The bamboo tree and our spiritual growth to maturity

In the Far East, there grows the Chinese Bamboo Tree. There is something very unique about this tree. In its first year, we see no visible signs of activity. In the second year, again, no growth above the soil. The third, the fourth, still nothing. Finally in the fifth year, there is growth. And not slow growth, but sudden growth. After five years, the Chinese Bamboo Tree grows around 80 feet in just six weeks.

You see, this tree did not grow so tall in six months, but it grew so tall in five years. For four years, nothing! No signs of life. Nothing to visibly prove there is real growth – it is kept alive by expectancy, anticipation and a strong belief from the gardener.

During the first four years, the tree needed a lot of water, fertile soil and sunshine. For four years, great patience and determination is called for, because there is no sign of growth during this time. If during this process the tree (not visibly seen) is not nurtured or taken care of, then the sudden growth will never happen. Does this mean that within the first four years, nothing has happened to the tree? The fact is that the bamboo tree grew but only underground. The bamboo tree is a type of tree where it can grow super tall and because of its potential height, it requires a strong foundation of developing a root system to support its outward growth. If the bamboo did not grow its root for a strong foundation for the first few years, it can never sustain its future tall structural body.

So why are talking about bamboo trees? The tale of the bamboo tree is a parable to how our spiritual journey towards maturity works.

So often I have witnessed how believers ‘believe’ they have arrived at some kind of spiritual maturity only after a few months in church, or after attending classes at a Bible School, or only after spending time in a study group or cell group. And then, tragically, so often these “mature” believers are sent to minister, to “fulfil” their calling/mandate, only to be sent like sheep among the wolves.

Here is the reality of true spiritual growth – IT TAKES A LONG TIME. And spiritual growth is not primarily dependent of how many times you sit in the church, or how many books you have read or how many Christian programmes you have watched, but it is about YOUR FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD. It is not even dependent on your office or mandate or calling. Spiritual growth deals with character, and it deals with growing in wisdom, growing in love, growing in understanding, growing in your integrity, holiness and purity. We are called to grow in maturity so that eventually we can step into our calling or mandate.

Spiritual maturity is hardly reached within a couple of months, or even a couple of years. It takes a long time. It is like the bamboo tree. YOU FIRST HAVE TO BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION IN JESUS before you can really begin to grow. And in order for you to build such a strong foundation, it calls for patience, faith, perseverance and ever drawing closer to God.

Yes, people will come on your path over many years after your conversion to the faith, and they will ‘water’ you and take care of you, but ultimately your growth DEPENDS on God. This is what Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 3: 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

To know the entire Bible after your first year of conversion does not mean you are spiritual mature. To utter a few prophetic utterances or delivering a few sermons does not necessarily mean you are mature. Even if you have a large congregation does NOT necessarily mean you are mature. Maturity is truly someone who has become more like the Lord in nature and character, who has LEARNED to walk by the Spirit, to be LED and GUIDED by the Spirit and who walks in spirit and truth. It is someone who really knows the Lord, His Voice, His Ways and who through intimate understanding and counsel walks in the truth and ways of God.

The great danger exists in churches these days of so many ministering who are still spiritually immature. This is like giving a 4 year old an automatic weapon. With great power comes great responsibility, but such responsibility we learn with time, with growth and with fellowship with God.

Indeed, like the bamboo tree, we are called in our first years of our spiritual walk to spend a lot of time with God, ever learning, ever growing, and making sure the FOUNDATION of our faith, of our character, of our walk with God is secure, and well grounded. This requires a lot of time in the presence of God – listening more than talking, and growing in understanding and wisdom. The Apostle Paul did not go out and started ministering to the Gentiles once he received from his blindness on the Road to Damascus. We also need to remember before his conversion that he had trained at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) according to the strict manner of the law of the Jews so he already had a strong understanding of God’s Word, even though it was the Torah. Once he converted to the Faith, he would have learned about the Gospel directly from Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:12), most probably in Arabia for around three years. So in this time he grew spiritually, and was grounded and rooted in the Lord.

For like the bamboo tree, the time will come when the growth will be quick and sudden, but we need to make sure our roots are dug deep in the Lord. We need to make sure our foundation is secure, and that our foundation is in God and not in this world or man. This requires a process of being grounded and rooted in God, in His Word, in His Spirit and in Truth. For then we become more spiritually mature as become rooted and established in love (Ephesians 3:17 – as long as God dwell in your hearts through faith). And this process of growing in spiritually maturity never ever ceases … we continue to grow, but this requires constant fellowship, constant abiding in the Lord and constantly seeking God and being led by the Spirit.

Again, man will always come to play a part in our growth and feed us and nurture us, but ultimately God is the one who grows us into spiritual maturity. Remember, if the bamboo tree not developed a strong unseen foundation it could not have sustained its life as it grew. The same principle is true for our spiritual walk. We need to build a strong character in our spiritual walk. So often we only seek the gifts of the Lord or the Power, but we need to grow in character more than anything. All of this requires a strong root system, for a tree shall fall over when the roots become rotten, thus not nourished. And so in our fellowship we need to be nourished by God constantly and watered by the living waters of the Holy Spirit. It says in Colossians 2: 6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

The growth of the tree is like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar. The caterpillar is doomed to a life on the ground if it is freed from its struggle inside a cocoon prematurely. The struggle in the cocoon is what gives the future butterfly the wing power to fly. Just so, our spiritual growth towards maturity calls for constant refinement, purification, dying to the self (mortification) and abandonment unto God as we lay down the old man. This process is called working out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is not an easy process and it is one of constant struggle and wrestling with oneself and with God, but with determination and dedication, as we deny the Self we then become rooted in God and we break free from the old man once and for all at the right time in order to walk in the liberty of the Spirt. For the spiritually mature, Isaiah 40 becomes a reality: But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

The principle of growth we also find in Mark 4: The Parable of the Growing Seed: 26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.

In 2 Peter 1 we read of process of spiritual growth and maturity: 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter reminds us that as we grow into spiritual maturity, then we “will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. And in this knowledge of the Lord, we continue in our growth into maturity

The author of the Book of Hebrews also wrote on the “Peril of Not Progressing” in chapter 6: Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

Take note, the author, most likely Luke, calls the believers to GO ON to perfection, not laying again the foundation which should have been laid in the first years of our spiritual growth. Indeed, a time should arrive when the believer is strong in the foundation of faith, can now grow, can expand and can be of service to the Kingdom to the Glory of God.

Let us then make sure we grow spiritually into mature through our primary fellowship with God, as we become worshippers in spirit and truth. For the we shall walk as children of the Living Lord, not going astray, not being deceived, but being led by the Spirit in wisdom, knowledge, counsel, understanding and power.