Awareness of God’s presence in our lives and the world is an important step in spiritual transformation. It strengthens our faith and inspires us in the process. in Listen: Cultivating Spiritual Awakening in Your Congregation, Pastor Chad Abbott and I write about how faith communities and congregations can become more reflective about the moments in which they experience God’s presence.
A special moment to enjoy
For most of us, there are special and rare moments in our lives when we become acutely aware of the movement of the Holy Spirit. People in the past called these “mountaintop experiences,” but we can’t go to the top of a mountain every day. But once we’re there, we can practice remembering those special moments when we made deep connections, how they changed our lives, and how the insights we gleaned from these important moments can help us remember them. helps us reflect on how we can continue to change.
What is spiritual reflection?
Spiritual contemplation is the directing of our attention to what we consider to be most important, what the theologian Paul Tillich calls our “ultimate concerns,” which he calls He describes it as “something unfathomable or sacred, different from all mundane and mundane reality.” It is also experienced as overwhelmingly real and valuable – so real and valuable, in fact, that everything else seems empty and worthless in comparison. ”
Paying attention to the sacred and appreciating the moment is, and always has been, countercultural. Remember the story of Jesus healing ten lepers and only one of them remembered and turned around and said, “Thank you” and praised God (Luke 17:11-19)? The world moves so fast that we are anxious to move on with our lives, like the nine lepers who did not stop and show gratitude. When we slow down, we may fall out of our “moving at the speed of life” culture. But if we just receive all of these wonderful gifts without taking the time to appreciate them, we miss out on rich blessings.
focus on hearing God’s voice
Spiritual reflection is an intentional focus on how God wants to communicate with us. Just as Elijah pondered fire, earthquakes, and wind and wondered if God was speaking to him through them, so too can we wonder about God’s voice and presence in our lives. I will hold you. We seek to discern God’s work among us, and while there are scriptural guidelines for that practice, there are few absolute commandments. For example, if a voice tells us to kill or steal someone, we know the commandments that forbid those choices. Voice and guidance from God on many matters good As the choices are more difficult to discern, we would do well to check them in consultation with faith communities, scripture, historical tradition, personal experience, and reason.
Thoughts on the movement of spirits
After hearing all this talk about spiritual reflection and listening to God’s voice, you may be thinking: What we are experiencing is not just ego or imagination; How do we know that it is? How can we know that God’s Spirit is moving, guiding, and encouraging us? There is good reason to be wary of saying “I hear God’s voice.” Because we have seen examples of people doing ungodly things and yet claiming to be acting on God’s behalf.
We ask ourselves whether what we believe to be a message from God is in line with Jesus’ great commandment: “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38). You can test it by determining. We also test messages to see if they match what we know about God from the Bible, which reflects His great commandments.
Would you like to learn more about the spiritual direction of your congregation? Chad Abbott and I have a book on this topic published by Fortress Press. Listen: Cultivating Spiritual Awakening in Your Congregation.
Source: Spiritual Direction 101 – www.patheos.com
