AND THE GREW (2)

              Good morning dear reader. I hope you had a wonderful and peaceful night rest. I welcome you to a blissful Wednesday morning. For those visiting this blog for the first time and our constant visitors, I welcome you to Epiritus Koinonia blog, a blog where our desire is to bring you into a closer intimate relationship with the Godhead through Holy Spirit inspired write-ups. I also appreciate everyone of my readers for their constant visits, support, encouragement, constructive criticism and for sharing these posts to their loved ones, friends and enemies on their social network in their country. God bless you all.
  Luke 1:80
  
80

KJV:And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel
       In the part 1 of this series, we looked at amongst other things some basic principles to follow if you desire spiritual growth. I want to quickly say that our heavenly father absolutely desires our positive growth in all areas of our lives. One of the reasons why we have a lot of baby Christians and stunted growth in the body of Christ is because a lot of believers still want to be spoon fed, they are too lazy to sit down, study, learn and implement the spiritual truths in scriptures. I always tell people growth in the spirit isn't reserved for a select few. The formula to spiritual growth is this
    Hearing or seeing + believing + pursuing = getting
        Many of us are familiar with the story of Late Archbishop Benson Idahosa who heard his pastor preach that God could use a man to raise a dead person back to life. On hearing that God could use him to raise a dead person back to life even though he was a new convert and not yet a pastor. After the church service he rode on his bicycle cycling the streets of Benin looking for a dead person to raise back to life. As the story goes, he came across a family that had a dying child, he told them that that wasn't the case scenario he was looking for. He was looking for an already dead person. So he continued searching until he came across a home that had just lost their daughter. He went in there prayed for the girl and she came back to life. Do you believe what you heard or what God has shown you?, Do you believe it so much so that you are pursuing it or ready to act upon it immediately ?
       Let's treat the remaining basic known secrets to spiritual growth.
2. Honour :
             Scripture says to give honour to whom honour is due. The pentecostals are very good at this even though some take it to the extreme as is always the case with humans. You see someone who has evidently grown-up spiritually to the level you desire by virtue of the fruits he bears. Instead of you to respect such a person, draw close to the person, seek advice and counsel from him/her, you will allow familiarity ruin your life. I too know this person na, I even know am reach house. Abeg if I meet am now, e get as e go be. Meanwhile other people are enjoying the blessings God is using that person to do in their lives while you are dying in silence. Scripture tells us that Jesus couldn't do much miracles in his home town because of their unbelief. But the question is what led to their unbelief?, Familiarity is what led to it. As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt or in pidgin, na see finish dey cause this one. Hear me sir, hear me ma, that person maybe your father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunty, husband, wife, fiancé, fiancée, best friend, cousin. If you have seen the level of spiritual growth that you desire in a such a person. Humble yourself enough to learn from that person. Scripture says he who recieves a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive the blessings of a prophet.
          Can I tell you the truth, there is no level of spiritual growth that you desire that a man/woman hasn't gotten to. If you think otherwise it means you are just being proud and foolish. Isaac newton once said, " I have gone this far because I have stood on the shoulders of those who have gone before me". Pastor Mrs Faith Oyedepo once said "The secret of men are in their stories". What does that mean ?, when you see a man or woman carrying the level of grace you desire to work in your live at work in theirs. You draw as close as you can to them to hear their stories and understand what sacrifices they had to pay to get to where they are.
3. Fasting and prayers
           As difficult, tiriing and painful as this truth is, you can't grow spiritually without having periodic fasts. Most Christians dislike or even hate fasting that is why they can't grow. From scripture we see that even Jesus fasted (remember the forty days and night fasting ). Bishop David Oyedepo once said he fasted all through the year 1985 before he began ministry. Kenneth Copeland fasts every first thirty days of the year. I could go on and on. Father Mbaka fasted to the point where he had to crawl on the altar. David yonggi cho fasted to a point where he was vomiting blood. Can I talk to you sir, can I talk to you ma, if you desire spiritual growth make fasting a habit. Never let a week go by without fasting. But don't take fasting to an extreme or see it as the main thing for spiritual growth. In my next series, we will be looking at "THE ANCIENT PATH". In that series hopefully, we will look at the role fasting plays in our spiritual life. I trust you will be blessed by that series.
         I hope you have been blessed by today's write-up. Please leave your comments or questions on the comment box and share this post if you have been truly blessed. Like our Facebook page Espiritus Koinonia. The world is dire need of the word of God. Join us spread the Word by sharing this post. Join us on Friday as we treat all the remaining secrets to spiritual growth. God bless you and do have a wonderful, fruitful and exciting week and day. Shalom