The evidence of spiritual growth that you are having as a Christian can be more subtle than you realize and that is why many good-hearted Christians spend many years wondering if they are growing at all.
It is difficult for a person to recognize spiritual growth. Now, it’s not a certificate nor a sense of sudden emergence. It often comes up out of nowhere. At some point you realize that you reacted in some way to a tough situation that you did not react to it two years ago. You know that a temptation that felt powerful once has less power over you. You notice that your prayers have substance and authenticity that they never had before. The real evidence are those quiet shifts.
This article is designed to help you determine if you’re really growing in your faith or just going through the motions. There are ten things that are not related to performance or religious activity. They are about the real, internal changes that genuine spiritual growth produces.
10 Signs You Are Growing Spiritually as a Christian
I hope these 10 points will help you see that you are growing spiritually as a Christian, rather than acting religiously, but not changing interiorly.
1. You Are Bothered by Things That Did Not Bother You Before
This is an unusual but very reliable first sign. As you get better you have a more sensitive conscience. You begin to notice behaviours in yourself that you’d never noticed before. Things that used to make you look the other way now cause discomfort.
The Holy Spirit is at work as He promised! Conviction to sin, not to shame, but to bring one to something better. If you come to the conclusion that you have seen yourself less good than before, then this is far from stagnation. It is an indication of a more sincere and open fellowship with God.
2. You Find Prayer Changing From Obligation to Conversation
Prayer is a task in the early years of people’s faith. A point to be earned. A required communication with a God who is listening but feels distant. There is always some change when growth occurs. Worship begins to feel more like a conversation and less like a performance. Praying not just when it is supposed to be prayed, but also in little bits of time throughout the day.
The content is also updated. You’re not just asking, you’re telling God the truth about your struggles, what you’re actually thankful for, what you’re actually going through. It is not so insignificant that the change in the texture of prayer is too remarkable to be a sign of real spiritual growth.
3. You React Differently to Difficult People
One of the most obvious indicators that you are growing spiritually inside is your ability to deal with those who are really hard to be around. Not the same, not without frustration, but differently. You see patience you didn’t see before. You’re genuinely curious about what’s causing a challenging person’s behaviour rather than reacting to how they are reacting to you.
This is the fruit of the Spirit in the reality of life!
Galatians 5:22 describes love, joy, peace, and patience as fruit. Fruit is no hard work product.
It’s something that is happening naturally when the root system is healthy. If you’re able to respond to difficult people in a more gracious manner, you’re proof that the root system is working.
4. You Are Less Preoccupied With What Other People Think of You
Much of the stress and anxiety about relationships is caused by being too concerned about how you look to others. The approval of God gradually becomes more important in your sense of self as you grow in spirituality, and the approval of people diminishes.
It is not saying “don’t care” about others or breezing past the impact of your actions on others. It is a change in the compulsive need to control your image – the need to be seen a certain way, to prevent being judged, so that it starts to fade. It’s a more subtle yet life-changing indicator of real progress.
5. Your Relationship With Your Bible Is Becoming Personal Rather Than Academic
Many Christians start their relationship with Scripture as students. Their objective when they read the Bible is to acquire knowledge about God. When growth occurs, there is a change. The Bible begins to come alive as a conversation with life.
Some passages start to come to your mind at the right time. The verses that you come back to because they have some thing in them for your spirit, and you don’t have to come back but you do because you need it. The Word becomes more personal, rather than general, and that’s a definite sign of deeper spirituality.
6. You Are More Comfortable With Spiritual Mystery
Faith in the younger stage is a wanting for certainty. It desires unambiguous solutions and definite classifications. What happens is interesting as faith grows up. The things that can’t be fully explained or solved become more at ease. In fact you become comfortable in a way which theologians call apophatic; comfortable with the mystery of God’s which does not need to be reduced into something that you can contain.
This is not a matter of doubt, nor a theological laziness. It is a recognition that a God who can be fully explained by a human mind is probably not actually God. Trusting in the realm of the heart where understanding ceases is a higher-order spiritual experience that is likely to emerge from deeper spiritual experiences.
7. You Find Yourself Genuinely Caring About Other People’s Spiritual Lives
People’s beginning in their faith is the personal aspect of their spiritual lives. They are preoccupied with their relationship with God, with their own development, their own problems. Mature Faith is expressed by an increasing concern for people. But not the efficiency of evangelism, but whether or not those they love know God.
As your relationship with God deepens this change will occur naturally. If you really see and feel the impact that He has in a life, so others can also experience the same, it is only natural to want to make it available to others; it’s not a must.
8. You Forgive More Readily and Hold Grudges for Shorter Periods
There have been times when forgiveness has been one of the hardest tests to pass in the Christian life, and at all these times forgiveness has been one of the easiest indicators of spiritual health. As you gain insight into how much you have been forgiven, your capacity to truly give up offenses increases but not do so while keeping the pain in your heart.
It’s possible you feel hurt. The pain does not have to be absent for forgiveness to take place. Notice that the time between the offense and the release is becoming shorter. This ‘hatred’ which would have lasted for months now takes weeks. The wound, which used to take years to heal now closes in months. It is an actual and substantial movement.
9. You Are Starting to See Trials Differently
A big step forward toward holiness is a new attitude toward trouble. Not no pain, not joy in the midst of pain, but a true and lived out ability to trust that something is going on in the middle of hard times.
Romans 5:3 speaks about the believer glorying in tribulations because of what tribulation produces.
That’s not the human nature. It’s something that will build up over time through the spiritual training. If you are constantly asking yourself whether God is helping you rather than just leaving you out of a bad situation, you’ve made a great step in your faith journey.
10. Your Sense of Identity Is More Settled
Maybe the best indicator is a developing sense of security about oneself that is not based on circumstances, accomplishments, or other people’s thoughts. Those who are truly identified with God’s love can never be forced to keep trying to get people to look favorably on them, to defend themselves from each and every criticism, nor be judged by how productive and presentable that person is in society.
This is a gradual and erratic process. It is tested regularly, it doesn’t come all at once. However, when you begin to see you return more quickly to a sense of inner stability after disturbance, when the inner floor of your sense of self seems more solid than it ever did before, there is one of the clearest indications of true, deep spiritual growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What if I don’t see any of these in myself?
Growth may not be evident just because there are no signs. Certain times of spiritual life are really dry and the growth going on in the heart is not yet apparent even to you.
Q2. Is it possible for someone to deteriorate spiritually?
Yes. Spiritual growth does not always go beyond being permanent. What’s built can be undermined by longer term disobedience, unprocessed pain, or even intentional refusal to walk in the way of God and/or community.
Q3. How do I know if I am spiritually mature enough to help others grow?
Being older isn’t a requirement for being of service to others. Indeed many of the best encouragement in the church is from persons who are just a few steps ahead of their walking companion. The key is that you must be honest about where you are, that you truly care for the one that you’re talking to, and that you’re walking in a direction of God and not yourself.
Q4. Am I spiritually growing because I am going to church regularly?
Not necessarily. While it is good to attend church regularly, it is not an output, it is an input, as the Bible consistently teaches. Even if you are not truly involved in the service, you can stay in a service each week with no change to you.
Q5. Is spiritual growth the same as becoming a better person morally?
They are related, but not equal. Moral improvement may occur in a discipline based way and with the pressure of society, but in an impure spirit. Spiritual growth is a true transformation of your relationship with God, how you view yourself and your need to rely on God’s mercy and grace instead of your own works.
Conclusion
The signs you are growing spiritually as a Christian are almost always quieter and more internal than the dramatic markers of spiritual performance that get celebrated publicly.
It is a way of thanking God to notice the ways you are growing spiritually as a Christian in your life. It’s admitting that because God has been doing something in you, even in the “bad days” or the “bad seasons” He has created something tangible and meaningful out of them.
Keep going. Keep showing up. Be honest with God and your situation. What you’re developing, even if you can’t see it is real.