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When it comes to spiritual growth, I will tell you this fact up front; there is NO shortcut! As I am talking to people about their Christian disciplines, I am often asked how does a person go about maturing in their spiritual life. Many people think that if they could only go to more church services or more Bible studies or go to Bible College or obtain more college degrees, that they will become more effective in their spiritual walk and that will enable them to do more in their ministries. But that mindset is so far from the truth! Christian maturity does not happen only with your Bible knowledge…but it has EVERYTHING to do with your relationship with God.
When Paul was writing his second letter to his mentee Timothy, he offered many warnings to this young disciple as part of his training to be a great pastor and servant of God. Beginning in the third chapter, Paul gives Timothy these instructions: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:1-7) Notice in this last part…they were always learning but never actually having truth! And before that he said they had a form of godliness but denying its power. The reason they had no spiritual power was because, even though they had a lot of knowledge, in reality they had no relationship.
Friends, I want to tell you that it is VERY possible for people to go to church every time the doors are open, to be involved in every single activity the church is involved with and to totally convince everyone around them that they are spiritually mature…but in reality they have no relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and they are LOST! In fact…and this is a very sad statement for me to make…but I am totally convinced that there are many people are in just that condition, and most of the time, they don’t even realize it themselves.
I have heard of deacons who had been in church for many years before they realized that they had never met the Lord Jesus Christ. I have heard of pastors, pastor’s wives, elders…many people who look good and they sound like they know what they are talking about, and some of them may even be able to quote scripture after scripture…but they have NO relationship with God. And the sad thing is, if the eastern sky were to split in two…those people would be lost for eternity! It’s serious Friends!
So, my answer to this question is, “There is NO shortcut to building a close and personal relationship with the Lord. You MUST do the hard work!"
Imagine if you will that a husband comes home from work night after night, and every night his wife has his dinner on the table waiting for him and he eats his dinner, takes a shower, watches a little T.V. and then goes to sleep and the next morning he gets up and goes to work and does the same thing all over again. Imagine if you will that this husband never puts his arms around his wife, he never tells her he loves her, he never snuggles up next to her on the couch and the only time he ever speaks to her is when he wants something. “Wife, would you go get me a cup of coffee?” He doesn’t bring her flowers, he doesn’t ask how her day was…NOTHING! What kind of relationship do you think that would be? Well as much as I hate to say it, many Christians have that very same kind of relationship with God…the only time they have anything to do with Him is when something goes wrong or they want something from Him. What kind of relationship is that?
So what do you need to do to grow spiritually mature? Here’s an example…have you ever seen an older couple who seem like they are as much in love after 50 years as they were the day they married? They do everything together, they talk about everything with each other, they smile and laugh together…and you can see in their eyes that they have grown to love each other more and more over the years? Why do you think this has happened? I can tell you, it’s because they have worked at their relationship. They have put the time and effort into building their marriage into a thing of beauty because they believed that the results were well worth the time and effort it took to make it that way.
So…how do you grow spiritually mature? You put the time and effort it takes into your relationship with God to make it a thing of beauty.
The thing that many people don’t consider when they are building their ministry is that the ministry is not the focus…the relationship is! We are building a relationship with the God of the Universe…the Creator of all that there is and it’s out of this relationship that ministry flows. So our focus should not be how to build a great ministry that will bring honor to God and touch people’s lives, but how to love God more and more every day. He is the focus of all we do and then the ministry will flow from that relationship.
One of the most powerful books I ever read was an old classic by Andrew Murray titled “Abide in Christ”. Through that book I began to grasp the concept of the scripture found in John 15:1-8:
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
If you have not figured out the key to these verses yet, the key to spiritual growth is ABIDING. To “abide” means to live in, dwell in, stay in. So in order to grow spiritually and to produce fruit in your life and ministry, your responsibility is to simply “abide” or dwell in…live in Christ Jesus. HIS job is to produce fruit through you...if YOU abide. And isn’t that really what ministry is about…producing fruit?
Think about this…suppose you were to go out into a beautiful vineyard and find one of most healthy and fullest vines there. Then suppose you were to find one big healthy branch full of grapes, and you were to cut it off from the vine and lay it down on the ground? What would happen? Of course…before long it would die. That is what Jesus is saying here, “Unless you abide in Me you cannot bear fruit”. The job of the vine is to provide the life-giving nutrients through the branch that it needs in order to produce the fruit. If you cut off the source, there will be no fruit. So how can people think they can have ministry that will honor and glorify God when they are cut off from the Vine. You MUST stay connected! And that part is your responsibility.
“So, what do I need to do in order to abide in Christ?” you might ask. It’s very simple…spend time with Him, love Him, talk to Him, make Him top priority in your life. Just as you cherish and nurture your relationship with your husband or wife, you also must cherish and nurture your relationship with your Father. You talk to Him, you read His Word…and then you learn what it is He likes and dislikes, you seek Him with all you heart. Let me ask you, when you go into your prayer closet alone with God, do you ever ask Him what is important to Him? Do you ever question what He would like to talk about? If you did that, you might be surprised how quickly you would begin to feel the heart of God and take on the same likes and dislikes that He has. It wouldn’t take long before you would begin to hear from Him the things that He wants you to do. As you read His Word you may be surprised to learn something new and different as you seek Him with all your heart. Something else you might notice about the scripture above. In verse 7 it says, “you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” God knows that if you spend time with Him every day and you get to know His heart and you begin to take on His burdens and you learn how to hear from Him and obey Him…then you will want to do the things that He wants to have done, and then He will honor the desires of your heart. Why? Because your desires will be His desires. That is when your ministry will begin to flourish and you will find yourself doing things you never imagined yourself doing before. And as you ask for God’s provision, you will find that you have everything you need to get the things done that He wants to have you do.
It’s not easy to build a relationship with God. It means you have to be diligent about your prayer time and Bible study time. It means you will have to keep doing the things that are needful to maintain a love relationship with Him. You will have to realign your priorities and you will have to make some changes in your schedule. But when you do this, you will find that you have plenty of time to get everything done that you need to do. But the key is to start building this deep beautiful, love relationship with God…and there’s no time to begin like NOW. You may want to just get away for a weekend…a quiet retreat…just you and God. Spend time seeking Him with all your heart. Nobody else can do it for you, and you won’t get this from going to another Bible study…but if you will invest the time and effort to this relationship, you will never be sorry you did.
Prayer: Father, I realize that the only way to please You is to build a beautiful relationship with You…to learn to walk with You and talk with You every day. More than ministry, You want to be my Father, and You want me to know You intimately. Father, I commit this moment to make it my priority to get to know You in a deeper and more intimate way. Help me Lord to learn the things that are important to You and to keep my heart sensitive to Your will and Your Word in my life. Thank You Father for all that You are doing in my life today. I love You and I praise You Lord…in Jesus’ Name…Amen.
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