
Ephesians 4:11-15 is called the job description of pastors, evangelists, apostles, and teachers.
Jesus gave the fivefold ministry and he gave them a job description: Go and equip my people, grow them. The gap between the Pastor and the church members speaks volumes of the job the Pastor is doing.
So if we can pray, another believer should pray. If other believers understand the word of God, we should understand the word of God. We must see to the gap being closed up.
Let’s understand that God is helping us to grow and mature in faith. If the gap between the pulpit and the pew gets wider, the pulpit is doing a bad job. If the pew is getting angry, agitated, afraid, scared about life, and it’s only the one on the pulpit that is standing then it’s wrong. And they’re not growing to come to that level of understanding of the power in them. If God can do it then we can get it done. We are not growing to embrace the possibility that God can do it, else there will be a lot of people pushing and dragging. The job of the pastor is to grow us, not try to build us. It’s to ensure that we are growing. We have been built. We have been rooted. We have been established in faith.
So let’s ensure that men are growing first, because that’s even the metrics that everyone will use to judge the Pastor’s success, my failure. It’s not the size of the building erected. The success of a Pastor or a ministry changes lives.
The question remains: “ Are people growing? “Are they growing in faith? Listen, and when we are growing in faith, when we are growing in faith, we can build anything. We can build anything, because at that time, all of us are in faith. We are seen alike.
Therefore, the pastor’s job is not to build blocks. It is not to supervise building. We should not lose the grace and the function and the option to function properly in building life. That’s the pastor’s assignment.
Building the church, which is the body of Christ, is the job of the pastor, and as a follower we must obey our spiritual authority.
So by the time the spiritual authority is able to build people and capacity of men in different dimensions of life and the focus is on spiritual growth. This will make men grow in their capacity with God and in God, they are becoming giants themselves. Giants! So a pastor that focuses on building block above and over building men, is actually doing a bad job.
We must come to church with our Bible and a notebook, We should not let our Pastors be grieved by our actions. Why stand there and be writing, be judging, making notes? This is because everybody must grow.
Lack of growth in one can ruin a lot for the church. When everybody has a posture of growth and prioritises Spiritual growth or growth above every other activity.
When everybody has practice for growth and when everyone understands the purpose for our growth. We are growing. This should be seen in the content and understanding of the songs we sing. When you don’t grow, and you are handed the microphone to lead prayers, you can lead prayers to drag us back, telling us to go back to where we are coming from, sending us back to where we have left already. The truth is that you have not settled to learn, you don’t have the posture for growth, you have not prioritised your growth above every other thing. Listen, everyone must prioritise his or her growth this year.
Prioritise your growth above your service, in fact you won’t serve well if you are not growing, your service to God will be efficient and effective in accordance to your growth.
Regardless of whatever unit or department you function in, make sure you grow. At least, Philip grew, he was an usher and he became evangelist Philip. Please grow, please have a posture for growth, prioritise growth, prioritise bible study, prioritise prayer meeting, prioritise your quiet time with God, studying bible in your closet above every other thing, hang around people that will make you grow, go places where you will grow. Embrace processes that will make you grow, also have an understanding of your growth, ask yourself why you must grow.
So you see, we have growth agents and by the grace of God, I am one of the growth agents sent to you, by the grace of God. I am not to Lord it over your faith, not to dictate what you’d do, I am to guide you,
lead you and build you. I don’t have the time to police you around, because if I build you well, feed you the right diet as a growth agent, others will be easy to navigate. Prioritise your growth, I can’t be growing and you are not growing. Church folks can not be growing and the Pastor is not growing. As a result of growth, you probably have heard me preach this message before, but it’s coming differently this time around, because the person that taught you that before is not the same person standing before you today, I am growing too and stretching.
The gap between the pulpit and the pew should keep getting shorter and shorter as a result of growth. Consequently, I can hand you the microphone some day to preach and take notes. At this point there is no difference between the pulpit and the pew.
Now listen, if I don’t preach for some time and people start leaving as a result of that then I have done a very bad job, a very terrible job. If I am out of the country for two months, are we going to shut down the church? There are dynamics that may not be present based on personality and charisma but that shouldn’t remove the presence and the authenticity, validity of the power of the word of God.
When you have one super man in the midst of the people, it’s a pointer to a bad curriculum, when I am not around, you might miss my face and vibe but you shouldn’t miss the word of God, the presence of God, the validity and the authenticity of the word of God must not reduce. Before we talk about coming together physically, the scripture says let us come together in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God. The unity here is not uniformity, it is that we grow.
Ephesians 4:13(MSG)
…until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ…
When this becomes our testimony, that becomes the unity of the faith because we are all feeding on the same growth diet. He gave us growth agents and growth diets. When the growth agents feed the people properly, they will grow appropriately.
Growing in the knowledge of Christ is growing in faith and that means we are growing spiritually. This entails the dynamics of spiritual growth.
There is a measure called the stature of Christ which we will grow into. Therefore, when this is in place, the growth can’t be hidden. It will be visible and relatable.
Paul said when he was a child he reasoned as a child and with maturity he pushed away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11
With growth you will be able to stand firm not tossed easily by a doctrine. You don’t get taken over by signs.
Children are able to discern the truth. They don’t get cajoled. They understand that material things don’t define their inheritance.
If God did not withhold his son, how would he not freely give us everything?
Romans 8:32
I have the best, the rest is assured. I have the best gift in the son of God; therefore, the rest is assured. If he did not withhold his son for us, much more will he freely give unto us all things. When men mention their priced possession, then you should rejoice because you already have what is priceless. You may not have the price in your pocket but you already have what is priceless.
God gave you what is priceless (his son). Then he is able to give you whatsoever you want.
We have a growth diet, which is the word of God, the knowledge of his Son. And as we are fed on it, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more.
It is Christ-like to desire growth in all areas of life.
These are the dynamics of our spiritual growth. We have growth agents and we have growth diets. We don’t just sit or open our heart or spirit to eat from anyone that looks like a growth agent. We are mindful of the diet we are being served, not carried away by the charisma of the agent but concerned and interested in the diet we are feeding on, that the agent is serving.
How do we confirm the authenticity of agents of growth?
It’s not by their size or the volume of their voice. It is by what they serve. It is the nutrition content. God said I will give unto you Pastors after my heart and they will feed you according to knowledge.
Jeremiah 3:15
So, God is particular about growth. The gift of a pastor is a gift from God, and it shows that God is mindful of your life.
Your church determines your Pastor, your Pastor determines your diet and your diet determines your growth. You can’t just pick a church based on your preference or the interiors.
Jesus had a posture for growth, he had priority for growth. Jesus had a practice for growth.
As a believer, have a practice for growth, prioritize your growth above every other thing. Be particular about your spiritual growth. Don’t joke with prayers, the word of God and meetings. Embrace the word of God afresh. Don’t joke with your spiritual life. Embrace the right practices for growth.
Have a heart that yearns for growth.