Spiritual growth is in many ways the reverse of carnal growth. When we
\nwere little children we asked, we believed, we were dependent on our
\nparents and we were happy for it to be so. As we grew the sin we are
\nbecame more apparent. Our asking became more questioning than asking. We
\nput more confidence in our own understanding than our father and mother.
\nOur hand was still open for the freebies but we wanted them
\nindependently of submitting to dad and mom. Eventually, we moved out,
\nstopped asking and depended only upon ourselves.<\/p>\n
Reverse that order and we have spiritual growth in the inner man. Christ
\nfinds his elect child completely \u201cmoved out\u201d\u2014separated in sin and death,
\nwith all confidence in ourselves, too proud to ask God for anything.
\nWhen God first converts us we become new born babes. But we still have
\nour old flesh which questions and is far too confident. As God grows us
\nin grace, growing up in grace is to become children in malice. The more
\nwe grow in grace the less we think we deserve the least of God\u2019s favors
\nand the more dependent we become on the God of all grace. Rising to the
\ngreatness of grace is not becoming self-sufficient but becoming more and
\nmore dependent upon Christ and more desirous for the other to have the
\nhonor. It is growing little, simple, and trustful in Christ as a little
\nchild. \u2013Clay Curtis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spiritual growth is in many ways the reverse of carnal growth. When we were little children we asked, we believed, we were dependent on our parents and we were happy for it to be so. As we grew the sin we are became more apparent. Our asking became more questioning than asking. We put more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-clay-curtis","category-believers-rule-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3466,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions\/3466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}