Three Levels of Spiritual Growth

1 Sam. 30:6 says, "...But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."  While David and his men were away from Ziklag, the Amalekites came into David's camp and burned it with fire, and took all the women and children captive.  David's men were greatly disturbed, so much that they spoke of stoning David.  In great distress, David turned to the Lord, and encouraged himself in the Lord.  David had no one else to turn to.  Everyone was discouraged.  Learning to encourage ourselves in the Lord shows a high level of spiritual maturity.  We don't start out this way in the Christian life.  We start as babes in Christ, and need to desire the pure milk of the word, 1 Pet. 2:2.   We can look at growth in our walk with God on three levels:  babies, children, and adults.  Babies need to be spoon fed.  They don't know how to feed themselves.  As new Christians we need to be fed by others.  We don't know what to read, what to pray, or what to do.  Babies sometimes spit out food they are not accustomed to.  As new Christians, we will hear things that we have never heard before, and we may reject things we don't understand.  But God wants us to grow through the babyhood stage, to become children.  Children can feed themselves, but they don't do the cooking.  The food has to be set out for them, and then they will eat.  As spiritual children, we need direction in our growth.  We need discipleship courses, and plans to follow so we can stay on track in our growth.  Children can be very picky when it comes to eating, and may complain a lot about the food.  As spiritual children, we may not like everything we hear from the word of God.  We may be very picky  in what we like to hear, and read.  We may not be ready for the meat of the word, 1 Cor. 3:2.  But God wants us to grow through the childhood stage, and into adulthood.  A responsible adult can both cook, and eat what he cooked.  He doesn't need someone to feed him everyday.  He can feed himself.  Likewise God wants us to learn to feed ourselves by reading, praying, and encouraging ourselves, even through the tough times.  A growing Christian can read the word, and pray, and hear God speaking to him, and find out for himself the will of God for his life.  This doesn't mean we don't need anyone else in our lives.  It means we have grown spiritually, so we can encourage ourselves, and we can encourage others.

Are you growing spiritually?