Identity and Growth

Whew what a long summer!

Alright, now that we are headed into autumn, which is ironically the harvest time, we will be talking about a type of harvest and manifestation, or rather, how things grow. And by things, I mean us. Let’s just get started, shall we?

So for the last two sessions we have been talking about identity, and the struggle with identity, and more specifically what were the elements of our identity, and why we struggle with our identity. It ultimately boils down to our natural progression struggling with our spiritual progression to understand that first, we are made in God’s image and likeness, and then, we have a God-given purpose we must rely on God and His power to cultivate within us. We also are a part of a family and have a race/ethnicity, but those are easy(ier) to identify with (Psst: that’s that struggle).

But what does that growth look like?

Well, first, I want to briefly analyze the stages of natural and spiritual growth..just bear with me here:

The Nurturing Phase (Birth-5yrs): Usually lots of crying and questions.
The Discovery Phase (6yrs-11yrs): Usually we develop distinct personalities at this point.
The Identity Phase (there’s that word again, 12yrs-21yrs)
1. Surveying (12yrs-15yrs): We need to look around.
2. Experimental Phase (15yrs-18yrs): We start to do.
3. Closure of Identity (18yrs-21yrs): We “figure out” what we’re going to do.
Culture Shock (18yrs-26yrs): What we know isn’t what we know.
Career Selection (26yrs-32yrs): We choose where we are going.
Family Life/Prep for Retirement (32yrs.-65yrs.): We get the meat and potatoes out of life.

Some of you just read this and said “What? I’m ‘xyz years old’ and haven’t done ‘abc thing’.” Relax. Identity is nuanced, and so is choosing a life path.

But why this list? Well, by the end of Stage 1, we normally have a bearing of the heritage and ethnicity portions of our identity. We may have been introduced into the things of Christ, but we haven’t had a challenge yet to really get to know Him. Our parents are giving us everything (or should be, but that’s a discussion for the next blog). We normally don’t get a real experience with God until at least Stage 4 (kudos to those of you who got this earlier), and have to reconcile what we learned earlier with what we learn about God later in life. But how does learning God work? Here are the stages of spiritual growth:

Born Again (John 3:1-7; Ephesians 1:13-14): That Day 0 Faith.
Babe in Christ (1 Peter 2:2; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9): God loves on us and we learn our Word.
Son(Daughter)ship (Hebrews 12:5-13): The two P’s, Purpose and (Spiritual) Pruning. God lays the groundwork for our full measure. Identity becomes solid.
Overcoming the World (1 John 2:13b): This is where identity takes hold and doesn’t let go.
(Basic) Spiritual Maturity (1 John 2:13b-14b): We know who we are in Christ in operate out of consistent empowerment.
(Senior) Spiritual Maturity (1 John 2:27, Ephesians 4:12-15): Consistent empower is second nature; God is our own source, and identity is immovable.

Let’s note a few things before we continue:

These are basic guides.
Spiritual growth is bidirectional, without fuel, we can burnout and go back.
Most believers don’t make it out of the Babe Stage. You heard me right.
Son(Daughter)ship is probably the toughest phase, but this is my opinion. God’s tolerance for our nonsense thins significantly (grace does not stop completely though). Maybe I’m biased LOL.
The fight doesn’t end at maturity (or at all); we just become appropriately equipped to do battle.

Why do most believers fail to make it out of Stage 2? Simple. It goes back to what we talked about last time, coupled to the natural growth. Life can be rough, and life invariably brings us to a stage that challenges all we know. I would argue that maturity, natural or spiritual, is impossible before this point (Roughly Natural Stage 4 or 5). We love the idea of being a flower, but gloss over the journey of the seed. We struggle in our natural lives to find that right soil to get to the place where we can be grown spiritually, and develop the appropriate identity.

That’s a lot man. I’m going to stop here for now, and come back next time where we talk more about the journey of the seed and how fragile it is next to its soil. Hope you enjoyed this. Until next time, folks!