Growing Spiritually: How It Works

The biblical writers are clear: learning spiritual truth is the catalyst to spiritual growth (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:9-11). Paul said we are transformed “by the renewing of the mind” (Romans 12:2). But learning spiritual truth is only the spark that sets the process in motion.

Spiritual truth is about the mind – learning to think differently from how the world trained us to think – thinking shaped by the Spirt (1 Corinthians 2:7-13) – thinking that reflects the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2:7) – thinking with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Such thinking is the starting point of spiritual growth.

But for growth to occur – growth that produces, not just a change of behavior, but a change of life – the heart must be transformed as well as the mind.

Here’s how it works. Spiritual truth reveals what is in the heart. It reveals the attitudes we harbor along with the self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit out of which we live. For example, my attitude toward my enemy is exposed when I embrace the truth that he, too, is created in the image of God and is one whom God loves.

Spiritual growth occurs when the heart is cleansed. The attitudes that govern how we view and treat others are changed. A servant spirit replaces the self-serving spirit. When the heart is cleansed, behavior changes.

The cleansing of the heart is the work of the Spirit. We cannot change what is in our hearts. We can change our behavior – the external – but not what is in our hearts. We are dependent on the Spirit to change our attitudes and transform the spirit out of which we live.

While the cleansing of the heart is the work of the Spirit, we have a role to play in the process. Our role is to recognize what is in our heart (this recognition is the Spirit’s work), acknowledge it to God, and invite the Spirit to transform it. That acknowledgment (confession) gives the Spirit permission to do the cleansing, healing work that is need.

Our part calls for an intentional act of the will. We make a conscious choice to invite the Spirit to change what is in our heart. We choose to be different.

But we don’t always want to change. We cling to harbored attitudes – not wanting to forgive one who has wronged us, not willing to change the way we look down on some group as “other,” clinging to the sense that we are right and those who think differently are wrong, persisting in black-and-white, either-or thinking.

We cannot choose to change when we don’t want to change. And so we stay stuck in old ways of thinking and living, unchanged from how the world taught us to think and live. We fail to grow spiritually. We wear the name of Christ without reflecting the spirit of Christ.

As long as this unwillingness to change persists – what scripture calls “a hardness of heart,” we remain stuck spiritually. We live in a condition of prolonged spiritual immaturity (Hebrews 4:12-13).

So how do we grow spiritually when we don’t want to turn loose of these kinds of harbored attitudes? How can the Spirit change us when we don’t want to change?

The Spirit can cleanse this hardness of heart, freeing us to grow spiritually, when we are willing (1) to acknowledge that we don’t want to let go of a particular attitude and (2) to pray “I want to want to.” The Spirit who has the power to cleanse our hearts can help us “to want to.” The Spirit can change our hardness of heart.  

Only when our hearts are cleanse will our behavior — and our lives — change.

Transformed Mind → Cleansed Heart → Changed Behavior = Spiritual Growth

→ Life Transformed into the Likeness of Christ