Key Takeaways from the Introduction
Hunger & Humility. When the author found an influential, godly man in his proximity, he writes, “I saw someone thirsting for the things of God.” He writes that he sought this godly man out, telling him, “You know more about prayer than I do. Would you teach me everything you know?”
Importance of House Church! “I still revel in the impact of those teaching/living/praying sessions. It was, of course, teaching-in-community. We were in each other’s homes—laughing together, weeping together, learning together, praying together.” These words capture the reality of life when you get planted with a House Church—we desire to see every member of Ashford be a part of a house church community!
Importance of bringing spiritual realities into the press of raw humanity. Rather than only gathering to pray for people at the church, the author shares about how an elder woman or prayer in his congregation helped him learn the importance to then put action to the things they were learning and praying. In addition to studying about the laying on of hands, they would actually lay hands on sick people and pray for them…and see them get well.
The spiritual disciplines are for everyone. The daily disciplines are for ordinary people! People who are busy with work and kids and chores. In fact, they are best exercised in the midst of our relationships with our families, colleagues, and neighbors. They are not hard, and beginners are welcome. The only requirement is a longing for God.
These disciplines are more of an inner reality of heart rather than just outward actions. Meaning, we can know the mechanics of fasting…but the inward reality is far more important for coming into the reality of the spiritual life.
The disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living in the deep. If you are someone who has felt hungry for the deeper things of God or has been annoyed by the seemingly superficiality, then these disciplines are for you.
The purpose of the disciplines is liberation from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear. They help one explore the inward life.
Our own willpower is not what leads to freedom. There is no slavery that can compare to the slavery of ingrained habits of sin. Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. We can’t save ourselves from sin by our own willpower! While it may produce an outward show of success of a moment, the deep inner condition of life will eventually be revealed. The will has the same deficiency as the law—it can only deal with externals. It is incapable of bringing about the necessary transformation of the inner spirit.
Inner righteousness [freedom from sin] is a gift of God to be graciously received. The needed change must come from within, and it is God who renews us from the inside out.
The disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us.
Grace is free, but not cheap. The freedom and transformation that come are grace because they are free. But they are disciplines, and not cheap, because there is something for us to do. The grace of God is not something we earn, but if we want to grow in it, we must pay the price of choosing to give our time and focus towards the courses of action that cultivate it.
For our Ashford family, pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is doing! There’s a significance to the timing. The clip below is from the end of Sunday service 2/11/24. What the Holy Spirit was speaking to us through Blessing are the same things written in Chapter 1 of the book! We believe that there’s a grace for us. As we choose to do something different, to leave behind the sins that have beset us in the past, and choose to move forward setting ourselves before the Lord through practicing each of these disciplines…there is most certainly a massive renewal and transformation to take place in each of our inner lives!
Noteable Quotes
“As I continued to soak in the stories of these women and men who were aflame with the fire of divine love, I began desiring this kind of life for myself. And desiring led to seeking and seeking led to finding. And what I found settled me, deepened me, thickened me.”
He [the author’s mentor] had descended with mind into the heart and taught out of that deep center.
A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of the grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain. This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines. [We ‘sow to the Spirit’ by setting ourselves before God with prayer, fasting, study, confession, worship, etc…and He takes over and we reap eternal life.] The disciplines are God’s way of getting us into the ground; they put us where he can work within us and transform us.
Remember that a life that is pleasing to God is not a series of religious duties, but rather a life lived from relationship and intimacy with Him!