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

This passage is a short summary of the life of Jesus. As a child, Jesus did not stagnate. He neither diminished nor died out, instead, He grew. How? He waxed strong in spirit, He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.

The way the Bible described growth here is completely different from our own perspective of growth. Jesus grew, but the parameters used to describe His growth are not the same with the parameters we use. According to this passage, “Growing” means to wax strong in Spirit, to be filled with wisdom, and to possess more of Gods grace. Growth was not described physically. It was not measured by age, it did not speak about increase in size, academic knowledge or emotions. It did not talk about having more money, getting more famous or being more influential.

We would be looking closely at these 3 parameters of growth:

i. "He waxed strong in spirit"
ii. "He was filled with wisdom"
iii. "The grace of God was upon Him."

A. He waxed strong in spirit...

Waxing strong in spirit is different from waxing strong in the body. Many times, things get better for us in body and we accredit it to spiritual growth. A man may be daily waxing healthy in body, his business may start to boom because he joined church, or he may become more successful in his academics. All these are good, but they are NOT synonymous to Spiritual Growth. We erroneously feel that for God to bless a man physically, it means that God is happy with the life of that man. BUT NO! God was angry with Israel in the wilderness, yet, He was feeding them with manna and was destroying their enemies. Gods anger burnt so hot against Israel, but it did NOT stop Him from bringing water for them out of the rock. He even gave them Pillars of fire and cloud for protection and direction. God does not keep malice like humans, so you cannot judge Him as if He were a man. To understand His ways, you will need to know Him.

In looking at Spiritual Growth, it is wise to first see what Spiritual Growth IS NOT. Many people say, “oh! I have been a Christian for many years, in fact, if you know my position in church, the different capacities I have served and many exploits I have done for God, you will be amazed!!!” The question is, “Are you growing as a Christian, or you are simply multiplying activities?” What Spiritual Growth is NOT?

1. Spiritual Growth is NOT Academic Growth:

We bless God because your results are getting better in school. We are happy and we rejoice with you because you are having more understanding of your field of study and are topping your class… BUT, the fact that you are growing academically does not imply you are growing spiritually. Having a sound brain and getting more brilliant does not mean you are knowing God more. Your child may be facing her studies excellently and performing well, BUT IT DOES NOT MEAN she is also facing God excellently and performing spiritually well. Your new growth academically may even be a direct answer to prayer, yet, academic growth IS NOT EQUAL TO spiritual growth. If it was, the knowledge of science should have made our world godlier. But the reverse is the case.

2. 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 reverberating daily in church, increase in your finance may even have been prophesied, yet, this is NOT spiritual growth. That money is beginning to come, DOES NOT MEAN that God is smiling at you. That you prayed earnestly, and God answered, and your bounds are beginning to increase DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN that your life is right with God. Gods goodness IS NOT always PROPORTIONAL to Gods presence in your life. MORE MONEY IS NOT EQUAL TO MORE GOD. Gain is NOT godliness (1Timothy 6:5).

3. Spiritual Growth is NOT Secular, Business Growth OR Promotion in the Office.

It is very alarming today how people describe relationship with God by using several carnal parameters. It is good to have things, but secular growth, promotion in the office and business increase, come to one and all. Whether you are in church, in mosque, in club or in cult, everybody has a fair share of Gods goodies and blessings.
As the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and the sun reaches the good and the wicked, so also are these goodies distributed by a benevolent God to all and sundry. Whether it is business growth, promotion or it is increase in money, they are never the yardsticks to judge whether you are making progress with God or not. Having or lacking them does not mean God loves or hates you.

4. Spiritual Growth is NOT Ecclesiastical/Official Growth:

Are you a Pastor, a Deacon, an Evangelist, or you hold one position or the other in church, can I honestly speak to your heart that Spiritual Growth is not necessarily the same as Ecclesiastical growth, growth in church portfolio, church appellations or religious duties.

Your responsibilities in church may be increasing, yet your spiritual life may be at the zero mark. Heaven may not even recognize you. You may be promoted from a little leader over a few people to handle a higher responsibility with a bigger name, you may become the senior pastor or hold an ecclesiastical official title that confers more respect and authority, yet, that does not automatically translate to growth in your spirit. It is possible you may have even worked your way to the top through some cunny means completely contrary to Jesus. It is sad to say, but this is the truth: “Being busy or committed in church does not mean that the presence of God abides within your spirit”. Your height in church does not necessarily reveal your height in grace. You may have a big post, but a lean spirit. You may have a big head, but your heart is too narrow, and God in you is so little. You may be multiplying activities daily, but all you are using is human, natural strength, leading people with human psychology and the ideas of men. You do not hear God, honestly, you know you are far from God.

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. Do not begin to rejoice that you are growing in the Lord just because they promoted you in church. You should check your spirit closely whether you are making progress with God. A greater position is not necessarily because of greater spiritual life. You will need to be checking something deeper instead, “how rich is my personal relationship with God, how much of God do I really know? And how much like Christ have I become over the years?”

If Spiritual Growth is NONE of these aforementioned, WHAT THEN IS SPIRITUAL GROWTH?

"...the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit…” [Luke 2:40]

Spiritual Growth is growth in your spirit. It is growth in love for God. You will begin to derive more pleasure being in Gods presence ALL BY YOURSELF rather than being with any other person.

You will enjoy Gods presence more than travelling abroad. You will be saturated with more of God. Your prayer will be like Paul "...that I may know Him..."

Have you been lean in the spirit but, fat in body? You feed your belly so many times everyday with rice and beans, but it has been very cumbersome for you to feed your spirit and soul with the living Word of God? You remember your Bible only on Sunday even though you claim to be a child of God? Do you not know this is self-deceit? Have you covered up your internal rottenness with beautiful garments of church activities? You do so many acrobatics in church even though you know there are people you are still fighting with in your heart? Your heart can still harbor retaliation, unforgiveness and bitterness even though you are the choir master?

Are you dirty in heart, even though you are the Sunday school leader? Have you been in church for years, counting days on the calendar, but you know in your spirit that you are a hypocrite. You are not born again. You are like a goat in the midst of Gods people, though you wear the sheep clothes to cover up.

God can give you a new heart, and replace the stubborn spirit in you with the gentle, righteous spirit of Jesus.

"…and waxed strong in spirit…"

Spiritual growth is strength in spirit. It is building your inner man. Every normal man is strong in body, but for you to have a meaningful relationship with God, you must learn how to build your spirit and walk in the spirit. God is not flesh and body, God is a spirit. Any man who wants to serve God, MUST do so in the spirit. It clearly suggests then that for all your performances in the flesh, you never touched God because God is not available in the flesh.

Spiritual growth is having a depth of spiritual convictions with broad eyes that see God clearer. Your spirit begins to get stronger than your body. The things of the Spirit start getting more interesting. Your energy now is of the Spirit, and your flesh becomes subservient to the spirit. The whole world fades with all its beauties before you, and you lose interest in worldliness. That is when you are beginning to wax strong in spirit. But when you can enjoy worldliness and even defend it, then, you are still reveling in the flesh.

When you are strong in the spirit, your appetite for the world and the things therein gets reduced and only Jesus is sweet. Your definition of life is no more in the physical understanding, but in spiritual things. Life is viewed now in the perspective of the Spirit. Life is defined by how much it is lost for God, and NOT by how much it is gained for self by accumulation. As you grow in the Spirit, riches for you will be calculated NOT by the worth of money or assets you possess, but by the wealth of Gods grace in you. Riches are 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 Gods presence that has replaced your desire and quest for worldly accumulations.
Friend, do not tell me you are waxing strong in spirit when your fleshly appetite still enslaves you. You live by sight, and never by faith. Gods word to you is like newspaper. You have no affection for the Bible since your spirit is not yearning for it. The Bible looks like a fanatical book you do not carry or discuss among elites. You will rather discuss politics than Jesus. You are so awakened in the flesh that all your discussion time with friends, is about physical things. You discuss science, technology, sports and entertainment. You discuss the state of affairs in the country and the government, BUT when it comes to the things of the spirit, you switch off completely because you are not interested… If this is your state then, your spirit is lean. The Bible has become a Sunday-Sunday book to you, and you never personally initiate time to be with Jesus studying and enjoying His words.
Do you prefer to trust what you can see physically or what is logical than to depend on God? Do you take decisions without consulting God or bordering about the mind of God? You take decisions based on taste, feelings and desires? As far as you are concerned, you are smart enough to direct yourself? Your will is so strong, you never take anything to the Lord in prayers? Friend, your spirit needs to be awakened.

Are you waxing stronger in spirit? Or maybe for you, you claim to know Jesus, but both your spirit and body are still sharing spoils? You love The Lord but you love the world also. 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 your heart! Like thorns, the world will soon strangulate the Word from your heart, and your life will become unfruitful.

"Jesus grew, and waxed strong in spirit!!! " Is your spirit strong? If yes, why are you daily a victim of temptations?
Those in the spirit always ride over the sinking waters of sin, and they never sink. Their eyes are ever fixed on Jesus. Why is the flesh always overcoming your spirit? Is it not because your spirit is so weak? You battle with the lust for women in your heart every day! You struggle to be righteous. There is love for money and the world in your heart. You get angry and still justify yourself, you are covetousness, all manner of temptations overcome you… When are you going to be free? Daily victory over sin, devil and the world is a characteristic of all those who are waxing strong in spirit.

If you are waxing strong in the spirit, you will be becoming more like Jesus. You will grow in tenderness and humility, and the love for God will so much fill your heart. On things that used to hurt and easily get you angry, you will completely overcome them. You will forgive easily, and retaliation will no more be in your dictionary. Righteousness and holiness will clothe you as the days go by.

Friend, there is no stubborn child of God, there is no disobedient or obstinate Christian. Jesus has no child that is rascally or radical. All who truly met Jesus exhibit the beautiful life of His.

If you truly met Jesus and are walking with Him, you would never have escaped that brokenness everyone encounters when they meet the Lord. Those who belong to Jesus continue to wax strong in His spirit, and there is no room for the garbage of sin in their lives. Are you growing in love for God, or in adoration for the world?

The next parameter for Growth:
“Jesus was filled with wisdom:"

B. "...filled with wisdom..."

It appears in this verse as if heaven literarily filled Jesus up with a content called “wisdom”. It is like Jesus 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 or pinched Him, His only response was “wisdom”. If you collected anything from 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 head, have failed. It is expected that the more you grow in God, the wiser you will be. The Lord Himself will infuse into you a greater capacity to deal with men and with issues. You will be able to relate with men graciously and they will see Christ Jesus in you. The words on your lips will be comforting and soothing. Your perspective to things will be as if it was downloaded from the presence of God. There will be deep insights from God Himself, and you will be a man with a distinction. People will come close, but they cannot fathom where divine aura is oozing from.
Are you full of the wisdom of God, or you are full of foolishness? Are your words seasoned with grace, or you are that ungodly woman who is even bold to abuse people?
When men with worldly knowledge speak and argue, and they cannot agree, once you step into their midst with the presence of Jesus within, a little word spoken from your wealth of grace will immediately calm things down. A man who has grown into God and into His wisdom is a man among men. His source cannot be fathomed, it is because he is filled with wisdom, so whatever comes out of him is an embodiment of Christ Himself, the wisdom of God personified.

C. “...the grace of God was upon Him...”

The Good News Bible (GNB) puts this passage as "The child grew and became strong, he was full of wisdom, and Gods blessings were upon him." What other versions call “the grace of God”, the GNB simply calls “Gods blessings”. The question is, which blessings were upon Jesus? If Gods blessings were so much upon Jesus, yet we did not see Him build house, own mansions or buy cars, we did not see Him being rich in money, cattle or livestock. He neither had changeable suits of apparel nor a retinue of servants to attend Him daily. What then were these plenty blessings that the Bible spoke of? Well as the other versions simply put it, that blessing was "the grace of God".

Friend, you do not have those abundant blessings that you are seeking from God yet, if all you have to show for them are physical things that the Gentiles also seek after. True blessings are in the presence and the grace of God that transforms your life from glory to glory into His divine image. It is not a crime if you are not blessed with the goodies of the world, the money and the cars. BUT, IT IS A CRIME if your life is empty of the grace of God. If you do not have goods, it does not mean that you are not blessed, after all, Jesus your Master had none of those, BUT when your life is empty of Gods grace, even if you have all the riches of the world, you are a terribly poor man. Several poor people are more blessed than those rich worldly men who pride about in “nothing”. If you are blessed, Christ only will be seen, and the grace of God will continually ooze out of your life unabated.

Friend, are you waxing strong in spirit? Are you filled with the fullness of Gods wisdom? Do you have the grace of God upon your life or you are more concerned about how to secure financial and business breakthrough in your life which will never carry you anywhere?