Copyright
© 2025 Michael A. Brown
‘My heart says of you, “Seek his
face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.’
(Ps. 27:8)
‘Very early in the morning, while it was
still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place,
where he prayed.’ (Mark 1:35)
It should be obvious to anyone who has
been a follower of Jesus for any length of time, that growth in our spiritual
life does not come automatically.
Although
we enter the Christian life through the gateway of repentance and faith, and
although it is God’s desire for us to live a Spirit-filled life, yet simply
being a Spirit-filled Christian in and of itself, does not guarantee that we
will keep on growing as we should.
Spiritual life does not grow in a vacuum, and we cannot afford to think
that we can live our daily life in highly secularised, busy and often distracting
and stressful environments without these asphyxiating our spiritual life, or
without becoming conditioned to the surrounding secular lifestyle and its
values.
In order to be able to grow in our
spiritual life as we should, it is important for us to learn to live and walk
as Jesus did, in his total life or, as Willard puts it, we need to live
‘as he lived in the entirety of his life – adopting his overall lifestyle.’[1] When we look at Jesus’ life, we can see that
he regularly practised what are known as spiritual disciplines.
For example, it was his custom to go to
the synagogue every Sabbath (Luke 4:16); he fasted for a period of forty days
before he began his ministry (Luke 4:1-2); he would often spend time seeking
his Father’s face in prayer (Mark 1:35; Luke 9:28-29, 22:41-45), and so
on. The practice of these disciplines
was the source of the inner peace, strength and spiritual power that he needed
in order to live and minister in the world of his day.
There
are several such practices which will help us to grow spiritually, and some
basic ones are outlined below.
a. Rooting
yourself into a local church family
The
Israelites of the Old Testament were required to keep the Sabbath every week as
a holy day:
‘There are six days when you may work, but
the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you
live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.’ (Lev. 23:3)
One
of the purposes of the Sabbath day was to get the Israelites away from work,
and from its distractions and busyness, and the weariness it produces, for one full
day each week. This would then enable
them to attend the synagogue and to focus on God, prayer and the teachings of
his word on this day, to meet with other believers and also to get physically
refreshed. In doing this, the word of
God, prayer and fellowship would not be squeezed out of their lives because of
incessant work.
Attendance
at the synagogue in this way was Jesus’ custom (Luke 4:16), and going to
gatherings of believers on the first day of the week similarly became the
custom of the early Christians (Acts 2:42, 20:7).
Attending
or taking part in meetings and activities which are organised by our church
ensures that we are influenced positively and blessed by being with other
believers, by the godly atmosphere of worship, prayer and faith, by receiving
nourishment from God’s word for our spiritual life, and by being edified in the
presence of God. Doing this at least
twice a week helps us to maintain blessing in our spiritual life during the
whole week, and also helps us to develop relationships with other believers.
Furthermore,
committing ourselves to a particular group of God’s people helps us to get
rooted into the life of a local church family, and so it helps us to develop
the relationships and accountability we need in our personal discipleship and
growth as believers. It also helps us to
cultivate close friendships and to meet our need for social interaction. Growth to maturity through discipleship is
not something that can happen in our life if we isolate ourself, so we need to
be part of a church family. It says of
the early believers that ‘they devoted themselves… to the
fellowship.’ (Acts 2:42).
The
subject of becoming rooted into a church family is explored in another blog.
b. Solitude
and quietness
For
many people, including believers, life today is often characterised by
increasing levels of busyness and stress; by almost endless distractions or
spending many hours in legitimate pleasures; by the demands of people or of
situations, and by the tyranny of ‘what needs to be done.'
In consequence, many believers find it a
challenge to manage their time and energy in such a way as to make their
relationship with God their first priority in daily life. Indeed, one of the most common problems faced
by pastors is having to deal with the dissipation of the spiritual life of
believers during the week. Believers who
have been built up and strengthened on Sundays all too often have lost their
blessing by the middle of the following week, because of constant busyness or
focusing on activities which take them away from God. So on the next Sunday the whole process of
building them up has to begin again. And
then the same thing happens again the following week… Believers need to recognise this
vicious circle in their personal life and to repent from a lifestyle which
dissipates the presence and power of God in their life during the week.
Rather than allowing ourselves to simply
be the servants of life’s daily demands, we should make proactive use of
our time in order to seek first the kingdom of God. It is the discipline of solitude and
quietness which helps us to do this.
Seeking a time and place of solitude is perhaps the most basic
discipline of all in a believer’s individual spiritual life. Learning to regularly ‘come away from it all’
is crucial to maintaining the freshness and intimacy of our relationship with
God and to ongoing growth in our spiritual life. Such intimacy with God is the key to
cultivating our relationship with the Holy Spirit and helps us to keep our
blessings, rather than losing them.
Distractions and constant busyness
cause spiritual life to wane, and they bring about coldness and
distance between ourselves and God in our walk with him. It makes us prayerless, and prayerlessness is
the scourge of spiritual life. Indeed,
Satan is quite happy for us to be running around busily even in God’s work, if
it means that we neglect our personal walk with God. He would seek to steal this from us, if he
can, because he knows that, without it, we become spiritually ineffective in
God’s work. So we need to be proactive
in making sure that we keep to this discipline of seeking solitude, rather than
passively allowing life to dictate to us how we spend our time. In this regard, sometimes we might need to
say ‘No’ to demands made upon us by others, so that our energies are not so
consumed that we have none left for God himself.
Jesus practised
this discipline of solitude and quietness in his own life. He rose early in the morning and deliberately
sought out a place where he could be alone and quiet, and where he could spend
time intimately with God and pray (cf. Ps. 5:3). It was only after this that he began his
day’s work:
‘Very early in the
morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to
a solitary place, where he prayed.’ (see Mark
1:35-38)
Jesus
exhorted his disciples to practise this discipline when he taught them that, in
order to be able to pray effectively, they should have a place where they can
go regularly to be alone with God, a so-called ‘secret place,’ or ‘a prayer
closet’:
‘But when you pray, go into
your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.’
(Matt. 6:6)
Having such a secret place, a quiet place
of solitude, helps us to get alone with God and to pray, read his word and
commune with him. This is often known as
‘having a quiet time.’ As we practise
this, it then gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity he needs to give us the
inner freshness, peace and strength that arise within us when we dwell and
linger in his presence, and this inner strength then helps us to face the
challenges of the day.
This ‘early morning model’ which the life
of Jesus gives us is very helpful. If
our first challenge is to get away and ‘close the door’ on the ‘outward noise’
of busyness and demands, in order to get into a quiet place with God, then the
second challenge that we then face is dealing with the ‘inward noise’ of our
thoughts, feelings and stresses caused by daily living. Being unable to focus in our ‘quiet time’ is
often caused by wandering thoughts and internal stress. Such ‘inward noise’ is normally greater
during the latter part of the day, when we have been through a whole day of
work and busyness. So, having a
quiet time is much easier to practise in the earlier hours of the day,
when we are fresher after a night’s sleep and are much less distracted, and
therefore freer within ourselves to focus on prayer and reading the word of
God.
However,
this is not to say, of course, that the early morning is the only time that we
can or should spend with God. In fact,
we can withdraw into our ‘quiet place’ any time we want during the day (or during
the night even), and for as long as we want, and we should be free to do so
(within the limitations of our working and domestic lives, of course!). Indeed, in order to cultivate a consistent
relationship with the Holy Spirit, we ought to develop the practice of being
regularly in God’s presence.
It
is recorded of Daniel that he spent time in prayer three times a day, probably
in the morning, sometime around noon, and then in the evening, according to
Jewish tradition (Dan. 6:10-11; cf. Ps. 55:17).
Similarly, Peter and John went to the temple to pray ‘at the time of
prayer,’ i.e. at the time of the evening sacrifice around three o’clock in the
afternoon (Acts 3:1, cf. 2:15, 10:9). We
can also see examples of Jesus spending time with God at various times of the
day, e.g. in the early morning (Mark 1:35), in the late afternoon (Mark
6:46-47), in the late evening (Matt. 26:36-46) and through the night (Luke
6:12).
c.
Confession
When
we enter into the presence of God in our daily ‘quiet time’ and attempt to get
still before him, often the first thing we become aware of is ourself and our
inward condition. As we seek and invite God’s
holy presence, we may well become aware in our conscience of an area of failure
in our life, a particular sin which we have committed in thought, word or deed,
or a selfish or unkind attitude which we have displayed towards someone else,
etc. When we become aware of such things
within ourselves, we are then face to face with the sinful condition of our
inward self and this may well make us feel guilty and uncomfortable.
However,
we need to remember that when this happens, the Holy Spirit in his mercy is
making us aware of what we need to confess to God, in order to then receive his
forgiveness and cleansing in our life.
To enter his holy presence, we must first deal with such things in
ourself. Facing them and confessing them
to God (instead of trying to repress, ignore or live in denial of them) is the
key to entering his presence (cf. Ps. 32:1-5).
The Bible teaches us that God forgives us when we confess our sins to him:
‘If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.’ (1 John 1:9)
When we have brought into the light and
confessed those particular sins and failures which we are consciously aware of,
and have sought God’s forgiveness (cf. John 3:19-21), we should then accept and
embrace his promise of forgiveness and cleansing. This then brings us into a state of inward
peace, and it enables us to relax in his holy presence and to receive more from
him, assured of his mercy and love for us.
It is important that we acknowledge and
act on such inward convictions and promptings, if we truly wish to enter God’s
presence, as otherwise we cannot do so.
He is holy. So we should be ready
to go and seek forgiveness from other people, when we become conscious that we
have wronged them in some way. The
readiness to put wrong things right and to seek forgiveness from others, frees
our conscience from guilt, and it helps us to keep our relationships right and
to live with others in true love and peace (Matt. 5:23-24, 18:15f; Jas.
5:16). Furthermore, we should also be
prepared to make practical restitution to others for wrongs we have done to
them, or for things that we have wrongly acquired, and so on, where this is
possible (cf. Lev. 6:1-7). Again, this
frees our conscience from guilt and the feeling of wrongdoing, and it helps us
to live in right and peaceful relationship with others.
If a believer has an ongoing problem with
tormenting thoughts or feelings (such as anger, guilt, lust or fear, for
example) which do not seem to be resolved through confession, then it is good
for him/her to talk this matter through with their pastor (or his wife), and to
receive his/her counsel and ministry to deal with any underlying issues
associated with their problem. This may
well help to resolve the matter.
d. Cultivating
intimacy with the Holy Spirit
The
seeking of a quiet place of solitude, together with the appropriate confession
of any sin and failure in our life, allows us to draw close to God and to enter
into his loving presence. In his
presence, we can learn to commune with the Holy Spirit who indwells us and to
cultivate our relationship with him. If
we draw near to God, he will draw near to us (Jas. 4:8). Praying and singing in tongues for some time
as we draw near to God releases the power and presence of the Holy Spirit
within us, and it causes the stresses of the day to melt away, bringing us into
a place of peace within.
Such
intimacy with God is the heart of all true devotion, whether private or
public. We were created for just such
loving intimacy, and God longs that we learn to cultivate closeness with him:
‘Love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’
(Deut. 6:4, cf. Gen. 3:8, Jas. 4:5)
As
we relax and dwell in God’s presence, we can focus ourselves on him and learn
to wait on him. We can rest in his love
and acceptance. We can praise and adore
him, praying and singing in tongues. We
can receive healing for any inner wounds we are carrying, as we open ourselves
up and become vulnerable before him in his presence. We receive new inner strength and peace as we
are refreshed in our spirit. He can wash
our heart and renew our mind (Eph. 5:26).
He can give us deeper understanding of the word of God and speak to us
through it as we meditate on it, and he can guide us.
As
we dwell and linger in God’s presence in this way, we are filled again with the
Holy Spirit, and we enter a place of real spiritual freedom. (Eph. 5:18). As a result, we carry God’s presence with us
when we come away from our quiet place, and this presence can then overflow and
minister to others through us.
Learning
to regularly maintain such a place and time of intimacy with God allows us to
cultivate a consistent relationship with the Holy Spirit within us. It allows our spiritual life to remain fresh,
free and peaceful, and it takes striving out of our life and ministry. Returning again and again to that same place
of soul intimacy where we have met with God before is the key to maintaining
intimacy with him, and it keeps us in touch with his living presence. This is the kind of consistent, daily intimacy
with God in which Jesus walked in his own life and ministry. He lived in the presence of God, day and
night.
Any
emerging leader who desires to be used fruitfully by God must learn how to live
in intimacy with him. It
is a foundational axiom of spiritual life, proven countless times over by
servants of God through the ages, that all effective and fruitful ministry
comes out of a life lived in intimacy with God.
e.
Prayer
Praying
expresses the intimacy of our relationship with God. Quite simply, it is talking naturally to him
and expressing our heart to him. We
often pray when we are alone with God in our quiet time and when we are reading
the word of God, although, as we saw above, we can pray at any time, of
course. Jesus expected his followers to
pray. He said, ‘when you
pray...’ rather than ‘if you pray...’ (Matt. 6:5).
Prayer
has many forms. We should confess our
failures and sins. We should thank God
for his faithfulness and goodness to us.
We can ask him to fulfil and meet our personal needs or those of people
that we know. This is a form of prayer
often known as ‘petition.’ We can also
praise and worship him in song and with music, adoring him and expressing our
love for him in this way, just as David did in the psalms. We can also pray in tongues or in our own
language.
It
is a good practice to fill our homes with an atmosphere of praise, by streaming
praise and worship songs whenever we can.
This helps us to maintain a spirit of praise in our life. Sensitive praise and worship, especially when
practised in a group or gathering of believers, attracts a very close sense of
the presence of the Holy Spirit, and this can deeply strengthen and edify
us. God loves to inhabit a place where
his people worship him freely in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24, Eph. 2:21-22).
Praying
together regularly with a group of other believers, either in church meetings
or perhaps in a smaller group setting, helps us to grow together in unity and
relationship with other believers. It
brings about growth in our spiritual life, and we are always encouraged when we
see answers to prayer. There are many
examples in Scripture of such corporate prayer (e.g. Acts 1:14, 2:42, 12:5,
13:2-3). Furthermore, spending time together regularly in prayer with a close
friend can create a deeper level of intimacy and openness in prayer than is
possible in a larger group. Becoming a
member of a church prayer team or being on a prayer chain, helps us to get more
experience in praying for and supporting others in their time of need.
f.
Meditation on the word of
God
The
Holy Spirit within us fills us with his love for the word of God, drawing us to
read and meditate on it. Reading the
Bible is a source of feeding our spiritual life. When we read it, God speaks to us. The word of God is spiritual food and
nourishment to us. God’s words are our
life, and Jesus said his words are ‘spirit and life’ (Deut. 8:3, 32:47; John
6:63). Just as our body needs feeding
several times each day, so our spiritual life needs feeding regularly from
God’s word. We are to eat and drink the
word of God:
‘Like newborn babies,
crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.’
(1 Peter 2:2; cf. Jer. 15:16, Ezek. 2:9 – 3:3, Rev. 10:8-11)
We
read and study the word of God in order to feed our spiritual life, to wash our
heart and renew our mind, to strengthen our faith (Rom. 10:17), to understand
God’s commandments, to know his promises, and to learn his wisdom and his ways.
However,
rather than simply reading the word of God just as we would read any other
book, it is important that we meditate on it, pondering and thinking about what
we read (cf. Josh. 1:8, Ps. 1:2). The
Hebrew word used for ‘to meditate’ means ‘to murmur repeatedly’ with the
implication of pondering over something.
By thinking carefully and praying about what we are reading in the word
of God, by seeking understanding of it and seeking to know what God is saying
to us through it, we allow it to sink deeply into our mind and heart. As we focus on the living and active word of
God in this way and give it our undivided attention, its life-giving effects
can enter into us and begin to work throughout our entire being, bringing
revelation to our spirit, understanding to our mind, and strengthening our
faith (Heb. 4:12, Rom. 10:17).
We
should learn to meditate on God’s promises, to confess them over our life, and
to stand on them by faith in our circumstances.
As we do this, we will see God answering our prayers and meeting our
needs. As we delight ourselves in the
word of God and meditate on it, and as we put into practice what we are
learning in obedience to it, then we begin to grow spiritually and bear
fruit. And as we increasingly learn to
walk in God’s wisdom and ways, we prosper and are successful in whatever God
wants us to do (cf. Josh. 1:8, Ps. 1:1-3).
Our knowledge of the word of God therefore becomes practical and
experiential, rather than merely cognitive.
We
are normally fed regularly on the word of God in church meetings and small
groups, but, in addition to this, it is good to develop the use of other
resources to read and study the word.
There are many good Christian books available which will help us to grow
in our understanding of the word of God, and we can also use other resources
such as the internet or Christian television programmes. The Bible is also available for use on
hand-held devices. Your pastor can guide
you in finding suitable resources for your growth. A good basic rule of thumb is to read and
meditate on at least one chapter a day from the Bible, and also to do some
other devotional reading every day.
g. Fasting
Fasting
is an important spiritual discipline, but it is all too often neglected in
church life today. It was regularly
practised by believers in the Bible, and Jesus assumed that his followers would
also learn to practise this discipline in their lives: he said, ‘When
you fast…’ rather than ‘If you fast…’ (Matt. 6:16). Scripture highlights the importance and power
of fasting by relating several examples of occasions when people prayed and
fasted (either as individuals or together corporately as the people of God) and
saw God working powerfully in answer to their prayers.
The
practice of fasting is important to the development of our spiritual life and
our walk with God, and so the fact that it is not always dealt with in teaching
or discipleship at local church level would suggest that we deal with it more
fully in a separate blog.
h. Serving
Servanthood
is the heart of Christian work and ministry, and in many ways it
exemplifies the opposite of the self-centred values and attitudes of the world
which so often emphasise material success, recognition, human pride and
position. Jesus underlined this when he
said to his disciples:
‘…whoever wants to be great among you must
be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…’
(Matt. 20:26-28)
His practical example of washing their
feet would have brought this lesson home to them (John 13:1-17). To know and follow the Master is to
learn to serve (John 12:26). We
serve others because he too served:
‘I have
set you an example that you should do as I have done for you… no servant is
greater than his master.’
(John 13:15-16)
The
use of the Greek word latreia, which is variously translated as both
‘worship’ and ‘service’ (e.g. Rom. 12:1), highlights how the life of worship
that we experience as we relate to God, then works itself out in a life of
service in the work of his kingdom.
Jesus also underlined this connection:
‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him
only.’ (Matt. 4:10, cf. Isa. 56:6)
We
worship God because we love him, and this should then lead us into serving him. True heart worship should lead
naturally into a desire to serve. Serving others is an outworking of our worship
of God, and regular worship without serving leads to a frustration of the
purpose of God for us. To love God means
to then also love our neighbour. In our
local church, serving can find expression in committing ourselves to becoming
active in at least one area of the life of the church (perhaps in the various
program activities, in practical work and help, or in the church’s ministry, outreach
or mission activities), and also in serving other people around us in daily
life as opportunity or need arises, whether in school/college, the work-place
or in the community.
Serving
others in such ways can fulfil several purposes. It helps us to see beyond ourselves and to
develop vision for the work of God’s kingdom.
It helps us to grow as a disciple by learning to deal with any wrong
attitudes we may perhaps discover within ourself from time to time towards
particular tasks we may have been asked to do or towards certain other
people. Serving others may lead to
getting involved in a particular ministry that we might desire to take part in. It helps us to put our talents, skills and
gifts to use in God’s kingdom. It helps
us to build relationships with other believers and so creates a closer ‘family
feeling’ in church life. It helps us to
fulfil God’s call to love our neighbour in doing good works. In particular, witnessing to non-believers
through serving them may well help them to become more open to hearing what we
have to say about God. Serving them
through life example and deed backs up any words that we speak about the
gospel. Serving others brings the
blessing of God into our life:
‘Now that you know these
things, you will be blessed if you do them.’ (John 13:17)
i.
Giving
Giving
is an expression of life in the kingdom of God, and it is closely connected to
serving. Jesus said that he came
‘…to serve, and to give
his life as a ransom for many.’ (Matt. 20:28)
He
said that we are to
‘…give to the one who
asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.’
(Matt. 5:42)
Although
we perhaps naturally think in terms of financial giving, we can also give in
many other ways, such as giving practical help to those in need; investing our
time, skills and energy in a particular aspect of God’s work; giving our wisdom
to someone who is seeking it; giving ourselves to a particular outreach
ministry; giving by opening our home for hospitality; giving food to needy
people through the local foodbank, and/or giving to other charitable causes;
even something as simple as giving a smile may bring encouragement to a person
who is downcast, and so on. Giving
freely to others is a mark of God’s grace working in us; we give, because God
has freely given to us:
‘Freely you have
received, freely give.’ (Matt. 10:8, Eph. 1:6)
The
particular aspect of financial giving is discussed in another blog.
Copyright Notice
THE
HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011
by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[1] Willard, D. The Spirit of the Disciplines, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.6.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.