The Process of Spiritual Formation
Spiritual formation (in the way of Jesus) is the Holy Spirit-empowered process of maturing in Christ — of growing in intimacy with the Lord and growing in the Fruit of the Spirit so that we can become more and more like Jesus and become Kingdom people. It is a life-long process for all followers of the Way that sustains and empowers our discipleship journeys as we increasingly follow and obey the Lord and learn to love God and neighbor with our whole hearts.
Or for a simpler, perhaps more memorizable definition :), Robert Muholland says that:
“Spiritual formation is the process of being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others.”
From the time we are born, we are all in the process of being spiritually formed. Our habits, our relationships, the activities we engage, the sights we see, the music we hear, and the desires we nurture, all transform the landscape of our souls day by day, year after year.
So if you are interested in the process of spiritual formation and have found your way to this Website, you need not ask yourself whether you are in a process of spiritual formation, because the answer is that you most definitely are. Rather, you need to ask yourself, “What kind of spiritual formation process do I inhabit? Am I being formed by God’s grace, truth, and love, or are there others things that are consciously and unconsciously forming me?”
The goal of this Website is to help seekers and believers engage a process of spiritual formation where we open ourselves up to God in ways that allow us to be formed by his love, truth, and grace – to become more and more like Jesus over our lifetimes, to grow in intimacy with Him, and to live a life of increasing abundance, love, and grace. The way we will do this is by engaging life-giving rhythms that place in us the presence of God and allow him to transform us. This will involve us getting to know ourselves well, engaging in various practices both individually and corporately, and allowing ourselves to be shaped by the transforming love of God.
“There are very few people who realize what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves into his hands, and let themselves be formed by his grace. A thick and shapeless tree-trunk would never believe that it could become a statue, admired as a miracle of sculpture, and would never submit itself to the chisel of the sculptor, who sees by its genius, what he can make of it. ”
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”