Before we actually understand on how to grow Spiritually, let’s dig a little deeper on why we need to be aware of our Spiritual being. We are flesh but also Spiritual beings. It is also important to start from where it all began. Definitely, for some of us it is like a revision but for some of us, it’s all new. While I was preparing for this message, God placed in my heart about growing spiritually healthy. Why is it important? Let’s look at it.
When God made man, He made Him a spiritual being. He made him in Body, Soul and Spirit. As we may have heard of the sin that entered mankind not only destroyed man in body, mind but also destroyed or devoured his spirit.
When no bush of the field[a] was yet in the land[b] and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist[c] was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2: 5 -9
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[d] of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2: 15 – 17.
However, after all the instructions given and having a deeper communion with God, man fell for the temptation. He was not able to communicate with God further on as He was used to.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[d] 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3: 8 – 13
So we see a hopeless situation, man died spiritually. So when we are dead in our Spirit, why are we talking about growing Spiritually healthy?
The reason is that Jesus wanted to restore our Spirit back into life. So that we have the same access to God, just as it was intended to be. How did He do that? There’s a beautiful instance in the Bible where Jesus speaks to a lady whom he meets at the well. He strikes a conversation about living water.
There are many such events in the bible which speaks about Jesus coming to give us a new spirit and to give life to us. Let us begin with one of such scripture about a Samaritan Woman and Jesus
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.[a]
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[b] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” John 4: 5 – 26
A little background about the Samaritans:
During the ministry of Jesus there was contact with a group of people known as the Samaritans. The Samaritans were half-Jew, half-Gentile. The race came about after the Assyrian captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. Certain people from the nation of Israel stayed behind. These people intermarried with the Assyrians producing the Samaritans.
They Had No Dealings With The Jews
We are told that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.
Why is that information important to us is because, we too like the Samaritan woman do not belong and Jesus is interested in getting us acquainted with a God who cares to give me a new life. A God who is interested in my Spiritual being so that I can connect and communicate with Him. I will have hope for an eternal future with Him.
Jesus addresses the vacuum in her heart. She is thirsty and so she is seeking it from different ways and means. But Jesus says a day will come when you will be filled with the living water. This water will fill you up and you will worship God once again. You will not be dead in your spirit but will have living water within you. You will worship God through a living Spirit. You will have communion with God again.
We were dead but with the resurrection power of Jesus Christ we have a living Spirit only if we acknowledge that Jesus has died to give me a living Spirit of God. It connects with God and enables us to communicate with Him once again. How do we say that so confidently is through the following dialogue that Jesus does with a man called Nicodemus.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.[c] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You[d] must be born again.’ 8 The wind[e] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you[f] do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.[g] 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.[h]
For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world,[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John 3: 1 – 18
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as[f] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39
When Jesus began the conversation with the woman at the well, she did not know [perceive] what the gift of living water really was (and still is). When Jesus first mentioned living water to her (John 4:10), she thought of living water only in the physical, flowing sense (John 4:11). Moments later in the conversation, Jesus helped her to think of living water in the spiritual sense. In John 4:13, Jesus said (referring to the physical well water), “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again.” Jesus then explained the spiritual benefits of living water. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
When Jesus described the spiritual meaning of living water — perpetual, life-giving power that springs up to eternal life (John 4:14) — the woman then expressed her desire to have that living water. She said, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” (John 4:15).
Now the first question to ask ourselves here is that do we have a living Spirit or are we yet dead in our spirit, trying to thirst after different things that will give us momentary satisfaction and contentment but will not revive our dead spirit? Can we claim confidently that I have a living Spirit of God?
Once we are sure of this fact then we move on to understand whether my spirit is healthy or am I just surviving, or starving my new born Spiritual being, by assuming that I am doing well and so is my spirit.
Illustration:
One of the interesting events of parenting is child check-ups.
This is where you take your child in the doctor and they measure the height, weight, and head size of your child.
Then they plot everything out on a handy little chart that shows you “average healthy” growth and where your child falls in comparison.
The purpose of child-check ups and this handy chart is to give you bragging rights if your kid is above average and an anxiety attack if they are below.
If your kid is taller than average at 6 months old they are obviously going to be a basketball player.
If they have a big head they must be smart.
If they are below average you discuss whose side of the family those faulty genes come from.
In reality the point of the check-up and chart is to see if the growth of your child is progressing and if there are any areas of concern.
Scripture describes the new believer as a baby.
The expectation is that this baby will experience consistent growth and eventually become an adult.
Scripture provides the child of God with check-ups and standards with which to measure growth.
Failure to grow past the baby stage and into maturity indicates that something is wrong.
Likewise we need to take a Spiritual health Check up very seriously?
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,[a] serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.[b] Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honourable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it[c] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12: 9 – 21
Take a Diagnostic Exam (Romans 12:9-21)
- Am I increasing in my love of God? (v.9, 11, 12)
- Am I increasing in my hatred of sin? (v.9)
- Am I increasing in holy living? (v.9)
- Am I increasing in my love of others? (v.10,14-18)
- Am I increasing in the fruits of God’s Spirit? (v.12, 21)
- Am I increasing in generosity to God & others? (v.13,21)
- Am I increasing in forgiveness? (v.18-20)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5: 22 – 26
Sandra wife of Virjil, The Renewed Hope Community is situated in the heart of the city between Old and New Panvel. We can confidently share that Renewed Hope Community is a Church in Kamothe, Church in Khandeshwar, Church in Khanda Colony, Church in Karanjade, Church in Panvel, Church in New Panvel, Church in Karanjade because we are centrally located and these places surround our church Venue.
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