Spiritual Disciplines
Means of Grace ~ Means of Communion
Means of Grace ~ Means of Communion
My Personal Description Of Spiritual Disciplines
"Spiritual disciplines are spiritual practices that help us set aside intentional time and space to commune with God, receive His revelation and lay a hold of His truths. By positioning our hearts to remember and meditate on His revelation-truths, we are seeking inside-out transformation, overtime, with the ultimate goal to become more and more like Christ. Through our continual communion with God, our hearts are being transformed so that our lives reflect His image more and more in all we do, say and think and even how we react." - Raimer Rojas
How Others Describe Spiritual Disciplines
"Spiritual disciplines are regular practices that promote spiritual growth... [and] can help you position yourself for transformational encounters and growth with the Holy Spirit." - Michael Munson
"Spiritual disciplines are those personal and corporate practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers. They are habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since Biblical times." - Don Whitney
"Transformational discipleship calls for a reshaping of how we view life, faith, and even Christ Himself... The spiritual disciplines are a set of practices used to draw us close to God. Believers should use disciplines to give a place for the Holy Spirit to speak and use God's Word in our lives... [Spiritual disciplines] are structured activities the Spirit uses to move believers toward maturity... The disciplines are activities that give time and space for the Spirit to give understanding about the truth presented in the Bible... The disciplines give a place of structure for transformational growth to occur... When we discipline ourselves to engage with Him relationally, then we will align with God's heart." - Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, & Phillip Nation
"Whatever the discipline, its mostly important feature is its purpose—godliness... Thus we are told in 1 Timothy 4:7 to 'discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness.' The spiritual disciplines are the God-given means we are to use in the Spirit-filled pursuit of godliness. Godly people are disciplined people." - Don Whitney
1. Both personal (practiced alone) and interpersonal (practiced with other Christians) practices
Jesus practices both. The Bible prescribes both.
2. Activities (practices, things you do or refrain from doing) not attitudes (character qualities, graces, etc.)
The goal of spiritual growth is not about "doing" but about "being" like Jesus, but we get there by doing the spiritual disciplines.
The end or goal of spiritual growth is godliness: "...discipline yourself for godliness..." - 1 Timothy 4:7. But the Biblical means to that is to discipline yourself [through the spiritual disciplines], by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by being rightly motivated.
3. Biblical practices
We put focus on those practices practiced in the Bible. These are Bible intake (Bible Study, Biblical Meditation, Bible memorization, etc), prayer, worship, evangelism, serving, stewardship, fasting, silence and solitude, journaling, and learning.
4. Sufficient for knowing God and growing in Christlikeness
We place a focus on Biblical practices which accomplish this.
"...discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness." - 1 Timothy 4:7b NASB2020
"3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' - 2 Peter 1:3-8 NIV
5. Derived from the Gospel not divorced from the Gospel
They don't take us away from the Gospel as if you have graduated from it. No! They always lead us back to the Gospel. We will never outgrow the Gospel!
6. Means and not ends
They are the means to God. We are NOT godly just cause we practice the spiritual disciplines. That was the great error of the Pharisees. They thought, by doing these things ,"I am godly." No! They are the means to get to godliness. But in and of themselves they do not make us godly. (read below: Definitions, Strengths and Weaknesses of Terms Used)
Spiritual Disciplines? Means of Grace? Means of Communion?
Excerpt by Tim Chester from His book, Enjoying God
Spiritual Disciplines (traditional term) - Spiritual disciplines are all the things we do to help us grow as Christians. Things like prayer, Bible reading, church life and so on.
DANGER: The danger is that the language of spiritual "disciplines" [may] make my relationship with God something I achieve through my hard work. Nor do they sound like something I might want to do. I can think of spiritual disciplines as a kind of spiritual workout regime to enable me to be a self-made godly person. Sometimes that's attractive because it panders to our pride but when we don't measure up it can be crushing.
Means of Grace (better term) - The things God "graciously" uses to draw us close to Himself and make us like His Son. One advantage of this terminology is that it includes not only things we do, like prayer and Bible reading, but also what happens to us, like baptism and suffering. But the main advantage of the language of means of graces is that it moves the emphasis from my achievement and back towards God's grace. Growth in Christ and intimacy with God are not something I achieve through the discipline of my will. Rather, they are something God achieves in me through the means of grace that God has provided... My responsibility is simply to make the most of these gifts.
DANGER: It can make them appear somewhat mechanistic. As if grace is a pill I receive. I've even heard them described as the delivery systems God uses to bring spiritual blessings to people on earth. This sounds like an automated snack dispenser. You put your money in the slot, press the right button and a snack drops into the tray at the bottom. And if I read my Bible and pray it seems an appropriate quota of grace will be delivered to me. But grace is not a thing. You can't parcel it up and deliver it to someone. Grace is God's love towards those who don't deserve His love. It's profoundly relational. So grace can't be separated from God any more than I can parcel up some of my love and hand it to the postman to deliver somewhere else.
Means of Communion (recommended term) - [The various spiritual practices and all things in daily life] are all means God gives us to enjoy relationship with Him... Every pleasure is a potential means of communion if you see it as a sign of your Father's generosity, Every pain is a potential means of communion if you see it as a sign of your Father's discipline. Every prayer, every failure every fear, every supper, every temptation, and every groan has the potential to draw us closer to God if we see God at work in it. The key is faith. Faith sees in all the ordinary things of life the extraordinary work of God... Faith sees them as a means of communion. Opportunities to respond to Him.
ARTICLE: Spiritual Disciplines List
FREE PDF BOOK: Habits of Grace - Enjoying Jesus Through the Disciplines