The definition of Spiritual Growth or Maturity is fairly open-ended: faith is deeper, Fruits of the Spirit appear, relationship (of love) with God and with Neighbors develops to full-time and healthy give and take (something like human relationships). Greater wisdom (applied knowledge) and discernment (distinguishing between things that a less mature person fails to perceive or appreciate as significant) are part of one's spiritual growth, too. Of course the whole experience has a time dimension, sometimes compressed when life events accelerate the pace at which one has to respond or process.
There are also some clues to how to grow:
"Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" [awe rather than chills]
Faith without deeds is dead. So respond to God's calls, and do so in love.
Deeds without love [loving spirit; charity/karitas] have no effect.
Strive to deepen your knowledge, but know that the Infinite can't be grasped fully.
The love of money is the root of evil (thoughts, deeds, attitudes)
Praise God; Express gratitude of God.
Accountability to propel one forward: daily devotional time (pray or study), participate in small group (book group, discussion, activity or service group), and identify at least one mentor you look to emulate, as well as at least one mentee who relies on you to emulate.
"Rearview mirror": even if one's present stage of growth is hard to quantify or compare to role models and one's peer groups by directs inspection or introspection, perhaps an indirect view will work; that is, adjudge one's responses to the events of life and the obstacles one reacts to. Where once the spiritual beginnier may have been governed by knee-jerk responses to a stimulus, another person with more life experience and with more of the above list of defining components of spiritual maturity will have different responses to a stimulus. Perhaps they react in a longer time-frame, or reflect and pray before taking action, or deliberately take inaction as a form of decision. Perhaps they are governed by their hearts and defy human or at least consumer (zero sum game) logic; hearts that share space with God and a love of their fellow persons. This indirect way may be one way to gauge one's maturation, like looking at things through a rearview mirror, or by the shadows being cast rather than viewing the subject directly. In this indirect way, then, perhaps one my find indicators that allow a comparison of one's self now to an earlier self, and to speculate on still further maturity by extrapolation of what more maturity might look like and feel like, indeed to speculate on some final destination: how far has a mortal mind ever matured along these lines? Can one ever be fully mature and be more of God than of self?
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