And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. [Luke 2:40]

The way the Bible described growth here is completely different from our own perspective of growth. Jesus Christ grew, but the parameters used to describe His growth are not the same with the parameters that men use to describe growth today. Growing here means 'to wax strong in Spirit', 'to be filled with wisdom', and 'to possess more of God's grace'. It didn't talk about anything physical, it didn't speak about growth in age, in size, in academic knowledge or emotions, neither did it talk about growth in influence, in money, in fame..., none of that.


… and waxed strong in spirit…

Waxing strong in spirit is different from waxing strong in the body. Many times, many things are getting better and stronger for us in the body, and we allude that to spiritual growth. A man may be daily waxing healthy in body, his business may suddenly start booming because he joined church, he may become more successful in academics, business..., all these are in no way synonymous to spiritual growth.

- Spiritual Growth is NOT Academic Growth

- Spiritual Growth is NOT Financial Growth For the fact that money has increased and there is so much gain does not imply that your heart is right. Testimonies of financial growth may be reverberated daily in church, increase in your finance may even be an answer to prayers, yet, that is not synonymous to spiritual growth. Gain is NOT godliness.

- Spiritual Growth is NOT Secular Growth or promotion in the office

- Spiritual Growth is NOT Business Growth

- Spiritual Growth is NOT Ecclesiastical or official Growth: Your responsibilities in church may be increasing, You may be promoted from a little cell leader to handle a higher responsibility, you may become the senior pastor or hold some ecclesiastical office title, yet, that does not translate to growth in spirit. The height of your office is not necessarily the same as the height of your spirit, and your span of control does not reveal how spiritual you are.

- Spiritual Growth is growth in your spirit. It is growth in love for God, deriving more pleasures in being in God's presence than being with any other person enjoying His presence than travelling abroad. Spiritual growth saturates you with more of God. "...that I may know Him..."

- Spiritual growth is Strength in spirit, building your inner man, your inner muscles and strength. Having a depth of spiritual convictions having broad eyes that see God clearer.

- In spiritual growth, your spirit is beginning to get stronger than your body. The things of the Spirit are beginning to get more interesting and exciting to you. The energy you have now, is the energy of the spirit. The flesh is now subservient to the spirit, the world suddenly begins to fade away before your eyes with all its attendant beauties, and those who cling to and are captured and caged by the world now all appear blind to you. Your appetite for the world and the things therein suddenly gets reduced and only Jesus is sweet.
- Your definition of life now is no more in the physical understanding, but in spiritual things. Things like 'blessing', 'investment', 'food'... are no more explained in physical terms, but spiritually. Life is understood now in the perspective of the Spirit, no more of the flesh life is defined by how much it is lost for God, no more by how much it is gained for self by accumulation riches are calculated, not by the worth of goods, money or assets possessed, but by the wealth of grace It is no more by goods but by grace No more by gold but by God. Your net worth is no more determined by the abundance of things you possess, but by the wealth of God's divine presence that has replaced your desire and quest for worldly accumulations.

Are you waxing stronger in spirit, or both your spirit and body are still sharing spoils?, You love The Lord, but your love for God is not depleting your love and appreciation of the world?, both The Lord and the world are allowed to grow together in the same heart? I tell you, the world, like thorns will soon strangulate and kill the Word from your heart, and you will become unfruitful.

Is your spirit strong?, if yes, why are you daily a victim of temptation? Why is the flesh always overcoming your spirit?, is it not because your spirit is so weak? Daily victory is characteristic of the strong in spirit.

Are you growing in love for God, or you're growing in adoration for the world?


"...filled with wisdom..."

It appears from this verse as if heaven literarily filled Jesus up with a content called “wisdom”. It's like He was emptied of every other thing, and wisdom was poured into Him until He was filled with it. This means that foolishness was not present in Him, not even by 1%. If you shook Him a little or if you pinched Him, His only response was “wisdom”. If you collected anything from Him or robbed Him, you could be sure that the only thing He had to offer was what was present in Him, and that was “wisdom”.

The more a man begins to grow in God and in grace, the wiser he will become. He will have more grace and wisdom in dealing with stubborn men and stubborn issues, where other pompous men, who just carry titles on their heads have failed. It is expected that the more I grow in God, the wiser I will be. The Lord Himself will infuse into me a greater capacity to deal with men and with issues. I will be able to correct men graciously and tell them they are wrong, and they will not be offended or bolt out from God. The words on my lips will be comforting and soothing. My perspective to things will be as if it was downloaded from the presence of God, there will be deep insights from God Himself, and I will be a man with a distinction. People will come close, but they cannot fathom where this divine aura is oozing out from.

People from the academic who have learnt and studied so much, and packed things full into their brains would still wonder, "how come this man is deeper, richer and wiser than us, I thought if we applied this formula, it will steady things, but this young man just came and in simple speech and mannerism, everything became calm?". A man who has grown into God and into His wisdom is a man among men. His source cannot be fathomed, it's because he is filled with wisdom, so whatever comes out of him is uncontaminated by anything short of Christ Himself, the wisdom of God personified.


“...the grace of God was upon Him...”

The Good News Bible (GNB) puts this as "God's blessings were upon Him". Now I'm thinking, 'which blessings?' If God's blessings were so much upon Jesus, yet we didn't see Him build house, we didn't see Him owning mansions, buying cars, being rich in money, in cattle, in livestock, He didn't have changeable suits of apparel, He didn't have a retinue of servants to attend Him at each quarter of the day, He didn't have numerous options of dainties, garnishments, cousines, and aromatic meals to select from, then what were these plenty blessings that the Bible spoke of? Well the other versions simply put it as "the grace of God".

The abundant blessings that I seek from God are not received yet, if all I have to show for it are physical things that the Gentiles also seek after. True blessings are in the presence and the grace of God that transforms me from glory to glory into His divine image. It is not a crime if the things of the world are not at my disposal, it does not mean that I am not blessed. Several poor people are more blessed than those rich worldly men who pride about. If you are blessed, pride will be absent, 'show off' will be gone, Christ only will be seen, and the grace of God will continually ooze out of you unabated.