BLOG: Spiritual Growth, Part 3



WRITTEN BY MELISSA H. STRAUTMAN, LMT

Spiritual Growth, Part 3: Fully Convinced?
Companion blog to “Confident Steps” from the study Spiritual Growth

You say you believe God but do you believe The Word of God?  So when the Bible says that God will supply all of your needs; do you believe it?  Or do you find yourself worrying about your needs (health, wealth, relationships, etc) instead of showing proof that you believe He will supply all of your needs?  If you do worry, what you are saying is, “I am not fully convinced that God can supply all of my needs”

Christian, you CANNOT bring glory to God & GROW out of infancy if you are not fully convinced that God will do what He said He will do.

In Romans 4:1-25, Paul chooses to use Abraham’s faith as the perfect example of spiritual growth.  Abraham grew in his faith because he was fully convinced, never doubting God.  Abraham’s Facebook page would never have contained lamenting about the hoof-rot on his oxen, begging people to pray for his wife’s postpartum syndrome, inflation in the market place, etc.  Nations would soon be looking toward the faith of this man as an example of one fully convinced of the Creator’s power.

In All You Say and Do

Why even say you are a Christian if your example to a perishing world is that you don’t believe that He IS supplying all of your needs?  You haven’t joined the ‘cool club’ with the fish on your car, your missions t-shirt and your WWJD bracelet.  Drop the hype.  You have been graphed into a blood stained grace to bring glory to God and the growth of HIS kingdom in all you say and do.  You cannot glorify God if you are harboring unbelief in your heart.

Start today boasting of His blessings in your life………tell your “after” story.  It’s amazing and way more interesting than your bunion surgery!  When you constantly tell those around you and on social media that you NEED relief or prayer for something; you are saying that you are desperate and do not have hope.  You are saying that you do not have a God of provision and protection.  Is that true?

I am hopeful that if this is you, you are just momentarily caught up in the cultural Jesus-jargon and can use your will to intentionally refuse this nonsense.  I pray that the Holy Spirit within you can supernaturally guide you to repentance of any lingering unbelief, show you how to glorify God and grow you spiritually.  You’re of no use to the Kingdom otherwise.

What kind of fool would trust Him with forever?

“Your eternal destiny rests in what God has said He will do if you believe in His Son. And if He’s not trustworthy, then your destiny is in real doubt, right?  I mean if you can’t trust Him with your finances or your job or your marriage or your health or your emotional well-being, then what kind of fool would trust him with forever?  Well you say, “I believe what He said”. Well, don’t imagine you believe what He said about that but you don’t believe what He said about practical everyday things of life.  He said something about the practical everyday things in your life*.  So just forget the bills and forget the health and forget everything.  All of that pales in comparison to your eternal destiny, but they all rest in the same thing. They all rest in the promises of God; that He will do what He said He would do; that He will save you, forgive you and keep you forever if you will believe in His Son”  Pastor Steve Wilson

So can you? Will you trust God with your…

  • marriage
  • emotions
  • job
  • money
  • health, etc

God Cannot Lie!

Will you believe what he said in Philippians 4:19?  Do you believe that He is actually able?  You know He cannot lie, right?  You can either trust Him, being fully convinced of His willingness and ability or you can live a life in constant sorrow, worry, stress and chaos; just chocked-full of pray-for-me-I’m-down-trodden-posts and conversations that will tell the world your faith is no faith at all.  Faith is supposed to do something, change something.

Maybe you’ve not had better examples during your Christian-walk.  I personally can count on one hand the hopeful, happy, fully-convinced Christians I encountered in my thirty-plus years of Christian-infancy.  Some people just like the misery and it’s highly contagious.  Praise God He delivered me from that dark pit.  There’s a whole eternity of hopelessness to be had if that’s what you’re aiming at.  You have to aim at the right target to get the right eternal result.  That target is always and forever going to be about bringing glory to God.  It doesn’t happen any other way.  Bringing attention to yourself and your woes is the antithesis of bringing glory to God.

Think about Noah.  He believed God when He said He was going to wipe out the wicked population of the earth with a flooding rain; even though Noah had never actually seen rain before.  He was so fully convinced that when God told him to build an ark, he got right to work and kept on working for a hundred and twenty years on that crazy ark.  People thought he was a total nut-case.  This brought glory to God and brought God’s favor upon Noah.

Falling Off the Path of Spiritual Growth

Maybe you want to do what God says about a particular thing but something whispers in your ear, “Did God actually say…**

  • …sex before marriage is bad? Just a little further, getting a sneak peak won’t hurt. You don’t have to go all the way”, says the devil.
  • …pay all of your taxes? God wants the government to be fair and they aren’t. So, you can adjust that total”, says the devil.

It’s when you let doubt in what God says, and eventual lies, replace belief in God’s actual Word that you fall off the path of spiritual growth and into sins that will require repentance.  You have to know the Word.  You have to believe and hold fast to that Word.  Put on the full armor of God*** and run from temptation that steals glory from God.

Convinced and Praising

Last but certainly not least in our spiritual growth is the glorious praise to our Holy Father, His name, His mercies and His graces that comes out of being fully convinced of His promises.

Psalms 50:23
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me.


Next week we will continue learning more about spiritual growth.  You can listen ahead to Pastor Wilson’s message here:  Paths of Grace, November 5, 2017

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*Matthew 6:25-34
**Genesis 3:1
***Ephesians 4:22-31 & Ephesians 6:10-20