Why is spiritual maturity so important?  Chris Brannon continues in our Commissioned series by talking about our walk as disciples.  Closeness with God brings us true freedom and fullness.  However, many people, including Christians, find their lives fall short of the kind Jesus promised and proclaimed.  We are eternal beings, but have lost sight of eternal living.  We spend time, energy, and money on our physical needs, but neglect our souls.  This makes us feel powerless and detached from God.  That is not how God intended it to be!  We are meant to be in relationship with God and others in a way that is dynamic, whole and fresh every day.

Chris continues and talks about what it looks like to be immature and what it looks like to be in maturity.  There are three different phases of spiritual growth.  The first is putting off the old self.  We must put off ourselves before we can put on Christ.  In putting on Christ, we are manifesting on the outside who we already are on the inside.  The next phase is being renewed in the spirit of your mind.  God does the renewing as we obey Him by saturating our minds with His transforming Word of truth.  So God’s Spirit performs the work of renewal in us, but we are responsible to use the means of renewal, namely, His Word.  The last phase is putting on the new man.  We must live by applying the truth of the new man in every situation that we face.

Growing up, at it’s essence, is really all about a close relationship to Jesus.  Everything good that we are or do comes from our intimacy with Christ.