SPIRITUAL AND MORAL GROWTH

 “After David had served the purpose of God in his own generation, he fell asleep ... and saw corruption” - Acts 13:36 

W

e are not accidents of biology, but creatures of Divine design. Even though you may not be popular, yet, Heaven recognizes that you are because He has created you to serve His purpose. King David was a man who served God’s purpose for his own generation. We are all called by God to do the same. 

How can we serve God in our generation? By living for Him. How do we live for Him? By growing spiritually and morally!   

The topic assigned to me is, “SPIRITUAL AND MORAL GROWTH.” 

There is no gainsaying that life and living are all about growth because one vital element of living organisms is growth. The day we stop growing will be the very day we will start dying. To remain ‘alive,’ we have no option but to grow. Evidence of growth is seen in the progress we make. Remaining static is an evidence of lack of growth. 

People who refuse to grow have set machineries in motion for retardation and retrogression.   

God wants us to grow. At II Peter 1:5 – 11, Bible outlines areas where He wants us to grow and the benefits thereof: 

“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, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, 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. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”    

WHY SHOULD WE GROW SPIRITUALLY AND MORALLY?

Humans are triune beings – made up of three vital elements: body, soul and spirit (I Thessalonians 5:23). Each of these elements are important. However, we seem to place emphasis on physical growth while relegating moral and spiritual growths to the background.  

While He was here on earth, Jesus set examples of what it means to grow. Luke 2:52 tells us: 

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” 

Jesus growth was total. He was not lacking in any department – spiritually, He was in His element; morally, He was sound; socially, He was untainted; intellectually, He was quintessential (Luke 2:46-47). 

Jesus is our model of growth. 

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL GROWTH?

Spiritual growth refers to the manifest increase in volume of awareness and personal relationship with God. At II Peter 3:18, Apostle Peter enjoins every Christian to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”   

Spiritual growth begins with an undying quest for God. At Psalms 42:1, the Psalmist says, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.” At Matthew 5:6, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be satisfied.” 

To grow spiritually, we must yearn for God. We should not be satisfied with head knowledge, but should desire to have a personal relationship with God, after all, Jesus teaches us to see God as our “Father” (Matthew 6:1-9). Consequently, you should have a Father-child relationship with God.     

When you cultivate a healthy and thriving relationship with God, you will be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man…” (II Corinthians 4:16). Consequently, you will make it your habit to “die” daily to your carnal desires (I Corinthians 15:31), seeking to be “absent from your body” and to be “present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:-9).   

Evidence of spiritual growth in life are:

1. Heavenly mindedness (Colossians 3:1-3).

2. Total surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20).

3. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God (II Corinthians 7:1). 

Aids To Spiritual Growth

The key to spiritual development is God’s Word and commitment to it: “. . . I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you and inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

When you study God’s Word, it will enable you to grow as you should. In fact, the more you study God’s Word, the more you will internalize it and the evidence will be known to everyone. At I Timothy 4:13-15, Apostle Paul told Timothy: 

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.”  

One of the evidences of spiritual growth in your life is that as you stay in the Word, your actions, attitudes and behaviours will begin to turn away from the ways of the world and begin to conform to God’s Word. You will find that you desire more and more to walk according to God’s Word and repel the thought patterns of the world that are contradictory to the Word you have learnt and received.

 

The degree to which you yearn for the world’s way of living – fashion style, music choices, movies, etcetera reveals the degree to which you have grown spiritually. As you grow, your attitudes will be reflective of who you have become – new creatures in Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness and God’s prized possessions (2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:10). You will come to know the value of what you have in Christ Jesus and let go of the superficial ways of the world, knowing that what you have is greater than what the world offers.  

MORAL GROWTH

Closely related to spiritual growth is moral growth. Moral growth refers to moral purity. There is a song that we usually sing at Church: 

“Holiness is the beauty of the believer, Holiness is the beauty,

Holiness is the beauty, Holiness is the beauty of the believer

– I must be holy every day” 

To maintain moral purity, you must rein in your hormone. At Ephesians 5:3, God’s Word enjoins us: 

“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness must not be named among you, as becometh saints….” 

Moral prodigality will remain a stain on your Christian garments. At Zechariah 3:1-3, we see what moral prodigality can do to a child of God: 

“And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.  And the LORD said unto Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD Who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.”

Maintaining moral purity on a daily basis must remain your prime goal. When you soil your moral garment or compromise your morality, you will succeed in destroying a beautiful future ahead of you. Therefore, avoid compromising relationships with members of the opposite gender. 

Because of dangers inherent in moral prodigality, Hebrews 12:14-17 says: 

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:  Looking diligently lest anyone fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”

A number of youths in the Bible have shown us how to stand our moral grounds:

1.     Joseph (Genesis 39:9).

2.     Daniel, Meshach, Shedrach and Abednego (Daniel 1:6-8).  

HINDRANCES TO MORAL GROWTH  

1. Dazzling Sights and Tempting Sounds (II Peter 2:7-8; S.O.C. 200, stanza 2).

These “Dazzling sights and tempting sounds” of today are made worse by the mass and social media through alluring forms of entertainment in all its genres. We are constantly being bombarded with negative ideals in music, movies and suggestive literatures as well as fashion trends. 

In all of recorded history, Sodom and Gomorrah were most notorious (although our generation with all its advancements in sciences and technology is trying to outdo Sodom and Gomorrah), however, Lot, who lived in that corruptive environment did not “Feel lured” by the “Sights and sounds,” but “Felt righteous indignation” because “His righteous soul was tormented by what he saw and heard” (II Peter 2:8). Rather than being attracted, his sensibilities were assaulted by them; he did not give in to them, he resisted; we read that, “his righteous soul was tormented by what he saw and heard” among people who populated his environment. 

Fame and Fortune (Hebrews 11:23-27)   

The twin forces of Fame and fortune have been judiciously employed by Satan to hinder righteous living among God’s servants in all Biblical and secular recorded histories. 

Imagine what it means to be an adopted son of Aso Rock? That was exactly the offer Moses received so that he could compromise his heritage. Thank God, he refused, aware that whatever the environment offered was only a “passing pleasure”. We are reminded that “we brought nothing into the world and cannot take anything out of it either” (I Timothy 6:7). Considering this, therefore, our environment wants us to change that which eternal for that which is ephemeral (Matthew 16:26-27). 

Becoming Like the Jones and the Joneses (I Samuel 8:4-5). 

One of the most negative forces which our environment exerts on us is through our peers. Because of our deep sense of belonging, we sometimes want to become like the people around us. That was Israel’s error. 

Fact is, Christians are separate from the world around them and should remain so (John 17:14-16; II Cor. 6:14-18). We should not crave to be like the world around us but should make efforts to establish and maintain our distinctiveness as a “people of God’s pleasure” (I Peter 2:9-10). 

It is not the world that determines our morality for us, God does. We should not imitate the world around us because they do not have anything meaningful to offer but riotousness and vanity. 

As Christians, we should become role models for our environment, not the other way. We should live above our environment, not within it. The mold in which the world finds itself should not contain us. 

Many have gone astray by joining party with the world, throwing in the towel to righteous living. Even though the world is a strong force against righteousness, yet, we have a greater force resident in us, the power of righteousness (II Peter 1:3-4; cf. I John 4:4). Therefore, to bow to our environment is to bring shame to our Father and to our spiritual family. 

EVIDENCES OF MORAL GROWTH 

Ability to say “No” 

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” - Titus 2:11-12. 

Living by Holy Spirit’s directions

 “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” - Galatians 5:25 

CONCLUSION

Spiritual and moral growths are twin evidences of a Christian’s health and Heaven’s readiness. It is our personal responsibilities to grow spiritually and morally. This is not something that anyone can do for us. They are things we must endeavour to do for ourselves. 

Spiritual and moral growths are what will guarantee eternal safety. Failure to do so will be counterproductive now and in eternity. 

May we endeavour to grow spiritually and morally in Jesus’ Name!