Good morning Lord Jesus, I begin my day desiring you to pour Your Spirit into me, not simply for my benefit however so that I may then our it into someone else in my day.
I was looking line for a couple new books to read. As I did, I noticed most off them were mainly focused on spiritual growth . As I looked through more of them, they were mainly about building character as well. Both focused more on a Bible study type format and spiritual formation. There was very little on spiritual reproduction. Character and spiritual growth are something that the church is heavily slanted towards today.
Now I want to say that I do believe that spiritual growth and looking at our character are extremely important, and a key necessity to you and I becoming disciples and making disciples of Jesus Christ. I spend over an hour and a half each morning in the word and prayer. In my past couple blog posts I have encouraged you to eat from the “Bread of Life” found in God’s Word. I also have encouraged you to grow in your spiritual maturity. And I always will continue to do so. However, our spiritual growth is only a part of our growth as Christians, as disciples of Jesus Christ. Spiritual growth alone by itself is not our end goal, Discipleship is, and becoming disciples that multiply and make disciples. In His Great Commission, Jesus did not tell us, commission people to just to help them become obedient (character and spiritual formation) He commissioned us to make disciples, and to make disciples requires spiritual reproduction.
If there was a “discipleship gauge” with spiritual growth on the left side of the gauge and spiritual reproduction on the right side, the needle that represents you as a disciple should be in the center of that gauge with equal value placed on both. What I see when I look at what the church is teaching, and what is then replicated in its parishioners, is a needle pegged way to the left on spiritual growth. And I also observe that because of this neglect on pursuing spiritual reproduction, it is rare for people to walk out there church doors intentionally seeking out persons to invest what has been invested in them into others. They do not prioritize sharing their faith with others and have the confidence in themselves to do it. This is evident by the very low rate of baptisms in most churches and multiplication of disciples.
As we move in our personal life out of social isolation into re-connecting with society we need to move our personal and church lives out of spiritual isolation. We need to create a culture that moves from mainly heavily valuing spiritual growth to one that also equaly values spiritual reproduction. We need to move the needle that is swung way towards goodness, back to the middle towards reproduction. A move from information to transformation.
Looking at your own personal “discipleship gauge” where is your needle pointing? I pray you are daily spending time working on your spiritual growth in time in the Word and prayer, If not you should. However, are you spending equal amount of time in spiritual reproduction? If not you should.
If you took the stories in ACTs of all the works and miracles that were taking place; the reproduction stories of people hearing, receiving and accepting the Gospe, people being saved and coming to Christl and put you finger over who was doing them, you would think Jesus was doing it! He was but through His disciples, Christians who prioritized reproduction as well. And if you removed these stories of spiritual reproduction from the book of Acts it would reduce it to a lifeless text book. It would reduce Christianity and the Gospel from a movement that no walls could contain to secluded in a monastery.
My family, I pray you spend time reading through passages in the Book of Acts. Then spend time in prayer looking at your walk as a disciple. What does spiritual reproduction look like in your walk? What is the results and goal of your spiritual growth? How are you, where are you and to whom are you intentionally setting aside margins in your life to share your faith in reproduction and discipleship of others? In Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share with us your thoughts and reflections with us this morning in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community/Toney UMC
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
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