How Can You Encourage Your Spiritual Growth?

The Bible tells us to grow in God’s grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, so how can we experience spiritual growth?

Growing Children

The Bible tells us to grow in God’s grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, so how can we experience spiritual growth? God not only makes us His children by His Word and by His Spirit, He wants us to grow up into Jesus Christ. He desires for us to know Him and His Word better. The more we know His Word, the more we can grow spiritually. Like a child needs daily nourishment, the believer needs to be fed the Word of God by the people of God like in church services, in Sunday school and in Bible studies. God commands us to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2), and we can have more discernment by spending more time in the Word of God, the Bible . We can never grow spiritually without the Word of God and the Spirit of God, so how can we experience spiritual growth?

The Word of God

There is a cleansing power in God’s Word. The Apostle Paul wrote that God’s will is that Jesus Christ “might sanctify her (the church), having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Eph 5:26). At the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples that they were “already clean because of the word” (John 15:3), so there’s a cleansing power in God’s Word….and the Word has the power to transform us and grow us spiritually. The world wants to conform us…God wants to transform us. God’s Word is the hammer that makes us into Christ’s image. There is God—power in His word, or as He says, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). His Word will have an effect on us…either to repent or to see God’s coming judgment on unrepentant sinners, but it’s impossible to grow spiritually without studying and reading the Bible.

The Spirit of God

The Holy Spirit can help us grow spiritually. He is our Helper and Teacher. God distributes the gifts of the Spirit to each and every believer, but the Spirit also teaches us. Jesus said that “when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26). Jesus, in speaking about the Holy Spirit, said that “he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit convicted us of our sins and about the “righteousness and judgment of God,” and that unless we repent, we will all perish. The Spirit also testifies about Jesus, pointing to Him as being the Truth. Our Lord said that when “the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). He is our Helper, Advocate and Teacher and makes sense of the Word of God. Without the Spirit of God, there can be no spiritual growth at all.

The Will of God

It’s so easy to find the will of God. For example, the Apostle Peter plainly reveals, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people” (1 Pet 1:15). It is also “God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God” (1 Thess 4:3-5). Remember when Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray, He said, “your will be done” (Matt 28:42), meaning we are commanded to follow God’s will. Other parts of God’s will for us are to “Rejoice always [and] pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:16-17), but His will is also for us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:18). Naturally, God doesn’t will anyone to perish apart from Christ (2 Pet 3:9). God’s will is not cloaked in mystery or shrouded in unknown ways, but revealed in Scripture. The more we know God’s Word, the more we know God’s will, and to know His Word and His will is to grow more spiritually.

Conclusion

It is my prayer you have already put your trust in the Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. If you have not put your trust in Christ yet, then you’re still trusting in yourself, and that will end badly. The Apostle John wrote that “saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (Rev 20:12). Jesus Christ will turn you away from the Kingdom of heaven, so I urge you to read Matthew 7:21-23. This is why it is my prayer, even as I write this, that you would repent today and put your trust in the Savior, Jesus Christ. A failure to do so will ensure that you will face God’s judgment after you die (Heb 9:27) or when Jesus Christ appears (Rev 20:12-15), and either of these two could happen at any moment.

Here is some related reading for you: What is Spiritual Growth According to the Bible?

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: bible, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Growth, Word of God