There is no way a believer in Christ 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 daily. 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” (Luke 21:36); they may get caught up in the snares being set up against them by the devil. The Christians who are saved but who are not growing in the Lord, are in danger of falling into the devil’s plan, in utilizing 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 to grow up spiritually, is robbing in on many serious and sincere followers of Christ, who are not being careful in “guarding their hearts” diligently (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 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 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 them.
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 that 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 Christ into religious mediocrity.
But God’s word is necessary for the spiritual growth of any Christian. Peter in his letter to these believers had to remind them of that, 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 potential for growth.

EVEN BABIES DO GROW UP 

We do know naturally that the moment a new born 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 gets fed from the presence of God, through prayer and 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 in humans therefore to survive, is the struggle to prevent death so as to live.
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 (John 10:10). This is 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 the life in the physical body is over, 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 spiritually.
We may be able to overcome the survival mentality, but that doesn’t really means we 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.

EXAMPLE OF ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS 

The scriptures says 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 grow 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” mentality.
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. 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.
God created us for dominion on 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 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 alone (read Hebrews 6:1-6). It’s time to start using our faith in possessing all that God had given to us. It’s time to start growing up spiritually, and drop off the “I can’t grow up mentality”.
We’d 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 created by God to remain spiritually in the same position  with Christ Jesus. Jesus is waiting on every believer in His name, to start growing up into their destiny here on earth.
Just as our physical life on earth is progressive, our spiritual life is never meant to be static. We are to be growing into the image of Christ Jesus. We were created by God to move our physical bodies, in manifesting the spiritual potentials for which God created us to be on earth. And we move and act in doing those exploits for Him by faith in God. 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. 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 with our faith in God, 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 (think about these) till next week.

1 Comment
  1. write my essay 6 years ago

    Great post I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this interesting and knowledgeable article.

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