GROWING IN CHRIST

Ephesians 4:12-27 “ to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. ¹⁴ We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming............ ²⁵ So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. ²⁶ Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and do not make room for the devil.”

Growing in Him means graduating stage by stage until you reach the level of Christ. There is a level we call level of Christ, which means believers should not remain babies knowing not the spiritual things. We should grow so that we should command things in spirit and cause life to be meaningful. If you are not growing spiritually devil will spare you not, he will kick you here and there. When you graduate you will be able to know the devil. Not all the preachers are speaking Christ for the kingdom but for their own stomach but you will never know this until when you are in Christ.

What to do to grow in Christ

1. What so ever you do here on earth as a Christian make sure you do in Christ Jesus by faith and not because you are able to do it. Why faith? Because faith is spirit. If you are not spiritually matured you will be trapped and kicked here and there because you don’t know the word and you don’t know what is good and what is bad. You should know that in the presence of God there is no harm, and you should know that not every miracle comes from God
2. Verse 16. For you to keep growing in Christ you must keep love. In love there is forgiveness and unity, so keep love because love is God. By keeping love you are showing the devil that I am a little god and that God is with you
3. Verse 17. Stop your stupidity and stay away from your arrogance. God can trust you the way you are by showing yourself. The book of Judges shows how God trusted Gideon because of how he was. Jesus never chooses stupid people among His disciples, but those who understand things quickly. Our characters should not keep us away from growing in Christ
4. Verse 19-21. Reject things which do not build you according to your faith. Stop desiring things which are undesirable. Desire only those things which add up things to the desires of you faith and causes you to grow in Christ and cause God to be near you and devil to be far from you. The way you desire is how you grow in faith or you become stagnant. Always allow you mind and your heart to concentrate on the bible, what does the bible say according to you faith and not according to what you want, and act upon it. No matter how good it is, if what you desire don’t add anything to your faith, leave it
5. Verse 22-24. Get away from the former things. Faithfulness will give you faith. Desired to know about God and what He needs from you and He will understand your desire without you asking. Do you still have the old things in your character? Let them depart from you. Sometimes our old characters block doors for your own breakthrough, causing your life to be difficult. At any cost, accept to leave away the old things, even if they are good so that you may see the new things. The old self is powerful because it is your source, the new is not your source that is why it do not have power over you and that is why the new self needs your own decision to  shift from the old self. May the grace of the Lord help you to shift

Verse 25-26. You must stay away from lies. The things that you grew up with, delays you to get the new things. The purpose of you to get saved is for God to show you the new things which you parents have never received. Anger is the character of God but watch out that anger should not take you to a place of sinning. Confess this “the anger that I have, have no opportunity to hinder my future” Anger will cut short your journey. You can know that you have anger by seeing that you don’t attain the desires of your heart (Read what anger did to Moses, King Saul and Samson)

Verse 27. Do not give devil a chance

©Servant of God Presiding Apostle Josephat Elias Mwingira, Efatha Church.