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Lesson OneSacred Companions on a Sacred Journey: Three Defining Elements of Supernatural Relating3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoSecular vs. Spiritual SoulCare: The Danger of Blurred Distinctions3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeSoulCare Through Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Friendships: The Biblical Alternative to Psychotherapy3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourBeginning Steps in Spiritual Direction3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FiveThe Rhythm of Spiritual Direction: Following the Spirit As He Releases Supernatural Goodness3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SixSpiritual Friendship: Pouring the Passion of Christ From Your Heart into Another's3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SevenThe Sacred Journey: Where Control is Lost, Where Good Dreams Shatter, Where God's Agenda Looks (and Feels) Bad3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson EightReal Church: Two or Three Broken People Agreed on One Purpose3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson NineEntering the Real Church of Supernatural Community: The Covenant of SoulCare3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TenEntering the Real Church of Supernatural Community: A Format for SoulCare3 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 154
Discussion Questions
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Describe in your own words these two deceptions that cause us to walk away from God. We think we need something other than God in order to be home. We believe we are walking towards God when we are walking away from Him. How have you experienced these deceptions in your life?
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I have believed that I was walking with the Lord and gone full tilt in that direction only to find that it was the right direction but not His timing. But I pushed ahead in my own time and my own steam until I discovered the mistake I had made. I repented and stopped and got still before God. He is now decades later walking with me in that direction.
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We gravitate toward worldly pleasures instead of God in order to feel at home. We believe we are having a spiritual walk with God when in actuality we are clinging onto a “worldly vision” of perfection in our own minds that has nothing to do with the Lord’s vision of our relationship with Him. I’ve experienced these deceptions in coping through traumas life has thrown at me. I chose other things instead of the Lord to bring me temporary joy, a quick laugh. Goals I may have envisioned to be for “His Glory” may have actually been for my accolades or my personal security all along.
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The deception that we think we need something other than God to come home I believe comes from being prideful. I can handle my life by myself I don’t need anyone or anything else.
Sometimes we feel because we are reading our bibles are feel that we a spending enough time with God that we are ok. However, the path that we are taking has led us to more emptiness, because we have not opened ourselves up the Supernatural Spirit of God to do a deep work in our hearts. We’re just existing on the surface of life.
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I have experienced these deception when recently I took a job after saying I wouldnt work on a Sunday, I found myself doing it. Stepping away from what was so invaluable to earn income. I know some profession as in medical firld people have to work these days but for me, I was walking away from Him. Thank God for mercy, He is restoring all that the cankerworm has eaten.
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I am currently walking alongside someone who is so focused on ‘doing the law’ that I believe they are missing Grace. They believe they are walking towards God when in fact, they appear to be at home in an entirely different space.
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Dr. Crabb makes the following observations about the spiritual journey: It is not governed by the law of linearity but by the law of liberty. Lesser dreams (even good ones) must shatter to awaken our appetite for greater dreams. To say that God is in control means that He is moving all things towards an end point that we don’t always properly value or even like. How do these observations help when you are offering spiritual friendsdhip to another?
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I believe this ties in with the concept of First and Second things. God is First and everything else, no matter how important it is, is second. As I walk alongside someone this will guide how I relate to them. How I communicate with them. How I care and share with them.
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It helps to keep in mind that what God wants for us is more and more freedom to relate like Him. When offering spiritual friendship to another, it’s good to know that there is no formula, no “getting it right,” and thus we don’t need to offer solutions to people. He is moving us toward more love for Him and others, and not neat and tidy or even “victorious” lives. He’s the One writing and story and guiding our journeys. When I relax into these truths, it takes the pressure off me to come up with the “right”words for someone.
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These observations give us a freedom to sit with someone, whose circumstances appear dire, and die to our agenda to fix their pain. If we yield and trust that God’s end for their story is nothing we can control or even understand; but we can abide with them, as they wrestle with what they have before them. And we can trust the Holy Spirit to provide beyond us, and offer what they need- not what we want to give.
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The law of liberty means we do not stake our lives on our works, like daily Bible reading, prayer, doing kind things for others, working hard, tithing to the church etc. All those things we can do in our own strength. The law of liberty is being led by the God who is at home in us and living our daily lives in response to His moving within our souls. Thus, we may have to let go of things we want (lesser things) in order to follow where the Spirit is leading us. When we are offering spiritual friendship to another, the friendship may not go how we want, but we must let go of our expectations and obey the Spirit’s direction.
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Because I know that God is sovereign, and all things can work together to bring that person back home to God. Knowing this helps in approaching the conversation of direction and how to get to where the person’s soul really longs to be. True joy, true fulfillment only happens when a person finds their way back home to God.
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Dr. Crabb makes three observations about Eckhart’s quote. Discuss what you think and feel about each. God’s home is now in me. When I walk away from God, I walk away from me. The only way to discover my true self is to come home to God.
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I don’t think I believe deeply enough that God’s home is now in me. I have a greater awareness of sin than I do of God’s presence with me and in me. I like Larry’s thoughts about “the journey to experiencing God is a journey into my own interior world. I think that’s key, but I’m only beginning to understand that. The Church is very caught up in doing Bible study and all kinds of serving. I don’t think we listen to our hearts and what God is whispering in our souls very well. I pray that God deepens my belief and understanding that God is truly at home in me. Second, “when I walk away from God, I walk away from me” is also hard for me to grasp. But I suspect that the truth of it is why I feel empty so often. Larry says, “No wonder I feel unfulfilled and empty and not alive and not … womanly. No wonder something goes wrong within me, because when I walk away from God, I’m walking away from me.” So perhaps I need to be asking myself more often when I feel empty, “where have I walked away from God?” I think it’s a question I avoid asking myself. Lastly, when I think about the third statement above, I resonate with Larry’s suggestion that sometimes we have lost both the hope and sight of who we are in Christ and who we could become in Him. This stirs a lot in me. I don’t think I have any idea of who I could become in Christ. It strikes me that others may see this better than me–for me. I think of the vision letters that Larry was so fond of. I need people to have hope on my behalf and who have a vision of who I could become. I need others to remind me of who I am in Christ. This feels really important to me, and I long for more of it.
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God’s home is in me. Because Jesus made atonement for my sins, I am truly accepted by God, and His Spirit dwells in me. God moves in me and speaks to me, although I may have to learn to be attuned to Him.
When I walk away from God, I walk away from me. This is because I am created to be in communion with God. All I am designed to fulfil, all my resources to do so, and all my joy that results from it are found in God. Hence, when I stray away from God, I also lose my true self. Whatever attracted me to forsake God has become my idol.
The only way to discover my true self is to come home to God. When I turn back and draw near to God, God will draw near to me. He will restore what I lost.
#SoulCare
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I love your sentence here, Weng Yuen–“All I am designed to fulfill, all my resources to do so, and all my joy that results from it are found in God.” Beautifully expressed!
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Why, thank you so much for your thoughts and affirmation. 🙂
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God’s home is now in me. I feel comforted and hopeful hearing this statement. It means I am never alone. I only have to look inside my interior world to discover God and hear what he would whisper to me.
When I walk away from God, I walk away from me. This tells me I am safe with God, no matter what happens. If I stay close to him and keep looking at what he is doing, I will have joy and peace inside, because I am becoming the person He wants me to be. It doesn’t matter what is going on in the world. If I walk away from God, I lose my purpose, peace and joy and am alone. That’s scary.
The only way to discover my true self is to come home to God. I must keep God as my home, and He will work in me and through me to draw others to want what I have.
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I agree with the three observations. God’s home is now in me – the word of God supports this. Our body is the temple in which God chooses to dwell. (Our interior being). When I walk away from God, I walk away from me – the word of God supports this observation too. We were given life with a purpose and a destiny. Outside of God, we cannot discover who we really are and who we are destined to become. Some people spend a lifetime trying to figure out who they are and why they are here. The answer can only be found when we return back to the giver of life, God. When we come home, God will reveal to us who we are in Him.
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As a believer I am aware that God’s Holy Spirit now resides within me and that I need to be still and listen. To recognize that as I read Scripture, God is speaking to me from within, not outside of myself to teach me what he wants me to hear.
It makes sense that when we are “doing our own thing” to seek fulfillment and we have not consulted with God and asked for his guidance, we will be in some way lost of confused about life and are not consulting HIm for answers.
Finally since God made us and knows us and loves us, surely we will only fully find ourselves when we seek Him listen to His spirit and what He wants to tell us through scripture about how life works best.
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We don’t return to God for several reasons, among them: We do not see our flesh dynamics. We lose hope. What does the phrase “flesh dynamics” mean? When have you experienced these hindrances to returning to God?
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Flesh Dynamics means that I try to make my life work on my own knowledge and strength or that I desire someone or something else more than God. I think that has been a hindrance in my relationship with God as I focused more on my spouse, my children, my ministry, even, than I did on my relationship with God.
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Flesh dynamics are the many ways our sinful nature tries to fill the emptiness in our souls — without God. They are the ways we try to manage our lives to get what feels good to us in the short term. I experience this everyday. I am always looking for relief from the pain of life. I am aware of ongoing struggle in this area. I use food and sometimes shopping to fill myself, rather than “returning to God.” I don’t seem to fight that internal battle very long, hard or well.
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Flesh dynamics are the resources we have in our own strength and things that draw us away from God. They are part of the self-centredness of our fallen nature.
Often in difficult situations, I find myself trying to work things out in my own strength. I have believed that I must be surrendered to God and to me that meant acting as I believe a Christian should and doing my part to resolve the situation. This may not work because the situation may be dependent on another person’s actions.
I can now see that I forgot to go into my interior world and allow God to speak to my spirit. In other words, to depend on Him. I can now see the difference between surrender and dependency.
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Flesh dynamic is to look within; first within us as a SoulCare provider and have a clear understanding of what we are feeling and how we are reacting to what is being said. It is also exploring; look into the life of another and helping them to reframe and understand their journey in a way that leads to effective SoulCare. Flesh dynamics can be a hindrance if we have chosen to shut down or shut certain things out of our lives to protect ourselves from experiencing further hurt and pain. This tends to put us on a path of finding solutions for situations outside of and apart from God.
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Losing hope falsely believing that I can never live as I ought to and that God is hard on me.
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Dr. Crabb wants a revolution in his life and in the church where our desire for God actually becomes stronger than our desire to fix our problems. To what extent is that revolution occurring in your life?
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You cannot fix somebody else’s problem. Only God can do that. You can journey with the person as a spiritual friend
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The concept of this type of revolution is so new to me. There are parts I understand and prayerfully live out in my Christian walk but other parts I did not see clearly before now. Fixing problems, my own, and helping others fix theirs, has been my ‘go to’ response. I now see all of this in a different light and there is a revolution beginning inside of me. I praise God for that.
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Through this course, I can say that my deep ‘first thing’ longing was yet to be fulfilled. I longed to be home with God but instead of staying at home with him, I went out to look for something better apart from God because staying at home with God means that I have to be broken. I don’t want the pain of being broken.
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It is happening, but it feels slow. I am aware of a desire to primarily fix my problems–more on some days than others. I am aware of trying to fill the emptiness with other things. I’m encouraged that I am becoming aware of my attempts to make life work without God.
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There is a longing for this to be my reality every hour. But, the true extent to which I am experiencing this reality is much less than I want. It seems the more difficult the circumstances that surround me, the more I long for escape rather than relating to God.
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What do you think a “defining decision” is?
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I think a defining decision is one where you decide “from this day forward, X will be how I handle this painful part of my life.” It is a watershed decision where you decide that, going forward, you will always handle something difficult in this particular way. It is a decision of the flesh to protect yourself from pain. It means that rather than bring the pain to God, you choose to handle it on your own. In some ways, it’s a hardening of your heart toward God and others.
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When did you last sense a longing to have another person walk with you as you walk home to God? What did you do about that longing?
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I sensed it as I was answering these questions. I have asked a friend to journey with me a bit as I work through this course.