There is no way a believer in Christ Jesus who regularly or irregularly attends Church services and other programs in the Church, can grow up spiritually without a sincere desire for the word of God, and a devoted desire to love Jesus more and more on a daily basis.

Let us make no mistake about it. There are lots of church goers today, who just like to hang around the big crowds in churches, but they are not necessarily committed to Christ.

Some of them are certainly on special assignments from the very pit of hell. And if those who are the sincere and fervent followers of Christ, are not “watching and praying”; they may get caught up in the snares being set up against them by the devil in their association with those agents of Satan among them.

Jesus warned about this when He said:

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21:34-36 NKJV

The Christians who are saved but who are not growing in the Lord, are in the danger of falling into the devil’s plan, as he utilize their association with these crowd lovers, to pull them down and out of the Kingdom of God.

Unknowingly their inability or the lack of desire in their lives to grow up spiritually, is robbing in on many serious and sincere followers of Christ, who are not being careful to “guard their hearts” diligently against the encroachment of the evil one (Proverbs 4:23).

Apostle Peter once charged the believers of his time, who had started fainting in their love for God in this way:

“Like newborn babies [you should] long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may be nurtured and grow in respect to salvation [its ultimate fulfillment], if in fact you have [already] tasted the goodness and gracious kindness of the Lord.”
‭‭1 PETER‬ ‭2:2-3‬ ‭AMP‬‬

These were believers in Christ Jesus who were once on fire for the Lord, that Peter was addressing here.

The problem with this crowd that Peter was addressing, was that their love for God had grown wane. Their love for God was once fervent, but it had become mediocre with time.

It was therefore hard for other believers in Christ, to differentiate them from the people of the unsaved world.

These believers had once tasted of the goodness of God, but they had not really allowed it to transform their Christian lives.

The consequence was that they were not growing up into the image of Christ. Many of these believers that Peter was writing to, had started to put the Jewish religious traditions above the doctrines of Christ within the Church at that time.

And just like it was in the time when Peter wrote this letter, there are many believers in Christ today, who had allowed the dead religious traditions of the Church to lure them, away from the power of God in Christ Jesus into religious mediocrity.

God’s word is necessary for the spiritual growth of every Christian.

Peter in his letter to these believers had to remind them of this, in order to stir up the missing link to the love and fire of God in them.

God never creates any living thing or person, without putting in them the desire and potential for spiritual growth, fruitfulness and prosperity (Genesis 1:28).

Stop being a baby Christian – grow up!

We do know naturally that the moment a newborn baby is given birth to, that little baby begins to learn how to survive so as to stay alive, even as the baby starts growing up.

The baby’s ability to survive and grow up is dependent on the milk that comes from the mother. The baby gets fed by the mother; just as a new believer in Christ Jesus gets fed from the presence of God, through prayer and meditation on God’s written word.

Since we are born of the Spirit of God, our spiritual life support comes from Him and not from this natural world.

Even though we were naturally given birth to, according to the flesh and blood; but the process of death itself actually begins in us from the very moment of our birth.

Our physical bodies may be growing; but it is really growing in order to die one day. The human body begins to die from the moment of birth.

The body is growing, but indeed it is dying gradually in the midst of the struggles for survival. The struggle for living is therefore the struggle to survive, so as to prevent death by living.

Death is the direct consequence of sin. It is first spiritual in the form of separation from God’s presence, before it becomes physical.

Spiritual and eventually physical deaths are the devil’s last resort, to prevent all of God’s creations from reaching their fullest potentials in life.

Jesus said about him:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”.
John 10:10 NKJV

This has always been the main strategy of the enemy against every child of God.

Even though our physical body grows old until it finally perishes; but our spirit man himself never dies.

We may choose in our spirit man to either spend eternity with the devil in hell, or with God in the heavens.

Where we will go after life in the physical body ends, is determined by us while we are still living in the physical body here on earth.

That is why we don’t ever want to get ourselves involved in some silly things, that may hinder our spiritual growth as Christians.

It is plainly simple that whenever we get into the survival mode or mentality with our spirit man, we will begin to hinder our ability to grow up spiritually.

You may be able to overcome the survival mentality, but that doesn’t really mean you have to settle down, with being comfortable in that type of spiritual state.

There are lots of Christians today who are not growing up spiritually, because they feel too comfortable with their spiritual status quo in Christ Jesus.

It’s time to get your act together.

The scriptures say about this type of spiritual mentality in the children of Israel, as they came out of Egypt:

“How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy, When He worked His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan;”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭78:40-43‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

This spiritual state of Israel at this time in her history, is the spiritual state of many believers in Christ today.

They had tasted of the goodness of God as they migrated from Egypt into the wilderness, yet they were limiting the power of God among them in the wilderness.

The children of Israel limited God’s ability to help them in growing up spiritually while still in the wilderness. They had a carnal mentality for survival, even while God’s abundance and wealth was readily available to them.

They had so much blessing around them, yet they were living with the “we can’t do it” mentality in their relationship with God.

And just as many of them perished in the wilderness because of their lack of faith in God; there are many Christians today, who are living in the survival spiritual bobble mode as the enemy is spiritually strangling them.

They are limiting God’s power in them for spiritual exploits. They are living in the “I can’t grow up spiritual bobble”.

Eventually their spiritual fate may be like that of Israel in the wilderness.

That’s why Jesus said to the lukewarm or mediocre Church:

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent.
Revelation 3:15-19 NKJV

In order words, Jesus is advising mediocre Christians here to use their struggles in life as an opportunity for spiritual growth, by becoming zealous instead of being mediocratic.

Apparently, a Christian who’s not walking closer with Jesus will not “buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see”.
Revelation 3:18 NKJV

Such a Christian thinks that it’s God’s will for him to be poor spiritually, materially and in every other aspect of life.

Their mediocrity is presenting a wrong image of Jesus to the unsaved world that Christians are generally poor people who beg for everything in life.

Whereas the scripture says:

“I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
He is ever merciful, and lends;
And his descendants are blessed”.
Psalm 37:25-26 NKJV

God’s children are not poor, but they are first spiritually rich – which will extinguish all the strategies of the enemy to make them poor in every other aspect of life.

But they must first go through God’s spiritual fire to be tested, so that they may be set on fire for God in accomplishing His purpose on the earth for them.

The fire of God drives away mediocrity from the life of a Christian as he becomes zealous for Him.

But to catch His fire you’ll have to start walking closer with Jesus every day.

God created us all for dominion on the earth, but if we are not ready for spiritual growth, there is no way we will ever be able to dominate and possess our possessions here on earth.

It’s time to quit living with that spiritual survival mentality, which is limiting these believers’ spiritual potentials in God.

It’s time to step out of that comfort zone, of just being satisfied with salvation in Christ Jesus alone (read Hebrews 6:1-6).

It’s time to start using your faith to possess all that God had given to you in Christ Jesus. It’s time to start growing up spiritually and to drop off the “I can’t grow up mentality”.

We’d all received the potentials for spiritual growth in our born-again inner spirit, from the very moment when we got born again.

There is no one who was ever created by God to remain spiritually in the same spiritual position in their personal relationship with Christ Jesus. Jesus is waiting on every believer in His name, to start growing up into their destinies here on earth.

Just as our physical life on earth is progressive, our spiritual life is never meant to be static. We were all created to be growing up into the image of Christ Jesus here on earth.

We were created by God to move our physical bodies, in manifesting the spiritual potentials for which God created us on earth.

And we move and act in doing those exploits for Him by faith in Christ Jesus.

There is nothing that a Christian can ever accomplish in life, without moving the physical body, to do things that will impact the spiritual realm. Reading your Bible, prayer and fellowshipping with others everyday requires the physical body’s involvement.

Faith in God is never meant to be passive but active.

There is never meant to be a passive Christian on earth. We were all created in the image of Christ, to be active and zealous with our faith in God on earth, in utilizing the spiritual potentials in us for growth.

As you begin to consider the things that are hindering you from spiritual growth, it is important to follow this advice of Paul to the Colossians:

“Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways; in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3:1-10‬ ‭NIV‬‬
Selah!