RECEIVED. REFLECTED. RESPONDED. NOW REVEAL.

By Arnie Cole

Something happens when God’s Word stops being private. Lives change, and not just the life of the person who opened the Bible.

Jesus understood this, and that’s why his final words to his disciples said something about spiritual formation that our research keeps confirming: spiritual growth that stays private eventually stalls and sputters. The Great Commission (“go and make disciples of all nations”) is not just a missionary mandate. It applies to each of us as a description of what a fully formed believer naturally does.

Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe everything he commanded (Matthew 28:19-20). That commission is not addressed to a special category of Christians. It is the identity of the whole church. Every believer who has received God's Word has received something that was never meant to stay private.

At Back to the Bible, we describe the shape of a spiritually fit life through four movements: Receive, Reflect, Respond, and Reveal. The first three are essential, and our research confirms that believers who practice them consistently grow in measurable ways. But the fourth movement is where something shifts.

Reveal is the step most often skipped. Our 2025 SALT Index (Scripture Absorption and Life Transformation) survey of more than 6,000 U.S. adults found that only 31% of committed believers have ever personally discipled another person. Seven in ten believers who are receiving, reflecting, and responding have never yet moved outward into some one else’s life in a sustained way.

That is a reason for hope because it tells us exactly where the greatest untapped potential for kingdom impact lies.

To reveal spiritual truths to another person doesn’t require a social media platform or a theological degree. It can be done through a conversation with someone who is struggling, a Scripture texted at exactly the right moment, a grandchild who watches how you handle a hard season and asks you why. In a nutshell, it’s you, living the life that God’s Word has been building in you, in front of the people who are close enough to see it.

You have received more than enough to give. So, who has God placed in your life today who needs to see, hear, or experience what His Word is doing in you? Don’t keep what God is building in you to yourself. Reveal it—and watch how He uses it to help build faith in someone else.