{"id":895,"date":"2013-03-22T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mtvpastor.com\/?p=895"},"modified":"2013-03-22T09:00:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T14:00:35","slug":"the-quickest-way-to-grow-spiritually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/the-quickest-way-to-grow-spiritually\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quickest Way to Grow Spiritually"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>It\u2019s not more Bible study. It\u2019s not praying more. Recently I was listening to an interview with the great <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dallas_Willard\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dallas Willard<\/a>, a man of the faith with great insight on spiritual growth. A long term professor at USC, he has inspired generations of believers with his teachings. He was asked this question, \u201cIf someone came up to you and asked how they could grow in their faith, what would you tell them?\u201d Here was his answer:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDo the next right thing you know you ought to do.\u201d<\/strong> That was it. He didn\u2019t answer \u201cenroll in a Bible study class\u201d or \u201cpray more.\u201d His formula for spiritual growth is simple: obey what you know God has already told you to do. How different than the classical models of spiritual formation, where maturity is measured by how many Bible studies you\u2019re in! For Willard, spiritual growth comes not with information, but with application.<\/p>\n<p>In John 15, Jesus links obeying his commands with bearing much fruit, all of which lead to God\u2019s glory and our greatest joy. So, grow in your faith today. Obey God in some area of your life that you know you need to.<\/p>\n<p><em>QUESTION: What\u2019s the next right thing you know you ought to do?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not more Bible study. It\u2019s not praying more. Recently I was listening to an interview with the great Dallas Willard, a man of the faith with great insight on spiritual growth. A long term professor at USC, he has inspired generations of believers with his teachings. He was asked this question, \u201cIf someone came [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[139,338,529,1019,1350,1555],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible","tag-dallas-willard","tag-food-for-thought","tag-obedience","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-what-im-learning"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Quickest Way to Grow Spiritually<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It&#039;s not more Bible study. It&#039;s not praying more. 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