Category: Spiritual Theology

The theology of spiritual growth & sanctification

Focusing on Our Final Destiny in the New Creation

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In the book of Genesis we hear of the tragic beginning of humans. How they lost their union with their Creator and lost harmonious community with fellow humans. But in the New Testament we hear a happy ending. All our prayers, and suffering, and trusting, and sacrifice finally bring us to our eternal destiny. God wins over sin and evil. After death He will give us new bodies and new souls that can receive all He has for us. And his followers will enjoy living with Him forever. This is a key foundation of spiritual theology and spiritual formation. In Revelation we learn that God restores all that was lost in the fall. The Bible begins with a Garden of Paradise that humans must leave because of their sin. But in the end, God cleanses our sin completely and permanently, and restores us to a paradise in a Garden that Continue Reading →

Why Spiritual Theology Has Been Weak in the Area of Koinonia

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“Koinonia” is the Greek word for fellowship. The basic meaning of koinonia is participation. Believers are to be participating with one another. Paul makes this clear every time he talks about believers gathering together. See Romans 12:1-16, I Corinthians 14:23-40, Ephesians 5:15-21, Colossians 3:9-17, Hebrews 10:24-25. Every believer has gifts and is supposed to exercise them to edify others. And every believer is supposed to be open to being edified. I believe Paul emphasizes this practice more than any other essential practice, including preaching, worship, prayer and studying scripture. This mutuality is supposed to be essential to spiritual growth. We can refer to this conception as “biblical koinonia”. The heart of biblical koinonia is mutual openness and edification for which I use the acronym “MOE”. We were never supposed to spend the majority of weekly gathering times just listening to a sermon and singing songs while neglecting mutual edification. We Continue Reading →

Do You Have A Heavenly Perspective? (Excerpt from host’s book “Flourish”)

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This week we are featuring an excerpt from my book Flourish since the kindle version is on sale for 99 cents at Amazon.com this week through Friday. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Flourish-Growth-Community-Living-Gospel/dp/0986382302 . Flourish is for anyone who desires to become mature in Christ. You can reach a place where common temptations are easily overcome and you are able to connect with people in God’s way. The book explains most of the important elements of following Jesus. There are over 50 chapters and most of the chapters in the book are short so you can pause and absorb what you have just read. Relationships and community are the unifying themes of the book. Here is the entire main body of chapter 29: “An essential principle of following Jesus is learning to live with a heavenly perspective. This means living our lives, knowing that we are citizens of heaven, (Philippians 3:20), Continue Reading →

Letting Go Of The False Self So We Can Grow

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Discovering our false self is very important for spiritual growth. God wants to reveal our falseness and destroy our false or ideal self. Our false or ideal self is the “self” we created since childhood in order to avoid being rejected and instead be accepted by others. It includes all the inauthentic strategies we develop to cope with our world. Some people create a false self that always smiles and cooperates and agrees with everyone. Others create a false self that prefers to oppose and fight others; their false self is the “tough” self. Some create a false self that escapes rejection altogether by hiding behind hobbies or studies or career. There are endless varieties of false self and we all have our own individual version. One very common version of the false self for Christians is the religious false self. This false self pretends that everything is okay inside Continue Reading →

listening, contemplation

What is Contemplation and Why Should I Do It?

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Contemplation is simply gazing on something in order to absorb it, not to analyze it or figure it out. Other words that describe contemplation are attentiveness and watching. An example of contemplation that many of us do is watching a sunset. Usually, when we watch a sunset we just gaze and enjoy. We don’t need to analyze the physics of a sunset or really think about anything; we are just observing and absorbing. Contemplative prayer is simply contemplation directed at God. It is not meditation, which is ruminating over something and trying to gain understanding. Meditation is good but it is different from contemplation. In contemplation we simply become attentive to God or whatever we sense God might be doing inside us. In the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition people sometimes use the phrase “being in God’s presence” to describe their contemplation. In contemplative prayer, we invite Him to do whatever He wills, Continue Reading →