In “Experiencing God,” Henry Blackaby’s second reality states, “God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.” That statement encompasses both the beginning point and the goal of spiritual formation: a continuing love relationship with God. For the thinking Christian, spiritual growth never becomes static; it’s the ongoing sculpting by the Holy Spirit’s transforming power, centering around five core dynamics: applying, experiencing, revering, loving and trusting.
James 1:22 emphasizes applying God’s truths. First, one has to hear, learn, read, study, think deeply, and reflect on God’s Word. In “Love Your God with All Your Mind,” J.P. Moreland advocates the need to “disciple the mind” for Christ. Jesus wishes to transform the mind by renewing it, he explains. “If we are going to be wise, spiritual people prepared to meet the crises of our age, we must be a studying, learning community that values the life of the mind,” Moreland urges.
But the goal always is to do! For the Christian, faith becomes a verb. That’s the transformational aspect — for us and others.
As a youth, I was mesmerized by the beautiful sound of a hammered dulcimer reverberating off a mountainside. Ever since, I’ve wanted to learn to play one. Recently, my wife surprised me with one. But it is taking a great deal of practice and patience to even begin learning to play it because I haven’t played an instrument since childhood (unless handbells count). As a kid, I was encouraged to play the piano, but I didn’t like practicing and soon quit. Everything I learned then has long since faded. It’s a prime example of the parable of the (buried) talents. Doing is crucial to growing, as a musician and as a disciple.
Applying God’s Word leads to experiencing God’s love, through which we learn about God for ourselves. No one else can practice the hammered dulcimer for me. Building a strong relationship requires getting to know God personally. We can know something about someone through what we read or what someone tells us, but one can only truly get to know someone through personal interaction.
Dallas Willard, in “The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives,” emphasizes their role in focusing our hearts, our minds, and our energy on discovering and doing God’s will. “[T]he activities constituting the disciplines have no value in themselves,” he cautions. “The aim and substance of spiritual life is not fasting, prayer, hymn singing, frugal living, and so forth. Rather, it is the effective and full enjoyment of active love of God and humankind in all the daily rounds of normal existence where we are placed.”
In experiencing God’s love, one naturally begins revering God more. More than church attendance, worship entails having a reverence for God in all of life. Praising God together in corporate worship is formative and foundational; we draw strength from being with others, finding unity in a common mission. Yet, authentic worship flows over into the believers’ daily lives and is easily observable in their cultivation of an attitude of servanthood.
Greg Ogden appeals to church leaders in “Unfinished Business” to call forth every person’s potential for ministry. “The goal … is for all believers to accept before God their responsibility to be stewards of their gifts and call in order to make a contribution to the health of the whole body of Christ and to the extension of its witness to all spheres of life throughout the world.”
Experiencing God’s love ourselves leads to caring sincerely about all those whom God has created. First John 4:19 puts it this way: “We love because He first loved us.” A loving disciple possesses a true heart for meeting the needs of another. Rather than something someone does, loving is something someone is — one’s inner essence.
The Apostle Paul, in Philippians 2:15, exhorts Christ-followers to “shine like the stars,” lighting the Way to the Father. Recently, the DJs on His Radio talked about “Trail Angels,” who leave out food, gloves, socks, water or other necessities along the Appalachian Trail. One couple even held a hot dog cookout and also served fried chicken to those who walked by. Imagine being a weary, hungry hiker greeted by the wonderful aroma of a charcoal grill or chicken frying. Shouldn’t Christ’s followers be as eager to share God’s love with those along life’s toilsome way?
Of these five dynamics, trusting God is perhaps the most difficult. It’s the point where things become more complicated, messy, and often break down. Life gets hard! Trusting becomes harder. Learning to depend on God’s strength and hope is the crucible of discipleship.
Proverbs 3:5-6 counsels, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Our paths are seldom straight to begin with; they’re crooked, winding, uncertain, steep — filled with discouragement, doubt and fear. Only God’s guidance straightens them out, and keeps our steps sure and steady.
A continuing love relationship with God is the key to enduring to the end, where the promise of Jesus is fulfilled: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).