A Barometer for Our Spiritual Growth

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, February 2nd. Are you growing as a Christian?

How can you tell? Today's podcast offers a barometer for your spiritual growth. Second Peter beginning in this third chapter, he says, Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, that is the coming of the Lord, the end of the world and the destruction of the earth, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.

Look at that. He says until the Lord comes, until these things take place, we should be living in such a fashion that we would be found by the Lord when He comes in peace. That is peace with ourselves, peace with Him, peace with others, spotless and blameless. That is, as best we know how, walking obediently before God, living a holy life. He says, And regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of those things that sometimes are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, they misuse what Paul was saying, as they do also the rest of scriptures to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, that this is how they do it. Be on your guard, lest being carried away by the air of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness. That is why growth is so important. It is a protection, we understand the things of God. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

How in the world do I know whether I'm growing or not? Well, naturally, I think some of the things that I would give you would certainly be from my own experience. And I can tell you that I've failed enough times to be able to know at least something about when I'm moving ahead and when I'm not moving ahead. And all of us have our setbacks. And if we didn't, then we would not understand what the Christian life is all about. It is in our failures we usually learn the most about God. It is in our failures we learn how He operates. It's in our failures that we learn what His love is all about. If you and I lived an absolutely obedient life, moment by moment, every day, what we'd soon be doing is taking credit for it.

But it's in our failure we look to Him and think, God, I want to thank You for Your forgiveness, so unworthy, so weak, so frail, thank You for loving me in spite of me. Well, how do we know how we are growing? So let me give you some of these. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to state them. They're brief.

And I don't have time to explain all of them because there's quite a number of them. And as I said before, this doesn't mean that all these things have to be true to see whether you're growing or not. But there are enough things that I know are evidences of a person's spiritual growth. So I'm going to give them to you slowly enough so that you have time to say, Lord, is that true of me? Now, you may want to put a check or X mark or you may not put anything down. But at least in your mind, be honest enough to say yes, no, sort of God, if you want to give yourself a little break. All right, let's start with the first one. The first one is this. And I call this a barometer for spiritual growth.

This is how I can sort of see where I am. Number one, we have a growing hunger to know God. If I'm growing in my spiritual walk of the Lord, I'm going to have a growing hunger to know Him.

I am not going to be satisfied with how much I know about Him or my relationship to Him. There's an increasing growing hunger. That is, I want to know more and I want to know more and I want to know more. Secondly, we have an ever-increasing desire to know the truth of God's word. If I'm really growing in the Lord, then I want to know what He says about everything. I want to know what He says about my relationships to others. I want to know what He says about the church. I want to know what He says about my finances. I want to know what He says about love.

I want to know what He says about anger. I want to know what God says about everything I possibly can. Number three, we are becoming increasingly aware of our sinfulness, our weaknesses, and the grace of God. If I'm really growing in my relationship to Him, I'm going to be increasingly aware of my sinfulness. Now that doesn't mean, poor me, sinful, wicked, vile. But it means, listen, if I'm growing in my relationship to Him, it's going to take less and less for God to convict me of.

And you see, when you first became a believer, there were things in your life and my life that we never even thought about being a problem. And so as you and I learn to grow in our Christian life, what happens is we become more and more aware of our weaknesses. A person who is not aware of their weaknesses is headed for danger. A person who's not aware of the potential they have to sin is in danger. But while I'm also aware of my sinfulness and my weaknesses, thank God, I'm also, listen, the sinfulness and the weaknesses over on this side, the grace of God over here. And this is what keeps us balanced and keeping us from condemning ourselves when we do fail.

We understand that the grace of God is there because God knows we are children learning to walk, learning to run, learning to be stable in our walk with Him. Next, if we are growing in the Lord, we are responding to sin quickly involving genuine repentance. If I am not growing in my relationship to Him, I will put off dealing with sin. One of the evidences that I am not growing in my relationship to the Lord is that I will let sin go and go and go before I, I may just say, Lord, I want you to forgive me in Jesus' name.

No, I'm not perfect. Father, please help me through this. But if I'm really and truly growing in the Lord, I'm not going to tolerate that. I'm going to deal with that.

And if I find myself putting up with anything in my life and just letting it go for some reason, I know that I am not growing in that period of time. As we said today, now watch this, that is when God says this in your life, you've got to deal with. When I come to that and I say I'm not going to deal with that, I believe that is as far as you can grow in your spiritual life. You can't get around it.

You can't get over it. You can't get under it because why is God going to enrich you more deeply, give you greater understanding when you will not do what He says do? He says don't cast your pearl before a swine.

That is, for example, if I knew that somebody was just absolutely going to reject it and turn it down and make jokes out of it, He says don't even lay it there. God is not going to keep enriching us and deepening us in the things of God when He knows that when He said this is what I want you to do and we say no, I'm not going to do that. The next one, if we're growing in the Lord, we are relying more and more on the Holy Spirit to work in and through us. One of the evidences of spiritual growth is the awareness of our inadequacy and His total adequacy to see us through and in every situation in life. So what I find is if I am really and truly growing in the Lord and in a spiritual time of growth, I will not worry about as many things as I would normally worry about.

I will not be as concerned. I won't be able to accept and to trust the Lord and know that He will see me through and enable me. And one of the best ways to learn how God will enable us is when God throws us into something that we absolutely can't swim our way out of without the Holy Spirit. You and I will never know what He will do in our life until He throws us into situations where we are helpless. And so what happens is one of the evidences of our growth is that we are learning to rely more and more on the power of the Holy Spirit and less and less on ourselves.

The next one, our spiritual battles are becoming more intense and yet we are still rejoicing. I believe this is one of the evidences of growing spiritually that as you and I grow in our life, God is going to oftentimes allow the battles we face, the temptations, the difficulties to become more intense because He is in the process of growing us up. How does He grow our faith? He grows our faith by throwing us into situations, allowing situations to exist that cause us, that test our capacity to believe Him. And when you and I are going through these things and the battles do increase and the trials are becoming more intense and the fire does get a little hotter, the waters get a little deeper, we know deep down inside if these things are happening, that means we are further along than where we used to be. If the battle's getting worse, it means that God has brought you through something less than that before. And what He's on His way to doing is moving us and growing us up.

So it is an evidence of our growth. Next one, we are viewing trials and temptations as opportunities for growth. And I think this is a sure sign of spiritual growth. When you and I can look at the trials, the temptations, and say, Lord, here's another opportunity for you to do something in my life that you've not done before. And if I'm saying, well, Lord, this is going to be tough and this is painful, but here's another opportunity for you to teach me something about yourself that I do not know. Here's an opportunity for me to learn something about you, I probably wouldn't have learned any other way. Here's another opportunity for God for you to bless me in a way you couldn't bless me unless in the midst of the battle.

God, here's an opportunity for you to pour out your blessing upon me that normally would not come if I were not facing this difficulty in hardship. One of the evidences of growth is I can see these things as opportunities of growth. Then we are viewing service for Him as a high honor rather than a burden. If I'm growing in the Lord, then I want to serve Him. If I'm growing, one of the ways I'll know I'm growing is I'm not complaining about what I'm doing.

But rather I'm rejoicing in it. And so when He says, when we say that it is a high honor rather than a burden, that is an evidence of our spiritual growth, that we want to do more and more, not because it's what we do, but God, whatever you want to do in my life and through my life, I'm available to do it. Then, of course, we are viewing everything that comes our way, both blessings and trials as from Him. I believe this is one of the great evidences of spiritual growth, that we come to the place of trust in our Lord. One of the ways of God is that God is in control of everything that touches us.

And if I see it from His viewpoint, then I have to see it as something that He allows, that He knows He's going to turn for my good. Then, our faith is growing stronger. When you and I are growing in the Lord, our faith is going to grow stronger because, listen, what He does, He tests us, He puts us in situations and circumstances that force us to trust Him because we don't have any other outlet. And the truth is, Paul said, the just shall live by faith. We walk by faith. We make decisions by faith. We get up in the morning by faith. Our life is a life of faith. We trust the Lord. One of the evidences that we're growing is, listen, that we're able to trust Him, listen, in more difficult situations, but also trust Him for bigger things. One of the evidences of our faith is that we can ask God for bigger things and believe Him for them and watch Him do them. If you're still asking God for fifteen cents' worth, when God wants you to ask Him for ten dollars' worth, then something's wrong with your faith. God is honored by the size of our request.

You don't forget that. He is honored by the size of our request. And therefore, one of the evidences I'm growing is that I'm asking for bigger and better things. Again, our decision to obey Him becomes more important while sin is less and less attractive to us. One of the ways that I know I'm growing in the Lord is my decision, my desire to obey Him is far more attractive to me than what sin has to offer. Being obedient to Him is far more attractive in the blessings that God gives in whatever sin has to offer. And I think this is a sign of spiritual growth in anyone else's life, that things that used to appeal to you, things that used to attract your attention, things that demanded, grabbed your time, those things have less and less importance in your life.

Walking in obedience to God has more importance. Likewise, we, when we are growing in our Lord, we are eager to share with others what Christ is doing in our life, eager to share with someone else. One of the signs that you're growing in the Lord is you can't keep quiet about it. When someone never talks about the Lord, keeps it quiet to themselves, God's working in your life and you never tell anybody, there's something that just doesn't fit there.

Because you see, if you're excited about something, you're going to talk about it. God answers your prayer, you want to tell somebody. One of the evidences of our growing in the Lord is we have a love and concern for other people.

We care about other people. And you remember Jesus said, by this you'll all may know that you're my disciples, that you have loved one toward another. If I get selfish and self-centered and introverted, then I know that I'm not growing in the Lord. And if you get to feeling that way and feeling selfish, the best thing to do is to find somebody you can do something for. You may not even feel like it.

Do it and God will change your feeling. One of the evidences of our spiritual growth is, listen, that we're becoming more and more like our Lord. One of the evidences of our Lord is that He was always giving Himself away to someone else. Then we are delighted to give to the Lord's work and searching for more ways to give to Him. One of the evidences of a person's giving is what happens to their pocketbook. If I'm growing in the Lord, I'm going to keep on giving and I'm going to look for ways to give God more.

Why? Because it is an expression of my trust and an expression of my love and expression of my devotion, expression of my gratitude and thanksgiving to Him for what He's done for me. And I do believe if I'm growing in the Lord, I'm going to be giving to Him and looking for ways to give even more. Again, when we're growing with Him, we are experiencing an ever-increasing awareness of His presence in every area of our life. And this is why I believe when Paul said, watch and pray, praying always, he meant exactly what he said.

Because you see, the truth is, you and I should live in the awareness of His presence all the time. That's what a holy life is all about. That's what a godly life is about.

A holy life is one in which the person is living in the continuing awareness of the presence of God in their life. So that there's no such thing as a decision without Him. There's no such thing as thinking in terms of life in any aspect without Him, whether it's finances, your business, your relationships, whatever it may be, your schooling, whatever. Every single thing, any purchase, God, what would you have me to do? And oftentimes we do a lot of things and we never even think about God being interested in it. God is interested in every single facet of your life.

You know why? Because you don't belong to you. You belong to Him.

We are His blood-bought purchased possessions. And therefore, He is genuinely interested in everything that deals with your life and mine, every single one of us. Well, also, our private devotional life will be the priority of our life. I do believe that this is one of the evidences of a person growing in their spiritual walk. And that is, one of the evidences is that their private devotion, that is their time of meditation and being quiet, that's the priority of their life. And you see, that is the most important part of your day and mine is the time we spend alone with Him, getting our sense of direction, getting our sense of assurance, asking the Lord to guide us moment by moment throughout the day, every decision we're going to face, the priority of our life is our time alone with Him.

That's the compass. You see, that's what sets the speed for the day. I believe when you're growing in the Lord, you're going to guard that time. Then we're becoming more content, listen, more and more content to spend more time alone with Him. It is the most precious time when you learn to sit and be quiet, lie before Him and be quiet, and just let God do the speaking, and just let God guide your thoughts. And what I will do sometimes is to say, now Lord, I don't want to say anything, I just want the Holy Spirit to guide my thinking. I want to think whatever you're thinking and you want me to think.

I want to see things from your perspective. And sometimes I don't have to say anything. And sometimes I will say, I will express my feelings or my petitions or cry out to Him for whatever may be burdening my heart at the time. And I think one of the wisest things you and I can do is spend some time by ourself with Him every day, just a little time.

Just being quiet and being alone with Him. And see, one of the signs I think that you and I are spiritually growing is the fact that we can be content. We can be satisfied and we can be happy being alone with the Lord.

We don't have to have the TV, the radio, somebody calling. We can be silently alone with Him and be content. When you and I are growing in the Lord, we'll be more and more content to be alone with Him. And then our decisions will be sifted through the grid of God's will for our life. I'm simply saying this, when you and I are growing in the Lord, every decision.

Listen, the more and more you and I are growing in Him, we're going to send every decision between the grid of God's will. God, what's your will about this? What pleases you?

What honors you? What will bring you the most glory? What would you have me to do with this? You see, when you and I are growing in the Lord, we're not going to make decisions apart from Him. Lord, what do you want?

God, what would you have me to do in this situation? But one of the evidences of our growth is that we are going to be sending everything, most things. They will be an increasing number of little things that you used to make decisions on your own.

You'll spend more, listen, you'll send more of those things to the grid of Father, what's your will? And then we will have an increasing awareness of God's love for us. One of the signs of our spiritual growth is our awareness of how much God loves us because here's what's happening, when you and I become more and more aware of God's love for us, it means, it says something about the intimacy of our relationship. It says something about our understanding of Him. It says something about our ability and capacity to receive and to enjoy the love of God.

And then I would just say one last one and there are many other things I could say. When you and I are growing in the Lord, Jesus Christ will be the primary focus of our life. I mean He's number one, morning, noon, and night.

It is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in every single aspect of our life. Now I want to encourage you, please don't take that sheet, fold it up and stick it in a drawer somewhere. That won't do you a bit of good.

But if you'll take it out, check up on yourself. You'll find yourself growing in your relationship to Jesus Christ. Amen? Father, we love You and thank You again for being patient with us and seeing us as children. But thank You that You see us as we are, but You also see us as we shall be. And so we just ask that the Holy Spirit would take these simple truths, apply them to our hearts, increase our love and devotion, and then our service to You is my prayer. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to A Barometer for Our Spiritual Growth. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by In Touch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.