Discipleship & Spiritual Growth
Gerson P. Santos
I. The Process of Spiritual Growth
Ephesians 4:12-15
“For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.”
Spiritual growth is a slow process, but it is also the heart of the Christian faith. It is related to experiencing and knowing God. This is not achieve reading a book, attending a seminar, or through a program. It only “comes through a relationship with a Person. This is an intimate love relationship with God. Through this relationship, God reveals Him where He is already at work.”[1]
We are not meant to remain as children. God wants us to grow up… like Christ in everything. Our heavenly Father’s goal is for us to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ. Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up. When we grasp the eternal consequences of this process, we will pray fewer comfort me prayers (help me feel good) and more conform me prayers (use this to make me more like you).[2]
Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing. Discipleship-the process of becoming like Christ-always begins with a decision. Jesus calls us, and we respond: “Come, be my disciple, Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.” (Matt 9:9)
The Word of God challenges us to do not remain as children (Eph 4:14-15). God wants us to grow up like Christ in everything. Our heavenly Father’s goal is for us to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6). Spiritual Growth is also called discipleship, the process of becoming like Christ. “Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up. Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes an intentional commitment.”[3]
The church is to be built up in both character and numbers. When Paul says perfect man, “this refers not so much to the individual as to the church, which is to come to a state of organic unity, completeness, and maturity as contrasted with the childish immaturity… For both the individual and the church, likeness to Christ is the goal to be reached (Rom. 8:29). The refusal to grow is a greater sin than immaturity itself, and is the outcome of self-satisfaction and low ideals… Christ alone has the full stature and is the complete man, the perfect man. We are called upon to participate in that nature, and all the offices of the church and the graces of the Spirit are given to that end.”[4]
God sees us as champions. But because of a poor self image, we say, “God, I can’t do that. I’m just nobody. You’ve got to find somebody more qualified, somebody more educated. God, I don’t have what it takes.” Gideon succeeds with God’s power. Similarly, God sees each one of us as a champion. We should start seeing ourselves as God sees us. We should stop making excuses and start stepping out in faith, doing what God has called us to do. Don’t focus on your weakness; focus on your God. “If God chose to use perfect people only, He’d have no one to use.”[5]
Spiritual growth is closely related to Christian disciplines and ministry. Paul says that we should “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12-13). This text presents the two parts of spiritual growth: work out and work in. “Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit works with us, not just in us.”[6] This message was written to believers, it is not about how to be saved, but how to grow. It does not say “work for” your salvation, because you can’t add anything to what Jesus already did. During a physical “workout”, you exercise to develop your body, not to get a body. When you “work out” a puzzle, you already have all the pieces – your task is to put them together. Farmers “work” the land, not to get land, but to develop what they already have. God has given you a new life; now you are responsible to develop it “with fear and trembling.” In other words, it means to take your spiritual growth as a serious matter.
One of the best commentaries about growing in Christ is found in the book Steps to Christ:
“Those who thus devote themselves to unselfish effort for the good of others are most surely working out their salvation. The only way to grow in grace is to be disinterestedly doing the very work, which Christ has enjoyed upon us to engage, to the extent of our ability, in helping and blessing those who need the help we can give them. Strength comes by exercise; activity is the very condition of life. Those who endeavor to maintain Christian life by passively accepting the blessings that come through the means of grace, and doing nothing for Christ, are simply trying to live by eating without working. And in the spiritual as in the natural world, this always results in degeneration and decay. A man who would refuse to exercise his limbs would soon lose all power to use them. Thus the Christian who will not exercise his God-given powers not only fails to grow up into Christ, but he loses the strength that he already had.”[7]
II. Celebration of Discipline
According to Richard J. Foster[8], the path to spiritual growth is the spiritual disciplines; they are the door to liberation. Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent or talented people, but for deep people. The disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.
The spiritual disciplines are intended for our good. It is possible, however, to turn them into another set of soul-killing laws. Jesus teaches that we must go beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20). They were committed to following God in a way that many of us are not prepared to do. One factor, however, was always central to their righteousness: externalism. It is easy in our zeal for the Spiritual Disciplines to turn them into the external righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people. Leo Tolstoy observes, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort.
1. Who you are:
1)Meditation – The biblical meaning of meditation has several meanings: listening to God’s word, reflecting of God’s law, and more. In each case there is stress upon changed behavior as a result of our encounter with the living God. Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word. Different than any kind of eastern form of meditation that stress the need to become detached from the world; Christian meditation goes far beyond the notion of detachment. We must go on to attachment. The main purpose of meditation is to develop friendship with Jesus, and the perpetual presence of the Lord becomes a reality. Meditation heightens our spiritual sensitivity, which in turn, leads us into prayer.
2)Prayer - To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue
God uses to transform us. All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives. Real prayer is something we learn (Luke 11:1). Listening to God is the necessary prelude to intercession. The beginning point then in learning to pray for others is to listen for guidance. Involves fasting as an accompanying means.
3)Fasting has been in general disrepute both in and outside the Church for many years. First, fasting has developed a bad reputation as a result of the excessive ascetic practices of the Middle Ages. Second, the constant propaganda fed us today convinces us that if we do not have three large meals each day, with several snacks in between, we are on the verge of starvation. Scripture has so much to say about fasting. All major religions of the world recognize its merit. In Scripture the normal means of fasting involves abstaining from all food, solid or liquid, but not from water (Luke 4:2). Sometimes a partial fast is described; that is, there is a restriction of diet (Dan. 10:3). There are also several examples of absolute fast, or abstaining from both food and water (Esther 4:16). Both Moses and Elijah engaged in what must be considered supernatural absolute fasts of forty days (Deut. 9:9; 1 Kings 19:8). Jesus made clear that he expected his disciples to fast (Matt. 9:15-17; Acts 13:2, 3).
4)Study – Study is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction. Study involves four steps. The first is repetition. Repetition regularly channels the mind in a specific direction, thus ingraining habits of thought. Concentration is the second step in study. If, in addition to bringing the mind repeatedly to the subject matter, the person will concentrate on what is being studied, learning is vastly increased. Comprehension then is the third step in the Discipline of study. One further step is needed: reflection. Although comprehension defines what we are studying, reflection defines the significance of what we are studying. Study gives us discernment about ourselves, and the world in which we live.
2. What you do as a person:
5)Simplicity – Simplicity is freedom, brings joy and balance. “God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising” Eccles. 7:30). Simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style. Jesus speaks to the question of economics more than any other single social issue. Asceticism and simplicity are mutually incompatible. Asceticism renounces possessions. Simplicity sets possessions in proper perspective. Simplicity is the most visible and therefore the most open to corruption. The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of his kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in its proper order (Matt. 6:25-33). A person that does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all. Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. First, to receive what we have as a gift from God is the first inner attitude of simplicity. The second is to know that it is God’s business, and not ours, to care for what we have is the second inner attitude of simplicity. The third is to have our goods available to others. Through simplicity we can live with others in integrity.
6)Solitude – Jesus calls us from loneliness to solitude. Solitude is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place. Inward solitude has outward manifestations. Inner solitude is connected to inner silence; they are inseparable. Control rather than no noise is the key to silence (Eccles. 3:7; James 3:6). The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The first step into solitude is to take advantage of the “little solitudes” that fill our day. Another thing we can do is to find or develop a “quiet place” designed for silence and solitude. Try to live one entire day without words at all. Four times a year withdraw for three to four hours for the purpose of reorienting your life goals. Another idea is to retreat for two to three days. Solitude allows us to be genuinely present to people when we are with them.
7)Submission – Submission is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. In this discipline we are released to drop the matter, to forget it. Almost all church fights and splits occur because people do not have the freedom to give in to each other. Usually the best way to handle most matters of submission is to say nothing. In submission we are at last free to value other people. The touchstone for the biblical understanding of submission is Jesus’ astonishing statement, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Jesus calls us to self-denial without self-hatred. Self-denial does not mean the loss of our identity. The foremost symbol of this radical servanthood is the cross (Phil.2:8). There are, however, seven acts of submission: to God, to the Scripture, to the family, to our neighbors, to the body of Christ, to the broken and despised, and to the world. Through submission we live with others without manipulation.
8)Service – Service enables us to say no to the world’s games of promotion and authority. Jesus never taught that everyone had equal authority (Matt. 20:25-28). Self-righteous service comes through human effort. True service comes from a relationship with the Other deep inside. Self-righteous service is impressed with the “big deal,” requires external rewards, is concerned about results, picks and chooses whom to serve, is affected by moods and whims, is temporary, is insensitive, and fractures community. The grace of humility is worked into our lives through the Discipline of service. Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. Service is not a list of things we do, though in it we discover things to do. There is the service of being served (Jesus washing Peter’s feet), of common courtesy, of hospitality, of listening, of bearing the burdens of each other, and of sharing the word of Life with one another. Through service we are a blessing to those we minister.
3. What you do in the body of Christ:
9)Confession – At the heart of God is the desire to give and to forgive. “The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works” (Augustine of Hippo). Confession is a difficult Discipline for us because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saint before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. The followers of Jesus Christ have been given the authority to receive the confession of sin and to forgive it in his name (John 20:23). The stylized form of Confession has some advantages, though many of us would feel highly uncomfortable with the formal confession. First, the formalized form of the printed confession does not allow for any excuse or extenuating circumstances, taking personal responsibility for our sins. Second advantage of the confessional is that the word of forgiveness is expected and given in the absolution (1 John 1:9). Third, is penance. If penance is viewed as a way of earning forgiveness, it is dangerous indeed. These things, of course, can be accomplished without a formalized Confessional. In fact, when we know what we are about, it is an enormous advance to see the ministry of confession as the common property of the people of God. Then there is the practical matter of to whom we should go to confess. It is quite correct theologically to say that every Christian believer can receive the confession of another, but not every Christian believer will have sufficient empathy and understanding. Confession frees us from ourselves and releases us to worship.
10)Worship – God is actively seeking worshipers (John 4:23; 12:32). Scripture is replete with examples of God’s efforts to initiate, restore, and maintain fellowship with his children. Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. We should not be overly concerned with the question of a correct form for worship. The object of our worship is the Lord (Matt. 4:10). We worship the Lord not only because of who he is, but also because of what he has done. If the Lord is to be Lord, worship must have priority in our lives. God is looking for his children to worship him. When the people of God meet together, there often comes a sense of being “gathered” into one mind, becoming of one accord (Phil. 3:15). Genuine worship has only one Leader, Jesus Christ. Christ is also alive and present in all his offices, in all his power. God call for worship that involves our whole being. The body, mind, spirit, and emotions should all be laid on the altar of worship. The Bible describes worship in physical terms. The root meaning for the Hebrew word we translate worship is “to prostrate.” The word bless literally means “to kneel.” There are some steps into worship. First, learn to practice the presence of God daily. Second, have many different experiences of worship. Third, find ways to really prepare for the gathered experience of worship. Fourth, have a willingness to be gathered in the power of the Lord. Fifth, cultivate holy dependency. Sixth, absorb distractions with gratitude. Seventh learn to offer a sacrifice of worship. Just as worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. Holy obedience saves worship from becoming an opiate; an escape from the pressing needs of modern life. Worship opens the door to guidance.