Continued from Part 1

In the first part of the article, we welcome you to year 2022, defined what spiritual growth and development is, enumerated why people do not grow and gave nine ways we can grow. In this concluding article we give you more points on how to grow, also give examples of people from bible who developed themselves and conclude with rewards of growth and development. No one grows without information and applying the information. Happy reading.

How to Grow

1.  Be FAT (Faithful, Available, Teachable):  You can even move from FAT TO FAST (Faithful, Available Sincere and Teachable) You have to be faithful in little and huge things, be available to be used of God, to be blessed and to be a blessing. You cannot grow if you don’t have a teachable spirit. If your mentor, teacher, pastor instructs you and you don’t take steps, you will remain stunted. “Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.” Phil 2:12

2.  Rely on the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit has capacity to do many things, but He only needs to do two of them for you to grow- teach you and empower you. ( Jn 14:26,Acts 1:8)

3.  Hold the Word of God Firmly: “Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.” Phil 2:16 (Psalm 1:2-3) You must commit to knowing the word of God. Not just a casual study of the word. When you know the word of God you have a solid foundation upon which you can build your spiritual life. It was said that before Kenneth Hagin started ministry, he read the New Testament 150 times. It was said of Joseph Ayo Babalola that he would kneel down several nights reading Psalm 119. Knowing the word of God brings depth to your spiritual life, protects you from deception, gives power over temptations, clarifies the words of the Holy Spirit and strengthens your ability to stand strong in difficult seasons.

4. Pray. Never stop praying (1 Thes 5:17): You will be amazed how many believers neglect this simple but important spiritual growth mechanism. Looking for drive through mechanisms, outsourcing prayers and fasting to contractor (prophets and pastors). Prayer transforms your very being. It bends you towards the will of God and subjects the desires of the sin nature. If you really want to grow, learn how to pray scriptural prayer, pray for others, nations etc. You cannot grow with the “me”,” me” “me “prayer level. Prayer that will transform your life will cost you time, energy, dedication and more. Are you willing to pay the price?

5.  Fellowship: “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near” Heb 10:25 When you recognize that there’s no power in the building, but in our gathering, all excuses not to gather with other believers begin to crumble. When you gather with other believers you are giving encouragement, friendship. To make a fire burn every wood is a contributor, to watch a wood die, jut remove it from the fire!

6.  Put away childish things: If you are genuinely serious about your Christian growth you must put away some things and bring in some. One of the things you must drop are childish things.  “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things” 1Cor 13:11. Children cry for everything, they are selfish, not willing to help. You must stop going to time-wasting parties and events, foolish jesting and such.

7. Deal with Temptations:  “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1Jn 2; 14-16. If you keep yielding to temptation getting all your eyes desire like Eve or Samson you cannot grow. You must run from temptation like Joseph and Daniel.

8. Add all the extras: It is said that the difference between a champion and the mediocre is the extra of the extraordinary! “Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” 2 Pet 1:5-6. When people are suffering from iron deficiency and the likes they look for supplements, whatever supplements you need to grow that has not been mentioned is available on spiritual pharmaceutical market, (drug mart) go and get and apply it!

Examples in personal growth and development

Peter. Peter was a man that displayed all manner of traits, from being loud and temperamental to being a braggart. At one point he even denied Jesus. Lk 22:54-62. Soon after Jesus’ death, giving up, he went fishing with the disciples! Jn 21:1-19. But he went to the upper room with the others and experienced unprecedented transformation, growth and development. He later preached one day and three thousand converts were won to Jesus. In Acts 5:15 his shadow healed people.  What a phenomenal growth! May you experience ministerial growth; may your ministry and calling grow in Jesus’ name. He also became a formidable leader to the apostles.

Joseph. This young man born into a family of twelve sons and one daughter identified a great path for himself at a tender age. He began to dream, wrote down his dreams, and made his dreams known, so that he could run with it. Faced with challenges on the home front, that eventually sent him from a sweet environment to a bitter environment, he faced sexual, poverty and racial challenges. He kept his focus, kept dreaming and developing himself, even in prison. He briefly engaged in the business of dream interpretation and building clientele and career prospects. Eventually after thirteen (13) years of hard work from age seventeen to thirty (17 to 30) he achieved his noble objective and became a Prime Minister in Egypt.  He became a template of success for his generation and many generations. While in office he proved himself on how to forgive those who hated him and sold him into slavery. He trained himself on how to be a good father to his children (Manasseh and Ephraim) when presenting them for blessing with Jacob his father. I pray that you shall grow in your businesses, career and every area of life in Jesus’ name.

Elisha. Even though he was a successful man with a flourishing grazing business, God called him to ministry and changed his career. Just as I found myself changing career from Chemical Engineering to Jesus Engineering, God gave him a hard, no-nonsense mentor by the name of Elijah who anointed him as a prophet (1 King 19:16). Elisha developed himself as a servant, always pouring water on Elijah’s hands (2Kings 3:11). He learned to follow his mentor and  sometimes uncooperative boss to difficult places, even when faced with peer pressure and difficult working conditions (2 Kings 2:1-21) He learned to pray and prophesy, he learned not to be discouraged, he learned how to ask questions from his superiors and how to reply his colleagues when pestered with difficult questions. He learned how to apply known principles, for instance when his boss crossed the river by exercising spiritual prowess, he did a similar thing when faced with the challenge of crossing river Jordan. He so developed himself that he did not only have twice the anointing of his boss, many kings consulted him for advice, sending their top generals to him for solution.

The reward of Growth and personal development

1.  You move from glory to glory:  “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” 2Cor 3:18 If you are a pastor you grow in power that leads to ministerial expansion. If you are a church member you become a minister and do exploits. You are not a liability, you become an asset! You enjoy open heavens, gifts of God become yours. 2Cor 12:7-11. Your business, family, community and employers will surely benefit from your growth.

2.  Subdue powers of darkness: The reason you are begging for prayers from prayer contractors and you are a victim of false prophets and spiritual charlatans is because you have not grown. When you grow, you become a terror to witches, wizards, household, office, church or community enemies.

3.  Expect Elevation:    When Jesus humbled himself he was elevated-“He(Jesus) humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names” Phil 2:9. Even in your secular or spiritual life the reward of self-development and growth is elevation, financial, matrimonial and various other blessings. “I trained 4 years to run 9 seconds and it led to fame and prosperity." -Usain Bolt. (-World fastest runner)

4.You grow in faith:   Knowing God and growing in Him will cause you to grow in faith and growing in faith will give you access to heavenly benefits. Rom 10:17

5.Peace and longevity:. When you develop yourself and grow you will not engage in activities that are detrimental to your health, you will say the right things, eat the right food, drink the proper drinks, behave properly in the society and office and that will propel you to peace and correspondingly long life.

6.  Fulfill purpose: One major advantage of developing yourself is to fulfill purpose. You saw in the bible Abraham, Moses, Peter, Paul, Joseph, all these people had their downtimes and high times; they staggered in faith but developed themselves and became great achievers. Even people in contemporary world follow the same pattern.

7.  Land you in heaven at death: And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? [l] Is anything worth more than your soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. Matt 16:26-27

Conclusion: I see you with my spiritual binoculars growing in the year 2022. I see you developing yourself, growing spiritually, in every area of your life and becoming all that you have always desired.  I prophecy growth, development, peace, promotion, healing, deliverance, breakthrough, success in every area of your life. I pray no power shall hinder you from fulfilling purpose in Jesus’ name. I see you becoming a history maker doing exploits globally! Welcome to 2022 your year of growth and development!

Pastor Amos Dada is the Senior Pastor and Zonal Superintendent of Christ Apostolic Church Bethel Toronto. He is the Dean Christ Apostolic Church Bible Institute North America, Chairman CAC Men Association North America,  The Convener of International Gathering of Eagles Conferences, President of Eagle Academy and Canadian Institute of Leadership and Development. Subscribe to him on YouTube/Dramosdada and follow him on Facebook and twitter @amos_dada. www.cacbethel.com;www.igoeministry.com