Meeting: Sunday School
Date: 15 March, 2026
Message: Growing up Spiritually – What Does it Really Mean to Grow
Minister: Pastor David Kilanko
Last week, we saw that Spiritual growth is God’s original design for humanity. God provided meat to Adam that by it he shall eat and grow (Gen 1:29). Sin is not the reason man needed to grow. Before sin came into the picture, man had always had the need to grow. Man was supposed to grow and come into the fullness of God’s likeness.
Growth is not a response to sin. Sin only made growth more urgent and also made growth an answer/reason to overcoming the adversary. Every living thing that was created had the capacity to grow but only man had the capacity to grow into God’s life. The God who made Adam can never be tempted neither can He sin, so we can deduce that Adam did not yet have God’s life or divinity else he won’t have been tempted of the devil — “for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:” (James 1:13b). If Adam didn’t have the capacity to die, God would not have warned him about dying.
Only man has the capacity to grow into God’s life even though everything else can grow.
Man is essentially a spirit. Our body is our house. The true us is our spirit (1Thess. 5:23). Our understanding of this scripture is reflective of how we will see spiritual growth. What happened to Adam is that at his disobedience, his spirit died and his soul was being awakened to that same death. At new birth, man’s spirit is born again so the soul can learn the new life that is in the spirit. Believers are called to fully mature or grow until they come to the fullness of the very life in God.
The very life that is in God is eternal life. We are to grow to the attainment of that life; we didn’t get eternal life at new birth. It is until we can evidence the same thoughts and dispositions God has towards everyone and every situation, that is when we can say we have eternal life.
We really don’t know the what, and how to grow up spiritually. The more we grow in the spirit, the more we become more innocent to evil. The sign that we are growing up spiritually is that we become ignorant of evil.
(John 3:3) Nicodemus came with an understanding that Jesus wants to correct. To him, the performance of miracles meant approval of God. For us to talk about the kingdom of God, we must first be born again but being born again doesn’t mean we have grown. Many believers unknowingly equate being born again to spiritual growth. What becomes new when we got born again is our spirit (2 Cor. 5:17). Any man there is any spirit. This spirit is the new creature, not the entire man. The goal of God to regenerate our spirit is that our soul, having learnt what is in our spirit, will then translate the same learning to our body.
The soul of a new convert is a baby in Christ that has been called and expected to grow up spiritually. That soul that is a baby cannot be trusted yet. The soul that is a babe in Christ is still an old man that needs to be converted. This is why we can still respond to the things of Satan. We are to grow to the point where Satan finds nothing of himself in us. We need to get to that point in growth where all that Satan tries to stimulate us to sin does not work. Spiritual growth is deadness to satan’s stimuli and alive to God.
Prayer alone doesn’t also equate spiritual growth. It is just part of the components we need to make us grow. Obedience is what will truly make us grow. Prayer and the word are what moves us to do obedience. That we are glorying in the ability to pray long is a sign that we have not grown. Prayer helps us generate some strength for the days of temptation (Luke 18:1). It energises us, gives us sensitivity to hear God. But it doesn’t equal spiritual growth. If we pray well, there is hope that we will grow well. So, we must constantly be praying. We must not limit prayer to church, in our closet we must constantly be praying.
Service in the house of God also doesn’t equate spiritual growth. Our service is supposed to be a tool for salvation. The reason why we are serving is to become like Jesus. The business of the church is salvation and the product of salvation is the soul.
A sign of growth through service is that we become more patient, meek, humble, etc towards our unit members and others. All the unpleasant experiences we face while serving are meant to contribute to our being saved. We should always check and ask ourselves in service what exactly we are looking for? This is a purifier. This is also the heart of someone looking for salvation.
Being pious and moral also doesn’t equate spiritual growth. We are not to kick against these moral conducts and take it as an excuse to be unruly however we must understand that they don’t commend us to God (Acts 10:30-35). Where God wants to take every moral and pious person to is salvation. Every pious and moral person must still hear the word and give their life to Christ. What makes us saved is yielding ourselves to every work that is the result of the prompting of the spirit from within.
The milk is the first introduction that is given to a person who is a babe in Christ. It deals with the issue of carnality (1 Cor. 3:1-2). Carnality can be present with us yet gifts of the spirit will be thriving. The Corinthian church came behind in no gift yet they were carnal. Manifestation of gifts does not equate spiritual growth (2 Tim. 2:19).
When we start reducing in expressing envy and strife due to obedience to the spirit, we can say a babe in Christ is growing. There are signs of growth in the spirit just as there are signs in the natural of a baby growing.
The meat of the word, and the strong meat of the word are the next allocation of meals for spiritual growth, respectively. Without these gospels of the kingdom, it is not possible to raise a baby in Christ into Godhood.
Round up: Pastor Niyi Otunaike.
The whole essence of being in church and everything we do in church is for spiritual growth.
When we grow up spiritually, we will be able to let go of things. That idea of that’s how I am should not be accepted in the church. The brethren are not meant to accept us as who we are. We are meant to grow/change. We should not all point accusing fingers to our brethren’s shortcomings. As we focus on our growth, we are not supposed to be measuring each other’s growth but to be focused on ours. The reason we can’t relate well with brethren yet is because we have not grown.
The fact that service in church doesn’t equate spiritual growth is not an excuse for us not to be excellent at it. When we are handling a task in church, the spirit of excellence must be at work in us. We should take service in the house of God very seriously. We should serve with regard to God. This is a sign of spiritual growth.
THE END.