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By Carol A. Jenkins TABLE of CONTENTS
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| "You cannot convey to others divine grace
if you yourself have a neglected spiritual condition. . .
Remember, you cannot lead anyone higher than you yourself have gone;
you cannot enrich anyone beyond your own actual experience of God."
from QUIET TIME, an Intervarsity Guidebook for Daily Devotions
Discipleship involves three things: an individual or ideology after which to pattern one's life; intentional pursuit of knowledge and / or the experience of that individual or ideology in order to become like the individual or absorb the ideology; and sacrifice of one's life, choosing to devote oneself in single-minded dedication to that individual or ideology. One can be a follower and not a disciple. One can be a student and not a disciple. One cannot be a disciple, however, without forsaking all else in order to become like that individual or surrendered to that ideology. Most people who follow an individual or ideology end up disillusioned because the closer they get to the image of what they follow, the less worthy that individual or ideology truly is. However, for us as disciples of Jesus Christ, we have chosen to follow and to pattern our lives after the only person and ideology that reveals Himself to be more worthy and glorious the closer we come to Him. The writer of Hebrews puts it like this, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs." (Hebrews 1:3 & 4) Devotion to Jesus requires sacrifice (like the disciples in the gospel who left all behind to answer the call to follow Jesus). It requires intentionality. It requires the best of what we have to offer by way of our time, our talents, our resources and our very lives. Learning the spiritual disciplines in order to apply them to our personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is a great first step toward the goal of bearing the image of our Master as the imprint on our soul. Therefore, before you can begin to study and grow in your knowledge and experience of the spiritual disciplines. you need to make a decision. A.W. Tozer once said that "people never have as much of Jesus as they hope for, but they have as much of Jesus as they want". In other words, you can close your eyes and imagine yourself living a holy life, walking side-by-side with your Savior experiencing a depth of relationship with the God of the Universe that defies understanding or expression, but if when you open your eyes, your time, resources, attention and focus is still you and your small world, you will not have what you imagine. God does not fill our lives with the fullness of Himself by some magic potion or pill. He does not allow us to experience His glory on a deeper level without having us first take those steps out in the garden with the Creator God in order to get to that deeper, more intimate level. So, you have to answer Tozer's question for yourself: how much of Jesus do you truly want? Take a moment and ponder that question. Are you ready to move forward? Time spent practicing the nearness of God through the disciplines is a life-altering experience that results in a deepening of your faith and a maturing of your soul. Spiritual disciplines, when practiced with regularity and intention, place us in daily, close contact with the Alpha and the Omega, the King Eternal, the Creator God, the Everlasting LORD. That kind of exposure changes people. Do you remember how Moses was transformed by God's glory? It wasn't the practice of the disciplines that radically altered his appearance (the doing of things), it was the proximity of God's glory that transformed Moses. Afterward, his life shone with the radiance of his Savior. Spending extended and purposeful time in the presence of the Almighty alters those who choose to draw near. It can literally do nothing else. Being in God's presence as you pray or fast or study His Word or kneel at the foot of the cross, devoting your morning to the discipline of solitude, those activities usher you into the Divine Presence of a Holy God, of an Immutable (unchanging) God. Standing or sitting or kneeling in the brightness and purity and power of Yahweh (Almighty God) forever alters the heart, the mind and the soul of us. God created us, put us in this world, redeemed us through His Son, Jesus and is now at work to sanctify us (set us apart as a holy people) unto Himself. To be a disciple, one must recognize that this world is dying but we, as God's children, are not. God's plan for us extends far beyond the frailties of this life. God's purpose in our lives is an eternal one. Being a disciple means that we live and breath and act in this world, but that our sights (and our hopes) are set firmly on the next. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:3 - 14 Having an eternal view of your life will aid you as you practice the spiritual disciplines. A life perspective that focuses only on the immediate and the temporal undermines the message of the gospel. Recognizing that we are here for now, but that our future lies with an eternal God enhances and encourages our walk. We may be stuck in the mud now, experiencing the pains of a fallen world, but this is not our future. Paul, in his epistle to the Corinthian church reminds us of that. . . But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. . . So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:7 - 10; 16 - 18 Choose then, to follow. Focus your gaze beyond the horizon. Grasp the intimate nature of your relationship with Jesus Christ - build your foundation of faith upon your experience of God. And as you invest your heart, your soul and your mind in God's truth, rejoice in how much more you resemble Jesus today than you did yesterday. . . So much of what we do in the Christian faith is a group activity. Practicing the spiritual disciplines, however, is not. This is about you and God. Period. It is about learning who He is, learning how to talk to Him, how to listen to Him, how to trust Him, how to breathe Him in. This is what the Psalmist meant when he said, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalm 34:8) And although the practice of the spiritual disciplines is not a group activity, glorifying God always is! You have to put in the time, just you and God alone as you learn what it means to fast or pray or simplify, but you can and should share what you have experienced with others. We are called to testify to God's goodness, to exhort and encourage one another, to be accountable to one another and to model what we are learning. It may help to see the equation this way: time alone with God being fed - time with others, sharing the bounty of what He has given you. He adds and in that abundance you give, sharing what He has poured into you. This material was originally developed for our women's discipleship breakfasts. Taking Titus 2 seriously, we developed a plan for women who are older in the faith (and hopefully more mature) to mentor those who are younger in the faith. You will see references to assignments for those breakfast meetings. If you are doing this workbook on your own, you can ignore those references. Or, you can choose to do this workbook on your own and then with others, scheduling a meeting time every two, three or four weeks as you choose. I encourage the latter. That way, you get to enjoy the blessing from both ends. First, you get to develop and have one-on-One time alone with God and then, you get to share with your sisters or brothers what God is teaching you in that intimacy. There is just something special about sitting with your family in Christ, sipping coffee and sharing what God is doing in your life that goes beyond mere words. One final word, this is the practice of the spiritual disciplines, not the perfecting of the spiritual disciplines. The reason we practice is that we will never be perfect on this side of eternity. So, if you are tempted to turn this into an obsession, you will miss the fullness of what God has for you. It is not in the "doing" of the disciplines that God meets us but rather it is in the practice of them that leads us into His presence and in that, God meets us and pours Himself out upon us.
PRACTICAL TIPS: Optional. Get highlighters to mark the passages you will study with a color code that indicates the following:
One color to highlight a new thought or learning about God's character. You can come up with any system you like. Choose before you begin how you would like to record and capture what you will study so that you can go back to it with ease for your own edification or for the equipping of the saints (2 Timothy 2:2). Journal. Discipline requires choosing a road and dedicating oneself to that journey. No explorer ever begins an adventure without the means or the intention of documenting the experience. You'll need that ability to chart where you were, where you are, where you hope to go and how you arrived. You'll also want it some day to encourage another with an honest recitation of God's glory as reflected by the distance He has brought you. Create a God-habit. Develop your schedule around your daily time with Jesus. The key is to think of it as a priority from the start. "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) You need to approach this time with an attitude of expectation. You are meeting with God. Come empty handed and with great anticipation for what He is going to reveal to you. Remember, this time is all about growing your relationship with Him. It is in the vertical relationship with your Abba, Father that the well-spring of life flows with joy, with peace, with contentment and with hope. As a child of God, this is your birthright. Revel in it!
RESOURCES:
"Celebration of Discipline" Finally, there is an excellent resource that I could recommend should there arise doctrinal questions that are difficult to answer. "Systematic Theology" by Wayne Grudem is an excellent resource to answer questions and present the foundational doctrines of the Church. Please, don't be intimated by its size. It is the most readable and thorough theology book that I have ever found.
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