Previously in part 1. of What is spiritual direction? Christian spiritual direction is concerned with knowing what the Spirit of God is up to in a person’s life. What the Spirit does in a person’s life is called spiritual formation - the Spirit supernaturally forming people to know Christ and to become Christ-like.
Previously in part 2. There is a flesh-Spirit battle in every Christian until we get to heaven. Spiritual direction enters that flesh-Spirit battle in the human heart. Within that battle - the battle that’s already been won by Jesus - the Spirit draws and forms us to be more like Christ.
In this part 3. There are no experts of the soul, there is only the Spirit. How does spiritual formation, becoming Christ-like as Christians, actually happen? What does becoming Christ-like look like?
The practice of spiritual direction, part 3/3.
Firstly, spiritual formation is a supernatural work of the Spirit, we cannot spiritually form ourselves. We cannot DIY or self-help Christ-likeness in ourselves. We can respond, in relationship, to the Spirit of God, who also transforms us.
Listen to C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity,
“I cannot direct moral effort, give myself new motives. After the first few steps in the Christian life we realise that everything that really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.”
And Dr. Larry Crabb in his book Finding God,
“We cannot generate true passion for God by an act of will. No formulas will produce the passion we’re after. Seasons of fasting, regular time in the Word, disciplined resistance to temptation, generous giving, exuberant worship – these are all good things, but they are not enough to fill us with passion for Christ.”
And
“True passion for our Lord is a work of the Holy Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:7-10, Message Bible,
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves.
God does both the making and saving.
He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”
(Suggested reads, Galatians 5:25-26 [Message Bible] and Romans 7 and 8 where Paul is talking about a battlefield and the Law and what Christ has already done).
So there are no experts of the soul, there is only the Spirit. No intellect, no qualifications, training, experience or gifts can replace the Spirit. He forms us to be Christ-like.
Again listen to Lewis in Mere Christianity,
“Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”
A vision for the Galatians.
So what does becoming Christ-like (“a little Christ”) look like? Listen to Paul speaking to the Galatian’s in 4:19.
NIV Bible:
“My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you”
And the Message Bible:
“Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth.”
Here’s my question. How does Paul recognise deformation (the opposite of Spiritual formation) in the Galatian people (read Galatians)? And what was Paul looking for when he said “until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives”? Paul had a vision for the Galatians.
A vision for us.
Here’s my thinking. Does the Spirit, the same Spirit of God that Paul followed, have a vision for each of us?
The reality of God - who He is and how He relates within the inner life of the Trinity - can become our reality - who we are and how we relate to God and others in our relationships and communities - just like Jesus (read 2 Peter 1 and John 17:21). This is a work of the Spirit relationally forming us. This is RELATIONAL formation which is to say Christian spiritual formation.
Each of us is an original, our lives are not transformed in generalities or in vagaries but in the vivid specificity and the concrete particularity of our unique lives and relationships. But it happens entirely at His initiative to our reality. He moves towards us. We must be open to receive Him.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “Your Kingdom Come” we are praying that the inner life of God will become our inner life as well. That to me, is thrilling, and there is more. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom, that God invites us into the relationship of His life, not to mimic how He loves but to become love as He, as Trinity IN love, IS love. So the whole point - our Maker making good humans - is to reproduce the Trinity in human community. God’s reality is now ours and our reality is now His. But what is love? His love is not natural but supernatural love. This is not to gain an experience of God that brings complete satisfaction now (we won’t fully enjoy Him until we see God, Trinity, face to face) but the hope (remember Paul’s vision for the Galatians, “until Christ is formed in you”) of becoming more like Christ to further His Kingdom in this world and to delight the Father.
So what is spiritual direction?
Spiritual direction is our lives glimpsed in the action of God’s life. The discerning of the Spirit’s relationship, His initiative and invitation in our lives, in conversation amongst a gathering of two people, in larger relationships such as communities or in nations, is I believe, called spiritual direction. This spiritual direction conversation can take place in coffee shops, restaurants, governments, in pastoral care, at the airport, leadership and management groups, in church conversations, pubs, discipleship groups, business meetings, with friends and family, at garden centres, at Turkish baths (if you’re into that!), on the golf course, at school gates, with our partners, walking the dog, here on the internet via videoconference - anywhere amongst people and where ever the Spirit chooses. A quick glance in the New Testament and anyone can see that Jesus has life-changing conversations, heart-changing relationships with the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places and I think Jesus loves to do this.