GROWTH; is a necessity to a believer not an option.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

1Co 13:11 KJV 

There are many incidences and many things which I can identify with when it comes to the word growth. I have seen my daughters grow but the most vivid one is my granddaughter Tee grow and is still growing not saying that others and even myself I have stopped growing but this one is very vivid in my mind. I can say like just the other day she was celebrating her third birthday then my mind started thinking about just another day she didn’t know even how to pronounce “mama”, today she can call everyone by name. In the beginning we used to remove everything from her presence but now we give her some responsibilities of ferrying things we used to deny her to do earlier. This is called GROWTH, she has grown from messing up things to be a messenger in the house and that is the same way with Christianity. 

When we have read when David introduced the Solomon to the people and told people that God already chose Solomon to build the temple.

And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death. 

1 Chronicles 22:5

David look at the work to be done which is the temple to be and he described it as and said it MUST BE;

• Exceeding magnifical
• Of Fame
• Of glory throughout all countries

After describing these expectations then David looked at Solomon his son and also described him as;

• Young and
• Tender

When we compare the two are far apart, do we say God chose a tender person is the same as everyone who is born again. God has called us to serve but not at a tender age.  So it means David realized that a  young and tender person is not capable to bring out something which is magnificent and something of fame which also has glory that is noticed throughout all the countries. David was saying in a coded language that my son Solomon was appointed by God to perform this task but he needs to GROW to reach the potential of completing the task ahead of him. The verse ends by saying that David prepared abundantly before his death, this is seen mostly in 1 Chronicles 29 how David prepared by Giving out silver and gold and mobilizing Israel to bring materials for the building of the temple. David used the words Young and tender;

Young, Lacking experience; immature as yourdictionary.com an online dictionary has given us a variety of definition but I picked this because it fit what David was saying. He meant that Solomon is still incapable of accomplishing the task which God had appointed him to do now. Here he needs to grow to be able to do what God has appointed him to do.

Tender, Weak of constitution or physique; unable to endure pain, hardship, etc.; feeble; frail. 

 The dictionary is telling us that Solomon was weak of constitution, I believe this is not talking about law but the other meaning for constitution is a way in which something is composed or made up, which to me in simple when something is not complete, Solomon was still incomplete. David said that his son Solomon was incomplete because he was incapable to bear the challenges that is coming with the task ahead of him.

     Like every Christian there is something magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all the countries but when looking at yourself you are still tender and young. This means that you are still incapable of realizing your kingdom purpose and reaching your destiny.

    Paul has used many terms describing those people who need growth in their lives and he mentioned that when he was a child he thought like a child, understood like a child and even talked like a child. In Paul statement he has not mentioned neither age nor stature in his statement about being a child. Most of the time when talk about a child we do quickly go into age and stature but Paul never mentioned these two but brought in three issues on board as he mentioned that it is;

1. Speaking like a child, when we talk about speaking, we are talking about the ability to say something or communicate your feeling as google puts it. So which means that everybody who is a child will say things like a child or communicate information and emotions like a child. So which means that being a child is displayed in how you communicate information or emotions. This is reminds me of my grandchild who is always saying things which she heard expressively without considering whether she is talking the right thing at the right time to the right people. So knowing people children is hearing their speeches, Jesus said to His disciples sometimes that, I have so many things to tell you but you cannot bear them, in John 16 verse Twelve. Here we have Jesus displaying maturity by understanding that the disciples are still incapable of handling some things.

• Understanding like a child, Paul said that a child will not understand some things or his or her understanding will be very childish. Understanding is the capacity to comprehend or grasp an issue or a situation at hand. This is why Jesus said to His disciples that there are some things that they cannot bear at that point in time because probably they could not comprehend. Even now I know there are things which probably God has not revealed to us because we cannot comprehend neither can we understand them in one way or the other. So your understanding will determine whether you are a child or not. This is something which has brought a lot of challenges in our churches today because sometimes a preacher can preach things which are true but somehow very deep but you will find that in the listeners there people who are still children and then their understanding will be very different and it might bring some challenges to these children Christians just because they are Christians.

• Thinking like a child, this is whereby your opinion or beliefs on a certain issue or anything, also will show that you are a child or an adult not in terms of age but in terms of maturity. Thinking is mostly determined by information that you have, and I came to realize when Paul was saying that we need to be transformed by renewing of our minds, even Jesus said that we need to love the Lord our God with all our mind in Mark 12 in verse 29. I have realized that the mind is the reservoir of our thinking. So a child tend to have put nothing if not small things in his or her mind. This is also with a Christian who got born gain the today, this mostly you will realize that this person knows too little about Christ or about the word of God.

Childish thinking means, compressed mind or having no opinion on an issue or issues. Our thoughts becomes expanded when our mind has been filled with information.

When looking at these three identifiers which Paul has told us helped point to him that he is a child would also help us identify our childish behavior in our own self because even Paul identified himself as a child. What this verse has encouraged me with is that Paul sums up and said that, when I became a man, I left childish things. He says “I BECAME a man”, there is BECOMING which this article is talking addressing in simple GROWTH, Paul closes it by saying, “I LEFT CHILDISH THINGS”. In GROWTH there are things to be left which exactly in the context of Paul are childish Thoughts, Speech and understanding then gaining manhood.

     Then what is this thing called GROWTH which Paul has articulated as the PROCESS OF BECOMING?

1. Growth is the;
   1. Development from a lower or more simpler to a higher or a more complex form
   2. An increase, as in size, number, or strength; extension or expansion: ¹
   3. A process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important. ¹
   4. This the progressive increase in stature character, intelligence.

I believe after reading the definition above you have seen growth is a process of movement from being a child as Paul has put it to becoming a man. The four definitions have used words like development, increase, becoming and the last has strategically used progressive increase, these words are to try define to us growth. 

Development from a lower or more simpler to a higher or a more complex form.

Develop first in itself is to cause something to advance, so this sentence is telling us that growth is to course someone which here am specifically talking about you. So Growth here is you course yourself to advance from a lower or childish form to a higher form which is becoming a man as Paul had already put it. For you to grow, you have to course yourself to advance from being simple or lower to a higher form and this comes just simply by developing your mind a reservoir of thoughts, and it expands your understanding and after this it will make you speak like a man not like a child because you will be speaking wisdom.  

A process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important.

Process, as they say is a series of actions of becoming more important. When we read the book of 2 Chronicles 22 verse 5 where David said that Solomon is young and tender but the work he is to accomplish is very huge and demands much from the person leading the activity, this is looked at very carefully demands that a person Must have a series of action which are advancing yourself to be important in order to be capable to accomplish a task ahead of you. I mentioned earlier that God called us to serve and Jesus told the devil very clear and well that …..Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. Luke 4:8. Which means we are purposed to serve and our service should be of excellence which is to most of us Christians it is something which we have neglected seriously. I have gone to some churches where they can take someone who got born again last month and take the person to go and teach Sunday school as if the children in Sunday school have no value at all. Every person who is born again needs to be processed to be capable of serving excellently. Please we just don’t serve because we are to serve but we need to serve excellently as we bring out the best outcome. If you see job adverts, they list the qualifications required for that person to be able to do that Job, this is neglected in Christianity mostly those who are born again. We need to process ourselves by advancing ourselves to be able bring out the best in us.

     Every born again Christian must design his or her own process of becoming the best he can be, this is done by understanding your gift, your talent and your calling then deign a series of actions of advancing yourself to become an excellent version of your own. If you are gifted as an evangelist can you be the best of yourself. Rev. Elias Ndeda said, Success is not comparing yourself with others but comparing what you have done with what you should have done. Which means you purposely plan yourself to be the best of yourself which the definition is saying that it is a process of becoming more important.

This the progressive increase in stature character, intelligence.

Progressive, in other words gradual development of the life of a Christian. Growth here is the progressive increase in stature, character, and intelligence, a Christian who is born again should dare plan his or her life how he or she should increase in character and intelligence. This progressive increase is planned as I tell people mostly that Jesus too followers turned the into disciples and then is when they became apostles. Apostles is the stage where they can serve people, they become servants or they are sent. This is a progressive process which means “A SERIES OF PLANNED ACTIONS FOR GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT”.

They were Follower turned Disciples then became apostles

A Follower, google says that is a person who admires a person or a set of that person’s ideas, or the one who travels behind another person.⁸

A Disciple, this is a student of a certain philosophy or a teacher, Jesus had disciples, John the Baptist had disciples who later became the students of Jesus Christ, the Pharisee had disciples, the Sadducees had disciples. This in simple they are students of a certain teacher and that is why Nicodemus called Jesus, “teacher” because He was teaching a philosophy and ideology that they did not understand and that is why Nicodemus came to ask for the interpretation and understanding about this Kingdom philosophy.

Apostles, Merriam Webster online dictionary has simplified this for me that it is, One sent out on a mission. This means that a person released to go and serve because we are all both servants, whether an apostle, an evangelist, a pastor, a teacher or any other gift that God has deposited in you needs to have some time of processing as far it is God who has gifted us with spiritual gifts.

     I have displayed for you the process of the apostles, Jesus called them and told them, ….Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Mathews 4:19. Even before they became fishers of men they went through an process of development from followers to apostles of becoming fishers of men. So every born again Christian must have a progressive process from follower to Disciple then to a fisher of men or a servant.

GROWTH is a series of planned actions for process of gradual development.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 

1 Corinthians 3:1-3

Paul here is telling the Corinthians that you are still babes, and he is reiterating that that has made him feed them with milk not meat because they could not bear. When we heard Paul was saying that when he was a child he spoke like a child understood like a child and also thought like a child, this will help us understand the characters. Paul said that they are babes because there were things they could not bear and Paul is saying that looking at the strife, divisions and envying tells him that they are babes and at the same time carnal which means that they are not spiritual. This has already told us that any person born again can be very much canal but born again and this is simply luck of growth in our lives. We need to grow and move from being babes and carnal to being spiritual and mature Christian in Christ, because Paul called them babes in Christ.

GROWTH is a necessity to every Born again Christian, we should not be born again and remain babes in Christ. We MUST GROW.