Luke 2:40, 52, we read that Jesus grew in wisdom and he was filled with spirit. We are able to establish that the pattern of Jesus’ growth was not lopsided. While we focus on spiritual growth, let’s see 1 Timothy 2:1 – 4, this scripture established two things, and there are two components: Salvation and Spiritual growth.
The desire of God is not just for people to get saved but to be saved. The desire of the father also is that when people get saved they should grow. It’s just like saying when a child is born, the child is expected to grow physically.
Now our birth experience is that salvation i.e. receiving Christ. After the spiritual birth, we experience growth. So coming to that position of spiritual growth, a place where you have a strong desire to have spiritual knowledge, understanding the truth that pertains to your person, your identity in Christ.
Spiritual growth will mean that anyone who is saved, does not remain at that point. He must desire to grow and come to the knowledge of the truth.
In Colossians 2:6-7, we are instructed that as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we should walk in him.
How do we walk in on him? Verse 7 of that same scripture tells us that we walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in him.
So if you look at this scripture that is not enough, it’s not sufficient to just receive Christ or to have received Christ. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s one of the greatest things that can happen to any man, to receive Christ, to have Christ in your life. And receiving Christ, having Christ in your life, connotes salvation, which is fundamental and beautiful.
It’s one of the greatest things that can happen to a man on this side of eternity and the man’s life will never remain the same again. The Bible says that it’s not sufficient.
So what the scripture says is that it’s not sufficient to receive Christ or to have received Christ in one’s life. It’s not enough. That is not all that is expected for a believer or anyone who has received Christ. It’s a good place to start, but not a good place to stop. As you have received Christ then, walk in Him.
It therefore connotes that some people have received Christ but are not walking in Him.
The scripture gave us a direction or an idea of what it means to actually walk in Him or what walking in Him will connote and what walking in Him can get us into. Walking in Him to a point where you and I will be rooted and built up.
I have received Christ, and I must walk in Christ. So receiving Christ is not the same thing as walking in Christ. Receiving Christ is good. It’s a wonderful thing that can happen to us.
So we have received Christ. We have Christ, but the Scripture is admonishing us, instructing us that we don’t just receive Christ and forget it there, we walk in Christ. We walk in Christ to a point where we are established in faith.
There are three things there. A point where we grow up in Him, walk in him and are deeply rooted.
We are built up, and we are established in the faith. So this for me is what I would call EVIDENCE OF GROWTH. These are part of the evidence that shows that a man is growing spiritually.
One symbol, sign, evidence or proof of spiritual growth is that an individual is actually walking in Christ. Walking in Christ here connotes that you are rooted, getting built up and established in faith.
In 2 Peter 3:18 we see the process of our growth as growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Jesus’s life captured this dimension as well.
The book of Luke 2:40 further buttresses that as believers we are also to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ.
1 Peter 2:1-2 emphasises that we are to lay certain things aside ( malice,all deceit, hypocrisy,envy and all evil speaking) as newborn babies. This scripture is referring to a young believer, someone who’s just received Christ, therefore, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
Hence, the more a believer desires pure milk of God; the more growth you’ll experience. And growth will help a believer lay certain things aside.
When a believer desires the pure milk of the word it means the person is growing in the knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ. This believer is coming to a place of the knowledge of truth in the son of God.
Consequently, the more we expose ourselves to the truth of God’s word it should lead to our growth. So one of the ways to ensure growth is that a believer continues to get fed with the pure milk of the word.
You can’t lay claim on spiritual growth if you don’t lay aside
The book of James said that a perfect religion does not sin with the words of mouth.
James 1:26, practical Christianity is characterised by maturity. The maturity that connotes or is established on the premise that this growth is not something hidden on the inside. This growth is seen, and can be noticeable, this growth you can relate with it.
On the other hand, if someone is born again or has been born again for years and you are relating with the person, and by the words of the mouth of the person, the person sees as evil speaking, envy, malice, hypocrisy.
Now, if all of these are still characterising the life of a brother, a sister, and he’s claiming that he’s saved, he’s even claiming that he’s growing or he has grown in the Lord, or he’s growing in the Lord these things are evidence.
It does not cancel his salvation, it does not render him unsaved.
But the truth is that, yes, he has received Christ, but he’s not walking in him.
He’s not working in him to a point whereby he’s been rooted, he’s been built up, and he’s been established in the faith.
Being established in the faith is that he’s feeding on the Word of God, on the pure milk of the Word of God.
So it’s the pure milk of the Word of God that matures newborn babies to a point whereby they will be able to lay aside those things the scripture is emphasizing here 1 Peter 2:1-3 Envy, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, evil speaking, the words of our mouths and I tell you the truth, one of the easiest ways to know a man or a woman or anybody is by the things that proceed out of their mouth.
The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
So you see, the words of our mouth are a good way to actually rate or to determine the growth or how a man is growing.
Therefore, how do you know a believer is growing? The wonderful way to know a believer is growing is that he’s able to handle the success and the progress of others. And it’s not troubling him, it’s not giving him a headache or it’s not giving him blood pressure.
You can embrace people’s success, you can embrace people’s testimony, and it’s not giving you worries as it were.
Now, it takes growth. I mean, practically growing as a believer. One of the easiest ways to engage people to know the stuff they are made of or how mature they are is by the words of their mouth. Especially when there are situations on the ground. When there is an offence. Especially when you are under tension, under prayer, offended, hurt, misunderstood, betrayed, provoked, and ignored.
Nobody is saying you should not express yourself, nobody is shutting you down.
But how you express yourself matters.
It’s how you are saying it. It’s the attitude, the posture, the countenance, then you start bringing out the abundance of your heart, from there, it can lead to evil speaking.
On the other hand, Paul said that a newborn, as he or she embraces the pure milk of the word of God, he gets to a point that he lays aside. He begins to lay aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking because he is beginning to drink or feed on the pure milk of the word of God and that is affecting his life.
The change begins to show, although it may not be an overnight thing but like I said, when a man is born again, and has received Christ as his own and personal Savior but he is not manifesting some of these things, it does not negate his salvation. It does show us that he has not fully been working in Christ.
That scripture says we have received Christ, work in him, rooted, built up, and established in faith. Colossians 2:6-7
So, someone may have received Christ, but may not have committed himself to properly feeding on the pure milk of the word of God as newborn babies. So, newborn babies can transition to become mature in Christ.
Newborn babies are expected to mature, grow, and become rooted.
It’s not a crime to be newborn babies, all of us are newborn babies at one point or the other. That’s how we drank this milk of the pure word of God and gradually we are beginning to embrace the word of God after pure milk, we graduate to strong meat. It’s like swallowing and breaking strong meat.
Then we gradually lay aside certain things that should be gone.
We should be shedding some old feathers, we should be embracing the life in Christ, we should be built up, rooted and established in the faith. All of that will translate to the fact that we are growing. It shows that we are not going to remain as newborn babies forever.
There is room for growth. As they say, the biggest room in the world is a room for self-improvement. Have you heard that before? And I agree with that statement.
The biggest room is for us to embrace everything available for us in Christ. And that we begin to mature and develop and grow then come to a point in our journey with God. Such that we begin to experience so much life of God. So much of the revelation of the truth of God’s word that will be established in Christ. We will begin to manifest that growth.
The Word of God begins to take shape in our life. Our life begins to take shape in accordance with the Word of God we hear.
So, it’s not hearing the word alone. It’s not just receiving teachings and revelation. That should be reflected. It must be reflected in our lives. It must be reflected. It must show in our life, in our character.
It must show in the way we speak. Our language must begin to change. The languages we have on our lips. You cannot talk like the voices on the street. And you claim you are a child of God. Even if that’s where we are coming from, it’s not bad, while it’s a good place to start it is a bad place to stop. It is possible for somebody who lived all his life on the street that even his voice naturally can sound like someone from there when he’s talking normally. He has been there for a very long time. Maybe he was taken and he affected his voice, affected his look. You know, there are looks we will see, we understand where this is coming from. Have we seen some people after five years, And those things, in fact, start affecting their physical look too. Their look begins to change. Their appearance begins to change. Because you see, the Word of God is powerful.
The Word of God has life, it can change, it can transform. The Word of God has the capacity to change our lives and to transform it. The Word of God has the capacity to change life, to transform life. And we’re together.
So you see, when we begin to embrace the Word of God, the Word of life, the truth of God’s Word. Now, growth can be measured. We can see it. We can evaluate it.
And the scripture is not silent about how to know whether a man is green or not. Scripture gave us indices, parameters.
It said, as newborn babies that are beginning to feed on the pure meat of the Word of God, what we will see in their lives is that they begin to lay aside. What are they laying aside? It said malice, strife, envy.
In fact, we may say that we have grown. You will leave us to actually assess that. And I’m growing the load. Because sometimes I’m growing the load for some people because they have stayed long in church. And that’s not what spiritual growth connotes. Spiritual growth connotes essentially that the life of Christ is seen in us.
That our life is producing virtue and we are beginning to manifest the nature of Christ. That somebody is manifesting the life of Christ, we can see it. It’s visible.
It’s not hidden. Glory to God. It must not be hidden. It’s not something that should be hidden. Maturity, growth can be felt, can be seen. In other words, We can relate with the growth of our lives.
Growth is relatable. So we can say that this brother before was not patient. Even he himself just noticed that, well, I’m losing energy for conversation. It’s not something that we may be able to explain how that is happening to us. But like we have said, the Word of God is the pure water. Water washes I’m talking about regeneration, it regenerates.It cleanses. The word purges. It cleanses. So when we come under the Word of God, it’s like we have come under a shower. And what happens to us when we come under the shower is that we are cleansed. We are purged. There’s a way we are feeling before we go under the shower, a natural shower. We are feeling hot- feeling uncomfortable. It is as if when we come out of the shower, we will feel refreshed.
We can’t explain it, but something has been taken care of. Something happened. We are not the same person that’s coming out from the shower. A lot has happened. Change has taken place. Glory to God. So, you see, now that we are receiving the Word and we are embracing the Word of God, people must begin to touch that life of Christ. They should touch gentility. They should have patience. When they lift it up, they should see tenderness. They should feel forgiveness. I will talk about the enemy now. They should be able to touch forgiveness, touch tenderness. Some people believe that some Christians are very wicked. People are afraid to meet them. Nobody is saying they should not be dutiful or official as it were or not observe protocol.
Even if we are to observe protocol, can we separate our official duty and let them see and touch the life of God in you? Let them know that, oh, this woman, this man doesn’t joke with his job. Can they relate with that nature of God? Can they relate with the life of Christ? Can they experience that beauty through a beautiful heart, so to speak? Can they meet that nature while you are doing your job?
The bible says as we have received Christ, walk in him, rooted, built up and established in faith, so it’s one thing to have received Christ, it’s another thing to walk in him, built up and established in faith.
What we are talking about is spiritual growth and growth is not hidden, growth can not be hidden, in fact people can relate, when people meet us they relate to the rate of our growth. Infact, that’s what people relate to, the level of maturity, the level of growth. It’s not what we say sometimes, it’s how we have presented it, are we saying it in love? Do we have the bowel of compassion and kindness even when we are saying no? You can be saying no and still be smiling and the person you are saying no still understands that you are just doing your job, but for your person they are not in doubt.
Spiritual growth brings you to a place where the action or inaction of people will not change what you carry or what you are. It’s not easy, don’t get it twisted, but you see, it’s evidence that you are growing, that you are maturing. It’s evidence that the life of Christ is beginning to manifest in you.
What I am saying in essence is that if care is not taken, life experiences can actually rob us of the opportunity for men to taste christ, the life of christ in us, this is where growth comes in. that regardless of our experiences, regardless of whatever, we come to a point that people can still touch the life of God in us.
You will be faced with a tough and critical situation. It’s in the midst of that we will know how grown you have become, how matured you are. You don’t know who is maturing or growing when everything is in order, you don’t know how you will react in some situation until you come under the situation.
You think it was easy for Peter when he saw his master being harassed, he didn’t think twice he brought out a sword, if you asked him, he would say he was fighting a good cause, he was defending Jesus. The only thing Peter could think of was pulling out a sword, he was probably saying to himself, yes we are Christians, but we are not stupid, we are not foolish so I wont allow rubbish be done to my master, and he pulled out the sword. The life of Christ that we carry is not subject to how we feel, it’s our nature.
Sometimes people feel justified for what they are doing. It is nature for us; it is the life we carry. It is not subject to how we feel. It shouldn’t be subject to the matter on the table or what is happening at the moment.
It is the nature and life of Christ that we carry.
So don’t lean on the excuse that you had to do it, or if others were in your shoes they would do the same. That should not be an excuse anymore. We have the nature. It is not that person’s actions or inactions. When we grow and come to a point in our life, it is no longer about the second or third party anymore. It is about you. It is about the nature of God in you. It is about Christ, the life of God. It is not speaking in tongues for long hours. It is the fruit of the Spirit that acts on us.
It is the fruit of the Spirit that actually affirms our growth, not the gift of the Spirit.
There are preachers that are hot-tempered, angry and cursing. What matters is your tenderness, your gentleness. That is what we want to relate with.
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Regardless of how well you can preach, or sing, the world is not going to relate with those things. We can only enjoy those services in church. Out there in the world, its not about your ministration or your angelic voice. In fact, the reason why some people do not follow us to churches is because they live with us.
They live in our houses, they are our neighbors. They know the kind of person you are outside the church. Issues have happened between you and them. So the question will be, how did you handle it?
They have heard you prayed in the Holy Ghost, and some of them have no idea what you are doing and they decide to test your patience. Your anger might be justified, very legitimate concern but that’s not the way to go about it.
So you see, the real Christianity is not when you are praying and your voice is loud in your room. It is after you are done praying three hours in the Holy Ghost, and they are waiting for you outside to provoke you. That is why you’d invite some people to your church and they’ll vow not to come. There are some neighbours sent from the pit of hell, just to provoke you or test your patience. In fact, it was even God that kept them around you.
You have been praying for humility, the only way that you can know that God has answered, he planted somebody to always test you, but you lose it everytime. After all your sanctification, and your spiritual strength.
We enjoy those services only in the church, but you see, the majority of growth is in the midst of that. The world will speak, but even in the midst of that and in the spirit of anger, you are calm. It is not the size of your bible; it is about the largeness of your heart. How forgiving you are, how you can let go of offences. That is the evidence of growth. Your response to things in the midst of anger. Learn how to speak about issues and not to attack personality. Most of us have not learned how to address issues. What we do most of the time is we attack the people. You can talk about the issues without attacking the person. Conversations like theses are hard to have, but we must have them. It is called emotional intelligence. It’s maturity.
Coordinate your heart and emotions. You need it everywhere. You are not abusing the person, but you are speaking to the issue and the only way we can have such hard conversations is that we have patience and we allow the spirit of God to help us.
We must learn how to communicate; we must be patient and loving. And gradually, people are seeing the change, the transformation. Even you can’t explain. You are beginning to lay things aside.
Where you are standing determines how you respond. Jesus stood up from a place of intercession which influenced his response.