The Stages of Spiritual Growth

These studies are designed for believers in Jesus Christ only. If you have exercised faith in Christ, then you are in the right place. If you have not, then you need to heed the words of our Lord, Who said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten [or, uniquely-born] Son, so that every [one] believing [or, trusting] in Him shall not perish, but shall be have eternal life! For God did not send His Son into the world so that He should judge the world, but so that the world shall be saved through Him. The one believing [or, trusting] in Him is not judged, but the one not believing has already been judged, because he has not believed in the Name of the only-begotten [or, uniquely-born] Son of God." (John 3:16–18). "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life! No one comes to the Father except through [or, by means of] Me!" (John 14:6).

Every study of the Word of God ought to be preceded by a naming of your sins to God. This restores you to fellowship with God (1John 1:8–10). If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). If there are people around, you would name these sins silently. If there is no one around, then it does not matter if you name them silently or whether you speak aloud.

Preface:	R. B. Thieme, Jr. developed these stages of spiritual growth in his Spiritual Dynamics study (and in previous studies as well).

The Stages of Spiritual Growth
Stage	Description/Scripture
Childhood stages spiritual growth.
Filling of the Holy Spirit	This is the power gate for the believer in the Church Age (Acts 1:8 1Cor. 2:4–5). We access this power by naming our sins to God, which puts us back into fellowship ( sins take us out; naming them to God puts us back in).
Basic Christian modus operandi	Naming one's sins to God (called rebound—1John 1:9 1Cor. 11:31), the faith rest drill, objectivity vs. subjectivity (being willing to accept revealed truth as opposed to holding onto our inner truth).
Enforced and genuine humility	This is submission to legitimate authority.

Enforced humility: Begins at home. Parents use discipline to teach their children humility. Purpose: give child a chance to succeed in life after he leaves home.

Genuine humility: originates from the perception of doctrine under the three stages:

reception, the gnosis stage. retention, the epignosis stage. recall, the application of doctrine to all experiences stage. absolutely essential for advance in the plan of God.

provides the teachability necessary for the inculcation of doctrine.
Spiritual momentum	Perception and application of Bible doctrine. All believers in the Church Age have the ability to understand Bible doctrine; and God has made it available (although there are a limited number of doctrinal churches, there is a surfeit of accurate information on the internet). At this stage, the believer begins to apply doctrine to their life and to their day-to-day situations.

This might be seen as the adolescent stage of spiritual growth.
Adult stages of spiritual growth:
Spiritual self esteem and motivational virtue	Personal love for God. Beginning to develop occupation with Christ and a personal sense of destiny, recognizing that we are in a plan and a conflict which is much greater than we are.
Spiritual autonomy and functional virtue	Impersonal love toward all mankind (that is, you do not have to work up emotional feelings about people in general).

These two stages appear to work in tandem, rather than one proceeding from the other. Doctrine is in your human soul cycling throughout, so that you interact properly with people (we are given a human soul in order to interact with people). Doctrine is in your human spirit so that you interact correctly we God (We love Him because He first loved us.). Our human spirit is given for fellowship with God; it is the repository of doctrinal information.
Momentum testing	This is illustrated in Job 1–2 with disaster testing, where Job's life is ruined, and yet he responds to God through the doctrine of his soul. This can involve people testing, system testing, disaster testing and/or thought testing. Quite obviously, believers respond to disaster testing differently, depending upon their stage of spiritual growth. Job's wife is facing some of the same things that Job faces, and she responds quite differently to it. Therefore, in month two, as a believer, you do not ask God for this kind of testing. Paul, of the ministry that he and his fellow travelers had: But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (2Cor. 4:7–10). My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfecting work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2–4: VW).

This is exactly where we are in Job's spiritual state. We are at momentum testing.
Spiritual maturity	The tests above not only bring out what is in the soul, but they act as reenforcement for the divine viewpoint which we have developed (the renovation of our thinking, as per Rom. 12:1–2), as well as an acceleration of spiritual growth.
At some point in time, I will need to return to this and fill it in with more Scriptural references.
From: he-ekklesia

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/30485153/DOCTRINE-OF-THE-DIVINE-DYNASPHERE

http://gracebiblechurchwichita.org/?page_id=71

http://rbthieme.org/images/Illustrations/TheDivineDynasphere_10.gif

all accessed May 20, 2013. The middle two sources provide much more detail.

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