Two Sides to Spiritual Growth
My side – spiritual disciplines
- God’s side – the work of the Holy Spirit
Where people tend to disagree is who does what and how much and how often.
The Two Extremes:
- Those who teach it’s pretty much all up to me
- Those who say just “relax and go with the flow” of the Spirit since it’s all a work of God in me.
Both Extremes are Wrong:
- There’s plenty of evidence in the NT that God expects us to practice spiritual disciplines
- There’s also plenty of evidence that it’s God who transforms us not ourselves (fruit of the Spirit)
The Real Answer is Both and Neither
12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12 -13(CSBBible)
- The transformation of the disciple into the image of Jesus is something that both God and the disciple does – together.
- We are partners!
9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Corinthians 3:9 (CSBBible)
One Last Fatal Flaw
- Both sides in this act as though you can actually know who’s doing what when we spiritually grow. Really? I don’t think so.
28 We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. Colossians 1:28-29 (CSBBible)
Segment 2 – Quotes:
Sources: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/discipleship
“The “show business,” which is so incorporated into our view of Christian work today, has caused us to drift far from Our Lord’s conception of discipleship. It is instilled in us to think that we have to do exceptional things for God; we have not. We have to be exceptional in ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, surrounded by sordid sinners. That is not learned in five minutes.”
― Oswald Chambers (24 July 1874 – 15 November 1917
“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
“One of the consequences of sin is that it makes the sinner pity himself instead of causing him to turn to God. One of the first signs of new life is that the individual takes sides with God against himself.”
― Donald Grey Barnhouse March 28, 1895 -November 5, 1960
“We advise disciples not to follow anyone. Let them follow themselves. Each one should follow his resplendent and luminous inner Being.”
― Samael Aun Weor, March 6th, 1917 – December 24th, 1977, The Major Mysteries: The Gnostic Jesus and the Path of Initiation
Segment 3:
“No one accidentally grows in Christ.”
Really? Maybe but…. My story of transformation on my first trip to Myanmar
The Disciple Up Low Down Multifaceted Discipleship
Closing
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