Meeting: Sunday School
Date: 29th March 2026
Message: Directional Growth of Man
Minister: Pastor David Kilanko
The expectation of Heaven is not just for us to tick the box that says, “Yes, Sunday School was done, and Spiritual growth was taught,” but to show how much application to life you have evidenced and how much attention you have given to your spiritual growth, because the expectation of God is for everyone to grow. Being a babe is a state, and it becomes a transgression when one doesn’t want to grow. Heaven expects that our priorities would change, that our desire for things that pass away would change as we grow. The directional growth of man is Godward and not upward because there is a prince of the power of the air that doesn’t want us to come up.
(1 Pet 2:2) “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby…”
(1 Cor 14:20) “Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men”
Being a child does not mean you don’t have sense; it shows you are innocent of malice. As Christians, we need to be innocent of malice. It takes time, suffering, and submission to spiritual authority for us to grow spiritually.
Man’s Need for Growth.
The Earth is designed for things to grow. Growth is a natural process that is meant to happen upon the earth; it is responding to an everlasting law upon the earth. It is a natural process on Earth. Every living thing on earth has the natural ordinance to grow, but what makes man different is that he can grow in his body and also in his soul till he comes into God.
The only being who is expected to arrive at God is man. Man is privileged for this ordination to change. No man is a free thinker; every man is influenced and indoctrinated by something. We should only make sure that what is indoctrinating us is the right doctrine.
(Gen 1:27-28) “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”
What holds the dominion that man had was the glory of God that God crowned him with. What God expected Adam to do in the garden was to continually feed on the trees of the garden till he could grow into a stage where he could partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life. Partaking of this tree would also mean he has grown to a stage where he could no longer die.
Dominion was tied to glory, and man ruled because he carried God’s glory. However, when man fell, he fell short of this glory because sin and death began to reign (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:14). When a man is without strength, it means he has no knowledge of God. A natural man cannot receive the things of God because they are foolishness unto him, and these things of God need to be spiritually discerned. Now, people are going beyond the natural and going into artificial intelligence. An artificial man won’t be able to see the things of God. Satan’s plan is to make man completely useless to God.
One can’t compare creation to formation. Creation is when one gives his/ her life to Christ; one’s spirit was created that day but formation is the work done in one’s soul. Formation is much more important and higher than creation in the realm of the spirit. What God trusts is formation and what God is expecting is that Christ be formed in you. Galatians 4:19 “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…”. Being born again doesn’t equate to growth but the work that was done.
What man should dominate is now what makes man’s heart permutate, and it is a sign that something is wrong. (Genesis 9:1) “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” God wanted to begin again, but he was beginning again with people who had dead spirits, even though they were able to trap a degree of life in their souls; their spirit was dead. When God created the first man, He said, “Subdue the earth, have dominion, but for others, God said, ‘ Be fruitful and multiply.” What God wants to do is to restore man to the original estate of dominion. The definition of life, or how life is measured, is by the abundance of earthly possessions. However, God is taking us to a place where neither abundance nor lack defines us.
One thing we should never do is to joke with Satan because his plan is destruction. He stole glory and dominion. Still not satisfied, he wants to kill and then finally destroy. The story of man is how he was supposed to dominate, but instead he became grass (1st Peter 1:24).
Christ: The Restorer of Directional Growth
The meaning of spiritual growth is growing up to God. A man can become a benchmark for a trait like wickedness, e.g., Jezebel. The coming of Jesus set up the right direction for man’s growth back to God (Hebrews 2 9-10; Colossians 2:19). Jesus, in his lifetime, did not look like someone who had dominion to a normal man, but he lived a full life of how dominion should be lived.
The Meals for our Growth and Development
Milk Stage: What is given to babes is milk, which is the foundation of spiritual childhood, 1st Peter 2:2; 1st Corinthians 3:1-2. The milk of the word makes a man full of wisdom, full of the Holy Ghost, and has an honest report. Just as babies begin with milk, spiritual babies begin with spiritual doctrine.
Milk should develop the following in a believer:
- Fellowship in the spirit: We should daily meditate on the word continually. Meditation should be our life; meditation should be able to train us to wait on the word of God. Fellowship in the spirit should be steadfast in us when we drink good milk.
- Prayer: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” –2nd Timothy 3:15. Someone who drinks good milk will love reading the Bible and pray continually. Jesus, in the days of his flesh, was constantly praying. His life was a life of prayer. As believers, we should prioritize the things of the spirit.
- God wants us to be weighty and grounded. He wants us to have content so we won’t be tossed to and fro.
In conclusion, a healthy milk child is recognized by healthy spiritual habits. He is intentional, Christ-centered, spirit-led, and word-rooted.
Round Off by Pastor Charles Onuoha
The church is more of a school, a place of learning. We come to church to learn about Jesus, and when you learn about Jesus, you learn about God. God is an embodiment of dominion, and there is no way one will learn God and not dominate.
Satan gave us work as men by thinking on things that are not heavenly so that he can continue to rule. God wants us to learn about Him, but you cannot learn about God without learning about Jesus. God gave Jesus dominion for man. We have a lot of work going on in our minds, which is because of Satan, and this is because he wants to rule and dominate. Satan can’t dominate without man.
There is a need for milk. A believer won’t grow properly when he lacks milk. Some people spend many hours praying for things that can pass away, but God’s intention for man is to pray for things that will never pass away, and that would make us come into dominion. We can pray all the time as believers, and one of our prayers is for our eyes to be enlightened. When we walk in the will of God, that means we are walking in dominion. We must continually give ourselves to that which would make us walk in dominion.
MESSAGE ENDS