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St. Paul School of Leadership & Discipleship Lesson 205 - HOW TO CHART YOUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH (God's Plans and Promises For You From the Book of Isaiah) By Frank Eiklor and the Shalom Team
“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Isaiah 28:10 This verse almost looks like a typographical error on the repeat of "precept upon precept" and "line upon line." However, God is never redundant but He is emphatic. Just as growth from child to adult comes in stages, so does spiritual growth. And just as a child's growth can be checked and charted, so, too, should we be able to measure our spiritual progress. When Peter wrote his first epistle, he addressed "newborn babes." By the time of his second letter, they were disciples well on the road to maturity. Yet he closed his second letter with the urgency for them to "grow in faith and in the knowledge of our Lord." (2 Peter 3:18) How is your spiritual growth proceeding? Are you learning fresh truths in daily devotions that you put into practice in daily living? Is the Holy Spirit taking you into deeper levels of personal repentance as you view yourself in light of what Jesus did for you? Are you gaining a general knowledge of the major truths and doctrines of the faith so that no false teaching can pull you from God's path? Does the Lord, through the Scriptures, lead most of your life - or do you have to depend on a word or a prophecy from another (those who live by the latter often end up both used and deceived)? Your spiritual advancement is far more important than advancement on the job or growth in net worth, because your soul's net worth to God exceeds the value of planet earth. So make getting deeply acquainted with Jesus your great quest as you study and apply His Word line by line and precept by precept. My prayer: “My Father, I know that You chart my spiritual growth even as human parents measure their child's progress. Help me to redeem the time by taking quality time daily to dig out eternal gold buried in Your Word.” "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
Related Articles · More Articles Jesus said many would come in His name and deceive the hearts of the simple, sinful and proud. Eastern mysticism and meditation is a big thing in the gullible West. And one day a “world leader” will appear on the scene with the persuasion of a god and the heart of a devil. Jesus warns His children to know the Scriptures, live in obedience to the Father’s will, and stay alert to the signs of the times. They laugh no more. Now God’s description of how He will destroy the old earth and create a
new one makes perfect sense. The splitting of the atom turned many skeptics into believers.
After all, look what man himself is capable of doing with the atom and hydrogen bombs. Now
the fear is that nuclear weapons are being placed in the hands of madmen who wish to annihilate
their enemies. God has blessed man with incredible genius. We stand in awe as we watch men and women in a room full of computers and high-tech instruments guiding and landing spacecraft on distant planets. At that moment, we appear invincible. But then a mammoth tornado comes—or a terrifying hurricane—or rains that flood whole regions and never listen to our shouts to “Stop!”—or the shake that removes from under our feet any confidence or pride we carry, and leaves us numb with hardly enough breath to even utter the paralyzing word “EARTHQUAKE!”. And man is helpless in the face of it all! |
