AND THE CHILD GREW (3)

             Good morning my dear reader. I believe you had a peaceful and sweet night rest. This morning is very cold and chill in this part of the world. I hope that whatever part of the world you are in, you have a more favourable weather than the one I am experiencing. Once again I welcome you to Espiritus Koikonia blog, a blog where our sole interest is bringing you into a closer, more intimate and better relationship or fellowship with the Godhead through Holy Spirit inspired write-ups. I appreciate all constant visitors to this blog, for allowing me to be a blessing to you and believing that I can also be a blessing to others through your sharing of these blogposts. May God continually bless you in Jesus name. Amen
            In the part 1 and 2 of this series ( if you haven't read it, please do so), we looked at the possibility of spiritual growth in our individual lives. We also highlighted seven basic known but ignored secrets to spiritual growth which are :
1. Quiet time
2. Honour
3. Prayer and fasting
4. Accountability
5. Practice / Exercise
6. Study
7. Press-on
      We have already treated quiet time, honour and prayer and fasting. This morning by God's grace will be treating the remaining four and I believe you will be blessed. If you haven't read the part 1 and 2 of this series, I encourage you to do so, if you have read it before you can also do so again, you will be doubly blessed.
   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.
4. ACCOUNTABILITY :
           Accountability simply means being answerable to someone. Giving reports to an elder or a superior, listening and following suggestions, instructions and guidance given by the elder or superior. Arrogance has made a lot of new or young generation Christians to ignore or avoid this principle. This in the christian circles is usually referred to as "spiritual fatherhood". Please note that your spiritual is different from your mentor. A mentor is someone you admire, you see qualities you hope to emulate and be like him/her. Your mentor may or may not know you. He/she could be older or younger than you are. While a spiritual father/mother is someone you admire the grace and anointing upon his/her life, you honour him/her, learn from him/her, seek his/her advice or counsel on a lot of issues, you submit yourself to his/her leadership, mentorship and TUTORSHIP. Personally, I don't think you pick who your spiritual father or mother is just as you don't pick who your biological father or mother is. I think its a divine relationship that God initiates and you just find out that both your souls have been knit together and you spiritually submit to the person's leadership. You should know your spiritual father and he/she should know you. Because he would pray for and with you on certain issues, he/she will have to guide you through certain decisions you would have to make in your life. He/she should be way older, more matured and better established than you are in spiritual things.
5. Practice/ Exercise:
         In sport before you run a race, you would have to keep on practicing the race before the D-day. Even in academics, you would have to read your books thoroughly before exams, if not such a student would fail woefully. So I begin to wonder why christians think that that same principle doesn't apply to spiritual things. Apostle Jsohua Selman once shared a story of how when he newly started out in the prophetic and persons came behind to close his eyes. He would try to see into the spirit realm and tell who the person was, the clothes he/she was wearing and it's colour. Now that's practice, you have been blessed and endowed with a gift, never be ashamed to manifest it. Fine you may make some mistakes, no problem, people may call you fake or a fraudster no problem. Don't let it bother you. Scripture says "strong meat belongs to those who by reason of use have exercised themselves". The truth is from this mistake you made, God will have dozen things to teach you. So my dear, step out and begin to manifest your gifts in faith if not the anointing of God upon your life will go stale.
6. Study :
          Well, alot of awareness on this has already been created in the body of Christ. So it is common now to hear Christians say, " I have read 10 books this month" and I am like that's good. I am happy for you, congrats. But did you study the book?, I mean, can you teach me from the depth of understanding you caught from the book?, most of them just look at me and tell me well I just enjoyed the book and I was blessed by it, it was really impactful, hmmm, hmmm. Well that's not the kind of response I want, I tell them. What is even most painful is that most can't even recall the books they read last month. By God's grace I can accurately tell you 99% of the books I have read, the authors and time frame in which I read, what message(s) they taught me of all the books I have read since 2012. Why?, because they left such an impact on me that I can't forget in a hurry. Do you desire spiritual growth?, go and study spiritual books by established and genuine men of God not books full of junks. Avoid books full of junk. Infact you need the Holy Spirit to tell you which book is and which isn't. Before we consider a book as junk, ask this very important question "does it contradict the teachings of scripture?", if the teaching is new to you but it agrees with scripture, go on a personal study about that teaching before concluding that it is filled with junks.
7. PRESS-ON:
      There maybe moments in your life where you feel weak, tired and spiritually lazy. Don't let it get to you. Quickly ask for grace to continue pressing. You may have moments of temporary quickness and wallowing in sin. Instead of allowing sin yo continue gripping you or guilt to grip you why not get over it and ask God for grace to move on. The devil will try to pin you to the ground but don't let Him. He is afraid of you that's why he is trying to pin you to the ground, to get you distracted and off-course. All great men of God have had challenges but makes them different is the never giving up spirit. Can I talk to you, please don't give up, don't loose hope and don't quit. Remember narrow is the gate that leads to life.
           I hope you have been blessed by today's write-up. Please leave your comments, questions and suggestions in the comment box and share this post, if you have been truly blessed. You can also write me on gmail anointedsaviour1@gmail.com Like our Facebook page Espiritus Koinonia. The world is in dire need of the word of God. Join us spread the word by sharing this blogpost. God bless you and do have a wonderful and fruitful day. Shalom!!