Measuring Spiritual Growth

From the previous post Spiritual Growth;How To Measure, you could already deduce how spiritual growth is measured. However, I still want to talk about it.

Last week, I planned to talk about measuring spiritual growth but I got caught explaining how your life is spiritual and you don’t have a spiritual part of your life. Indeed, your life goes through phases, it is in sections but spiritual is not a section of your life… Everything about your life is spiritual (especially as a believer).

Again let me say that you can not be talking about spiritual growth if you’re not even a follower of Jesus Christ and if He’s not your personal Lord… Being a follower is an active thing. I didn’t say “followed”… So if you once followed and you are not convinced that you’re still following, please rededicate your life today by repenting and turning away from the path you’re taking now, confess it all, how greedy and selfish you’ve been. Make a decision as you commit yourself in prayer to following Jesus.

Hallelujah!!

You might be saying if there’s no spiritual part of my life, why are we measuring spiritual growth? Let me help you there… Your life is spiritual, the spiritual is your life and this life though is spiritual, finds its expression in other aspects of your Life… So when I say “measuring spiritual growth” I am only talking about measuring your growth and understanding in what matters.

Measuring spiritual growth can be very tricky, you see. Tricky in that you may be looking one side when you should be looking at the other side. You might begin to consider your works and you become like the Pharisees who say “Thank God I am not like the tax collector…”. So in measuring spiritual growth, listen to this, Let Jesus Christ be the standard. When Jesus is the standard, by the time you’re done evaluating yourself, you end up broken and repentant even while giving thanks for the journey so far.

It is of weightiness to note that spiritual growth is a lifelong journey. This is an important note…lest he that thinketh he stands shall eventually fall.

Spiritual growth is, in simplicity and truth, becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the working of God by His Spirit in you to be able to differentiate righteousness from unrighteousness.

I hope you didn’t just think “That’s easy to differentiate”, because if you did, you would be very wrong. Righteousness exceeds the law as we know it. As you walk with God step by step, the light of God will begin to shine in you so much that you don’t do some things not because there’s a law against it but somehow you know it does not measure up to the righteous standards of God. You’re even wrong to think spiritual growth is in how much of the commandments you keep…

…hold on, am I saying we believers are a lawless bunch??

(the answer I want to give is a dangerous one but it’s true… Only that I’ll need to explain it and there’s no space for that… It’s a post not a book… I think I should just start a YouTube channel… Aahhhah)

…So a simple answer is No, we are not a lawless bunch.

Hebrews 5:14 (KJV)
“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

So then how do you measure spiritual growth? It’s definitely not by how much scripture you have memorized or how long you can now pray compared to yesterday. These things are important (we will, by the grace of God talk about how to grow spiritually next week) and have their own place but they are in no way the measuring tool for spiritual growth.

Indeed there are different ways to put it… Some say you measure by the fruit of the Spirit… Which is correct, I just want to come from a different perspective today.

Oh! By the way, Never measure your growth by material things. For example; promotion in the office, admission, money, even that which you would tag as “favour” etc. Often times it is how you HANDLE these situations and things that define level of growth.

This then is how you measure growth; how much can you discern righteousness and unrighteousness? How much is your mind or are your senses conforming to the standard of God and His ways? How easily can you tell when you are not on the path of righteousness even in the very little thing?

Hmm… This is interesting… It’s interesting because I thought I could just memorize the Ten Commandments and from them, I can tell the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness,but No!!! The book of Hebrews say it is by the reason of use that we discern… By practice… By walking in the light. It is not learnt dear friend, it is lived. If you judge by how much you know, you are on your way to be shocked.

It says “who by the reason of use have their senses (plural) exercised…” let me add “exercised unto maturity”.

Have you been walking in obedience? You may be bold enough to say “Yes” but let me ask you this, have you been willing? Have you subscribed to the ideologies of God concerning every single matter?

Growth is measured first in what you believe… Do you believe the counsel of God more?… Do you give yourself to the word of God for consistent renewal of the mind?… Without this, obedience is near to impossible…

Listen, The fruit, is a result of growth.

Many people focus on fruit so much they find themselves trying to work out the fruit using the ten commandments… It’s definitely not your job.

This is a hard saying right?

This is how it works Willingness and Obedience then Fruit is produced.

Brethren you must understand that a man who is willing (let me explain that word again… It means to give yourself, to abide, to subscribe to an ideology) and who obeys always brings forth fruit in season and out of season.

Fruit is not your work!!!!… Abiding, subscribing, giving yourself is your work (John 15).

In conclusion, this is how you measure growth, how much of God’s ideas have you received into yourself and do you live by. What do you believe about life, school, success, money, marriage etc and how do you make your decisions. Sometimes fruit will not be so obvious but, mehn!!! You are growing strong roots downward.

God bless you.

Let me stop here. Join me next week as I write about how to grow spiritually.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. I hope you were blessed. Please don’t forget to drop a comment, like and share. Have a wonderful weekend.

Photo Source: https://images.app.goo.gl/xNhycbWnzjGtGqjP9

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