One day while I was a church attending a class one of the members who had known Christ for many years remarked, “I don’t think I have grown spiritually at all during the past year.” He stated this with regret and concern that maybe he was not doing something right to facilitate growth.
I think all of us at times feel the same way, perhaps frustrated that we are not growing in the areas we need to or not growing as quickly as we want to grow. Spiritual growth is measured by change. If we are not changing it means we are not growing. Tonight I want to share some things that I pray will help you in your pursuit of God and growth in your relationship with him.
The first thing that is essential to growth is knowledge of the truth. Joh 8:31, 32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
The word “know” in Greek is ginowsko which has the understanding of experiential knowledge, absolute knowledge, and certainty. When you know the truth in this way, it is embedded in your heart and there is no doubt because it is proven by your experiences as well.
Truth has to be the foundation of what we believe. Your beliefs will determine what you value and your values will be reflected in your behavior. Truth must be at the very core of our being. God has given us truth through His Word and through His Son, Jesus. Jesus is the Word and apart from knowing the Word intimately and experientially we will not grow spiritually and see change in our lives. The Word of God contains the truth about the character and nature of God, about ourselves, about the world we live in and the opposition that we face and how we can overcome and be changed. If we are not exposed to the Word of God and not allowing it to be our standard we will not have the foundation established to change and grow spiritually. We have to filter everything in life through the Word of God. We give meaning to events through our understanding of the Word of God not vice versa in which we give meaning to the Word of God through our experiences. We interpret our experiences through the truth of the Word but we do not interpret the Bible through our experiences.
Jesus claimed to be the Truth (Jn 14.6). He did not have an identity problem, he knew who he was, where he came from, why he was sent to the earth and where he was going after he died. He was absolutely convinced of this and lived his life accordingly.
On Saturday night I talked with a young man named Rene. He was carrying a huge trophy that he won in a wrestling contest. He had only been wrestling for a month and he had beaten another competitor who had years of experience. He was proud of his accomplishment. He told me that the reason he started wrestling was because he wanted to have an identity that he could be successful at something. He had experienced many failures in his life and needed to do something that would validate his worth as a person. His identity and purpose in life was centered in himself and not in Christ. His understanding of Truth affected his beliefs, values and behaviors.
When we are born again and receive Christ as Lord and Savior the Word of God is planted in our hearts as a seed.
1Pe_1:23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Seeds contain all the information that is needed to grow into the plant or tree it is destined to become. All the potential is locked up in the seed. This is exactly what happens to us when we receive the Word at salvation. The incorruptible seed of the Word is planted in us and we have the potential to become everything God has placed within the seed. To know our potential we only need to study the life of Christ. Everything that he was and did are the same things we can become and do. In fact he said that we would do even greater things than he did (Jn 14.12). When we know who we are that will determine what we can do. The seed planted in us is the Truth and as we come to understand the Truth we will become the people God has destined us to be.
We have to know the Truth in our mind and in our heart. Truth that is only theory will not produce change, it will just give us a big head. But Truth that is in our hearts is put into practice through our daily experiences to bring the changes that God desires in us.
When we are born again we are given a new nature but we still battle against the old nature of fallen Adam that we inherited. We would like to just see it disappear but it does not work that way. It seems that we never fully escape from the presence of the old nature but what we do experience is seeing the new nature taking control of our lives. Our old nature has to be put to death so the new nature can take control.
Col_3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
This is a process in which the Holy Spirit reveals truth about ourselves and we make decisions to put it to death. We recognize that this is not the nature of God and we put it to death.
Bob Mumford told the story of a man who got saved in his church. He was the owner of a strip club and Bob thought he would immediately shut it down. He said the Lord told him not to talk to him about it but let him take care of it. A couple weeks after his salvation experience Bob talked with the man and asked him if the Lord had been speaking to him about anything. The man said yes that he felt convicted of mixing water with the whisky he was selling to his customers!
God has given us his Holy Spirit to lead us into the Truth (Jn 14.26). He is our Teacher who reveals truth to us in a variety of ways but I believe primarily it is as we study the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word work together to bring change in our life. If we are not dedicating time to study the Word and being taught the Word we will not see change. We have so many resources available to us today to help us study the Word that we are without excuse. We have the 12 DTS students with us for 5 months and they have set aside this time in their lives to focus on understanding the Truth and applying it to their lives. It is a rich and rewarding experience that they may never have like it during the rest of their lives. It is an opportunity to change and grow spiritually if it is used properly.
In Jesus’ prayer for his disciples as well as for us he prayed: Joh 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Sanctification is separation for holy service. The thing that separates us for holy service is the truth. We understand truth through the Word.
The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy emphasized the importance of the study of the Scriptures.
2Ti 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
2Ti 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
2Ti 3:15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
If we do not know the Truth we will not be competent to carry out the work of God. A person who sets out to build a home must have the right knowledge of what is needed to build the house or it will be a disaster. When we were in Haiti we saw hundreds of buildings that were poorly built and collapsed in the earthquake. The builders were obviously incompetent in their knowledge of how to build a home that would withstand an earthquake.
We have to be solidly grounded and competent in our knowledge of the Truth of God’s word if we want to do His work in a way that will endure.
Billy Graham has done a great work for the Lord through his years of ministry. Yet he regretted that he did not spend more time in preparation, sharpening the ax so to speak. If your ax is not sharp you can still cut down trees but it takes a lot more time and effort.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the ax.” I encourage you to take the time needed to sharpen the ax spiritually and continue to keep is sharpened. Don’t think that it won’t get dull while you are working. You must constantly be sharpening it to be able to do the work competently for the Lord.
Take advantage of the opportunities God gives you to be grounded in his Word. Study daily on your own as well to keep yourself sharp with the Truth.
The prophet Hosea said of the nation of Israel, “my people are destroyed by lack of knowledge” Hos 4.6 The same thing will happen to us if we do not know the Word of God and let it be the Truth we live by.
The second thing needed for spiritual growth is testing or trials. This is where theory is put into practice and your character is defined and refined. We find out what we are made of during our tests and trials and at times we find out that we are not living the truth we believe. When we are confronted with situations that we may or may not have asked for, we have a choice to make as to how we will respond that will reveal the level of truth we have embedded and lived out in our heart.
We can fail the test and find out that we really are not the person we thought we were.
We can respond correctly but not with the right attitude, we grudgingly do it and do not enjoy it.
Or we can respond as Peter and James said knowing that it is producing in us the nature of God or perhaps revealing the truth of the nature of God that is in us.
1Pe 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Jas 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
One test that seems to come up frequently is whether we will delay gratification or impulsively or by choice satisfy our desires. One of the marks of maturity as a believer is the ability to wait, to delay gratification until it is the right time. Many people are suffering from bad economic decisions today because they did not wait until they had the money to purchase things and gave into their impulse to buy now pay later. Saving for the future and delaying purchases until you have the cash to buy it is a foreign concept to many people and it has gotten them into great debt. Sexual gratification is also another area that many people both young and old struggle with. The world has no problem with instant gratification but God’s standards require self-control and waiting until you are married before uniting yourself with the opposite sex in a life time committed relationship. When we feel we have certain rights over our bodies and our lives we have not matured in our faith where we understand that our bodies are not our own but have been bought with the price of the blood of Christ who is our new owner.
Another test we often face is how we will react to accusations or offenses against us. Spiritually we can look at a person who is attacked, falsely accused or maligned and see if they respond with maturity in their reaction which is in the opposite spirit or immaturity by instantly responding in the same spirit of the accusers. Our response will reveal our level of maturity. Willow Creek church’s leader Bill Hybels experienced this recently when one of the speakers, the head of Starbucks withdrew from the leadership conference after a homosexual group accused Willow Creek of being anti-homosexual which was not a true statement. Bill Hybels responded to the false accusations with grace and also regret that the accusers did not contact him before hand to find out the church’s position on homosexuality. He then encouraged Christians to go to Starbucks and purchase coffee from them. There was no malice or unkind words spoken against the accusing group nor the leader of Starbucks.
We are tested daily in our thoughts, attitudes, words and actions through the circumstances we face. God in his mercy allows us to see ourselves as we are so that the process of change can begin. This can be a difficult process as we allow the Holy Spirit to dig deep into our past to expose the roots of our problems. His goal is to bring liberty and freedom by revealing the lies and replacing them with the truth.
Test and trials are part of God’s plan of spiritual growth. We can learn from them or ignore them resulting in growth or stagnation. We can submit to God in the trial and allow the HS to teach us or we can reject the trial and miss out on the opportunity to see change effected in us.
God brings these things to us in his perfect timing so we can receive the healing he desires for us. We have to welcome the tests and trials because they have the potential to lead us to permanent change and Christ likeness.
The final aspect of bringing change in our lives is our willingness and desire to allow God continual access to our lives and allow other believers to help us change. We are in need of constant change because of our depth of sin and struggles we face as God peels off the layers of our sin to get at the core. We are going to be in the change process throughout our lives and God is his great love for us will be revealing areas to us that he wants to change. Our growth will be determined by how much access we give him to our lives and how we respond to his working in us. We must make the decision that we truly want to change and we are willing to go through the process to be changed. Often God uses people to help us identify the areas that need to be changed and uses them to impart truth to us that can transform our lives.
I am reminded of the story of Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-15) who was a Syrian military commander with leprosy. A little Israelite girl who was carried off in captivity, revealed to him that there was a prophet of God who could heal him of his leprosy. Leprosy is a horrible disease and anyone who has it wants to be healed from it because it progressively gets worse. Naaman desired to be changed. He believed change was possible and was willing follow the advice of this little girl. He was willing to travel 150 miles to see the prophet Elisha because he wanted to be set free from his leprosy. But when he arrived he went to the King of Israel instead of the prophet but the King could not help him. He had to go to the right person to receive the help he needed. God gives us the Holy Spirit and his Word to help us but he also uses people in his body to help bring the change we desire. We too must go to the right people to receive the help we need for change.
There is a clip from the Bob Newhart show that demonstrates how some people think you should deal with your problems.
His advice is very simple “Just stop it.” Obviously he was not the right person for this lady to go to and receive the help she needed. Make sure you go to people who can truly help you change.
Naaman went to the prophet and was given advice on what he needed to do but it was not what he wanted to hear. He wanted the prophet to simply wave his hand over him and instantly be healed. Instead he was told to go to the dirty Jordan River and dunk himself in it seven times. It did not make sense to him and his pride initially kept him from receiving the counsel and acting on it. We too will need to deal with our pride when we are given counsel regarding what we must do to change. If we truly desire to change then we will take the medicine and do what we are instructed to do by the Lord. Naaman finally humbled himself and realized that he would not be healed if he did not follow the instructions given to him. When he obeyed he was healed completely. God’s desire is to change our lives into the image of his Son. He has a plan and we need to be obedient to whatever he asks us to do.
Perhaps tonight the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart about areas that he wants you to surrender to him and allow God to bring the changes that he desires. God wants us to walk in the truth, he desires to conform us to the image of his son but we must desire the same. God does not force us to change but he empowers us to change when we recognize the areas that we need his help to change. David prayed
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” Ps 139:23. He wanted to change and he invited God to show him what needed to be changed. I pray tonight that you will take time this week and ask God to show you any area of your life that he wants to change and then in obedience to him do exactly what he asks you to do.
God loves us as we are but he also loves us so much that he does not want us to stay as we are. He wants us to become like Him and he lovingly reveals to heal and change us.
