It must be stated from the beginning that the process of being molded into the image of Jesus Christ, spiritual growth, is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Specifically, the Spirit is the means by which the revelation of Jesus Christ occurs in your life (1 John 2:27). It is the interplay of the Living Word of God and the Spirit of God that develops spiritual strength in those who hunger for God.

Spiritual growth comes not by the wisdom of man.

One of the foundational truths of the gospel is that the wisdom of this world is not capable of finding out God (Rom. 11:33). Regardless of how hard the mind may seek, the wisdom of man cannot cross the great chasm into the mind of God. Paul recorded this statement of God to Moses,

. . . I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:15,16).

The secret in finding God lies not in the determination and effort of man, but, rather, it rests in the mercy of God. There is a spiritual guide to spiritual growth.

Spiritual growth comes only by the revelation of God.

If man cannot find out God by his own seeking and searching, then any knowledge of God that is acquired by man has to come from God’s own revelation of himself. If God had never chosen to reveal himself, man could never come to know God or anything concerning him. Paul wrote,

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:9-16).

For man to acquire any knowledge of God, God has to be the giver of that knowledge. In other words, man learns of God as he encounters God through the disclosure of God. God has revealed himself in a self-opening out of his being. He reveals himself in the everyday events of life as the people experience him.

Unfortunately, most men do recognize the path to spiritual growth.

This is the statement of John when he wrote, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

If it had not been for the coming of Jesus Christ, the ultimate revelation of God, mankind could never have come to “know him that is true . . . the true God.” Although man cannot find out God by his own searching, he can know God because God chose to reveal himself by his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the spiritual guide to understanding the ways of God. The power of meditation in the Word through the Holy Spirit produces the spiritual growth that every believer desires.