Establishing Spiritual Formation: Growing to the Fullness of Christ’S Stature Volume One

By B M Way

If you are spiritually spent, burned out and cut down. There is hope that you will sprout again and grow anew. Though your root has grown old in the earth and your stump decay, at the scent of water (these principles), you will sprout again:
=>your decaying stump, old roots and shaky foundation cannot impede your sprout.
=>your resilience potential is anchored by your spiritual formation, which initiates the dynamics of a new beginning.
=>your chronological age is not a limiting factor to your spiritual growth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462010332

B M Way

Mshelia W. Birma was trained in the field of spiritual formation by professor David Seiver of Ashland Theological Seminary. He holds a BSc. degree in Physiology, and has been a Bible study leader in word of life full gospel Church Biu and Church of God mission Int’l Inc., Damaturu for a couple of years. He has been a contributor in The consultant Magazine, Leaders beat Magazine and The Mark News Paper. He is the founder of legacy writing and educated Inc. He resides in Yobe State, Nigeria and is married to Dorcas Jummai Birma.

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Contents

Chapter 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Section 1. GROWTH

Chapter 2. GROWTH MECHANICS

Chapter 3. THE PRINCIPLE AND CONDITION FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Chapter 4. GROWTH PUNCTUATORS AND TERMINATORS (predators).

Chapter 5. THE COST OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Chapter 6. POSITION YOURSELF FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Chapter 7. KNOW YOUR GROWTH’S PEAK

Chapter 8. THE DISTINCTION OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH.

Chapter 9. WHY CLING TO THE NURSERY BED

Chapter 10. ABORTED FETUSES

Chapter 11. DEFORMED FETUSES (disfigured seeds)

Chapter 12. THE CONERSTONE OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Section 2. FRUITION

Chapter 13. MECHANICS OF FRUITION

Chapter 14. KNOW YOUR SEASONS

Chapter 15. TRAVAILING IN THE PLACE OF FRUITION

Chapter 16. MAKE TREE GOOD AND ITS FRUIT WILL BE GOOD

Chapter 17. THE GLORY OF THE FRUITION IS THE LORD’S

Section 3. LET’S HEAR THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER

Chapter 18. MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS ON SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND FRUITION.

Chapter 19. RUN TO THE SECRET PLACE FOR GROWTH AND FRUITION

SOURCE INFORMATION

* Vine’s complete expository dictionary of old and new testament words© 1984,1996, Thomas Nelson Inc., Nashville

* Oxford cyclopedic concordance © Oxford university press, American branch, New York.

* Awake magazine © watch tower Bible and tract society of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.

* Plain Truth magazine by worldwide church of God, 300W, Green street, Pasadena, California 91123© 1995. All rights reserved.

* Upwords ® Max Lucado ministries, Oak Hills Church, Sanantonio.

*Spiritual formation and leadership training by Professor David Seiver, Ashland theological seminary.

* Power of positive living © Norman Vincent Peale, 1898 published by doubleday a division of Bantam doubleday Dell Publishing groups Inc.

*How the Holy Spirit shapes you into the likeness of Christ © professor Terry Wadle. All rights reserved

*Physiology of the Human Body © 1979 J.R. McClintic

*Why you act the way you do © Dr. Tim Lahaye

*Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by international Bible Society. Used by permission.

* Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New living translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale house publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

* Scripture quotations marked NCV are taken from the Holy Bible, New century version, copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by word publishing, Dallas Texas 75039. Used by permission

*Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, Old King James version. Copyright © used by permission.

*Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James version. Copyright © used by permission.

*Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Holy Bible, The Amplified Bible. Copyright © used by permission.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My heartfelt thanks goes to the Arch Bishop of Church of God Mission, Most Rev. Dr. Magaret Benson Idahosa for your spiritual leadership that’s brought us thus far. You shall ride endlessly on the heights of the earth and remain a ministerial icon of excellence of all times.

Special thanks to Professor David Seiver of Ashland theological seminary, my tutor and mentor. Your life of humility and selfless service has taught me deep lessons and truth immeasurable.

I would like to appreciate Rev. Williams E. Adeyemi, the senior minister, Church of God Mission Inc., Damaturu. You have done much more than words can say. You shall eternally remain a name and a memorial in God’s house.

I would not forget Pastor Daniel G. Medugu, the senior pastor, Word of Life full gospel Church Maiduguri and his wife Mrs Justina Daniel. Your encouragement is inestimable. May your battlements be made of rubies and your gates of sparkling jewels.

Special thanks to my friends and siblings: Shadrack U. Victor, Ibrahim Williams Mshelia, Suleiman Ari, Rev. Golshit Pwankit, John Ichema, John Out, Dele Gbore, Dr. Philip Mshelia, Ladu Wayuta, Helen Miya Mshelia, Lakushe W. Mshelia, Victoria S. Wayuta, Andrew Mshelia, Amos Wayuta and Alheri W. Miduku. You have been a source of confidence.

To my Parents, Mr and Mrs Wayuta Miduku Mshelia: you have planted endless smiles on my face by offering those endless prayers for me. May you live to see goodness and mercies from on high.

To my wife Dorcas Jummai Birma: you have been an embodiment of encouragement and sacrifice. May your cup never run dry. Believe me, you are one in a million.

How can I forget you, Helen Miya Mshelia, you have exerted the greatest influence on my literary ministry. God is stooping from His throne for your sake this season. Remain Blessed!

Mshelia W. Birma

January 2011

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my sister: Helen Wayuta Mshelia

PROLOGUE

This is a piece with a gross and a crude presentation of rules, examples and mysteries as deposited in nature by God, whose heart beat is to breed impregnable strains of heaven led investors and purpose driven entrepreneurs with a real, practical and workable concept for spiritual growth and fruition. This piece is practical, reproducible, dependable, indispensable and has a title idea that forms the basis of Christian spirituality, which cannot be interchanged, substituted, accepted halfway, modified and diluted.

You are literally invited to God’s secret place, where He displays the perfection of His components and a showcase unit of His identity, supreme structural and functional units that worked our redemption by the cracking of a code containing a record, debt and charges that had held man beneath God’s glorious standard. It further unravels the secret place as a place where God reshapes, remodels and sculpts man’s spiritually deformed nature to become a replica of Christ, who is the cornerstone of spiritual growth; the backbone of spiritual formation and the central support of spiritual development/structure with a firm/sure foundation, whose architect and builder is God.

This scientific approach adapted here is excellent, in that it relates the entire architecture, general concept and governing principles of spiritual growth and fruition simultaneously. As you traverse this volume (volume one), you are already initiating the dynamics of your transformation into a spiritual giant in the fullness of the stature of Christ. Shalom!

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Spiritual formation relates to growth and fruitfulness, which entails yielding spiritual profit, gain, increase, return, interest, result and award. It is generally a positive action that brings about addition and multiplication of virtues spiritual procreation or production.

The life of Smith Wigglesworth also called the Apostle of faith whose health was oppressed for years was a typical description of growth and fruitfulness. He was confined to that state because he had not developed the virtues deposited in him by God. At a point he became tired of taking drugs and embarked on developing the faith he needed to overcome the disease that oppressed him. In short tome he was able to develop his faith and establish healing in his life supernaturally. He did not just stop there; he went ahead healing people, bringing about deliverance from the power of darkness. Developing his faith was the growth aspect of the formation, while healing others was the fruit he produced.

Some people were brought up in a world of hate and chaos that they find it difficult to enjoy love and ultimately love others. Enjoying love is a growth path and loving others is a fruit you must produce. Spiritual growth and fruitfulness cut across virtues like faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, love (brotherly-kindness), joy, godliness, righteousness, patience, peace, souls etc. Any of these virtues you develop from latency to a manifest state is said to have grown. When that virtue is invested in others to a point that it yields increase, fruition is said to have taken place. Using the concept of spiritual formation, you can create your desired miracles and dreams by bearing fruits of praise and victory. Paul and Silas sited in a dark and horrible prison created an atmosphere of freedom by bearing fruit of praise (Acts 16:16). That prison of anxiety, penury, pain and instability is still existent because you have not collided with the concept of spiritual formation.

Spiritual formation is not a function of your intellect or political status. It’s all about keying into the supernatural to activate and develop all that is needed for life and godliness. Norman Vincent Peale narrated the story of a President in Central American country who had problem of bearing fruit of happiness and peace as a result of some official indulgences that relate to killings as a military head of state. He related, I am an army man who finally became a general. As you know in our country we have heard insurrections and revolutions. As a commander, I have given orders that have resulted into taking of lives, though I have never personally killed a human being. I am troubled about my eternal soul. Will God forgive me for this evil? I ask Him, ‘God, have mercy upon me’ Will? After a session of counseling and prayer, he was able to look deep within to grab and activate forgiveness to bear fruits of joy and happiness

The word GROW is taken from the Greek word auxano which could mean ‘to grow or increase.’ hyperauxano means ‘to increase beyond measure,’ which is used to describe an internal organic growth as of a tree. [Vine’s expository dictionary].

The Greek word caprophoreo means ‘to bear or bring forth fruit,’ which could be used in the natural sense and also in the metaphorical sense of conduct or that, which takes effect in conduct [Vine’s expository dictionary].

Growth and fruitfulness are God’s basic expectations from a believer from the very day he was made a heir of the kingdom, via the new birth (being born again) that has made him a seed. Growth and fruition are developmental stages designed by God Himself. They are not suggestions but commands from the master creator, which we must adhere to, if we want to be relevant in this world and in the world to come. Spiritual growth and fruition are not for a selected few, but for all believers because in our designation there is the potential to grow and bear fruit spiritually. All virtues in us are expected to grow and become fruitful unconditionally. I dare to say today that we were programmed for growth and fruit bearing. When this program is distorted by extrinsic forces (forces of darkness), we lose this ability.

A virtue is anything that procures preeminent estimation for a person. This covers intrinsic eminence, moral goodness and impression made on others. Virtues that can be grown and multiplied are not just limited to the fruit of the Spirit. It also consist of your spiritual gifts, skills, services, potentials and visions/dreams.

All virtues are meant to expand and diffuse spiritually. If they were deposited in us for interior decoration, or meant to add to our weight, then the purpose of that deposition is defeated. Your body is the best site for germination and fruition of these virtues.

Embryology (study of the embryo in the womb) tells us how man has been able to defeat extinction via reproduction and growth. A seed (spermatocyte) planted in the uterus develops into a fetus, infant, child, adolescent, young adult which reproduces in turn, and so the circle continues, and extinction is defeated.

Medical science reveals that one of the youngest mothers ever seen was a mother at the age of five [Physiology of the Human body By J. R McClintic]. There is no manipulation or maneuver that will enable this little mother to successfully carry this fetus for nine months and then successfully bring it forth. This is because maturity precedes fruition. And knowing fully well that it is a prerequisite, no one expects fruit from a tree that is still at the seedling stage of development. Jesus once saw a tree and cursed it because there was no fruit on it. I am very sure He would not have even drawn close if it were at the seedling stage. However, because it was fully-grown and had no fruit, its existence was terminated.

Reproductive ability varies among primiparous women (giving birth for the first time) and multiparous women (that have given birth more than once). In essence, God will not expect you to produce fruits beyond your level of maturity: neither will He expect you to produce fruits below your level of maturity. We are to bear fruit in proportion to our level of development.

Growth and fruition are marks of distinction among living things. They are principal characteristics of living things, and the prominent potent forces that can combat and defeat extinction. All living things that have gone extinct stopped growing and multiplying. Living things that are referred to as endangered species are known to be struggling with growth and fruitfulness either by reason of attack from a predator or due to personal or natural factors. Either way, the inevitable is extinction.

To fully comprehend the mechanics of spiritual growth and fruition, it is important to study it from a scientific perspective since they are things we see from time to time and possibly practice. Despite the fact that scientific growth and spiritual may not be perfectly compatible in all stages and possibly governing principles, it still relates to us the entire concept of growth and general architecture of fruition.

The battle between growth and extinction is like the battle between God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. In spiritual growth, extinction is a point where the gates of hell prevail against a believer. They are said to have prevailed because they have succeeded in distorting your designed modus operandi to a contrary direction.