DEEPER RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AS A NECESSITY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH

The Holy Spirit helped me to prepare a seminar on the topic, "Deeper personal relationship with God as a necessity to spiritual growth." 

I will be taking this seminar under 5 major outlines: 

👉 Introduction 

👉 Spiritual growth 

👉 Measure of Spiritual growth 

👉 Key to Spiritual growth

👉 Conclusion 

So we take them one by one...

👌INTRODUCTION 

By way of introduction, growth is very important in any field or sphere of life: home, church, school, ministry, academics, marriage, finance, and so on. 

A child who is not yet walking or talking after celebrating a year old will draw attention.

A business that has not left the level it was when it started can surely never attend the gathering of those that have grown. 

 A student who's Cummulative Grade Point Average did not improve throughout 4 years, obviously has something wrong somewhere....and so on and so forth. 

This is just for us to understand the necessity of growth in our everyday life. 

If growth was not important to God, Jesus will not need to be born as a baby and would have just come a full grown man and launched right. into ministry. Just in case someone asks, 'between the age of 12 when Jesus went to the temple and age 30 when He began His ministry, what was He doing for 18 years?' The answer is this, 'HE WAS GROWING'. (Luke 2:52). 

Now, growth doesn't just happen. It is stimulated. Medically related scientists will confirm that there is something called Growth Hormone (GH), or Somatotropin, in the body and it functions to stimulate growth. 

So, something causes growth to occur. It's not just automatic. NO! You pay the price for growth, you receive the prize of growth! Capish! 

👌SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

Simply put, Spiritual growth means growing in the Spirit. 

As we all know, man is a tri-une being, consisting of body, soul and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). Man is a spirit, that has a soul and lives in a body. So man is primarily a spirit. Yes! You're a spirit! ...And whatever happens in the spirit, affects both the soul and the body.

 That's why when the spirit of a man is regenerated (John 3:6...'Spirit gives birth to spirit'), the soul is renewed (Rom. 12:2), and the body is transformed (Phil. 3:21). 

👌MEASUREMENT OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

How do I know someone who has grown to a certain extent in the Spirit? How do I differentiate such person from someone who has not grown in the Spirit? 

Let us do a quick study together...

We know a tree that is growing through its production of fruits. That is, it takes nutrients from its root (you remember the xylem and phloem?), and takes them up. We do not know when this nutrient movement takes place but we know that they are moving. How? Because we can see fruits. 

Now, John 15:5 says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." 

According to our illustration, Jesus Christ is the vine (the root) and we are the branches. When we bring forth fruits, it confirms we are tapping nutrients from Jesus Christ and we display them on the outside for the whole world to see. What fruits are we talking about here? The fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The world doesn't need to know when you draw nutrients from Jesus Christ (it takes place in your secret), but they must know that you do, through your exhibition of the fruit of the Spirit, and that's how we measure a man's spiritual growth!!!

Any believer who is not meek, with anger issues, lack of faith, lack of perseverance, and so on, is not there yet.

Let's not make the mistake of measuring spiritual growth through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Its wrong. Don't forget the devil is also a magician, he can perform signs and wonders too...BUT an evil tree will never produce good fruits, NEVER! (Matt. 7:17-18) - the devil can never produce the fruits of the Spirit. 

Not every prophet you see performing signs gets it from God. May we never be misled! 

👌KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

There are many keys to spiritual growth:

👉The Word (1 Peter 2:2, Acts 20:32)

👉Prayer (Jude 1:20)

👉Fasting (Matt. 6:16-18)

👉Obedience (John 14:23, NIV).

...and so on, like Suffering for Christ (Heb. 5:8), etc. 

But all of these come down to our topic: Deeper personal relationship as a necessity to spiritual growth. As a matter of fact, I would beg to amend the topic a little to, "Deeper personal relationship with God: the key to spiritual growth." 

...which leads us to our last outline...

👌KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

Just like we have discussed, to grow in the Spirit, to produce the fruits of the Spirit the more, to become more robust in the spirit, the key is having a deeper personal relationship with God, and that entails those other things we listed above: Praying, fasting, studying the Word, and so on. 

Until we draw up nutrients from the well that won't run dry, Jesus Christ, our extent of growth will be limited. 

Now, let's do a quick diagnosis on ourselves. Just think on some things. It's a SELAH moment. 

"If Jesus were to be real, flesh and blood, to you, how would He rate your relationship with Him on a scale of 10? Tell yourself the truth, please... you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

How many times do you call Him, text Him, spend time with Him, listen to Him, read His letter to you (the Word), love His people (the gathering of the saints), love His house (the Church)...and so on."

Anything below 7 on that scale of 10, and it's not encouraging. 

👌CONCLUSION 

It's not too late! 

We can begin the process of growth today. Spend quality time with Him, develop your personal relationship with God, and it won't be long before you see positive changes in your spirit, and consequently, your soul and body.