Spiritual Growth (3)

As I was meditating prayerfully for my personal spiritual uplifting, the Spirit of the Lord started reminding me of the essentials that are profoundly paramount to spiritual growth.

If we must truly grow in understanding and gaining knowledge of God, everything about us must be absolutely divine or godly in orientation; and that means, God Himself in His personality must intrinsically rule over us; it still implies, that one’s devotion to God and duty to Him must never be interfered with and corrupt by the viruses of various human, worldly and devilish tendencies and infirmity situations. 

We must therefore insistently and constantly free ourselves from such interferences and corruptness of the mind, the influences of the surroundings and the general orientations that had beclouded our spiritual sensitivity and judgment to the level of total bleakness!

We must fight the good fight of faith with all determined resolution, until the spirit within us or one’s heart becomes subservient to God’s Kingdom instructions.

1Cor 16:13 – “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”            

1 John 5:6 – “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.”

1Tim 6:12 – “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

It is important to note that the unavoidable requirement or condition to spiritual growth is one’s conscious heart’s release for the Holy Spirit to spontaneously do the work and also be submissive to His guiding principles and practice. 

It is our personal willingness or eagerness (a hunger) to allow Him help us and introduce us to His warmness, beauty or glory and power. We must also discover the role He had promised to play in our lives as we seek to please Him in the Christian stewardship. Notably of His promises are;

John 16:7 – “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”   

It was for the benefit of the church that Jesus had to return to the Father, because that was the only way through which we shall be sufficiently effective in ministry by the coming of the Helper. If we now refused to permit Him to Help us, to what value is our ministry?

John 14:16-18 – “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

For further Reading and Practice:

Lk 24:49; John 14:17,26; 16:7,13; Acts 1:4,8; 2:33; 1Cor 2:14; Heb 8:10-11; 1John 2:20,27; 4:6; 5:6; etc.