What Metrics Do You Use to Measure Your Spiritual Growth?
How do you really know you are growing as a believer?
There are very few experiences that are more ecstatic than the day you become a Father/Mother — when you carry your little bundle of joy in your hand, you're so excited about bringing a new life into the world, and then you have the experience of watching him grow.
When the new parents take their baby home, they cuddle him/her and take care of him/her. Their baby becomes their highest priority. However, if the child, after four months, still maintains the same weight and height that he had when he was born, then we know there's obviously a problem. Something has gone wrong.
It's really the same thing with God. When we become born again, we become God’s kids, but God doesn't expect us to be kids forever. He desires that we grow to become mature — spiritually mature, so that He can reveal more of Himself to us, show us more of His Glory and evidently manifest His Kingdom through us over and over again. But we can't do that unless we're matured believers. We can't do that unless we're grown. I mean, let's face it, it takes a special level of recklessness to give the keys to your car to your six-year-old to drive. He can't even drive it. His legs may not even get to the pedals. When he's sixteen, it is okay…but definitely not when he's six.
Paul rightly talks about this in 1 Corinthians 3:1–2 (NIV):
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
The big question, then, is how do I "measure" my spiritual growth? Because, let’s be honest, if you can’t measure progress how do you know you’re improving?
I’m very happy to tell you that the Bible is a complete book, and it gives us all the information we need to live a victorious life. The Bible has extensive information for us on how to measure our spiritual progress.
For you to be able to measure progress, you must have a goal. Without a goal, there is really nothing to measure. If my goal this year is to read 50 books, and I intend to read 5 books a month to achieve that goal…if, by June (the middle of the year), I’ve only read 12 books, I can measure my progress and see that I haven’t made as much progress as I need to. I need to buckle up. If my goal is just to "Read Books," reading 12 books by June doesn’t really mean anything. Without a goal, there’s no accurate way to measure progress.
The New Testament believer has two goals: the fulfillment of God’s specific plan for your life, and your conformation to the image of Christ. That should be the major priority of every believer.
The fulfillment of God’s plan
The call to Christianity is not just the call to eternal life, but the call to service. God doesn't save us so we can just play around and have fun, He wants us to do something for the promotion of His Kingdom on the earth, according to Matthew 6:33. There is something we have to do to move the Kingdom of God forward. Every single one of us has a role to play, and no one's role is insignificant. Everyone's role is important as far as God's kingdom is concerned.
For us to measure progress in line with our spiritual calling, we look at what the Bible says.
Now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:32, NIV)
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. (1 Peter 2:2, NIV)
The Bible says that our spiritual growth is a function of an increase in the knowledge of the word in our lives. Not just the letter knowledge of the word, as 2 Corinthians 3:6 puts it, but the spirit knowledge of the word, which is the revelation knowledge of the word.
Our growth in our knowledge of God’s word, especially in line with God’s spiritual calling over our life, is an indication of our spiritual growth. The problem with the letter knowledge of God’s word is that, although it informs us, it doesn’t empower us. It is the Spirit, the revelational ability behind the word that empowers us to birth tangible results that glorify God’s name, as Jesus rightly points out in John 6:63.
Your conformation to the image of God
In Ephesians 4:12-13 and Romans 8:29, the Bible makes it clear that it is God's desire that we be conformed to the image of Christ. In other words, it is God's will that we become more and more like Jesus Christ — in our thinking, in our speech, and in our relationship with people. People should look at you every day and see more of Christ in you. There should be something Christlike about your life that draws men to Christ.
The Bible says in Acts 11:26 (NIV):
So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
They weren't just called Christians. The people saw them to be Christlike and figured the best way to define them would be to call them Christians.
To be conformed to Christ's image means to gradually grow into His image — becoming as compassionate and loving as He was, as forgiving as He was, living life in such a way that men will see you and know you’re a Christian without you having to say much at all. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a gradual process. The Bible says, in Acts 4:13, that when the high priests saw the countenance and behavior of Peter and John, they concluded that they must have been with Jesus. They saw something Christlike about them.
The fact that we are becoming progressively Christlike is a sign that we are growing as Christians and as believers.
Conclusion
No earthly father would want his child to remain stunted after birth. In the same way, it is not God's desire that we be spiritually stunted after we become born again and experience new birth. If we are to genuinely grow as believers, we are to discover God’s plan for our lives and desire his word, — not just the letter, but the spirit…the revelation dimension of the word, especially in our area of service. And we are to grow in that knowledge progressively with clear physical proof.
We must also desire to consistently conform to the image of Christ Jesus to become more and more like Christ in our thinking, in our speech, and in our manner of conduct.
God's desire is that every one of His children should grow into the fullness He has desired for each and every one of us, and I pray that as you decide to use these two criteria as a yardstick to measure your spiritual growth, may He give you the grace to both desire and search diligently for knowledge from His word, and to keep progressively conforming to His image.
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