Growth and progressive multiplication has been central to God’s purpose and agenda for mankind from the beginning of creation. Through His declarations in Genesis 1:22&28, God coded growth and increase into the fabric of everything He created at the elemental level, such that the propagation and future development of all created things occurs naturally through the process of growth and progressive multiplication. As a vital ingredient necessary for actualizing God’s purpose and agenda in man’s life, God’s grace also has the capacity to grow and multiply. God’s grace is His unmerited favour made known through Jesus Christ, and it is expressed in the redemption and full forgiveness of sinners through faith in Him (Titus 2:11-12). At its basic stage, God’s grace offers to all human beings forgiveness, redemption from sin and adoption into God’s family. After enjoying the benefits of this basic stage of grace, God expects every converted person to grow in grace from one level of glory to another. The spiritual development of believers is a growth of grace that can be likened to the growth of infants into adults. Just as every father wants his baby to grow into the full stature of a man or woman, so does our heavenly Father want us to grow into the full stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

In 2nd Peter 3:18, the Holy Spirit admonishes us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. This establishes the growth of God’s grace in the life of every believer as a rule of Christian living. In Ephesians 4:13, the Holy Spirit further tells us that Christian growth must continue until we become perfect in faith and in the knowledge of God, to the measure of the fullness of Christ. Contrary to this expectation, many individuals in the Body of Christ are like sickly plants with very feeble growth, because they are not ready to put in the work or make the sacrifices that are needed to help them grow at the pace that God desires (James 1:25). Lack of spiritual growth in the Body of Christ is also caused by the reduced emphasis on the teaching ministry in churches and a clear departure from the principles and practice of sanctification by Church leaders. The Christian life is not meant to be stagnant; rather, it must be a progressive experience of encounters with God. Through constant Bible study and emphasis on growth in grace, let us daily aim to be perfect in our Christian character (2nd Peter 1:5-. Our love for Christ should wax stronger, even as our will becomes subordinate to the will and purpose of God (Acts 21:14).
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.