April 2025

One of, if not the greatest Christian is the Apostle Paul of whom said, “I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing” (Romans 7: 19)

Without the Holy Spirit, human beings cannot know God nor have a relationship with Him. Jesus tells the Apostles in John 14 that after He goes back to the Father, the Holy Spirit will be their companion, He will be in them and with them. It is because of God’s Spirit that a believer begins to transform, exhibiting Holy Spirit’s attributes of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” unlike the sinful attributes of “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21).

The world advocates that if you follow your own heart and live your own truth you will be happy. You are good the way you are, and if not, read self-help books because you are in control of your own life. This mantra is a lie and a follower in Christ knows this because it takes one to discern their motives and desires residing in their heart to truly have joy and be in line with the Word of God. Often we see that when followers of Christ or non-believers choose to live their life without God they are not happy and wonder why. Jeremiah sums it up this way, the heart is deceiving amongst all things, who can know it; consequently, it requires the lifelong sanctification process only made possible through the act of the believer’s spirit working in tandem with the Holy Spirit.

The common worldview screaming the loudest in society is how good and powerful we are without God; this feeds into Satan’s plan to deceive humans and harkens back to the Garden. Jesus calls out the devil for what he is, a “deceiver”, “enemy” (Matt 13:39); “liar” (John 8:44); “murderer” (John 8:44); “evil one” (Matt 13:38); and “prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30). When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin into the world, humanity was depleted of grace that can only be restored through the Father. A 13th century theologian, Thomas Aquinas points out that in the Garden, Adam and Eve had “original justice” which is a perfect justice that was taken away the moment they took from the tree of knowledge. In an act of autonomy, they believed and reasoned ingesting the fruit would somehow internalize this knowledge when in actuality took grace away (Stillwaggon, 2014, pp. 67).

God’s Covenants
In Exodus, God gave the Law to the Israelites and instructed them to cleanse themselves of sin every year through animal sacrifice. This is a picture of a future time when Messiah will become a sacrifice once and for all, lifting the curse for all who believe in Him for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Jesus is known as the New Covenant and it requires faith for Jesus is the only way back into harmony with the Father “I am the truth, the life and the way, no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The Old Testament tells of God’s promises to the Nation of Israel through the Abrahamic, Noahic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants. The Mosaic Covenant introduced the 10 Commandments to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai. The Law was never meant to save, but rather show humanity it’s sin and need of a Savior. The Israelites were instructed to conduct animal sacrifices as part of being cleansed for their sin, this painted a picture of the coming Messiah when Jesus’ blood would cleanse the sins of the world once and for all.

Spiritual Disciplines
Jesus went off into nature to pray to the Father. This is an example of how believers can find meditation and solitude more fruitful when done in nature, away from worldly things and it’s noise. It can be through contemplation and evaluation that a believer can examine true motives and desires, being formed as the Holy Spirit imprints His attributes triggering a response in the believer to live out the spiritual disciplines (Strobel, 2013). Spiritual disciplines include praying, mediation on the Word, read and study Scripture, memorize Scripture, fasting, and serving others; this results in a changed life drawing one closer to being more like Christ. Posturing oneself through scripture study, meditation, prayer, and contemplation invites the Spirit to engage in changing one’s mind and heart. The Spirit validates and motivates the believer to repentance, obedience, and self-reflection when the believer invites His glory through engaging in disciplines, not as good works, but rather in faith. Dallas Willard, as cited in Vos (2012) says “prayer has a ‘spiritually strengthening effect’ on every aspect of our personality. It builds our faith and confidence in God. To be done well, prayer will almost certainly be linked with other disciplines…” (Vos, 2012, pp. 104).

The closer believers get to Jesus, the more they will be attacked and tempted to disobey God. In Matthew 4:1-11, we see Jesus subject to Satan’s attempts and shows us how to fight back with Scripture, including Psalm 91 when Satan deliberately misquotes Scripture trying to trick Jesus.  Apostle Paul identifies a believer’s duel between his sinful nature and God’s holy nature and stresses the need of transformation of mind and heart from the “pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2). Apostle Paul also instructs the importance of putting “…on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:10). For example, the discipline of ‘prayer’ helps ward off the enemy, as Chapell (2001) puts it, “…we do not have sufficient desire to resist…” and seek to get rid of sin at the same time desire it; therefore, we “pray in the Spirit” so that He may “stir up within us a greater zeal for God” so that we may combat enemy attacks (Chapell, 2001, pp. 150).

Character Formation in Daily Life
There will be suffering and blessing, sadness and joy throughout a believer’s life as both natures, human and Spirit, live at odds. Through faith and hope, a believer can experience character formation and the importance of diligently practicing the spiritual disciplines, so they are part of what it means to “…go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19). As ambassadors to Christ, the goal is to spread the Gospel and make more disciples, this spiritual formation basically requires going beyond recognition to actual experience as a believer finds his desiring the Kingdom of God versus the world.

Always remaining in the Word through study and application remains evident in my life when proper contextualization and interpretation is undertaken. Rather than live in isolation, or hide one’s faith, it is freeing living outwardly, as Matthew puts it, “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house” (Matthew 5:15). Unafraid driven by true desire to live one’s faith in a forsaken world, leads to experiencing true joy.

References:
Chapell, B. (2011). Holiness by grace: Delighting in the joy that is our strength. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. ISBN-13: 978-1433524424
Foster, R. J.  (1988). Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. San Francisco: Harper & Row
González, E. (2016). Jesus and the Temple in John and Hebrews: Towards a New Testament Perspective. Davarlogos, 15(2), 39-65. Retrieved from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=121475542&site=eds-live&scope=site
Pettit, P. (Ed.). (2008). Foundations of spiritual formation: A community approach to becoming like Christ. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications. ISBN-13: 978-0825434693
Stillwaggon, J. (2014). The Problem of Propagation: Original Sin as Inherited Discourse. Studies In Philosophy & Education, 33(1), 61-73. doi:10.1007/s11217-013-9362-7. Retrieved by: https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=93447361&site=eds-live&scope=site
Strobel, K. (2013). Formed for the glory of God: Learning from the spiritual practices of Jonathan Edwards. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books. ISBN-13: 978-0830856534
Vos, B. (2012). The Spiritual Disciplines and Christian Ministry. Evangelical Review of Theology, 36(2), 100–114. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rlh&AN=75190759&site=eds-live&scope=site
Willard, D. (1998). Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation, and the Restoration of the Soul. Journal of Psychology & Theology, 26(1), 101–109. Retrieved from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0001001817&site=eds-live&scope=site “