Daily Encouragement: Day 354

Adapted from Handbook to Spiritual Growth

GROWTH & REPRODUCTION

In the first birth we receive the gift of bios, biological life; in the second birth we receive the greater gift of zoê, spiritual life. Just as we mature and reproduce on the biological level, God wants us to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1) on the spiritual level. This divinely ordained process of growth and reproduction after our kind is a significant facet of the spiritual life, because it is directly related to God’s purpose for us to become like His Son and to reproduce the life of Jesus in others. He calls us to nurture people spiritually by building into them, feeding them, protecting them, encouraging them, training them, and assisting in their maturation so that they can learn to do the same with others. In other words, He calls us to a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship.