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25th February 2026
WednesdayReflection
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' by Cru Staff '
Campus Crusade for Christ International
"DISCIPLESHIP"
The Process of How We Grow
What's our part and what's God's in spiritual growth?
We need to shed some light on a great mystery of our faith.
It is something everyone seems to wonder about, but nobody talks about.
When it comes to spiritual growth, what's God's part and what's mine?
For lack of knowledge, Christians seem to fall off on either side of this horse.
On the one side, God does all of the work. We simply ask Him to fix us, or we wait for an experience where he takes away our sinful desires.
Sliding to the other side of the saddle, we reduce our faith to nothing more than discipline.
You stop doing bad things, and you start doing better things.
More accurately perhaps, we tend to favour the rodeo sensation of perpetually shifting from side to side.
We would suggest a model called "cooperative sanctification," which views the process of spiritual growth as a partnership.
Your job is to help another in the process of spiritual growth so it's rather important for you to understand how this partnership works, lest you ask them to do something, that only God can do, or expect God to do something for which your disciple holds responsibility.
The foundation for understanding this partnership is found in the following verse:
So then, dear friends, as you always obeyed me when I was with you, it is even more important that you obey me now while I am away from you. Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation, because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose.
.... Phil. 2:12-13
To get a better look at this collaboration, let's go back in history about 3,000 years.
We find the Israelites standing on the east bank of the Jordan River.
They've just been wandering in the desert for forty years following their exodus out of Israel.
They are poised to take possession of the land God promised them - "the land that God had given them."
This taking of the land, or clearing the property, is analogous on many levels (as we will see) to the process by which God makes us holy and rids our lives from sin: clearing or cleansing our souls is like the Israelites clearing of the Promised Land.
Having been promised the land, it must have come as a disappointment when they found out that God had not phoned ahead to the current inhabitants and told them to vacate the premises.
But it's not quite so bleak.
God promises to give them victory in their battles - to fight for them - though they will need to take the land one battle at a time.
Do you see a partnership?
God does not vacate the land for them, but neither does He tell them that they must clear it by themselves.
It is a project they will do together.
So, how does this partnership work? Who does what? Hang on, we'll get there.
In fighting each of our enemies - whether it's greed, anger, jealousy or lust - we must learn the principles of holy warfare and how to fight in partnership with God.
In fact, this is exactly what God wants ...
Before the first battle (Jericho) to conquer the land east of the Jordan River, the Israelite army sent spies into Jericho to, well, spy. There, they encountered a prostitute named Rahab who makes the following statement:
"I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you."
(Joshua 2:9)
Unseen and unnoticed, God was already at work causing fear and motivating to action.
A similar idea is found in this verse from Philippians: 2:12
So, God's part in our battle for holiness is to work in us to will and to act according to His good purposes.
God leads us into the battle.
He tells us what area needs to change.
He works in the realm of our emotions to bring about conviction or a distaste for certain sins.
He motivates us to want to change.
He is at work behind the scenes in our circumstances, and he provides encouragement to fight the battle.
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This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
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