SPIRITUAL GROWTH
II Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ..." Spiritual growth starts with salvation. If you do not yet know you are saved, click here to get that settled once & for all.
After you have been saved, then you can build your live upon the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the found-ation of our salvation. This is where spiritual growth continues, takes root, and bears fruit...
FRUIT
In John 15:5, Jesus said to His disciples, "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."
After you are saved, the Lord intends for you to be a fruitful Christian. That is, to grow spirit-ually, bring others to Jesus, and help others to grow spiritually. To do this you need to develop a close relationship with Him. There will be certain things that the Lord wants out of your life, and other things that the Lord wants in your life. The Bible will instruct you about these things; the Holy Spirit will impress you about them as well. Your continued spiritual growth will then depend upon your obedience to the Lord in these matters. It is also important to understand that the Lord will never lead you to do something that is contrary to the Scriptures.
BIBLE
I Peter 2:1 tells us about some things we need to get out of our life, and v. 2 tells us about something we need to get into our life, following the pattern mentioned above.
{1} Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
{2} As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
It's out with the bad, and in with the good. In this passage the good is the word of God. The greatest tangible tool for spiritual growth that God has given us is the Bible. Therefore, you should desire it, and read it regularly.
Feeding on the Scriptures will help you grow spiritually strong from the inside out. Read it, study it, meditate on it, and memorize verses from it. Your relationship with the Lord will only be as strong as your relationship with His word. Below is a link to our Discipleship Studies that will help you along in your spiritual growth. You can also link to these studies in the Spiritual Growth sub-menu by hovering your cursor over "SPIRITUAL GROWTH" at the top of any page on our website, then moving your cursor down and selecting "DISCIPLESHIP STUDIES".
CHURCH
This world is a waste howling wilderness of sin and confusion. The Lord has established the local church so you can have a place to come apart and get spiritually refreshed & recharged with people of like faith.
As you plug into a good Bible believing, Bible practicing church, it will be a blessing to you, and you will be a blessing to it. Regular church attendance is essential for spiritual growth. While the trend in our generation is to attend church less and less, the mandate of the Scriptures is that we ought to be attending church more and more.
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
The church is for your benefit and edification. Take advantage of it. When you fail to come you just might be missing some great blessings the Lord had in store for you.
PRAYER
Prayer is very simply you talking to God. The advantages, blessings, and potential of prayer are vast. The Bible has much instruction about prayer, as well as examples of prayer. Here are two simple lessons about prayer...
Psalm 62:8 Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Notice the phrase "pour out your heart before him". Whatever is on your heart, you can pour it out to the Lord in prayer. It doesn't have to be pretty, it just needs to be honest, thorough, and humble. The Lord will be your best friend if you let Him.
The second lesson is from Psalm 55:22, which says "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
Whatever burdens you have, cast them off of your shoulders and on to the Lord through prayer. We can't bear all of our burdens, but Jesus can. Joseph Scriven said it well when he wrote the hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. It was written in the 1800's, but these timeless truths are just as relevant today as they were then.
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
PREACHING
The Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher. Mark 2:2 says of Jesus, that "he preached the word unto them." The Bible later likewise charges those men who are called of God into the ministry, to "Preach the word..."
Through the preaching of the word of God, lost people can be saved, and those who are saved can be edified, strengthened, reproved, rebuked, and exhorted. All of this is necessary in the life of a Christian. We might gloss over our own faults and shortcomings, but a God-called preacher is to follow the Lord's directive in Isaiah 58:1, and "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."
The preacher is to faithfully preach God's word and "declare... all the counsel of God." The children of God are to faithfully listen to that preaching and be "doers of the word, and not hearers only..."
God uses preaching to help His people get things right with Him. God also uses preaching to encourage folks, to spur them on to higher spiritual ground, and to help them to find the will of God for their lives.
Click on either link below to hear some preach-ing now, or anytime.
