3 Reasons You Should Invest in Your Spiritual Growth

3 Reasons You Should Invest in Your Spiritual Growth

Based on the teaching of Apostle Jerry Maclin

We understand the value of investing in almost every area of life.

We invest in education because we want better opportunities. We develop professional skills because we want to become more effective in our work. We pay attention to our health, finances, businesses, relationships, and personal goals because we recognize that progress requires intention.

Yet many Christians approach their spiritual lives differently.

They expect spiritual maturity to develop simply because they attend church, listen to sermons, or have been saved for several years. They may love God sincerely, but they have never created an intentional plan for their spiritual growth and development.

In his teaching, 3 Reasons You Should Invest in Your Spiritual Growth and Development, Apostle Jerry Maclin addresses this inconsistency. He challenges believers to consider how much time, energy, attention, and money they invest in earthly advancement while leaving their spiritual formation largely unattended.

His argument is not that every Christian must pay for spiritual instruction. His deeper point is that growth requires intentional investment. That investment may include time in prayer, biblical study, sound teaching, healthy spiritual relationships, books, courses, mentorship, coaching, correction, and environments that require maturity.

Spiritual growth does not happen because time passes. It happens as we repeatedly submit ourselves to God’s process of instruction, transformation, healing, and obedience.

Peter instructed the Church to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Growth is not presented as an optional interest for unusually spiritual believers. It is part of Christian discipleship.

Apostle Jerry Maclin gives three specific reasons believers should become intentional about that growth.

Spiritual Growth Must Become an Intentional Investment

Before examining the three reasons, we must define what it means to invest in spiritual growth.

Spiritual investment is not the same as consuming large amounts of Christian content. A person can listen to sermons every day and remain unchanged. They can attend conferences, collect books, follow popular ministers, and still avoid the areas of their lives that require healing, discipline, or correction.

Information alone does not produce formation.

A genuine spiritual investment should change how you see God, how you understand yourself, how you treat people, and how you respond when your faith is tested. It should strengthen your discernment, deepen your knowledge of Scripture, mature your character, and increase your ability to obey God.

Apostle Jerry Maclin explains that we must become more thoughtful about the teachers and environments we choose. Many people select spiritual leaders according to popularity, relationships, familiarity, or what others have said. They do not always ask whether the teaching is producing real growth.

The right question is not only, “Did I enjoy the message?”

The better question is, “What is this teaching producing in me?”

Does it make you want to know Christ more deeply? Does it confront the parts of your life that resist maturity? Does it help you understand Scripture more clearly? Does it move you toward responsibility, healing, discipline, and obedience?

Good spiritual teaching should not merely make you feel better about who you already are. It should also help you become who God is calling you to be.

1. Spiritual Development Reveals Your Original State

Apostle Jerry Maclin’s first reason for investing in spiritual development is that it reveals what he calls your original state.

Your original state is the person God intended you to become before trauma, fear, rejection, poor decisions, unhealthy patterns, and limiting beliefs began covering parts of your identity.

This does not suggest that we possess a perfect identity apart from Christ. Our new life is found in Him. However, God knew His purpose for us before we fully understood ourselves. He knew what He placed within us. He knew the gifts, burdens, capacities, and assignments that would eventually emerge through our relationship with Him.

You may know that God has called you and still have little understanding of what that calling requires. You may have received prophetic words about your future but lack the character, wisdom, and training needed to steward those words properly.

There is a difference between being told that God has His hand on your life and understanding what His hand on your life looks like.

Spiritual formation helps close that gap.

Apostle Jerry describes how his own hunger changed when he connected with teachers who introduced him to deeper spiritual truths. Their teaching did not create something foreign within him. It reached into a depth that was already present and called it forward.

Psalm 42:7 says, “Deep calleth unto deep.”

Apostle Jerry Maclin explains this passage as a principle of spiritual development. Depth responds to depth. What consistently feeds you will influence the level at which you think, discern, and function.

Shallow teaching may encourage you temporarily, but it may never confront the assumptions that keep you spiritually limited. Deep teaching reaches beyond your emotions. It forces you to think. It challenges your understanding. It touches places you have avoided. It brings attention to areas that must heal.

When Jesus called His disciples, He did not only give them information. His presence and teaching introduced them to spiritual capacities they did not know they possessed.

Peter was a fisherman, but Jesus saw beyond his current occupation and instability. He saw the man Peter could become through revelation, correction, failure, restoration, and obedience.

When Peter identified Jesus as the Christ, Jesus told him, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

Peter was discovering that he could receive revelation from the Father. Something within him was being exposed through his relationship with Christ.

The right spiritual environment does something similar. It reveals areas of strength that have remained undeveloped. It also identifies wounds, fears, and patterns that have kept those strengths buried.

Apostle Jerry Maclin teaches that the more he overcame, the more of his true identity began to appear. Every area of healing and obedience uncovered another part of the person God had created him to become.

This is why spiritual growth is not always comfortable.

There are teachings that affirm you, and there are teachings that examine you. There are teachings that soothe your emotions, and there are teachings that challenge how you have been thinking for years.

Both encouragement and correction have a place in spiritual development.

You cannot become mature if you only receive messages that confirm your current perspective. At some point, you must allow the Word of God to search you, expose you, and require change from you.

Apostle Jerry said that the Bible was not merely meant to be read by us. It was also meant to read us. Scripture reveals what is happening within our hearts. It identifies our motives, assumptions, desires, strengths, and weaknesses.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword” (Hebrews 4:12).

When you invest in spiritual growth, you are giving God permission to show you who you are becoming and what must be removed for that person to emerge.

2. Spiritual Development Makes You Formidable

The second reason Apostle Jerry Maclin gives is that spiritual development makes you formidable in the spiritual marketplace.

He uses the phrase “spiritual marketplace” to describe the supernatural contest involving truth, deception, influence, allegiance, and souls.

Believers are not competing against one another. We are standing against ideas, spiritual forces, and systems that attempt to separate people from truth and keep them bound by fear, confusion, deception, and spiritual immaturity.

Paul writes:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

—Ephesians 6:12

To become formidable does not mean becoming spiritually arrogant, aggressive, or preoccupied with demons. It means becoming strong, stable, discerning, and difficult to deceive.

A formidable believer cannot be easily removed from their convictions by pressure. They are not controlled by every emotion, controversy, trend, prophecy, or spiritual claim that passes through their social media feed.

They know Scripture.

They recognize the voice of God.

They understand their weaknesses.

They know when to speak, when to remain silent, when to pray, when to seek counsel, and when to act.

This kind of spiritual strength is developed.

Hebrews 5:14 describes mature believers as those “who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Discernment requires exercise. Spiritual senses become more accurate through practice, submission, correction, and repeated application of truth.

Apostle Jerry Maclin explains that a spiritually developed believer carries a kind of supernatural intelligence. The enemy cannot depend upon the same wounds, fears, habits, and reactions that once made that person easy to disrupt.

Where there was once panic, there is now discernment.

Where there was once impulsiveness, there is now restraint.

Where there was once confusion, there is now a disciplined process for seeking God.

Where there was once emotional instability, there is now spiritual endurance.

That does not mean mature Christians never feel fear, discouragement, or uncertainty. It means those emotions no longer have final authority over their decisions.

The formidable believer knows how to bring their feelings under the authority of truth.

Apostle Jerry’s point is especially relevant in a culture dominated by constant entertainment, endless information, and emotional stimulation. Many people consume hours of social media, television, news, and commentary while giving very little focused attention to prayer, Scripture, and spiritual development.

Our appetites are shaped by what we repeatedly consume.

If we feast primarily on fear, controversy, entertainment, and outrage, we should not be surprised when our inner lives become anxious, distracted, and reactive.

Spiritual strength cannot be built entirely on occasional inspiration. It requires a consistent diet of truth that develops endurance, discernment, and maturity.

Apostle Jerry Maclin challenges believers to invest in teaching that makes them think, change, heal, and become more useful to God.

The goal is not to look powerful in front of other Christians. The goal is to become spiritually dependable.

3. Spiritual Development Makes You a Multi-Echelon Believer

Apostle Jerry Maclin’s third reason comes from a term he encountered during his military career: multi-echelon.

He uses this term to describe a believer who can serve effectively across different environments, assignments, and levels of spiritual need.

A multi-echelon believer is not restricted to one familiar setting.

God can place them in an environment where intercession is needed, and they know how to pray. He can place them in a prophetic setting, and they know how to handle revelation responsibly. He can send them to people who are unfamiliar with spiritual gifts, and they know how to communicate without becoming offensive or careless.

They can minister to mature believers without becoming intimidated. They can also minister to spiritually immature people without becoming impatient or condemning.

This kind of range is not developed by trying to become everything to everyone. It does not mean operating outside your assignment or claiming gifts you do not possess.

It means becoming adaptable, discerning, and mature enough to follow God beyond your personal preferences.

Paul said:

“I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

—1 Corinthians 9:22

Paul did not change the gospel to suit his audience. He understood how to communicate truth to people with different backgrounds, cultures, levels of knowledge, and spiritual conditions.

Jesus demonstrated the same wisdom.

He did not speak to Nicodemus in the same way He spoke to the woman at the well. He did not address the Pharisees in the same way He addressed the broken, grieving, or demonized.

The truth remained consistent, but His approach reflected the person and situation before Him.

Apostle Jerry Maclin teaches that spiritually mature believers must learn to recognize when people are not necessarily rebellious but underdeveloped. Some people have reached a particular level of understanding and become stuck there.

They may hold inaccurate ideas because they have not yet received enough light to see differently. They may behave immaturely because they have never experienced sound teaching, correction, or discipleship.

A rigid believer quickly condemns them.

A multi-echelon believer asks, “How can I help this person come higher?”

Apostle Jerry summarizes the distinction with a powerful statement: “Demons come out; saints come up.”

People are not always pulled out of something. Sometimes they must be patiently taught, mentored, corrected, and guided toward a higher level of understanding.

That requires spiritual maturity from the person helping them.

A multi-echelon believer can listen without agreeing. They can discern error without immediately discarding the person. They can recognize someone’s current condition while still seeing their capacity for redemption and growth.

They understand that the purpose of ministry is not to prove how wrong people are. It is to help people respond to truth.

This is the kind of believer God can place in difficult environments.

They are not easily offended. They are not afraid of questions. They do not need everyone to speak their language before they can serve them.

They carry truth with wisdom, authority, compassion, and restraint.

The purpose of spiritual development is not to make you impressive. It is to make you effective.

What Is in Your Spiritual Portfolio?

One of the most memorable questions Apostle Jerry Maclin asks in this teaching is:

What does your spiritual portfolio look like?

We understand the idea of a financial portfolio. It shows where a person has invested and what they have intentionally developed over time.

But what have you developed spiritually?

What can God consistently trust you to do?

Can He trust you to intercede when no one is watching?

Can He trust you to handle a prophetic word without exaggerating it?

Can He trust you to counsel someone without making their situation about you?

Can He trust you to remain steady when you are misunderstood?

Can He trust you to study Scripture carefully instead of repeating what you heard online?

Can He trust you to enter an unfamiliar environment without compromising truth or becoming spiritually rigid?

Your spiritual portfolio is not a collection of titles. It is the body of spiritual capacity, character, knowledge, discipline, and experience that has been developed within you.

Gifting may be included in your portfolio, but gifting alone is not enough.

A person can possess a genuine gift and still be emotionally immature. They can receive accurate revelation and lack the wisdom to deliver it properly. They can carry a real calling and remain unprepared for the responsibility that accompanies it.

Apostle Jerry Maclin connects spiritual value with aptitude and proficiency. Believers should not only ask whether they are called. They should also ask whether they are becoming skilled, disciplined, and dependable within that calling.

What is currently strong in your spiritual portfolio?

Where are the gaps?

What does God need to develop in you next?

These questions help you move from vague spiritual desire to intentional formation.

Choose Spiritual Environments That Take You Higher

Apostle Jerry Maclin makes a strong personal declaration in the teaching: he is determined to remain in environments that take him higher.

Every spiritual environment affects you.

Some strengthen your hunger for God. Others keep you emotionally stimulated without producing transformation. Some teach you to take responsibility for your growth. Others train you to blame the devil for every pattern you refuse to confront.

Healthy spiritual teaching helps you become introspective without becoming self-absorbed. It teaches you how to examine yourself honestly while still depending upon the grace of God.

A good spiritual leader does not attempt to control your identity. They help you see what God has placed within you.

Their push should not create dependence. It should develop strength.

Apostle Jerry explains that when a person responds to healthy spiritual pressure, the teacher is not forcing them to become someone else. The teacher is exposing them to a stronger version of who they were capable of becoming all along.

This is how good coaching, mentorship, and discipleship function.

A mature teacher may see your potential before you can see it clearly. They may recognize your capacity for boldness while you are still battling fear. They may see leadership in you while you still feel uncertain. They may see discipline, wisdom, or prophetic ability beneath years of insecurity.

Their role is not to live your calling for you.

Their role is to help you see it, develop it, and take responsibility for it.

How to Invest in Your Spiritual Growth Wisely

Begin with Scripture and prayer.

No course, ministry, church, mentor, or teacher should replace your personal relationship with God. Healthy spiritual leadership should lead you toward greater dependence upon the Holy Spirit, not greater dependence upon the leader.

Choose teaching according to fruit, not popularity.

Look for sound doctrine, integrity, maturity, humility, accountability, and evidence that the teaching produces responsible believers.

Remain teachable.

Spiritual maturity does not mean reaching a place where no one can correct you. It means developing enough humility to receive correction without collapsing, becoming defensive, or abandoning the process.

Apply what you learn.

Information becomes formation when it affects your choices, habits, relationships, and responses. Hearing a message about prayer is not the same as developing a prayer life. Learning about forgiveness is not the same as forgiving. Understanding the language of discipline is not the same as becoming disciplined.

Invest your time and attention carefully.

Books, courses, mentorship, coaching, conferences, and communities can all contribute to spiritual growth. However, the value of any resource is revealed by the fruit it produces and your willingness to apply it.

You do not need to consume everything.

You need to recognize what God is using to form you in your current season.

The Return on Spiritual Investment Is Effectiveness

The true return on spiritual development is not popularity, titles, or recognition.

It is effectiveness.

You become clearer about who God created you to be. You become stronger against deception, distraction, and spiritual opposition. You become adaptable enough to serve people outside your usual environment.

You learn how to carry greater responsibility without sacrificing your character.

You stop measuring spiritual growth only by how inspired you feel and begin measuring it by how faithfully you respond to God.

Apostle Jerry Maclin’s challenge is simple but searching: Are your current spiritual investments preparing you to become the person God can trust with what comes next?

God already knows what He placed within you.

Spiritual development helps you recognize it, strengthen it, and place it at His disposal.

Watch Apostle Jerry Maclin’s Full Teaching

This article presents the central principles from Apostle Jerry Maclin’s teaching, but the complete live session includes his personal experiences, military illustrations, ministry lessons, and extended explanation of spiritual formation.

Watch the full teaching here:

3 Reasons You Should Invest in Your Spiritual Growth and Development with Apostle Jerry Maclin