Growth with Jesus. That’s the vision — to be like Jesus.
It appears to me that none of my friends have grown with Jesus without being with Him. And to be with Him, requires spiritual disciplines. The disciplines rehearse with the Spirit of God what godliness looks like. The Spirit of God meets us in the disciplines to uncover what’s in our heart. The disciplines drive our roots deeper into God. So if you want to grow, the Spirit of God is going to bring you into disciplines. Disciplines like setting up a regular times for meeting God in prayer, in the Scripture, with His people, in service, put yourself in the place and posture to receive from God and join God in what He is doing in the world. Here’s Donald S. Whitney commenting on this in Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life:
Think of the Spiritual Disciplines as ways by which we can spiritually place ourselves in the path of God’s grace and seek Him, much like Zacchaeus placed himself physically in Jesus’ path and sought Him. The Lord, by His Spirit, still travels down certain paths, paths that He Himself has ordained and revealed in Scripture. We call these paths the Spiritual Disciplines, and if we will place ourselves on these paths and look for Him there by faith, we can expect to encounter Him. For instance, when we come to the Bible, or when we engage in any of the biblical Disciplines—looking by faith to God through them—we can anticipate experiencing God. As with this tax collector, we will find Him willing to have mercy on us and to have communion with us. And in the course of time we, too, will be transformed by Him from one level of Christlikeness to another (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). So again, by means of these Bible-based practices we consciously place ourselves before God in anticipation of enjoying His presence and receiving His transforming grace.