Spiritual Growth Notes

Spiritual Growth
Spiritual Growth - What is it?

Spiritual growth is detailed in 2 Peter 1:3-8, "His divine power has given us everything we need
for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and
goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through
them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by
evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to
perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being
ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
So, spiritual growth includes: (1) increasing in your knowledge and understanding of God's Word,
(2) decreasing in your frequency and severity of sin, (3) increasing in your practice of Christ-like
qualities, and (4) increasing in your faith and trust in God. Perhaps the best summary of spiritual
growth is becoming more like Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, "Follow my
example, as I follow the example of Christ." Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of what it truly
means to be spiritual.
Spiritual Growth - How is it done?

In order for spiritual growth to occur, you first need to make sure you possess a true spiritual life
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God
does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12). When you believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives
inside of you (John 14:16-17) and you are a new creation in Christ! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says,
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
Your old nature, which is dominated by sin, is replaced with a new nature that is under the
influence of God's Spirit (Romans 6-7). Spiritual growth can only occur in a person who knows
the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.
Learning how to grow spiritually is a life-long journey which occurs as you read and apply God's
Word to your life. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work." In order for spiritual growth to occur, we must be
taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained by God's Word. Then we will be thoroughly equipped for
every good work. This is the essence of spiritual growth.
Another key to Christian growth is walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-18, 24-26explains, "So I
say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are
in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under law…Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its
passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not
become conceited, provoking and envying each other."
Walking in the Spirit is allowing Him to fill you (Ephesians 5:18), control you, and guide you. This
is brought about by consciously choosing by faith to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you in
thought, word, and deed (Romans 6:11-14). Failure to rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance will
result in a believer not living up to the calling and standing that salvation provides. Ephesians
4:1 says, "…I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received."
Spiritual Growth - What are the results?

Spiritual growth is a life-long process of manifesting the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) less
and less and producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) more and more. Notice that it is
the Holy Spirit who produces the fruit in us. Yes, we must submit ourselves to the Spirit's leading,
but it is the Spirit who produces the fruit of spiritual growth in our lives. What does spiritual
growth look like? Galatians 5:22-23 has the answer, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things
there is no law." If you are becoming more loving, more joyful, more kind, more self-controlled,
etc., then you can rest assured that spiritual growth is genuinely occurring in your life.
God works in different people in different ways. Some people grow rapidly, while others grow
slowly, but steadily. Our focus should not be on comparing ourselves with others, but on
comparing ourselves with God's Word. The Scriptures are the mirror to show us what we are like
spiritually and to shine light on the areas that need to experience and learn spiritual
growth. James 1:23-25 declares, "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is
like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and
immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that
gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be
blessed in what he does."
Grow More!
WHAT DO YOU THINK? - We have all sinned and deserve God's judgment. God, the
Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus, the
creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for
our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried, and rose from the
dead according to the Bible. If you truly believe and trust this in your heart, receiving
Jesus alone as your Savior, declaring, "Jesus is Lord," you will be saved
from judgment and spend eternity with God in heaven.
Definition of spiritual growth - what is personal spiritual growth

There is no official and exact definition of spiritual growth. We - and many others - use personal
spiritual growth as synonyms for other terms like e.g. personal spiritual development, to develop
higher awareness or to develop higher consciousness.
With our understanding of spirituality , one can also

define personal spiritual growth as way to integrate
spirituality to a higher and higher degree in our daily live.
We have seen here that we can compare human

development with the achievement of virtuosity in a
particular activity (for example making music, sport,
handcrafts etc.). The basic rights of existence (the equal
right of all beings to be on the earth, to develop and to
carry out their tasks) must be so strongly internalized that
in every situation we automatically act according to these
rights without having to think about it. We refer to this
ability in the following as awareness or consciousness.
Spiritual growth means developing this ability further.
We can use the model of a bright lamp to represent our level of awareness or level of
consciousness : Our body represents the lamp which is lit ever more brightly as our awareness
(consciousness) increases. The brightness of our awareness (consciousness) lights up our
surroundings so that we can see and hence perceive additional aspects of ourselves and our
surroundings.
The light fully illuminates a space around us which is approximately the shape of a sphere. In the
following we will describe this space as the awareness sphere or consciousness sphere. It serves
as model for our spiritual level or spiritual growth: We can clearly perceive everything within the
sphere with our common sense or our intuition. Outside the awareness sphere (consciousness
sphere) the brightness of our lamp is no longer sufficient. The further away something is from our
sphere the less easy it is to perceive it.
We can now define personal spiritual growth as follows: Personal spiritual growth is the personal
development to enlarge the diameter of the above mentioned sphere of consciousness. As such,
personal spiritual growth is an integral part of our purpose of life.

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Spiritual Growth

Spiritual Growth - What is it?

Spiritual Growth - How is it done?

Spiritual Growth - What are the results?

Definition of spiritual growth - what is personal spiritual growth

With our understanding of spirituality , one can also

We have seen here that we can compare human

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