Grow Up & Live Differently | Spiritual Authority – Sons & Daughters

Grow Up Into Spiritual Maturity

What does it look like when our lives actually reflect who we are as sons and daughters of God?

In Spiritual Authority: Sons & Daughters | Grow Up & Live Differently, Pastor Chad Everett challenges believers to examine whether their daily lives reveal spiritual maturity or whether they are still controlled by attitudes, emotions, and behaviors that keep them living like slaves.

Galatians 4:1 describes an heir who, while still a child, “does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all.” His identity is not the problem. He is an heir. Yet his immaturity affects how he experiences what already belongs to him.

The same can happen in our relationship with God. Through Christ, we become sons and daughters, but we still need to grow spiritually and learn to live according to our new identity.

“Our spiritual maturity will determine our spiritual experience.”

Be Led by the Spirit

Spiritual maturity is not measured by age, years in church, or how much Christian information we know. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul speaks to believers and describes them as carnal and as babes in Christ.

Chad defines a spiritual person as someone whose pattern of life is controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:14 says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

This gives us an important question to ask: What is controlling and directing my life?

We may follow the Holy Spirit in some areas while allowing our feelings, desires, habits, circumstances, or relationships to control us in others. Growing in spiritual maturity requires allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal those areas and lead us into a different way of living.

Recognize Carnality in Your Life

Paul gives practical evidence of carnality in 1 Corinthians 3: envy, strife, and divisions. Those same issues can appear in our lives through jealousy, comparison, uncontrolled anger, arguments, offense, gossip, and attempts to pull other people into our conflicts.

God does not expose these things to condemn us. He reveals what is keeping us in bondage so He can lead us into freedom.

“He’s not beating us up with it. He’s saying, ‘You’re hurting yourself.’”

Instead of defending or excusing carnality, we can repent, surrender those areas to Jesus, and allow the Holy Spirit to change how we respond.

Invest in Your Spiritual Growth

Spiritual maturity requires intentional investment. Chad challenges us to consider how much of our time actually goes toward developing our relationship with God.

Prayer, Scripture, worship, listening to God, and relationships with other believers create opportunities for the Holy Spirit to form us. If nearly all our attention goes toward the natural world around us, we should not expect spiritual growth to happen automatically.

“I am not going to be a spiritual person on 1% of my time.”

Growing as a disciple means intentionally making room for Jesus and practicing what He teaches us.

Live Differently as a Son or Daughter

Jesus calls His sons and daughters out of bondage and into freedom. Difficult circumstances will still come, but those circumstances do not have to control how we respond.

As spiritual maturity develops, something about our lives should look different. We can think differently, talk differently, handle conflict differently, treat people differently, and respond to pressure differently because the Holy Spirit leads us.

God is not calling us out of carnality to beat us down. He is inviting us into freedom.

Grow up in the Lord. Let the Holy Spirit lead you. Leave behind the things that have controlled you, and learn to live differently as a son or daughter of God.

Scripture References
Galatians 4:1–7, 1 Corinthians 3:1–3, Romans 8:12–14, 1 Corinthians 2:14–16, Romans 16:17–18