Spiritual Growth: Stage Three

Stage three involves a drifting or fading away from reliance on God and a growth in God’s character. Many who go through the Twelve Steps over time can reduce their thoughts, diligence, and actions to keep growing with God’s character through the practice of spiritual principles. Spiritual results come from spiritual activity just as results of muscle development come through exercise and strength training. We are as fit spiritually as we train to be. Our souls reflect the principles we follow, whether they are about self-seeking, people pleasing, or aligning with God.

Just as it takes time to grow like it takes time for fruit to grow on a tree, the process of fading away from spiritual strength also takes time. The duration of growth or fading will vary.

A good way to measure our spiritual fitness is to examine our thoughts and insights about our underlying interests, goals, desires, and motivations. Are we desiring to grow with God? Are we thinking about God’s interests most of the day?

Distractions and new goals can sneak in to dominate our interests. A new career, job, hobby, or relationship can easily become our primary focus and reduce our attention on God. This seems to be relatively normal. Even David and the disciples got distracted. What makes the difference is getting back on course. Once again, we will need to reset our priorities to grow with God and counter any falling away from spiritual productivity.

Just as Twelve Step groups were designed specifically to help people achieve sobriety, this group is designed specifically to guide individuals back toward spiritual development and improvement. The substance is merely a symptom of our problem. Falling away from spiritual productivity has significant consequences.

At three years of sobriety, I wanted to die. I was depressed with a negative view on just about everything. This negative outlook was a direct result of my falling away from spiritual action and my commitment to do God’s will. However, I learned something of great value in this process. Just as I had to fail in controlled drinking to understand I needed help, I had to experience a sense of failure in managing my sober life to realize I needed God. The fact of the matter is that when I wholeheartedly devote myself to God, albeit imperfectly, I experience positive spiritual results. When I take ownership of my choices and character development and improve them to align with God’s will, my soul becomes filled. This has been proven to me over decades through action. I only learn the truth when I walk in it and live out God’s character.