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The Spiritual Disciplines Practical Tools for Personal Transformation

The Spiritual Disciplines Practical Tools for Personal Transformation. Source: Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives , Harper and Row, 1988. What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ?. “Going to heaven when we die?” “Your sins are forgiven?”

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The Spiritual Disciplines Practical Tools for Personal Transformation

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  1. The Spiritual DisciplinesPractical Tools for Personal Transformation Source: Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, Harper and Row, 1988

  2. What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? • “Going to heaven when we die?” • “Your sins are forgiven?” • “Once you’re in, you can never get kicked out?”

  3. No! • “Life in the kingdom of heaven is available now (and forever) through trust in Jesus Christ.” • Trust = Following The Gospel is bigger!

  4. True transformation is possible in our lives We can experience an “eternal (kind of) life” while living here on earth “If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:13 The Thesis

  5. How? Mimicking Jesus' activities

  6. What did Jesus do? • He arranged his life around certain activities and practices • Such as …? (list)

  7. What did these activities bring? • 1. Detachment. • These activities kept him separated from the grip of agendas people would superimpose on him.

  8. What did these activities do? • 2. Engagement. • They enabled him to commune with God and the agenda of the Kingdom.

  9. Rearranging my life around the activities around which Jesus lived his gives me the opportunity to experience true transformation Disciplines of Abstinence enable detachment from the world’s entanglements on us Disciplines of Engagement enable us to connect with the Kingdom realm The Spiritual Disciplines

  10. Solitude Silence Fasting Frugality Sacrifice Chastity Secrecy To refrain voluntarily and temporarily from normal human needs so as to disentangle ourselves from their claims on us. Disciplines of Abstinence

  11. Solitude • To refrain for our normal need for conversation and human interaction so as to make room for relationship with God • Foundational to practice of all spiritual disciplines • Goal: to do nothing

  12. Silence • To refrain from our normal need for conversation • Getting away from most non-human noise • Frees us from the constant attempt to manipulate our world through our words

  13. Fasting • To do without food (in some way) in order to feast on God • Occasional and routine • Historically and biblically demonstrates to God and ourselves how intent we are about something

  14. Frugality and Sacrifice • To do with less of or none of what we normally want or need • Frees us from bondage to pleasure, luxury, and appearances

  15. Chastity • To refrain from human union in order to experience heightened intimacy with God • Within marriage, partners need times when they are valued for non-sexual reasons • Outside of marriage, to demonstrate that our primary union is with God

  16. Secrecy • To refrain from letting our good deeds be known to others • Disentangles us from the needs for getting credit and recognition • Matthew 6 • prayer, alms, fasting

  17. Study Worship Celebration Fellowship Service Prayer Confession Submission The practices which enable our now-disentangled souls to participate in the life and activities of the Kingdom of heaven. Disciplines of Engagement

  18. Study • Submission of your mind to the truth and being of God • The Word, history, people, ideas, etc. • Done via absorption and memorization

  19. Worship and Celebration • We ascribe “worth” to God as the standard by which all is measured • Remembering and recognizing • Worship: what God has done for us • Celebration: what God has done for me

  20. Fellowship • Connecting with God by imitating the Trinitarian community • Finding our complements in the gifts found in the body of Christ

  21. Service • Laying down the burden of preserving ourselves • Not putting yourself down but pulling another up • A means of exaltation through humility Philippians 2

  22. Prayer • Focused moments in our ongoing conversation with God • Acknowledging God’s presence to me and being present to God • Speaking must be accompanied by listening • Solitude, silence, etc. heighten

  23. Confession and Submission • Making ourselves accountable for growth via the faith community • Considering others as better than ourselves • Log and speck, blind spot • Bearing one another’s burdens • Galatians 6:2

  24. Dangers of the Disciplines • Pride! • Can be works-righteous • Can cause us to neglect appropriate responsibilities and disdain normal needs

  25. But … • Faith is “bodily” • Grace is opposed to works, not effort • We can cooperate (or not) with God • Power steering • Rocket leaving pad

  26. Where to begin ... Elijah Disciplines Brief, playful experiments Solitude and Silence

  27. A Starting Place • One discipline of abstinence with which I could experiment: • Aspiring to one discipline of engagement: • What might these look like one afternoon? • How can we help each other practice these in our household?

  28. Solitude Silence Fasting Frugality Sacrifice Chastity Secrecy Study Worship Celebration Fellowship Service Prayer Confession Submission Starting Points ….

  29. The Spiritual DisciplinesPractical Tools for Personal Transformation Dr. John P. Chandler The Ray and Ann Spence Network for Congregational Leadership www.rasnet.org Copy Right John P. Chandler, 2003

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