HOW SPIRITUALLY MATURE ARE YOU? - Amazon S3

E B O O K D O W N L O A D

HOWSPIRITUALLY

MATUREARE

YOU?A p r a c t i c a l e x p l o r a t i o n o f t h e

5 S t a g e s o f S p i r i t u a l G r o w t h

by Doug Paul

WEARECATAPULT.ORG

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction

Phase 1: Spiritual Infant

Phase 2: Spiritual Child

Phase 3: Spiritual Young Adult

Phase 4: Spiritual Adult

Phase 5: Spiritual Saint

Discussion Questions

pg 4

pg 9

pg 13

pg 17

pg 22

pg 26

pg 29

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INTRODUCTION

Introduction | WeAreCatapult.org

Perhaps the greatest invitation you will ever receive is the invitation to be a disciple of Jesus. TheGood News of Jesus is not simply that we get to spend eternity with Jesus but that life with Jesusis available right now! Eternity has already started for a disciple of Jesus...so why wait to get in onthat life?

We are learning to live into that heaven life today and the dominant way the New Testamentunderstands the process of living more and more into that life is through the metaphor of"growing up" from infancy to adulthood. There are many passages that cover this idea, but here’sone from Paul in Ephesians 4:14-15:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown hereand there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people intheir deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become inevery respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

For Paul and Peter, two New Testament writers who use this metaphor quite often, the ultimategoal of a disciples of Jesus is to grow up. In the same way that the goal of the human body is togrow and develop and to reach healthy adulthood, their hope for disciples in the first century (andfor us today) is to spiritually grow and develop into spiritual adulthood.

Using this metaphor, these are the 5 Stages of Spiritual Growth a Christian can look to as a guidefor what Jesus is doing in their life:

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Now there are two key components to growing up in a way that’s healthy and we will use thewords of Jesus to help us understand them. In John 4:21-24, Jesus tells a Samaritan woman:

“Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on thismountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; weworship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and hasnow come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth,for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipersmust worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The time that Jesus is talking about is when the barrier between heaven and earth is torn and theHoly Spirit is finally and fully available to the people of God. And the result of this outpouring forall disciples of Jesus to come will be a life marked in worship to God the Father by Spirit andTruth.

Let's put it another way: If you were to visit a pediatrician (a doctor who specializes in children),they would tell you that a child needs two basic things to happen for their bodies to grow up toadulthood in a healthy way: Good Nutrition and regular Exercise. Nutrition is the food you’reputting in your body that gives you energy. Exercise is how you’re working off that energy,growing and stretching your muscles, metabolizing the food into a healthy body. Remove one ofthose two things and you’re not going to have a healthy person. The same is true for us as spiritualbeings.

‘Truth’ is our spiritual food. Jesus himself says this when doing battle with the Tempter inMatthew 4: “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth ofGod.” The “every word” that Jesus refers to are all the the words of scripture, but also the wordsthat God is still speaking today (words that are fresh and new and specific to you or the church,but words that will never contradict the words of the Bible). We also recognize Truth can be thespiritual food of the Gospel, doctrine, sound Biblical teaching and theology.

‘Walking in the Spirit’ is our spiritual exercise. Paul says in Galatians 5, “since we live by theSpirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” In thinking about that exercise of spiritual energy, Paulsays in Colossians 1, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works withinme.” It’s not my energy that’s working. It’s the Holy Spirit in me.

Spirit and Truth are coming together in my spiritual body, as well as the spiritual body of thechurch. The result is that, over time and through the power of the Holy Spirit, just as a healthyhuman body changes and develops, we should move from spiritual infancy to adulthood. Weshould grow up.

5Introduction | WeAreCatapult.org







‘Truth’ is about BEING with Jesus. As we are with him, he speaks to us. He gives us words oftruth to guide us, direct us, comfort us, convict us, call to us, instruct us, delight us, grieve us,concern us, affirm us, exhort us. As the Spirit works out the Truth into us and the Gospel isactivated in us, the byproduct of the Spirit’s work is released, as we see in Galatians 5:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong toChrist Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by theSpirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Make sure to catch that piece right there in that last verse: Keep in step. It means that life in theSpirit leads to everything else so that Truth becomes an experienced reality; not just words on apage or things that only make sense in our head. We must keep in step with him. He’s blazing thepath and there is fruit from staying with him.

‘Spirit’ is about DOING the things Jesus could do. As his Spirit powerfully works within us, welearn to do the works of the Kingdom, participating with what God is already doing in this worldthat he so loved. The history of the Western church has a tremendous focus on Doing. If there’swork to be done, a hill to climb or a spiritual river to forge, we're going to step up and stand in thegap, right? But because we are doing it in response to what we think we should do, rather thanJesus inviting us to do something because he’s asking us to, we operate in our own strength. Notthe power of the Spirit. This can quickly lead to exhaustion and eventually spiritual burnout.

The goal for any disciple of Jesus is spiritual maturity as Jesus defines it. Often times the issue isthat we define spiritual maturity differently than Jesus or the writers of the New Testament.Maybe we think a spiritually mature person is someone who shows up to a worship service once aweek, serves in the church, gives a percentage of their money, tells people about Jesus andgenerally, over time, becomes a nicer person. Now those aren’t bad things to do. It’s just not howthe Bible understands spiritual maturity. Those aren’t the results we are really shooting for, if forno other reason you can do all of those things and not even be a Christian!

You see, in Western Christianity what we’ve largely done is lower the goal posts to match theresults we are getting.

Instead, we need to aim for the target that we’re given, not shoot the arrow and then say thetarget is wherever it lands! In thinking about the target, this is what Dallas Willard says about adisciple of Jesus: “A disciple is who Jesus would be if he were you.” What would Jesus be like andwhat would he be doing if he had your personality, childhood background, intellect, job, madethe same amount of money as you, had your family, and so on? That’s what you’re shooting for.

Introduction | WeAreCatapult.org 6







Truth (Nutrition) without Spirit (Exercise) is spiritual obesity.Spirit (Exercise) without Truth (Nutrition) is spiritual starvation.

Will you ever hit that target on this side of heaven? No. Of course not. But it’s still what we areaiming for because that's the life of eternity that we get to experience in flashes and glimmers today.

And this process of growing up takes Spirit and Truth:

Both lead to death.The purpose of food is to give you calories, which convert into energy in yourbody. You are meant to burn those calories! But what’s happened for many Christians is they getTruth, Truth, Truth...but they very rarely burn those Truth calories by doing something with it. It’sinformation for the sake of information. But that’s the foolish man that Jesus closes the Sermonon the Mount with! It’s just that we’ve normalized it.

In many of our churches today, we teach people far beyond their levels of obedience. At the sametime, someone exercising their spiritual gifts in a profound way does not mean someoneis spiritually mature. In fact, it can mean someone is spiritually dangerous. That's what we see inthe Corinthian church! It's also why we see so many Christian leaders with significant moralfailings. The DOING for God has far exceeded the BEING with God.

Perhaps the most important thing to hear is there is no "bad phase." No one can grow from infantto saint with the snap of a finger and actually, one of the most painful things for a person is whenthey are forced to grow up too fast! Each stage is good and is meant to last for an appropriateseason, with each phase giving you something irreplaceable that you usually only get in thatplace.

How to Use This ResourceThis resource is broken down into the 5 Stages of Spiritual Maturity. As I've said, one mistake wecan make is to ascribe "good" or "bad" to certain stages. This actually isn't a helpful way ofthinking about it. It's far more helpful to think about health. When a child is 5 years old, you wantthem to have the developmental aspects of a 5 year old. The problem is when you have thephysiological aspects of a 5 year old when you're actually 15. There's nothing wrong with beinga Spiritual Child or Infant. The question is this: How long have you been in that stage? Eachstage of spiritual maturity gives a really insightful and nuanced picture of a disciple of Jesus inthat stage. It uses the metaphor of "growing up" and fleshes it out, drawing analogies with yourspiritual life. You will undoubtedly find parts of your life that fit into one stage and other piecesthat fit into another. That's normal! What you're trying to do as you read each stage is determinewhich one seems the most like you.

Finally, each stage has some really practical application from why this stage may not want togrow up, important practical next steps and the "spiritual gold" this stage gives them that theyget to keep hold of for the rest of their life.

Introduction | WeAreCatapult.org 7







PHASE 1:SPIRITUAL

INFANT

Infectious enthusiasm about Jesus and the GospelInsatiable desire to learn more about God, his ways, his Word, the Gospel and the basics ofChristianity. It’s really hard to satiate the spiritual appetite of a spiritual infant.Strong dependence on a spiritual parent to walk them through not only the basics ofChristianity, but how to regularly get strong spiritual nutritionThey need a spiritual parent and community to watch out for their spiritual safety. They have no real understanding of the spiritual dangers of the world and the battle that iswaging around them.They see themselves as the center of their spiritual universeThey have no recognition of theirspiritual gifts and how they fit into the larger Body of Christ

Overview of healthy spiritual infants

Key scripture: 1st Peter 2:2: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.”

How are they at being with God on a relational level?Their relationship with their heavenly Father is new, intoxicating and exciting. But because theydon’t know the basic Christian practices of being with God, they are heavily reliant on God beingthe initiator and spiritual parents closely walking with them. Isaiah says in reflecting on the Lord,“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” This passage illustrates how God feels for one of hischildren. But we might miss what the infant’s experience is like. Their whole world is about theirparent! Spiritual infants love to be with God, like a puzzle piece fitting into the place it wascreated for. They can’t get enough. However, an infant only really does a few things: nurse, sleep,cry, relieve themselves (yeah...they poop a lot). And all of these things often involve their mom ordad. A spiritual infant is the same way. They don’t do much, but they definitely want time withGod.

Relationships with local Church and other BelieversWhile spiritual infants prefer to be with the person they are most spiritually close to, they lovebeing around other believers in almost any setting: worship service, small group, class, one-on-one in more informal settings….you name it, they will want to be there.

How are they with spiritual food? (Nutrition)Healthy spiritual infants have an insatiable appetite for nutrient-rich spiritual food. This means alot of time in the Bible, constant time returning to the Gospel and the basics of Christian teachingand theology. While they may not understand all of it on the first pass and spit a little bit of it up,they will inhale it and it will help them grow immensely.

Phase 1: Infant | WeAreCatapult.org 9







Share with them the trajectory of their spiritual growth from spiritual infancy to spiritualsainthood. Have them read the New Testament and show them how these early Christianswere living and how that’s the target of their spiritual life. That’s what “normal” can look like.The four things they need to learn how to do more than anything else in this phase: 1) Howeverything in their life fits into the One story of the Bible (The Gospel) and why it continues tobe Good News each and every day. 2) How to hear the voice of God and respond in lovingobedience. 3) How to pray. 4) How to engage with the person discipling themHelp them embrace the call of being a disciple and how everything in their life is to come underthe Lordship of JesusGet them sharing their story and newfound faith immediately, and help them learn to identifyPersons of Peace quickly.

How are they at doing the things of the Kingdom with the power of God?(Exercise)While they probably have the ability to start doing the things of the Kingdom immediately, theyprobably haven’t gotten beyond their own life-changing experience yet. They are just acclimatingto the fact that they have been spiritually re-born and are a new creation.

How are they living into their Ephesians 2:10 Personal Calling?At this point, they have no sense of their unique calling and purpose in Jesus. They know theyhave been saved from something, but they are mostly unaware that they have been saved forsomething.

How do they deal with sickness caused from sin?Spiritual infants don’t really know how to deal with sin. They are used to it and have been madehelpless by it. If an infant contracted a disease and was left to deal with it on its own, they’deventually die. Likewise, the spiritual infant will need a kind, grace-filled, highly present person tohelp them grow the spiritual muscle memory of repenting, changing direction with God's help,and living in grace as a way of life, which is always the antidote to the sickness of sin.

Important Practical Steps for Spiritual Infants








The joy of their salvation and their desire to share Jesus with people they know and love

Reasons they don’t want to grow upGrowth for spiritual infants, unlike almost any of the other phases, is largely dependent on thespiritual food they are taking in (time in the Bible, basics of Christian teaching, constantly comingback to the Gospel, etc), as well as extended time with God (with groups of Christians, with theperson discipling them, as well as on their own). As long as they are taking in good spiritualnutrition, spiritual infants will naturally grow.

The Spiritual Gold you receive in this stage. People can take this gold with themfor the rest of their life.








PHASE 2:SPIRITUAL

CHILD

The key characteristic of a spiritual child is how they are ruled by what they feel in themoment. If they feel like doing something, they will. If they don’t feel like doing it, theyprobably won’t. They are ruled by these powerful emotions.While they are still dependent on spiritual parents for a lot of their basic nutrition, the spiritualchild has learned to feed themselves. They may not know how to make a spiritual meal yet, butwhen it is put in front of them, they know how to eat it and will (even if it is accompanied witha little whining).They need a spiritual parent and community to watch out for their spiritual safety. They nowunderstand some of the spiritual dangers of the world around, but not fully. They will still runinto the street without looking both ways. They continue to see themselves as the center of their spiritual universe, but their experiencenow includes times when they realize others may not think this is true.Spiritual children tend to see the world in black and white, which means they often lack thewisdom needed to navigate the spiritual landscape of life in the Kingdom without someonewalking with them who sees the complexity of the terrain.

Overview of a healthy spiritual child

Key scripture: Ephesians 4:13-14“Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturemanhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer bechildren, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by humancunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes."

How are they at being with God on a relational level?Their relationship with their heavenly Father now includes highs and lows, which usually revolvesaround whether they get their way or not. When things are good, it’s like the relationship couldn’tbe better. But when spiritual discipline happens or suffering or when they see they aren’t thecenter of the universe, spiritual children will run away, hide and not come out for a while. Thegood news is they feel free to do this because they are so secure in the love that God has for them.

Relationships with local Church and other BelieversRelationships with the church and other believers can be a tricky thing for spiritual children. Onone hand, they feel very secure and confident in the love of the person they are most spirituallyclose to. However, spiritually children wound and bruise very easily and can hold grudges that aredisproportionate to the offense as they are good at making observations, but not strong atinterpreting their experiences. They will often resist spiritual authority, throw a tantrum anddemand their own way. If they don’t get it, they run way until their emotions cool off (which cansometimes take a long time). While they are usually OK with hanging out with spiritual adults andstill enjoy it, they usually prefer to hang out with other spiritual children. What they don’tunderstand is that other spiritual children aren’t equipped to help them grow up.

Phase 2: Child | WeAreCatapult.org 13







How are they with spiritual food? (Nutrition)While they will still eat good, solid spiritual nutrition, they most often do this only if forced to.They are much more drawn to spiritual food with empty calories; the spiritual equivalent tocotton candy, chips and candy. Having a mature spiritual adult making sure they are eating goodspiritual food is still essential, because left to their own devices, they will only eat junk food! Thisoften means they will value what others say or the wider culture says over and above what theWord of God, the Holy Spirit and mature disciples say.

How are they at doing the things of the Kingdom with the power of God?(Exercise)They are beginning to take some basic spiritual responsibility for life in the Body of Christ, butshould be limited to things with small spiritual and relational consequences. Failure and mistakesare a large part of their process for learning and it should be expected. Despite the possibility ofmistakes along the way, it’s important that they start taking spiritual steps in exercising the giftsof the Spirit, even if they are attempting to do the right things for the wrong reasons. The mistakesalong the way help shape Christ-like character. They have boundless spiritual energy and need toestablish patterns of spiritual engagement that goes beyond their own spiritual life.

How are they living into their Ephesians 2:10 Personal Calling?They have a little bit of recognition of their true spiritual gifts and calling, but they largely believethey can do anything. Some of this is from a good place: the boldness of their faith and arecognition of the Holy Spirit inside of them. Some of this is from an immature place: They mightthink things like, “Because I’m unique, special and the center of the universe, of course I can doeverything!” They don’t understand how their gifts and call are part of the larger Body of Christand how Jesus Christ is the Head.

How do they deal with sickness caused from sin?Spiritual Children are actually able to identify sin quite quickly. They will also ask for help veryquickly the first time something pops up and want to deal with it. But if it happens again andagain? They can start to wallow and whine and set up a permanent residence in that place,choosing to get used to the sickness of their sin rather than dealing with it.

Reasons they don’t want to grow upThere is a reason the large majority of Christians in the United States fall into the ‘Spiritual Child’stage. We are a culture that values instant gratification. Children want things their way, right awayand they will just take their ball and leave if they don’t get it. So if they find a way of constructing a spiritual life that builds around these desires they can live in this stage for a long, long time. In fact, if they stay in this place for too long, they will often fail to ever leave this stage aside from suffering a great tragedy or defining crisis-point in their life.








They need to be discipled by someone who will walk closely with them. In particular, thatperson will need to: 1) Challenge them to take in good spiritual nutrition and not just thespiritual food that suits whatever mood they happen to be in. 2) Encourage them to grow theirspiritual muscles as they engage with the things of the Kingdom in the power of the Spirit. 3)Help them develop habits of identifying sin in their life, repenting and living in the grace andfreedom of the GospelSubmit themselves to a spiritual familyHelp them create and live in simple, spiritual rhythms that can shape their life daily, weeklyand seasonally

The wonder they have at the bigness of God and the grand adventure they are on as they joinhis work in the worldThe boldness of their faithThe security of their identity that they are loved by God and a child of God no matter what

Important Practical Steps for Spiritual Children









PHASE 3: SPIRITUAL

YOUNG ADULT

The defining characteristic of spiritual Young Adults, and the easiest way to understand them,is that they have characteristics that are largely true of both spiritual children and spiritualadults.They are far more independent than children and can spiritually feed themselves. But they canswing back and forth between independence and dependence, overestimating their ownspiritual maturity.They no longer need a spiritual parent and community to hover over their spiritual safety. Theyunderstand many of the spiritual dangers that follow them on their journey and the spiritualbattles to fight. But they will regularly overestimate their spiritual stamina, which contributesto a spiritual leadership of fits and starts. Intellectually, they fully acknowledge they are not the center of the universe. But they oftenfind themselves sharing that space with the Lord, trying to “help him out” with their missionalzeal and fervor.They are going to have to wrestle through the experience of suffering and to move to the nextstage of spiritual life. Without it, they will stay in this phase.

Overview of a healthy spiritual Young Adult

Key scriptures:

Isaiah 40:32 | “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those whohope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run andnot grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

1st Timothy 4:12 | “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an examplefor the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

How are they at being with God on a relational level?Their relationship with their heavenly Father isn’t as close as they think it is. They genuinely enjoybeing with God. They enjoy being in his presence, praying, listening, being nourished by the Wordof God. But this is often put to the side by their constant desire to do things for God rather thanthe simple desire and action to be with God for the sake of that relationship. That is the Pearl ofGreat Price. Their relationship with the Lord can be quickly neglected by the pull of the missionand their passionate, zealous belief that God’s Kingdom will advance because of the work of theirhands. In all of their talk about how Jesus is the savior, from the outside, it might appear as if theybelieve they will be the ones doing the saving.

17Phase 3: Young Adult | WeAreCatapult.org







Relationships with local Church and other BelieversOne of the normal aspects of this stage of spiritual growth is in the strain of three different kindsof relationships. As they continue to live into their own spiritual personhood, they often createdistance from spiritual parents and assert their own independence. That’s normal! The second istheir growing cynicism about the church they are part of and the spiritual leaders they struggle tosubmit to, thinking things might be better if they were in charge. Finally, there are the people theyare discipling. Spiritual Young Adults have the capacity to disciple others and to invest intospiritual children of their own. In fact, they should be encouraged to begin discipling people.That’s critically important. But that doesn’t make them good at discipling people yet! At the endof the day, they have greater belief in their abilities to disciple than they have practical experiencein discipling. Will it be a disaster? Probably not. But that doesn't mean there won’t be a littlerelational difficulty.

How are they with spiritual food? (Nutrition)They can make their own meals and eat their own spiritual food. Sometimes they will fiercelyassert their ability to do it themselves, while at other times, they will be lazy and demand thatothers feed them. Left to their own devices, they will usually eat a mixture of solid, nutritious foodand junk food. However, because a strong foundations have been laid with the Gospel and solidChristian doctrine and theology, they are able to hold up under an ever-sliding-scale of spiritualnutrition.

How are they at doing the things of the Kingdom with the power of God?(Exercise)The real issue is they are burning way more spiritual energy than they are taking in spiritualnutrition. They will spend way more time doing things for God than spending time with him. Whilethis is inherently concerning and ultimately dangerous if someone stays in this place too long, thisalso provides the context for failure and repentance which can lead to far greater humility andsurrender to Jesus (the classic example is Peter and how he responds after denying Christ). Thisallows them to learn that they can do nothing in their own strength and that apart from Jesus,they can do nothing. Finally, they aren’t yet taking full Kingdom responsibility for things. They areonly taking responsibility for the things they like, find interesting and feel good at, whilejettisoning the things they don't really want to do.

How do they deal with sickness caused from sin?There is probably a much higher tolerance for the sickness that comes from sin for young adultsthan any other spiritual stage. Patterns and cycles of habitual sin can go unattended for muchlonger. Because they are focused on doing things, they spend less set-aside time with God, wherethey would normally attend to the conviction of sin. Coupled with a sense of spiritual immortalityand invincibility and the ability to minimize the appearance of sin, this is the spiritual stage wheremore Christian leaders are taken out by the enemy than any other.

.Phase 3: Young Adult | WeAreCatapult.org 18







A can’t-miss-step for moving into spiritual adulthood: Discipling other people. A key thing thatmoves someone from spiritual young adulthood to being a spiritual adult is having spiritualchildren. You can’t really mature beyond this stage without doing that.Once someone has reached this stage of spiritual development, it’s important they havesomeone they trust who is regularly speaking into their life who isn’t enamored by all that theyare doing, but might even be suspicious of it, thinking, “I wonder what they are trying toprove?”They need to make mistakes, but it’s crucial they have people to debrief with them to helpthem understand all that is going on so they don't live with a sense of shame or guilt.Their natural sense of boldness should be encouraged. But they will need to learn to discernwhen to say ‘yes’ to things and when to say ‘no’ to things. Continue to push them back to the Bible and to the simplicity of the Gospel that captivatedtheir heart when they were first brought from death to life in Christ.If their life or faith is being tested by suffering, encourage them to walk into it with the Lord.But you'll need to walk with them. This is where the deep waters are.

How are they living into their Ephesians 2:10 Personal Calling?They have a much better grasp on their own spiritual gifts, as well as recognition of the gifts theydon’t have. They are getting increasing clarity on their own personal calling. Spiritual YoungAdults are constantly looking to use their gifts, but don’t yet fully understand how to use them forthe Kingdom. It’s more likely their gifts continue to propel their agenda further because they usethe gifts as they think they can be used, not as how God wants to use them. Furthermore, as theyplay to their own gifts and strengths, they haven’t yet learned to lean into weakness andaccessing the power of God as they lean into the ways of Jesus where they have demonstrableweakness.

Reasons they don’t want to grow upThe primary hurdle in this stage is the final step out of the center of the universe. Up to this point,even if they haven’t wanted to admit it, Spiritual Young Adults still live as the hero of their ownstory. It’s a question about identity. The way it plays out here is the incessant need to be selflesslydoing things for God. But they are doing it in their own strength. Maybe things are going well,maybe they aren’t. But in some way, shape or form, they need to realize that unless they are doingthings through the power of God, it’s not of the Kingdom (even if it’s good!). This often the finalthings left to surrender because it’s ultimately a question about identity. Is Jesus enough? Is hereally the savior and not you? Finally, and this is a big one: They don't want to enter into suffering.Whether this is dealing with suffering that has been forced on them by life's circumstances, or bysomething specific the Lord is asking them to enter into, the fire of their faith is being tested. Manytimes, whether it is spiritually, intellectually or emotionally, they don't want to step into suffering.Unfortunately for their spiritual growth, there is no other way forward.

Important Practical Steps for Spiritual Children

Phase 3: Young Adult | WeAreCatapult.org 19







The joy that comes from seeing people younger in their faith journey experiencing spiritualbreakthrough as they disciple people for the first time. That joy never gets old.A new sense of security in their identity in the Lord as they work through failure and finallytowards total surrender.A faith memory of walking through something incredibly difficult where they felt they werealone in the darkness...only to discover that Jesus was more close than ever.


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PHASE 4:SPIRITUAL

ADULT

There are two characteristics that mark the lives of spiritual Adults: 1) They have a sustainablespiritual life. They are running the race and they will win the prize. 2) They are making discipleswho can then go and make disciples.They are skilled in discipling others who can make disciples, but they are still learning all thedifferent nuances of discipleship, as each person is different.They are independent and can take care of themselves, and a spiritual family, withoutanyone’s help. However, they have the maturity to know they still have much to learn, and sothey will still reach out to people further along than them to gain wisdom and insight.Spiritual parents are now the ones looking after protection and safety in the spiritual family,helping people navigate spiritual dangers.They are now used to being on the edges of theuniverse of their life, with Jesus alone standing in the middle, holding everything together.While they have surrendered fully to the words, works and way of Jesus, they are still learninghow to do this and what this looks and feels like practically.

Overview of a healthy spiritual Adult

Key scriptures: Hebrews 5:12-14“In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you theelementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who liveson milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solidfood is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good fromevil.”

How are they at being with God on a relational level?They have a close, familiar, comfortable relationship with their Heavenly Father. They regularlyspend time together. Time is not only set aside each day for listening and conversation throughprayer, reading the Word, and other spiritual disciplines, but they are learning to have an ongoingconversation throughout the day that doesn’t end. There will still be things from time to time thatthrow them off and insert fear, doubt or worry in their heart, but their relational life with God ismarked by a steadfastness and a depth that comes from knowing someone for a long time andhaving been through quite a lot together.

Phase 4: Adult | WeAreCatapult.org 22







Relationships with local Church and other BelieversAs a Spiritual Adult, they are often the ones helping to lead the local church and discipling andinvesting in key leaders, which is always a difficult task. They increasingly understand there areexpectations of what the church ‘should be’ or ‘ought to be’ that are more a reflection of thematurity stages of people who are spiritual infants, children and young adults. They are nowlearning to lead people and an overall culture needing to grow in spiritual maturity, and to do sowith the love, compassion and challenge that Jesus gave. But they submit to the spiritualauthority God puts them under, even if they would have made different choices than their leaders.Spiritual adults believe in the church because they believe in God and thus in God’s people,knowing that spiritual growth apart from the people of God isn’t possible.

How are they with spiritual food? (Nutrition)Spiritual adults not only eat good, nutritious spiritual food, they know where to get different kindsof food. Their own personal time in the Bible and prayer each day will provide a certain kind offood, time with close friends and believers will provide another kind, time in a worship servicesubmitting to the Word of God through preaching provides yet another. They recognize thatdifferent meals do different things and they don’t have an expectation that one kind of meal willdo everything. They take responsibility for feeding themselves, while still pushing the gatheredchurch to lean into their responsibility to spiritually nourish and form people and to not just givespiritual cotton candy.

How are they at doing the things of the Kingdom with the power of God?(Exercise)They are now fully at home in using their spiritual gifts and strengths, able to lean into what God isdoing at any given time. They are able to exercise these gifts through the power of the Spirit, nottheir own strength. They do not purposefully spend far more time doing these things of God thanthey do spending time with God. They have a sustainable spiritual life, able to read seasons ofspiritual rest and spiritual work, still learning to abide in Jesus in all things.

How do they deal with sickness caused from sin?If sin has a regular, ongoing foothold in their life, it is usually because they are unaware it existsand have a blind spot. Like an adult who suddenly realizes they have cancer, they deal with thefeedback they receive from others and then cut it out. So when patterns of sin are present, assoon as they realize it’s there, they take care of it, using the muscle memory they’ve built up overa long period of time to repent and walk out their life of holiness unto the Lord in grace..








Spiritual adults have either mastered or are in the process of mastering making disciples whocan make disciples of their own. They’ve become spiritual grandparents. The next step is totake a step backward in leadership, allowing the people they’ve discipled to lead larger groupsof people, letting them capitalize on the spiritual capital and influence they have.It’s important they regularly revisit the gifts they take with them from the previous spiritualstages. Otherwise, while there will be a certain stability and sustainability to their spiritual life,the boldness, passion and joy can slowly ebb away if they don’t attend to it. Move into roles beyond discipleship and into coaching of high capacity leaders in whateverministry or field of vocation they are part of.Continue to engage all of the heart and minds with the simplicity of the Gospel that captivatedtheir heart when they were originally brought from death to life.Make sure they continue to engage all that they do with an open heart. Don’t hold back. Thetemptation for the spiritual adult, because of their life experience, is to guard themselves alittle bit more closely than necessary. They need to continue to allow themselves to bevulnerable.

Assurance that they are going to run the race marked out for them and that they will run itwell. There is an ease, freedom and joy about knowing beyond knowing this to be true.Seeing the people you’ve discipled becoming significant Kingdom leaders.

How are they living into their Ephesians 2:10 Personal Calling?They are fully at peace with their spiritual gifts and have learned to exercise their spiritual giftswith skill and ease. They have not only arrived at clarity in the personal calling of their life and the“good works God has set aside for them,” but they are walking them out with confidence.Whatever Kingdom investment they make with their gifts, they usually get a disproportionatereturn of Kingdom fruit. In addition, they are comfortable leaning into weakness and using aspiritual gift that isn’t something they naturally have, but can access because of the power of theHoly Spirit working through them.

Reasons they don’t want to grow upThe only spiritual stage left is becoming a Spiritual Saint. The very few people they might meetwho fall into this category are usually advancing in age and appear quite detached from earth andthe in-the-weeds nature of day-to-day Kingdom engagement. They might say to themselves, “Itfeels like Sainthood means I’m done actively engaging with the Kingdom here on earth. There istoo much life to live and too much at stake to fix my eyes that heavily on the future and the lifethat awaits me once my eyes shut in this world for the last time.”

Important Practical Steps for Spiritual Adults









PHASE 5: SPIRITUAL

SAINT

The characteristic that most marks the lives of spiritual saints is the complete amount of peacethey have.They continue to disciple people who can make disciples, but the fruit of the life of thesedisciples is extraordinary. It is the testament of a life well lived.They can operate in such a way that they do not depend on hardly anyone for spiritual careand direction. It’s as if Jesus is right beside them the entire time. Because they know they aremodeling things for people with everything they do, so they still seek out insight, spiritualwisdom and counsel from others.Spiritual saints usually provide spiritual safety and protection for leaders overseeing multiplespiritual families of disciples. It’s not uncommon for them to spend much of their time inprayer for key Christian leaders in the city, church, business, etc, interceding for them andcontending for the Kingdom in prayer. Their universe has continued to shrink. At this point, there is only Jesus in the center. Theybarely register in the picture in their mind of what the universe must look like without Jesus inthe center. There is virtually nothing in their life that isn’t actively surrendered to Jesus.

Overview of a healthy spiritual Saint

Key scriptures: Hebrews 11:13-16, 39-40“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the thingspromised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they wereforeigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for acountry of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have hadopportunity to return.Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. ThereforeGod is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them...These were allcommended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God hadplanned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

How are they at being with God on a relational level?Their life with God is like the picture you see of God walking with his children in Eden in the cool ofthe day. Jesus is as present with them as the person sitting next to them. They walk the earth withGod like Enoch and Elijah, anticipating the day when the dark mirror of this world will be removedand they will see and experience their Lord in full.

Phase 5: Saint | WeAreCatapult.org 26







Relationships with local Church and other BelieversSpiritual saints are often the most quiet and observant people, rarely speaking but still verypresent in the life of the church and with other believers. They probably talk about half as muchas they did as spiritual young adults. As it relates to the church, the church is better served byletting the spiritual saint lead through presence and counsel and not active leadership by title.They will probably have multiple leaders they are discipling and investing in, which maximizestheir Kingdom impact. Sometimes this will be confused by insecure leaders as “not wanting topick a team” or feeling like “they are above the church.” The opposite is true. They spend themajority of time praying for protection and utilizing their time on people who are expressingsignificant leadership in various churches, organizations, business, public service, etc. The localchurch has expanded beyond one entity and has grown to seeing each city as really only havingone church: The Church of Jesus Christ.

How are they with spiritual food? (Nutrition)Spiritual saints still spend a significant time in the Bible, but the majority of their spiritual time isspent in prayer and conversation with the Lord. The majority of the Word has become part ofthem as they have spent decades devouring the Word of God. They have come to embodyJeremiah 15:16: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy andthe delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts."

How are they at doing the things of the Kingdom with the power of God?(Exercise)They are bearing significant, significant amounts of Kingdom fruit, continuing to abide in the loveof Jesus in all things. The majority of this fruit, however, is happening in and through the peoplethey are investing in. For example, whereas they might have an incredible evangelistic gift on theirown, they are now seeing an evangelism movement afoot as they have attended to multiplyingtheir gift and experiences to others, as well as prayer protection as they intercede through theleading of the Holy Spirit. They will still utilize their spiritual gifts, but now there is an exponentialfactor to their gifts.

How do they deal with sickness caused from sin?Everyone has bad days and spiritual saints still find themselves within a mortal body and mind.They are not perfectly free from sin or fully sanctified. But virtually no sin has any lasting footholdin their life.








As much as they yearn for the consummation of the life to Christ, they still need to be attentiveto the things that are happening here on earth.They need to focus on investing, coaching and discipling spiritual adults who are open andhungry for their input and investment. They will need to help them remember that it is onlythrough the power of the Holy Spirit that the Kingdom advances.Pray, pray and pray some more. Make sure they take the time to communicate the various things they’ve learned with thespiritual gifts they have. What’s the practical gold nuggets they’ve learned that they’d like tosee multiplied into multiple generations of disciples?

They will greet death as the thing they’ve been waiting for and not something to be feared.They will finally get to meet their King face to face.

How are they living into their Ephesians 2:10 Personal Calling?They have full access to all of their spiritual gifts and utilize them without a second thought asJesus directs them. Their personal calling here on earth and the good works set aside for themhave effectively been walked out. Everything now is extra. However, more and more of their timeis spent passing on the practical things they’ve learned about these gifts to the group of leadersand disciples they are investing in. They want to make sure they are passed on and thenmultiplied before their time here on earth comes to an end.

Reasons they don’t want to grow upThere is no further thing that awaits them in this life. Their life is now defined by a longing to beunified with Christ and his Bride, face to face, for all of eternity.

Important Practical Steps for Spiritual Saints









DISCUSSIONQUESTIONS

What were the places that gave you hope when you read

this?

What were the most challenging things to read?

What were the ways in which being a spiritual young adult

or child were appealing to you?

How have you done with taking the "spiritual gold" with

you after you've left a phase? What are ways that you could

go back and pick up the gold you might have left behind?

When you think about the current phase you're in, what

reasons for not wanting to grow up resonated with you and

spoke to your own experience?

Receiving investment from someone further along in their

spiritual journey is a big piece of growing up. Where have

you had that before? Where might you specifically need

that now?

Part of growing up is not only receiving spiritual

investment, but through discipling others, to give that kind

of investment! Where have you had breakthrough with this

before? What about now?

What's the biggest thing God is stirring in you in reading this

and as we're having this conversation?

If you could only implement two things from processing

where you are spiritually, what would it be?

29


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