SPIRITUAL GROWTH

God wants you to spiritually grow in your Christian faith.

HOW TO KNOW YOU ARE GROWING SPIRITUALLY. 

We all want to grow in our Christian faith. A short list of spiritual growth benchmarks includes the following:

You quickly identify and repent from your sins.

First, you become increasingly aware of your sinfulness and weakness. You become more sensitive to when you sin and your weaknesses to certain temptations. At the same time, you depend on God-the Holy Spirit to help you withstand temptations to sin so that you sin less often. The temptation to sin comes from your own lust (James 1:14), the devil (Matthew 4:1), and the world system organized under Satan’s authority (1 John 5:19). Although God does not promise to rescue you from all temptations, God limits them and provides a way of escape so you can endure without yielding to sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). Whenever you experience temptation, draw near in submission to God and resist the devil (James 4:7-8). Then ask God for the grace and strength to stand firm against sin. If you wait on God and trust in him, God acts on your behalf and benefit (Isaiah 64:4).

Second, you respond to sin with quick repentance. When you fail to deal with sin, you rebel against God. Christians that grow spiritually turn away from wrongdoing, embrace God’s standard of righteousness, and experience God’s forgiveness and cleansing of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-10). As you begin to see the good results of dependence on God- the Holy Spirit and repenting from sinful behavior, your desire to obey God intensifies, and the attraction of sin decreases.

Third, you recognize the potential benefit of struggling with trials and temptations to sin. Faith is often developed through hardship. You will see your maturity in your relationship with God when you view trials and temptations as opportunities for spiritual growth, and not as being oppressed by God. Charles F. Stanley, In Touch Daily Readings for Devoted Living (Atlanta, GA: In Touch: June 2021), 26, 42.

God will transform your heart.

A major change in your life after you become a Christian is that God will transform you to be more like God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, so you can have an eternal relationship with God (Colossians 3:1-17).  Specifically, God will transform your heart. As Jesus said, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:45 NLT).  As God urged through wise King Solomon, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23 NIV).

How does God define the heart?

God refers to the heart more than 800 times in the Bible. The heart is “the inner self that thinks, feels, and decides. In the Bible the word ‘heart’ has a much broader meaning than it does to the modern mind. The heart is that which is central to a person. Nearly all the references to the heart in the Bible refer to some aspect of human personality.” Ronald F. Youngblood, F.F. Bruce, R.K. Harrison, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995).

God will transform your heart. Image from LightUpNations.org.

In the Bible, all feelings and emotions are experienced and processed or buried by the heart: love and hate (Psalm 105:25; 1 Peter 1:22); joy, sorrow, and gladness (1 Kings 8:66; Psalm 19:8; Ecclesiastes 2:10; John 16:6); peace and bitterness (Proverbs 14:10; Ezekiel 27:31; Colossians 3:15); courage and fear (Genesis 42:28; Amos 2:16); panic (Joshua 2:11); stricken with pain (Psalm 109:22); and brokenness (Psalm 34:18).

Your mind is where your thinking processes are also carried out by the heart. This intellectual activity includes the rational, scientific, and calculating part of your personality. Thus, the heart may think (Esther 6:6), understand (Job 38:36), imagine (Jeremiah 9:14), remember and reflect (Deuteronomy 4:9; Luke 2:19, 51), be wise (Proverbs 2:10), speak to itself (Deuteronomy 7:17), discern (1 Kings 3:9), meditate (Psalm 19: 14, 77:6), and plan (Proverbs 16:1). You also make decisions and choices with your heart. Purpose (Acts 11:23), intention (Hebrews. 4:12), will (Ephesians 6:6), stubbornness (Jeremiah 9:14), waywardness (1 Kings 11:3-3), devotion (Deuteronomy 30:10), resolution (Acts 11:23), and belief (Romans 10:10) are all activities of the heart.

Finally, the heart often means your true character or personality, purity or evil (Jeremiah 3:17; Matthew 5:8), sincerity or hardness (Exodus 4:21; Colossians 3:22), and maturity or rebelliousness (Psalm 101:2; Jeremiah 5:23). Your most important duty is to love God with your whole heart (Matthew 22:37). With your heart, you believe in Christ and experience both love from God and the presence of Christ your heart (Romans 5:5, 10:9–10; Ephesians 3:17).

Len Woods, The Transformed Heart pamphlet (Peabody, MA: Rose Publishing, 2017); Youngblood, Bruce, Harrison, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Signs of a transformed heart.

If you have a relationship with God, God transforms your heart so that your relationship with God will develop and grow in the following ways.

Belief: To rely on God’s power to fight the temptation to doubt in your heart (Mark 11:23).

Broken and contrite: To realize and admit that you have disobeyed God, but God will not despise you (Psalm 51:17).

Changed: To have a change of heart produced by the Holy Spirit that willingly seeks to obey God and praise from God, and not seek praise from people (Romans 2:29).

Committed: To commit to do whatever God says with all your heart and soul regardless of feelings, the situation, or consequences (2 Chronicles 34:31).

Confident and steadfast:  To have a confident and steadfast heart in God’s great love of you and faithfulness to you (Psalm 57:7, 10).

Delighted: To be delighted in God that he will give you the desires of your heart that are within God’s will and purpose for you (Psalm 37:4).

Devoted: To devote yourself fully to God, to live according to God’s commands out of gratitude and not out of compulsion (1 Kings 8:61).

Enlightened: To have an enlightened heart that you are one of God’s holy people that knows the hope of the spiritual riches and glorious inheritance of an eternal relationship with God (Ephesians 1:18).

Examined: To invite God to search your heart for bad motives, wrong thoughts, and improper attitudes (Palm 17:3).

Fearless: To be confident that God is present and will protect you from anything that comes against you (Psalm 27:3, 14).

Forgiving: To genuinely forgive others from your heart with God’s help (Matthew 18:35).

Generous: To be willing and eager to share your resources for God’s purposes (Exodus 35:5).

Glad: To have a glad heart that rejoices in who God is and what God has done for you (Psalm 16:9).

God-fearing: To have a heart that fears God and keeps God’s commands with a healthy respect for God (Deuteronomy 5:29).

God-following: To know and follow God with all your heart and to do what is right in God’s eyes (1 Kings 14:8).

God-influenced:  To be open to what God put in your heart to do (Nehemiah 2:12).

God’s heart: To be a person after God’s heart that pleases God in every way (1 Samuel 13:14).

Good: To produce good things from the treasury of your good heart (Matthew 12:35).

Guarded: To monitor and protect the condition of your heart (Proverbs 4:23).

Happy: To have a happy and cheerful heart (Proverbs 15:13).

Honest: To hear God’s Word and hold it in an honest and good heart that produces spiritual fruit with patience (Luke 8:15).

Humble: To have a humble heart like Jesus that rests in Jesus and is modest about yourself, your abilities and accomplishments, and refuses to brag about the same and exalt yourself (Matthew 11:29).

Indwelt by Christ: To let Christ dwell in your heart through faith and be rooted and established in Christ (Ephesians 3:17).

Integrity: To have integrity in your heart and be ethical and trustworthy in all areas of life (Genesis 20:5).

Love and faithfulness: To let love and faithfulness always be written on your heart (Proverbs 3:3).

Loving: To love God with all your heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5).  To also love your neighbor as yourself, walk in the Holy Spirit, and bear fruit of the Spirit: love (to seek the highest good of others), joy (gladness not based on circumstances), peace (spiritual contentment and unity between people), patience (slow to anger and seek revenge), kindness (merciful, sweet and tender), goodness (generous and open-hearted), faithfulness (dependable, loyal, and full of trust), gentleness (humble, calm, non-threatening), and self-control (restrain emotions and actions to do God’s will) (Galatians 5:14, 22-23).

New: To have a new heart and spirit in you from God (Ezekiel 36:26).

Obedient: To obey God’s teaching from your heart (Romans 6:17).

On-course: To set your heart on the right path of God (Proverbs 23:19).

Peaceful: To not let your heart be troubled by and afraid of worldly difficulties (John 14:27).

Praying: To call out with your heart to God as you obey God’s commands (Psalm 119:145).

Prepared: To prepare your heart and stretch out your hands toward God (Job 11:13).

Pure: To have a pure heart that sees God and is morally clean and free from guilt (Matthew 5:8).

Rejoicing: To rejoice and be glad with all your heart and passionately celebrate the goodness and blessings of God (Zephaniah 3:14).

Searching: To continually investigate, seek, and search for God with all of your heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29).

Seeking: To seek God’s face and spiritual being (Psalm 27:8).

Serving: to serve God and others will all of your heart and soul (Deuteronomy 10:12).

Sincere: To be sincere, genuine, and devoted in your fellowship and worship of God (Acts 2:46).

Stirred-up: To have a stirred-up heart that is receptive and responsive to the promptings of God and the needs of others (2 Chronicles 36:22).

Teachable: To have a teachable heart that is open to accepting and obeying God’s instruction (Proverbs 4:4).

Tested: To have a tested heart that has gone through trials and has proven to be pure (Proverbs 17:3).

Thankful: To be grateful and appreciative for blessings from God (Psalm 9:1).

True: To stay true and faithful to God with a resolute heart (Acts 11:23).

Trusting: To trust God with all of your heart and not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

Undivided: To have an undivided heart that is fully committed to God and fears/respects God’s name (Psalm 86:11).

Unified: To be unified in one heart and mind with other Christians in the belief and trust in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:32).

Wise: To have a heart of wisdom that understands that human wisdom is inferior to God’s wisdom (Psalm 90:12).

Word-filled: To internalize God’s Word/Law that is written on your heart (Psalm 40:8).

Yielded: To yield your heart to God and to throw away or reject false gods (Joshua 24:23).

Woods, The Transformed Heart pamphlet.

All of these attributes describe your heart or true character. God knows the heart of each person (1 Samuel 16:7, Luke 16:7, 15; Romans 8:27; 1 Thessalonians 2:4). Since you speak and act from your heart, God urges you to guard your heart well (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:18-19).