What We Can Learn from Christian Growth in Other Nations

What does it take to grow spiritually? That’s probably not an appropriate question because the answers you receive will be widely varied, ranging from the very biblical to the very unbiblical. More importantly, regardless of what answer is given, each one must be cast alongside the work of the Holy Spirit because it is God's work to cause spiritual growth. Yet, I ask that question for a purpose; it provokes some thinking about the essential elements of spiritual growth.

Recently, a gentleman who had served closed-access countries shared an observation he and others had come to after drawing upon their years of experience. They concluded that in those countries that were predominately Islamic, spiritual growth thrived when two factors were consistent. The first was that the people had access to a Bible and some sort of ongoing Bible study. The second factor was the development of a personal prayer life within the first six months of confession of faith.

These are not surprising factors by all means. In fact, they are biblical. After being drawn away into the desert for what we call the temptation, Jesus responded to Satan by saying, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:1-4). His Word is to be part of our lives, written upon our heart (Psalm 1:1-3; Proverbs 7:3). On it we shall feast drawing near to Him by drawing near to His Word. In the same way, prayer is meant to be a routine part of our daily living (Matthew 6:5-15). In fact, we are to engage in prayer continuously (1 Thessalonians 5:17). So, as we look at those conclusions, we should not be surprised.

Over the last few months, I have found myself more amazed by the Lord’s perfection and how He uses His perfect wisdom to create the perfect plan to grow imperfect people into perfect people. In fact, I wrote about that recently, which you can read by clicking here. The observation of this gentleman proves that perfection even more. God has designed a perfect plan for drawing closer to Him, and if we live in His will, we will find that He is faithful to cause growth in our lives.

Why do I bring this up here? Because it should point us to God’s plan and thus our priorities in our evangelism and discipleship. Point people to God through His Word to us and our words to Him.