Growth – Walking In Power with Nate Ortiz

Everyone, thanks for tuning in to Walking in Power.

And I just want to talk today about growth.

Growth is one of those words that we hear a lot in culture today where you want to see

growth in a certain area of your life.

And so when we think about growth in the culture, we think about there's an area of your life

that isn't quite where it needs to be or maybe there's this idea that you're not fully,

you're hitting the marks that you want.

I want to talk about this idea of growth and we often want growth come quickly and

smoothly.

But when I think about growth in terms of where God would desire it, there's a slow

growth that takes place in our spiritual walk with him.

Now we could grow in leadership, we can grow in just physical strength or whatever that

might lead to physical health.

Lots of different areas.

But the idea of spiritual growth typically happens over a period of time.

One of the wisest people I know, never just woke up one day and they just had this wisdom.

It was something that was compounded over time.

It was disciplined.

It was learning how to trust God.

It was learning how to lean in to His word when it was hard.

And there's a richness and a depth that comes to with their spiritual growth.

And so I want to just highlight this scripture in Luke chapter 2 verse 40.

It says, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor of both men and God.

And I want to just talk about those three.

I've just grown in wisdom, growing in stature and growing in favor.

I've talked about it before, but I just want to just pull back for a moment.

I think we all want to make sure that we are growing in the right areas.

Many times I think it's a difficult balance in leadership or in our faith where we

have a lot of leadership.

Sometimes we want to grow, grow, grow, grow so much.

But in a natural space, not everything that grows is healthy.

Right?

You're an adult and you're done growing.

But you started growing 10 or more inches as a 40 year old or a 50 year old.

There'd be something wrong or if there's something growth on your body that's not supposed

to be there, that would be something that would have to be looked at by professionals.

So this idea is so dig the idea of growth that we're not asking ourselves is this healthy.

All growth that comes from God is healthy.

It's meant for you and sometimes the growing takes a long period of time.

So if it happens quickly or not.

But get this idea in your mind when we talk about your wisdom, stature, and favor that

these things happen typically slowly and they're always worth it.

When I think about the wisdom, the wisdom that comes from God doesn't come from just saying

why I've read something and I've retained it and how I got it.

But wisdom from God is something that you take and you receive but then you apply it to

your life.

And the wisdom is not saying why I applied it once and it didn't work.

But the wisdom is to say, I know this is the way the truth in the life as the word says

and I'm going to continue in that way.

You have to have a great level of discipline to learn how to trust God even when it doesn't

feel like things are going your way because we feel like I have to know before I commit.

But that's not wisdom.

When wisdom is saying, Lord, I'm only in two ways.

It may not make sense to other people, but I'm going to stand true to what your word says.

Do you operate in wisdom or do you operate in experience?

You'd love to have both but I think wisdom is knowing when to do certain things and when

to operate just from experience.

So ask yourself that today as you grow in wisdom as you Jesus did, are you growing in the

right things?

The second thing is stature.

For Jesus to grow in these areas, we should be growing as well.

So when I think about the stature that we can grow in and develop, what is it about your

life?

What are you really building your life upon?

Are you a person whose character, good habits and healthy habits?

Are you someone that says, when people look at my life, there is an element of me that people

can say, man, they are operating at such an efficient level or they are operating at

a spirit of excellence.

They are someone who really means what they say because they are a person who is dedicated

to their stature, their being of who they are.

Jesus, when he walked this earth, there was never a question of, is he really about this

life and that he is the son of God?

He lived his life in a way that people knew that he meant business.

And in your faith, in our lives, are we those types of people that we take our faith

seriously that we are not just saying, well, it works for you when it works for you

and it doesn't when it doesn't.

It's not having faith in the Bible, it's not just a leadership book or it's not just

something you get through tough times or something to pull from, but it's much more than

that.

It's really this transformation of our lives.

And so when we understand that the Bible really begins to help us in our stature and

what we are building and who we are becoming, and that's an amazing journey to be on.

When you look at the aspect of your growth over time, there are certain things in your

life that you didn't operate in when you were 12, 13, 14, some of the things came through

time, some of the things came through experience.

So always trust God in these moments where you are looking to build who you are and how

you operate in this life.

And then I think the last one, we're talking about wisdom, stature and favor with men

and God.

There's no better place to be than to be living your life.

Say, God, I'm going to honor you, but also I'm going to honor the people that around

me through your word.

And when you think about it that way, when you have faith with men and God, I mean it's

like this great one to punch that wherever you go, God is with you.

But then whoever you're with, they're encouraging you or there.

You have favor with these people.

And think about it this way.

If you were at a big sporting event and you knew the owner of the team and you were able

to say, well, hand out the owner, have favor with them and they're going to let me sit

on the sidelines.

They're going to let me sit the front row, whatever that might be or might get to meet some

of the players because you have that access.

You have that favor with someone.

And sometimes favor, it's unique that you can meet someone and just so one takes to you

and someone says, hey, man, there's something about you.

I want you around me.

And I think that's what God does in our lives.

And there's times we fight.

I don't even, I don't feel like I earned to be in this room.

I don't know if I got earned to be on these people.

But that's what God is favor will do upon your life when you begin to be in different

spaces and people just pull you in.

But it's not just for your own sake, but for the people that are around you that you can

pour into, that you would grow in the area of favor.

And I think you do that when you line yourself up with God's word because when you're lined

up, it's a lot easier to bless you than if you always have it being brought center.

So listen, I encourage you to think about growth in your life and your spiritual journey.

What are the areas that you can think about the same?

I need to improve in this area or I need growth in this area because God is faithful to help

us.

Even as hard, even as difficult, even as we're not seeing the growth that we want to

right away, God is faithful to do it in our lives.

So listen, I hope you have an amazing week.

I hope you are able to show this video off where we are.

Think about, hey, what are the areas that I need to grow in?

Where the areas need to have some wisdom, growth in wisdom, growth in my stature, and growth

in favor.

Now, that last one, you have to get the first two before you get that last one.

Sometimes we just want the favor, but say, Lord, I need wisdom, I need the stature of

who I am, the character, the integrity of a part of me.

I want to have those things.

The favor of God is going to be upon my life.

So I have blessings as you guys go throughout this week.

May you give God your very best and I assure you you are going to get closer and closer to

Him.

And when you get closer and closer to Him, you're going to learn so many different things

about yourself and your relationship with Him.

So hey, have a great week.