The Wholeness Series Vol 7: Spiritually Developed Maturity

Growth doesn’t happen because we read about it or sit near people who seem to have it. It shows up in the quiet places, in the choices no one grades, and in the habits that slowly align our reactions with our beliefs. We dive into the heart of spiritual maturity with a candid look at childish patterns we excuse, the lure of noise that keeps us from prayer, and a simple blueprint borrowed from Luke 5: Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

We talk about what real formation requires—solitude that calibrates, surrender that frees, and rest that signals trust rather than laziness. When the crowds and deadlines press in, withdrawal is not retreat; it’s where clarity returns and character is renewed. We connect this rhythm to daily life: how you handle praise, offense, and conflict reveals the depth of your formation far more than the labels you wear. If you claim the name Christian, your words, actions, and tone are a living reflection of the One you represent.

To help you move from insight to change, we offer practical steps and probing questions. Who are you becoming because of your current practices? Which relationships help you obey, and which feed distraction? Choose one habit for seven days—solitude, prayer, Scripture, generosity—and write what shifts in your thinking, emotions, and decisions. Start small, stay consistent, and let your character catch up to your confession.

If this conversation helps you realign, share it with a friend who needs a reset. Subscribe for more from the wholeness series, and leave a review telling us which habit you’re choosing this week.

Transcript

Welcome And Wholeness Series Update

Call For Reviews And YouTube Details

Defining Spiritual Maturity Versus Childishness

Growth Requires More Than Proximity

Solitude As A Discipline In Luke 5

Silence, Fear, And Modern Distractions

Representation, Character, And Witness

Rest, Surrender, And Habits Of Obedience

Questions To Shape Who You Become

Weekly Assignment And Closing Charge

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome back to the Inspiration Station and your Everyday Edge podcast. I am your host, Mr. U. Thanks again for joining us or watching us today. Whoever you are and happy you're listening to this show, definitely appreciate it. We are in the wholeness series that we started several weeks ago, and we are finding it to be very, very helpful. Hopefully, you do as well. However, you're listening to and watching our podcast, thanks to make us part of your week. If you are listening only, of course, please jump on Apple Podcast. Let us know how you're enjoying the show or any of our shows on our brand. We have three excuse excuse removing podcasts that we definitely adore, and we're excited about you being a part of the growth of all three of those shows. But this is the inspiration station. So drop a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Let us know how you're enjoying the wholeness series. Is it touching your life? Is it helping you to create some change? We're talking about all things personal and spiritual development in this wholeness series. So I'm pretty excited about what's going out to you guys. So let us know how you like that. If you're watching us, jump on our YouTube channel, youtube.com at They Call Me Mr. You. All of our shows from all of our three podcasts are there, and of course, past, present, and future inspiration stations will also be on that channel going forward. So thanks again for watching and listening. And we have our links in the show notes for our landing page, all things coaching, or any kind of contact information on how you can find all of our shows. It's all in the notes in our show notes for this show. So thanks again for watching and listening. We're getting into spiritual development, one of my favorite topics in the world, because I spend the majority of my life, and I mean that in a high, very high percentage, trying to make sure I'm living out this whole spiritual development thing. And honestly, I say that and I laugh because spiritual maturity is lived out, it's not something that we just talk about, we live it out. I know people who call themselves spiritually mature, but get them in the room and they're looking at funny monkey videos and puppy videos and giggling, and they don't even have the mindset to understand where they are and what's going on. They've regressed almost into children, just wanting to have fun. But they call themselves spiritually mature. And I feel like this is the kind of thing that we see in leadership around us. People who are content with just having a good time, content with the good things, but when it comes to the deep things of God, when it comes to the intensity of integrity, they find themselves unwilling to make that leap, unwilling to make that sacrifice, unwilling to make the kind of change that's needed to become who they're supposed to become. Have you ever seen? I mean, I've seen it before, so I think it's it's traumatizing. Have you ever seen a 70 or 80-year-old that regresses into that of a five-year-old or a 10-year-old and throws a scene in a fit and has an all-time blowout right before your eyes? It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen in my life. It'll almost traumatize you. You're like, oh, what in the world? You should know better. But it's like if people don't learn better, they can't do better. If you know better, you should do better, right? Spiritual maturity is something that's lived out. And I say that because we have people who lead other people and they regress into childish behaviors because they're unwilling to take on the maturity. People want meat in theory, but they're not fit for anything but milk because they refuse to grow. I'm gonna say that again because I want you to hear that. People desire meat and think they're ready for it, but they're not ready for anything but milk because they have refused to grow. They refuse to put away childish things and be an adult. A responsible, highly functioning, integrous adult. They refuse to do it. Spiritual development is something that you don't get that by hanging around spiritually developed people. I wish it were just that simple. Filling your circular with people who do that even if you don't do it. I wish that was something you could say, you know what, it rubs off on you, and you don't have to really change nothing about you. Just hang around people who do it. I wish it was that simple. If I step into a room of highly functional entrepreneurs who make six, seven figures routinely a year, if I hang around them long enough, I believe that I'll be able to make six, seven figures a year or even exceed what they're doing. I believe that's definitely a possibility because of the company that I keep. But in this case, because the requirement and the responsibility is for us to grow, we can't just sit and clean in a room full of spiritually developed people and not grow. We don't have the we don't have the we don't have the license to be able to do that. We have to grow. And it's a part is part of who we are as physical and spiritual and emotional beings. It's our responsibility to grow. It's our responsibility to come up out of childish mannerisms and childish behaviors and childish outbreaks when things don't go our way and do what adults do. There are people in life, maybe it's your parents or your grandparents, people in life that when they became adults, they had to grow up and do so many things that were just so intense and maybe even unfair to a child, but they had to learn things just because it was the environment they were in and the responsibility that was required of them. I talk about it a lot on the show, and I'm not making that a part of my identity or anything, but it was a part of my life at the time. I was considered what they call a latch key kid. That means at 11 years old, 12 years old, I don't think it was even 12, there was like 11. I have my own key. I might have even been 10. I have my own key to the house. I got on a bus, walked to the train station, which was like five miles away from my house. I walked to the train station and the bus station by myself. Went to school by myself. I didn't have an escort. And that was something that because of what was going on in my household, because of the growth that was taking place with my mom and what she was doing for work and for school and the finances you bring into our household that was needed, I had to suck it up and do some things that were maybe ahead of my time. I know people who were 11, 12 years old, 13 years old, they got married. Because of the time that they were in. We might call that child abuse now, but back then people were doing that. Y'all about the little house on the prairie, you know what I'm talking about. Don't play. But spiritual development is something that we can't compromise on. We can't just be in a room in proximity with people who were spiritually developed and think that we're spiritually developed too. There's a work that has to be done. And I love this passage out of Luke 5 and 16 because I really believe it speaks to a model that Jesus is showing us when it comes to spiritual development. Think about everything that comes with the understanding of the gospel. Think about the fact that he, with all of his deity, put it to the side and put on a flesh suit, a flesh body to exhibit for us what it looks like to live a life without sin in it, and be able to be in a position of rightness before God. He was showing us how to do that. And it was not it's not works or anything that he was trying to exhibit, but he was showing us a pattern for how to live our lives, how to ground ourselves, how to stay in tune, how to stay aligned. That's what he was showing us. Luke 5 and 16, I love this. It's not even preached very often, but I like it because what it does is it kind of reminds us of something that we might overlook because of our busy lifestyles. Luke 5 and 16 says, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. I gotta read verse 15 because I feel like I'm depriving you guys of something really important. So I'm gonna read 15 and then 16 again. This is in Luke chapter 5. Luke 15 says, well, sorry, Luke chapter 5, verse 15 says, Yet the news about him spread all the more. This is about Jesus. So that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. This is somebody who wasn't chasing the spotlight. This is somebody who wasn't chasing the crowds. He wasn't chasing the acclaim and the applause. He withdrew to pray because that's where he got renewed. That was the rhythm of his life. That was the rhythm of his relationship with God. He withdrew to lonely places and prayed. It wasn't full of people that can see him pray and say, Oh, look how he prays. It wasn't a platform for him to be applauded. He withdrew often to lonely places to pray. That's how he got renewed. That's a spiritual discipline. And I really feel like there's a historical con there's a historical context for this. That people learned how to discern and to walk in solitude to get what they need. These days, people are actually afraid of the silence. Silence scares them. They can't sit down for five minutes in a room with no noise, no TV, no radio, no podcasts, no music, no people talking, no Instagram. They can't even do it. They start going stir crazy. If their church called for a fast from social media, by the time they got to that third day, fifth day, seventh day, they'd be losing it. Because they weren't able to upload a TikTok video. Spiritual development and spiritual maturity are hand in hand. You can't have one without the other, but it comes with discernment, it comes with solitude. Like Jesus showed us in Luke 5, 15, and 16. How often do you withdraw to lonely places so that you can pray, so that you can get realigned, so you can get recharged, recalibrated. Part of understanding who we are is understanding who God is, and we gotta take the time to do that. I I feel as though I know I feel like I talk about the the product and the manufacturer, the creation and the creator a lot in in terms of comparison, but I don't want to, I'm not trying to diminish the people, us as creation, as a product. I don't I'm not doing that, but what I want to try to do through that analogy is to show us that we understand the product so much better when we understand the manufacturer, we understand what the goal is. If a especially in the in in today's times, if a manufacturer puts a product out and the product is harmful, that tells you about the manufacturer. It tells you that something may be wrong there. If a product comes out that's super good for you and healthy and it can be a life-changing opportunity for you, it tells you a lot about the manufacturer. To the degree that we walk around and we call ourselves Christians and believers, this is just for those who are not Christians. If you're listening, I'm not excluding you, I'm just talking to the Christian folks for right now for a second. If you claim to be a believer of God and you claim to be a Christian, or have you describe or have you describe yourself, your lifestyle, the way you talk, how you respond to conflict, how you respond to offense, how you respond to situations where you're being lifted up, or how you respond to situations where you're being brought down, all those things reflect directly on the creator. Every time you can't you can't you can't take him out of there. If you represent him, like any other ambassador that comes from a different nation, you represent the nation that sent you. The authority that sent you. That's who you represent. So you can go to a different country, act a fool all you want to, but you represent that nation. If you decide, you know what, you and all your radio friends can go to Mexico and you're gonna turn that place out. Everybody that's seeing you that's in Mexico, that's that's watching you and witnessing you acting a fool out here, they're gonna say, you know what? Look at those what? Americans. They don't care if you're from Brooklyn, they don't care if you're from San Diego, they don't care if you come from Michigan, they don't care if you come from Texas or Florida, they're gonna say, look at those what? Americans. You represent the nation that you come from. Especially if you're sent by that nation, which is even uh a weightier matter. You represent the country you come from. If you believe you are a Christian and you call yourself that, you represent the person who sent you, who called you, who appointed you. Spiritual maturity is not measured by just what you believe only, but it's measured by how your beliefs shape your actions and your character. I know people who say, you know, I'm a believer, but they don't lift their hands and worship, they don't read their Bibles, they don't love their neighbor as they love themselves, they don't tithe, they don't do anything like that, but they'll tell you so much about how much they love God and how down they are for him and his kingdom. But they don't do anything in their belief system, there's nothing in their in their actions and characters that support that belief system, is what I'm saying. There's nothing in their actions or their character to support the beliefs that they say they have. That's what spiritual maturity is really all about. There's a when Jesus withdrew to pray in Luke 5 and 16, I love that so much because it kind of spoke to a place where he understood the importance of resting, the importance of surrendering. And I love that because honestly, this is just me after nearly 30 years now, I am just learning how to rest. I I I'm not saying that out of pride at all. I it's it's a little bit embarrassing that after all these years I'm just learning how to rest. I've been going and going and going for other people, doing this for them and trying to be of service to them, and just didn't take into consideration what I physically and emotionally needed until I got into a situation where I had to start thinking about it. Which is the place you never want to be. Matthew 11 and 28 is a good reference scripture that talks about surrender, talks about rest. We get spirit we get spiritually formed, spiritually developed by building habits of obedience. We talked about habits on another episode of the wholeness series recently. You can go back and find that. I think it's about two or three weeks ago. We get spiritually formed through habits of obedience. We get spiritually formed by not running from the silence, taking the time to reflect and think about where we are. I know that silence can be scary sometimes because it's just so quiet. But you see and hear things that you never hear in the noise. You never hear on a commute to work. There's too many distractions. You can't hear them when you're playing with your kids and you're trying to make dinner and your kids in another room tearing your house apart. You can't find it in those places. You can't find alignment with God's will in those places. You gotta take the time, the solitude, the discipline that comes with solitude. It changes your heart. It changes your mind. It transforms your character. It causes you to walk in courage that you didn't have before. How does your spiritual practices shape your everyday decisions? I want to ask that for those of you that are watching and listening today. Excuse me. How do your spiritual practices shape your everyday decisions? How does your spiritual practices shape your everyday decisions? Are they forming you into the person that you want to be? I feel like that's really important to have a picture of who you want to be. When people say, you know what, I want to be spiritually developed, or yes, coach, you spiritual development is important to me. How do I do that? My question is gonna be, who do you want to be? What do you want to become? You want to be spiritually developed because of what? I wish back in the days when I was coaching and mentoring people and walking them through spiritual development processes, I wish I had a good sense to ask that question back then. It would have solved so many problems and changed so many things. Who's the person that you want to become? What do you want to look like? Where do you want to be improved? To what end? What do you want to accomplish? Take these questions and think about these things. Don't just listen to the podcast episode and move on to the next one. Take some time to reflect this. We got a week. Take some time to reflect on this stuff. How do your spiritual practices, what you're doing right now, the spiritual habits you have right now, how do they shape your everyday decisions? Are they forming you into the person that you aspire to become? Do you know who that is? Why do you want to become that? This is what happens when I coach people, y'all. So you just get into taste this behind the scenes. I ask a lot of questions. Because in the in the asking of a lot of questions, excuse me, in the asking of a lot of questions, we get down to the heart of. Of the why that the person, the client, the mentee, whatever it is, has who are you trying to become? Are you trying to be like your dad? Are you trying to be exactly like a mirror image of your pastor? Are you trying to be like Martin Luther King Jr.? Why are you doing what you're doing? Who are you trying to emulate, if anybody? Who are you aspiring to become? Do you want to be like Jesus? In what respect? What do you want to do that he's done? Why can't you do that now? There's so many questions for us to ask, but this is how we grow. This is how we learn. So for your exercise for this week, before we close the episode out, I want to give you a little bit of instruction here. Now, I asked you a little bit ago, how does your spiritual practice or your spiritual habits shape your everyday decisions? I hope you can answer that. Take the time to do that this week. I think it's going to be very of tantamount importance to you that you do that. But choose one spiritual habit to focus on this week. That's your assignment. Choose one spiritual habit to focus on this week. Meditate on that habit. Commit to it every day. And write it down. What are you seeing? Has it changed the way you think about your life? Are there emotions that flood up that you didn't expect? Do you see a need to change some of the relationships that you have because of your emphasizing the spiritual habit? Do you see a need to grow a relationship more because of what you're seeing? Spiritual maturity is not passive, it's formed through consistent intentional practice. So start small, stay consistent. I believe your character is going to transform right before your eyes. Wherever you are, and have you listened to the Inspiration Station and the Everyday Edge podcast. This nigga's part of your week. I'm Mr. You, Ralph.