God’s aim for us all is for us to grow up: ‘until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:13) Spiritual growth can only happen when we have experienced spiritual birth, however: “Birth presupposes growth, but growth proceeds from birth,” Eugene Peterson says. (‘Practise Resurrection’, P 3) As Jesus taught Nicodemus, we need to be born again (John 3:6-8) and that birth comes from God. (John 1:12-13)
We start out on our spiritual journey by the work of God’s Spirit in our lives causing our new birth or regeneration. There is only one way to start out, by Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12), and as we are born again by God’s Spirit as faith is ignited in our hearts, so we must continue to walk in the Spirit by faith (see Gal 3:2-3, 14). Growth is ultimately God’s work in us:
God’s Regeneration Outworked With The Holy Spirit
That work of growth is something God produces in us and it is the natural progression intended by Him for every one of us. Eph 4:13-14 in the Message version says ‘God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and to tell it in love – like Christ in everything, so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.’ Growth is not forced in the natural world. The seeds that are planted will grow, providing the conditions are conducive to growth – sunlight, water and so on, as these chilli seeds show:
October 2013
December 2013
In the same way, spiritual growth is a spiritual work which happens in spiritual realms to people who have been born again of God’s Spirit. Our problem comes because growth cannot be rushed and we are often impatient to see progress in our own lives and in other people’s lives. Our instant society with its consumer demands leads us to believe we can have whatever we want whenever we want, but our times are in God’s hands and ‘there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.’ (Eccl 3:1) God works patience into our characters so that we grow through waiting patiently for Him, learning through the trials and suffering life brings (James 1:2-4, Rom 5:3-5).