Matthew 28:18-20 And
Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to
Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
In my recent discussions
with former Missionary Pastor Obie, the utmost importance of the Christian
church to fulfill the Great Commission and Cultural Mandate commanded by Jesus
Christ (above) is the non-distracted mission of His church in this lost and
dying world. Discipleship, spiritual formation, is desperately missing and the
great omission from the ministry of, not just ours, but many local Christian
churches and limits the growth of the child of God and if spiritual formation
is not a essential element of the organism of church, then Christian must seek discipleship
from another source to be discipled for spiritual growth and maturity. But, what exactly
is this “spiritual formation”?
The late Christian Professor
Dallas Willard wrote that there is a hidden dimension to every human life;
God’s gift to us in creation. This hidden dimension of the self is commonly
thought of in spatial terms as “within” or “insides” or “depths” of the person
or self. The heart, soul, mind, feelings, and intentions lie in this area, and
these make up the true character of the person; the human spirit. The human
spirit is primarily what we today call the “will”; that faculty of the mind by
which we determine either to do or forbear an action; the faculty which is
exercised in deciding, among two or more objects, which we shall embrace or
pursue. The will is directed or influenced by the judgment. The understanding
or reason compares different objects, which operate as motives; the judgment
determines which is preferable, and the will decides which to pursue. In other
words, we reason with respect to the value or importance of things; we then
judge which is to be preferred; and we will to take the most valuable. These
are but different operations of the mind, soul, or intellectual part of man,
what biblically and traditionally is called “heart”.
Spiritual formation is the
process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite form, or
character. Christian spiritual formation is the redemptive process of forming
the inner human world so that it takes on the character of the inner being of
Christ himself. The outer life of the individual becomes a natural expression or
outflow of the character and teachings of Jesus. But the external manifestation
of Christ-likeness is not the focus of the process. The letter of the law kills
by legalism, but the spirit of the law gives live. Jesus’ teachings in the
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) make reference to various behaviors;
acting out anger, looking to lust, heartless divorce, verbal manipulation,
returning evil for evil, and so forth. To strive merely to “act” in conformity with these
illustrations of what living from the Kingdom of God is like is to attempt the
impossible. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak. I
must go beyond "doing things" to find genuine transformation of who I am as
Christ’s man or woman in His kingdom. How?
Let’s continue this message
on forming our spiritual life through discipleship in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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