Barnabas C. Park
barnabaspark@gmail.com
4 most common hindrances for Spiritual Growth.
1st Factor: Being born again
Romans 8:29: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
Beginning today on, I would like to share concerning 4 most common hindrances for our Spiritual Growth, one hindrance at a time. As I share with you this afternoon concerning the four most common hindrances for spiritual growth, I guess, I need to define what I mean by the spiritual growth. If we talk about physical growth or mental and social growth, no doubt that most us have very concrete Idea. That¡¯s what our parents has been yearning for many years, feeding us, sending school, and encouraging us to be around with good friends and persons so that we may function as we should be in our society. Likewise, our heavenly Father also has a desire for us to grow, that is what the spiritual growth is all about.
According to the passage today, it is evident how God wants us to grow.
¡°For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren¡± Romans 8:29
What kind of growth God wants to see us growing? It says, "to become conformed to the image of His Son¡±. In other words, God wants us to become conformed to Christ.¡± Christ is our model for the spiritual growth.
Then the passage says, ¡°being conformed to the image of Christ¡± is the very reason why God foreknew and predestined us. It affirms that ¡°being conformed to the image of Christ¡± is more than an option. Moreover this is even more than obligation; this is God¡¯s design and our destiny. Unfortunately, in spite of such significance of the spiritual growth, we tend to neglect it for so many reasons. I pray that as we study the 4 most common hindrances for our spiritual growth, we all have a strong and urgent desire to grow spiritually and understand more what is involved in the spiritual growth and make specific decisions to grow spiritually.
The first and most common and so obvious, but so often ignored factor that hinders the spiritual growth is when you don¡¯t have spiritual life. In other words, you can¡¯t grow without being born spiritually.
Spiritual growth presupposes spiritual life just as there wouldn¡¯t be physical growth without physical life to begin with. It is so obvious reason, yet most common reason. Do you know why? As far as physical, social, mental growth, you have objective measures through which you can determine the growth. But, when it comes to spiritual growth, it is not visibly as objective as other type of growth. It¡¯s like to distinguish natural flower from artificial one. You can do all kinds of the activates, attending church meeting, praising, thanking God, praying, offering, fellowship, bible study, even casting out demons, acting like prophets, that is, working as ministers and pastors. In fact, many, not few, would do such thing, yet they are not at least genuine Christians
Matthew 7:21-23
"Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 22"Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles" And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.
Jesus said to them, ¡°I never knew you.¡± I am sure that all their life, they might have thought they were Christians when they never were.
Then how do you know if you are genuine Christian or not? Let¡¯s consider again the flower thing. Whether natural or artificial flowers, they look alike. Does it mean there isn¡¯t any intrinsic difference between them? Of course there is. One grows from a tiny seed, the other without any seed. Natural flower grows because the seed has the life and power. Whether you have a genuine faith or not also depends on this seed. This seed is the word of God, more specifically the gospel.
1 Peter 1:23-25 You have been born again, not from a seed that can be destroyed, but through God¡¯s everlasting word that can¡¯t be destroyed. That¡¯s why Scripture says, "All people are like grass, and all their beauty is like a flower of the field. The grass dries up and the flower drops off, but the word of the Lord lasts forever." This word is the Good News that was told to you.
Verse 24 says, You have physical life like flowers, but your physical life is temporal because the physical seed is temporal and can be destroyed like flower. But the seed that gives us spiritual life is everlasting and can¡¯t be destroyed. Our new life in Christ is such that it is eternal and everlasting. What is this everlasting word of God? Let¡¯s go back to verse 25, it says, it is the Good News that was told to you.
Our spiritual life starts when we accept this word, the Good News: Jesus died for our Sins and resurrected for our righteousness. In other words, the process of becoming conformed to Christ starts with your accepting Jesus as described in the Good News. You have to accept Him as He is presented in the Good News, crucified for our sins. Then God promised, those who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.¡± (John 1:12-13)
Being born again is the first process in spiritual maturity because spiritual growth basically means ¡°being conformed to the image of His Son.¡± Our difficulty in defining ¡°becoming conformed to Christ¡± lies in the fact that here seem to be so many attributes in Christ and furthermore the people have different understanding of who Christ is.
But, then here this is what God Himself says through the expression of Paul.
Romans 8:29: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
Jesus is identified as the Son of God. In other words Jesus is characterized in His relationship with God. Though Jesus has so many attributes, His relationship with God the Father is the most outstanding one. He then was called to be the first one among many children. This being the case, we can safely conclude that being conformed to Christ means growing in our relationship with God as children of God, more than anything else.
Therefore spiritual growth is to grow as children of God in our relationship with Him. You have to be born again as God¡¯s child to begin your spiritual growth. Do you realize why some people don¡¯t grow though they claim to be followers of Jesus? It is because they follow different Jesus not described in the Good News. They say Jesus is revolutionary figure, or good teacher, or magician, or prophet, or saint, or even alien so and so. As Long as you don¡¯t accept Christ crucified for our sins, there wouldn¡¯t be any growth.
Let¡¯s go back to those who supposedly followed Jesus and even did prophesied and cast out demon, performed miracles in Jesus name. Why didn¡¯t they have life? Is wrong to do such things? No. Then what was wrong with them. Notice their reasoning. Do you see any mentioning of the crucified Christ for their sins? They thought they could depend on what they did for salvation because they didn¡¯t believe Jesus as described in the Good News.
Jesus said to them, ¡°I never knew you.¡± It¡¯s unfortunate there are so many people around us who claim to be Christians when they aren¡¯t. You can do all you ever want but you wouldn¡¯t grow unless you accept Jesus as presented in the Good News.
As I said, to grow spiritually means in a sense like to grow physically. You have to have physical life to grow. You have to have physical body with all body parts. Growing spiritually means growing in spiritual eyes, heads, legs, lips, ears, etc. so that you may see spiritually, hear spiritually, speak spiritually, walk, act, think spiritually. It all begins as you have the life of Jesus in your heart, spiritual life. As you accept Him as your Lord and Savior, He will govern every aspect of your life. That is what Christian life is all about and that is what spiritual life is all about. That¡¯s why the Bible says, ¡±He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¡°1 John 5:12 Do you have Him?
