Here is goes...
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL FORMATION?
Having served in the United States Army for 6 years, I think of certain things when it comes to “formation” such as: dedication, discipline and consistency. Westerhoff defines the spiritual life as “ordinary everyday life lived in an ever-deepening and loving relationship to God and therefore to one’s true or healthy self, all people, and the whole of creation” (Westerhoff 1994, 1). Using my military analogy and this definition, spiritual formation can be defined as a lifelong process in which we apply direction and discipline to our spiritual lives so we can grow more intimate with God and allow ourselves to be transformed into the image if His Son, Jesus Christ.
Direction and Discipline
Westerhoff suggests some keys to enhance our spiritual life: choosing a time and place for prayer, preparing to enter in to His presence, journaling, maintaining spiritual friends and the studying and praying of God’s Word (Westerhoff 1994, 67-69).
Time and Place
We have to pick a time and place that we are alert, focused and ready to listen to God. My quiet time is in the morning at the kitchen table after I have woken up and before I have eaten. I am usually the only one up at this time so there are no distractions. When we choose our time and place, we have to pick one that does not interfere with any other needs (Westerhoff 1994, 66).
Preparation to Enter His Presence
We have to first clear our hearts and minds so we can give God our full attention (Westerhoff 1994, 67). I usually do this by simply starting to pray. I thank God for another day in which I get to live and glorify Him. I ask Him to prepare my heart for what it is He may have for me and I lift up my day to Him to use for His kingdom and His will. I then take some deep breaths and listen.
Once we have prepared ourselves now we must become aware of God’s presence, focus our attention to Him, expect and desire a deep relationship with Him (Westerhoff 1994, 68). This is where the discipline starts to take shape as we get into a routine of preparation and listening.
Journaling
This is something that can be done differently by everyone and is an area that I need to work on. I find myself journaling about the verses I read which turns into Bible study notes. A spiritual journal can include insights and applications to scripture but should also record our experiences and conversations with God (Westerhoff 1994, 68).
Spiritual Friends
Having someone we can trust with spiritual issues is extremely important. We need someone that we can go to for guidance, accountability and edification. I have a couple of people that I can trust and go to in times of need. Westerhoff states that whomever we choose must be a “sensitive, caring, open, flexible person of faith and prayer who listens and maintains confidentiality” (Westerhoff 1994, 69).
Studying and Praying Scripture
The Bible is God’s spoken Word handed down to us from outside of time to guide and direct us into a relationship with Him. It is a love story of redemption, grace and mercy. We will never be able to fully understand God because our minds are finite and He is infinite but without studying and praying over His Word, we will never get to know Him nor have a relationship with Him.
Currently, during my alone time with God, I am studying the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians. As I read and study what Paul is writing to the Christians in Corinth, I also seek guidance and application for my own life. While this letter was written to a specific group of people living in a specific period of history, people in the church and in our society haven’t changed much and God’s Word applies to us all. This is where I need to pray the scriptures more. I tend to just study scripture and experience the intellectual gains but miss out on the intuition and meditation that lead to a stronger relationship with God (Westerhoff 1994, 70).
Becoming Intimate with God
As mentioned earlier, finding a time and place to engage God is key to our spiritual formation. If we truly want to become intimate with God it has to be done through times of silence and solitude. Jesus gave us a model of prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 in what we call “The Lord’s Prayer,” but He also served as a model of prayer for us. From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus sought to be alone with the Father. The scripture tells us: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.” (Matt. 4:1-2, New King James Version).
Jesus also engaged in times of solitude and prayer when He had to make important decisions. In Luke 6:12-13 we read where Jesus prayed all night and afterwards, He chose the twelve apostles. Knowing that these were the men that ended up taking the gospel to the world (except for Judas), we can appreciate the importance of this decision and the need for Jesus to spend so much time in prayer.
We also need to spend time in prayer so we can align our will with God’s Will. In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that not His will be done but the Father’s will which was a horrible and humiliating death but for the sake of mankind. It is so easy to get into a mindset that prayer is our way of giving our wish list to God. I heard Jon Courson once say, “Prayer is not giving God orders, it is reporting for duty.” If our lives are not marked with silence and solitude, we will not be able to minister to and guide others and will find that our ministry has turned into a painful endeavor (Westerhoff 1994, 35).
Image of Christ
The final key to our spiritual formation is our transformation into the image of Christ. So many think that when we are saved that we become something different when in reality we are just being transformed into what God had always intended for us. The Bible says in Genesis, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;’” (Gn. 1:26a). We were created in the image of God from the beginning. We need to let others see that image in us.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he gives us insight on how to become like Christ in the first couple of verses of chapter 12. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2). The first part is to offer our lives as a living sacrifice to God. It states in Ephesians 5:2 it that Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice so we are to offer our lives up to Him in service. Once we surrender our lives to God and live according to His will and not ours, people will begin to see Christ in us because we are living as Christ.
The next thing that Paul states is that we need to be transformed by a renewed mind into the image of Christ and not conformed into the image of the world. This is probably the most challenging part of spiritual formation. Our challenge is to not be swayed, influenced or discouraged by the world around us but to instead continue serving God and sharing His message of salvation.
In conclusion, if we are dedicated to this lifelong process in which we apply direction and discipline to our spiritual lives we will grow more intimate with God and will be transformed into the image if His Son, Jesus Christ. We will also find ourselves truly serving God and serving others and will begin to not only live for Christ, but we will begin to let Him live through us.
