GROWING UP SPIRITUALLY BY KENNETH HAGIN
In the book Growing Up Spiritually, Hagin helps us to see that growing up is a process. We see
that there is a striking similarity between spiritual development and physical development. It
speaks of at least three stages in spiritual development which corresponds to that of the
physical. They are: Babyhood, Childhood and Manhood.
No one is born a full grown human in the physical and so is it in the spiritual realm. You are born
a spiritual babe and then you grow up. Most times, the church expects people who just got saved
to start living as good as they do when it took them years to get where they are. The first thing that
attracts you to a baby is its innocence. If you are a newborn babe in Christ, you don’t have any
past. Even though innocence belongs to the babyhood stage of Christianity, it is one thing that
we should never outgrow. We should always maintain a teachable spirit and not come to the
place where we have a “know it all attitude”.
Another thing is ignorance, a baby is ignorant of what is poisonous to him/her. The same goes for babes in Christ, they do not know what can poison them spiritually.
Irritability is another feature of a baby; babies are easily spoiled. Babies get easily frustrated but God wants to bring us to the point where we are not easily hurt.
The characteristics of the childhood stage are;
● Unsteadiness: You cannot depend on a child in Christ just as you cannot depend on a natural child.
● Curiosity: Children are full of curiosity. Spiritual children are the same way but the Word of God
teaches us to tend to our own business.
● Talkativeness: children do not know the value is silence, thy talk anytime and anywhere. We
need to learn to be quiet. Proverbs 10:19. Evil speaking, vain speaking and foolish speaking
should be done away it.
The purpose of the whole book really is to help us see the spiritual man.
Esteeming earthly things lightly is one characteristic of a spiritual man. You cannot put earthly
things above spiritual things and grow spiritually. God is interested in our natural but much more
interested in our spiritual. The first Psalm is so beautiful, it makes it clear that God wants us to
prosper but we just need to evaluate things the way they should be evaluated. Put God before
your own life.
Another characteristic of a spiritual man is Deadness to censure or praise(1 Corinthians 4:3-4).
Immature Christians will react badly when they are criticized and on the other hand, feel lifted
up when they are praised. Baby Christians are self- conscious but the mature believer is God-
conscious. Also a spiritual man has the ability to recognize God at work.
Other Relevant Learnings:
It is so good to know that if we have been born again, we come into the family of God and God
becomes our father. As a Christian, it is very important for us to know that God is a very caring
Father and he knows all our needs. We need to know this so we can focus on our spiritual walk.
The primary purpose of man is to fellowship with God. To fellowship with God, we
must walk in love because God is love. The love here is divine love and not natural love. Natural,
human love is selfish. God wants us to grow and we thank God that we can grow in His love.
We all want to be mature Christians but it’s not enough to just think about it. How are we to
grow spiritually?
When babies are born, they start off on milk. They certainly can’t eat meat. Milk would help us
grow but we shouldn’t fall in love with milk to the extent that we don’t want to advance. The Hebrew church had the same problem we face now- that of growing. ()
The milk of the Word is the preaching and staying with the first principles of the doctrine of
Christ(). We begin to grow out of milk allocation when we begin to gain knowledge
of who we really are in Christ and what the will of God is.
“Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:32
In this verse, we see three divisions. Everyone outside of Christ is a Gentile. Paul however, has
another division; the natural man, the carnal man and the spiritual man.
~ The natural man is one who is not yet passed out of death into life. His wisdom is earthly.
Ephesians 2:1-3 is a picture of the natural man’s walk.
~The carnal man is a babe in Christ. A carnal man is a man who is governed by his physical senses.
Though born again, he walks after the order of the natural man.
~ The Spiritual man is the one who knows what belongs to him in Christ and takes advantage of it.
He has drunk deeply at the fountain. This man has come to know the Father in reality. A spiritual
man is governed by the Word of God.
The right diet you need if you are going to grow as a Christian is the entire Word of God. You must give yourself continually to the Word and prayer. You must be able to endure sound doctrine.
Finally, we should realize what stage we are and desire to grow. You should not become
discouraged because you are in a stage lower than where you truly desire to be. No one becomes a fully grown Christian overnight.
I’m not perfect yet,are you? But I’m going on. It’s the knowledge of God’s Word that helps us to
grow. That Word is spiritual food—food for our spirits.
Author Profile
- Fopefoluwa Boluwatife Ibraheem is a 200 level student of the department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos. She loves God passionately and is a kingdom seeker
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This indeed is a meal for the soul. I’m blessed !
Thank you Fope.
Glad you find it useful.