Your ‘outward man’ is your physical body, while your ‘inward man’ is your spirit. So, ‘the inward man is being renewed’ in this verse here means ‘your spirit is being renewed’. The word ‘renewed’ here is ‘anakainoo’ in Greek, which means ‘restored, renovated’. Just as a house can be renovated from time to time, your inward man is to be ‘renovated’ day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). The Bible says 'you are being transformed from glory to glory' (2 Corinthians 3:18), and that's how you grow spiritually, in the ‘inside’ of you.
When you grow in the ‘inside’, you will grow in the ‘outside’! In other words, when you expand in the 'inside', you'll expand in the 'outside'.
Let’s look at Psalm 75:6-7 now. It says, ‘for exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.’ In King James Version, this word ‘exaltation’ is written as ‘promotion’. It is ‘ruwm’ in Hebrew which means ‘to rise, to raise, to go up, or bring up’. Here, you'll realize that real promotion in life doesn't come from manipulation of people or 'trying to make things happen' in fleshly ways. These carnal ways may work for a while, but it won't last for long. Friends, know this, a real and lasting promotion comes only from God! It is God who can make things happen for you, and it is Him who opens a way of promotion or expansion for you!
What is the co-relation between spiritual growth (in the ‘inside’) and promotion (in the ‘outside’)? Does one results in the other? The answer is yes. How much you grow in the ‘inside’ will eventually determine how much you grow in the ‘outside’. It’s in a direct proportion. Before promotion in an area of your life comes, there’s always a time of preparation where you are to grow spiritually in that area first.
To grow spiritually is to become more and more like Jesus. It doesn’t really depend on how long you have been a Christian, how old you are, how much experience in life you have, how many bible verses you memorize, how regular you attend church, or how active you are in church ministry, even though these are all good. When you grow spiritually, you are actually growing in the ‘character’ of Jesus. Let me give you an example. If your capacity to sincerely love has expanded from loving your own family to loving others in the neighborhood or in your organization, you have grown spiritually in the area of ‘love’, and there's an expansion in your capacity to 'love'.
Remember when you were a child and the first time you were given 'pocket money' to spend? Why do you think your parents gave you those 'pocket money' at that time, and not before that? Because they felt you were ready. Because they felt you should be responsible enough by then. It's the same how God entrusts you with bigger things in life. It may be an expansion in wealth, an expansion in business, an expansion in spiritual ministry, or a promotion in your career. He'll promote you when He knows you are ready.
Beloved, let's make it your aim to grow spiritually everyday. As you are being transformed from glory to glory to be more like Him day by day, you'll begin to see an expansion or a promotion in all that you do in the 'outside'!
