John Ortberg has a great article in the current issue of Conversations, a journal that I highly recommend to stimulate your thinking about spiritual formation--your own, that is. I'm especially challenged by the idea that living in the flow of God's Spirit is simple...
"What if Jesus really meant what He said? That the Spirit of God is like a river and flowing all the time? What if your job as a follower is not to try harder or run faster or get up earlier or rev up your emotions? What if God really is at work in every moment; in every place? What, if in a sense, my job is to learn simply not do those things that close me off from the Spirit? Instead of needing to do something else, what if it’s about how I keep myself aware and submitted so that rivers of living water are flowing through my being?
Paul puts it like this and in some ways, the spiritual life is that simple. Just don’t quench the Spirit. The Spirit is already at work. He is bigger than you. He is stronger than you. He is more patient than your failures. He is committed to helping you 24/7, so just don’t get in His way. Don’t quench the Spirit. Don’t grieve the Spirit. We are always either opening ourselves up—walking in the Spirit—or quenching the Spirit."
