January 30, 2019
One thing is clear many Christians are spiritual babes.
To become the man or woman God designed us to be, we have to push ourselves past transformation (accepting Christ and being baptized) toward a life of godly service. We become obedient, and other people experience God through our lives.
The journey of learning and growth has four steps. An example of learning and growth is a child learning to tie their shoes.
Step 1. Unconscious-Incompetent. Early in life, a child is unconscious of the need to tie their shoes and incompetent to know how.
Step 2. Conscious-Incompetent. The individual is conscious of their parents tying their shoes and see others tie their own shoes. But, because of their lack of skill in shoe tying, they are incompetent to tie their shoes.
Step 3. Conscious-Competent. The individual is conscious of the need to tie his/her shoes and has, in reality, learns to tie their shoes. They are competent to tie their shoes.
Step 4. Unconscious-Competent. Tying shoes are automatic, unconscious, natural, and requires no thought.
Below I illustrate the journey of spiritual learning and growth.
THE FOUR STEPS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Step 1. Unconscious-Incompetent. The individual is unconscious of the need to be saved and incompetent to know what to do. Exposed to the Gospel, they choose to close their minds to the Truth.
Step 2. Conscious-Incompetent. The individual is conscious of a greater or lesser degree of his/her alienation from God. But, because of their shallowness of mind, they don’t concentrate on becoming right with God. So, they stay spiritually—incompetent.
Step 3. Conscious-Competent. The individual is conscious of the need to get right with God and has, in reality, accepted Jesus as Savior but, not Lord. They are competent to initiate a walk with God but, worldly interests stunts their spiritual growth. They bear little fruit.
Step 4 Unconscious-Competent. The walk with God is automatic, unconscious, natural, and requires no thought. The Believer is a competent Servant; competent to do God’s will and unconscious of his or her actions. People see God in this Saved-Server’s life.
A true believer’s spiritual learning program is a continuous-learning course. Each day, each step, each action needs to bring us closer to a walk with God.
American writer Anthony J. D’Angelo showed wisdom in his statement, “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” The Apostle Paul urged, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)