Discovering Christ is the second phase of spiritual growth. Those who are Discovering Christ would say, “I believe in Jesus and am working on getting to know Him.” That is to say, they have made the choice to follow Jesus.
Characteristics
This is the one catalyst that moves you from Exploring Christ to Discovering Christ--repenting and trusting Christ to save you and forgive you of your sins.
Like most new things in life, this is a time of great excitement. You may find yourself wanting to read more of the Bible because you can’t get enough of it, and yet still running into parts of it that are hard to understand.
This is a phase in your faith where you may start out with great expectations—I’m going to be this new person, to change, and God is going to work everything out in my life. You may encounter other Christians who don’t seem as passionate as you are, and you wonder why not.
You may also be wondering whether or not church is important. Let me just say this, and I’m not saying it just because I’m a pastor—being part of a church is most vital in the earliest phases of your walk with Christ.
Just like I wouldn’t decide to become a mechanic and choose to open my own shop without working for a trained mechanic first, it also doesn’t make sense to become a Christian and try to figure it all out on your own. So let me encourage you to get into the habit of attending church on Sunday mornings.
Being part of a local church matters because God has always had a people. From Abraham and his family to Israel to the church, Christianity has never been about "Jesus and me."
Next Steps
1. One thing you need is to let go of the expectation that things will always go up and to the right. Give yourself room to fail, and give others grace for when they do. Your relationship with Christ will be filled with highs and lows.
2. The hard thing about this phase is that are a lot of things you just don’t know yet. And it seems like the goal is to know them. And yes, there will be things to learn, like how to navigate in a Bible, setting boundaries, listening to God—this will all come. Don’t let what you don’t know stop you from pursuing it more diligently.
3. Confidence to keep going. So let me just say, you can do this. You can live for Christ. It may not always be easy, but you have the Holy Spirit living inside you, who empowers you every day.
4. Beginning to balance being part of a church and developing spiritual practices on your own. Many of us lean more heavily toward either depending too much on a church for our spiritual growth or depending too much on ourselves. We will talk more in depth about some basic spiritual practices next week, or you can read about them here.