The Growth Process

I have begun another book over the next several weeks will contain my thoughts through the reading of this book. It is “He that is Spiritual,” by Lewis Sperry Chafer. Upon reading through the first part of the preface, I noted some things already. He makes this comment; “True spirituality is that quality of the life of the child of God which satisfies and glorifies the Father, it brings celestial joy and peace to the believers own heart. Upon it all Christian service depends. Since God purposes to work through human means, the fitness of the instrument determines the progress made. There is general agreement that the daily life of Christians should be improved; but improvement cannot be had other than in God’s way. Merely to exhort an unspiritual Christian is a loss of time and energy. When that Christian becomes spiritual, he will need no exhortation; but himself becomes an exhorter both by precept and example. Christians as a whole are satiated with ideals. Their real difficulty is stated in the words: “How to perform that which is good, I find not.” The divine way to sufficiency and efficiency must be understood and acted upon, else we fail.” He that is Spiritual, L. S. Chafer, preface.

Did you get the first part of that? The fitness of the instrument determines the progress made? His next statement even quantifies the agreement of most Christians who agree that there is a need for improvement. The problem is that most Americans have the mentality that we can have it all now, but the spiritual development goes in direct contrast to the current belief system. Maybe this is why many Americans never achieve the growth they claim to want in their lives. Maybe this is why we find ourselves trying to encourage other believers to stay on the path to development and find our ways discouraging; because they choose not to become spiritual…

The more scary thing today is that most Christians do not even understand “how to grow.” In a meeting this last week, I met with six men who asked the question, “what should we expect from the new Christian after their conversion?” I told them that without any knowledge in the person they should not expect too much, but rather than expect something from them in the beginning, we should be training them how to grow in their faith and then rechecking them to help them integrate it into their lives. You see most of us never understood the Bible and its contents before we came to Christ. That came after our conversion, not before. So before we become fruit inspectors, we should cultivate and nurture the growing process.

I look forward to what the Lord is getting ready to share with me over the next several weeks and I hope you will join me and seeing the truths He intends to share.