LIBERTY UNIVERSTIY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Spiritual Formation
Submitted to Professor Rodney Dempsey
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500 B01
Discipleship Ministries
by
Joshua Arlaus
Sep 12, 2021
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Introduction
When discussing spiritual formation, we can look at spiritual formation as the process in
which Christian’s practice taking on more of Jesus Christ’s character as they proceed through
their life. There are many ways that a Christian can go about spiritual formation. Spiritual
formation can come through habitual practices of certain spiritual routines such as reading the
scriptures, meditating, praying, and spending time with others. Through the consistent practice of
including God in our daily lives and acknowledging his help, or his presence according to the
scripture and our experiences, we can really strengthen our confidence in God’s love for
ourselves and each other. This leads to better experiences in the world that happily include and
welcome God’s Holy Spirit to flow and guide with minimal resistance. Spiritual formation is so
important because the better we understand God’s character and spirit through his word, the
better we can recognize when it is trying to move in or around us.
Three Areas Related to Spiritual Growth
The three main areas that are intertwined within spiritual growth come down to love,
studying scripture, and prayer. All these aspects are so important when it comes to spiritual
growth. Firstly, God is love. For us to be the best that we can be, we need to understand God’s
love and practice reciprocating that love back to God. We need to understand the value of
spending time in God’s presence through meditation, we need to understand the value of
spending time studying God’s word, and we need to understand the importance of prayer. When
we study God’s word, we gain the ability to learn about God’s character, our history, and about
ourselves. This process of reading scripture causes us to either feel compelled to love greater in
our own lives as children of God, or it illuminates our lack of faith. For those that do choose to
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pursue God’s heart and a transformed life, loving God and showing it by spending that time
seeking his presence and perspective is a complete necessity. We can only be greater at inspiring
and loving others for God, only through the love that we have received from God. Dave Earley
tells us, “The goal of spiritual transformation is becoming more like Jesus. If you are not
changing and growing, you are not experiencing spiritual formation. This is a process of change
Paul refers to as a glorious transformation.”1
We can show our love for God by also loving our neighbors as well. The people around
us whether they are strangers or not. Practicing this in the world really helps us to grow and
understand more of Christ’s character, but also spending that time with others while you are
practicing your faith puts you in a better position to gain souls for Christ. Practicing this type of
love through God’s help and remembering the source of progress is very beneficial to spiritual
growth. Rod Dempsey stated, “Our love for God and for one another should be a major
apologetic to the unbelieving world.”2 It’s very true! People that do not choose to believe at the
current moment should still be able to feel the spirit of Christ working in us. Even unbelievers
have heard of Christ and his good work and reputation in the name of God. So, it is much more
likely that individuals will recognize when that love is being displayed or represented in others.
As we pursue love with God, we will naturally have questions, concerns, or troubles in
life. Many times, we may just want to express our gratitude for God’s love and blessings! This is
where prayer comes in! Prayer is extremely beneficial when it comes to spiritual growth. God
gave us prayer so that we could communicate to him. Such a beautiful gift! It is amazing to think
that we can fully communicate to God inside of our heads or spirits as if our mouths are moving,
but they are not. And only God can hear those thoughts! His ear is never far from us so being
1 Dave Earley and Rod Dempsey, Spiritual Formation Is... Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2018. 4.
2 Ibid, 101.
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aware of God’s love and his presence is extremely valuable in spiritual growth. Lastly,
meditation is so beneficial because meditation allows an individual to practice quieting the mind.
Meditation even allows for an individual to practice comparing what they hear, feel, or see
through their senses to scripture so that they can recognize whether the voice of the Holy Spirit is
speaking, or the voice of the enemy. It can be easy to allow the distractions of the world to
sometimes take over and it can be easy to get overwhelmed with life’s responsibilities if we do
not have the correct balancing strategies in place. Meditation allows us to practice letting go and
giving to God instead of holding onto everything. Meditation, prayer, and scripture go together
beautifully and help allow for the Holy Spirit to do it maximum work.
Personal Growth Assessment
Completing the personal growth assessment really helped me see a different perspective
about my life. I say this mainly because I began school at liberty University in the year 2016. I
have not taken any breaks since then. I graduated with my bachelor’s in biblical studies and
Education, and I applied for my master’s degree and was accepted into my master’s degree
before I graduated with my Bachelors. I graduated in December of 2020 and started my master’s
January of 2021. I do have a wife and I work 2 jobs while going to school full time and at times I
do struggle to balance everything at times. After completing the assessment, my strength is in
love for God and my area of weakness is in loving neighbors that do not know Christ. I enjoyed
doing this because God was able to use it to illuminate so much work left that we could be
performing together. Important work. I do spend a large amount of time with individuals that
believe in God but are seeking strengthening in certain aspects that I know the Lord will allow
me to assist with. But I do not participate in active gameplans to reach out to the untouched as
much as I could. Sometimes I do gain opportunities through work where that is exposed to me,
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but I could actively go out and try to reach them. So, I am grateful that I was able to complete
this assessment and that I have been able to be apart of this class. I want to start praying and
meditating on what I can do to be more involved in the best ways I can.
Again, the love for God was the strongest I was placed, and I know when I reflect on my
life, there is so much more room to grow with God. It is a constant battle to stay as consistent
with the proper energy in the world at times, and without God’s motivation and Jesus as an
example, I would be nothing. It’s the Lord’s perspective that keeps me going so I had a feeling
that this would be strongest score. I know a stronger love for God will in turn help me have a
stronger love for people. I must be able to see through the flesh in order to make the most
influential choices that I can make amongst what circumstance puts in my face. Only spending
time with the Lord can prepare any of us for that. A major area that I need to change in this field
is to be more confident and trusting. More willing to pursue what God puts on my heart. Anytime
I have been in the position where I have let my fears and doubts win, I have noticed after the fact
that if I would have listened and trusted what the Lord put on my heart, I would have had a better
result.
When it comes to loving one another, I scored the lowest. It is a necessary pain to feel,
because it exposes what God still has for us to pursue as children of God. We can not always be
in the beautiful part of the field, sometimes we must reach out to the lost ones more actively
because God cares for them as well. My plan is to just be more active and open to the
opportunities around me. I plan to actively listen to my surroundings through out my daily life so
that I can search for opportunities to evangelize where it may be needed. I know God cares
deeply about those that are lost and misinformed. I should be sharpening my skills so that I can
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help bring as many of those individuals’ home as I can. All with God’s assistance and blessing of
course, as I can do nothing without him.
In conclusion, the continual practice of studying scripture, praying, and meditating are all
needed for spiritual growth. We must all focus on these practices if we want more opportunity of
feeling God’s presence. Not only feeling God’s presence but so that we can learn and to
understand God’s presence more fully. This helps because when we do that, we can allow God to
guide and help us in life with as little resistance as possible. Also, I must focus on the areas I am
weak and search for the opportunities to put myself in the position to grow. God wants us all to
be fully mature and complete, lacking nothing. So, this is how I am going to try and dedicate my
free time. Praying and meditating on the different things I can do around my environment to help
those that don’t believe see more of God’s light.
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Bibliography
Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is…: How to Live the
Great Commission with Passion and Confidence. Nashville: B&H Publishing
Group, 2013.
Earley, Dave, and rod Dempsey. Spiritual formation Is… Nashville: B&H Publishing
Group, 2018.
Putman, Jim, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman. DiscipleShift: Five Steps That
Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013.
Teo, Wilson. “The Formational Journey of Emerging Ecclesial Leaders”. Production Staff
(2018): 86.
Willard, Dallas, “Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation, and the Restoration of the
Soul”, Journal of Psychology and Theology, 26, no. 1 (1998): 101-109.
Richards, E. Randolph,
and Brandon J. O’Brien.
Misreading Scripture With
Western Eyes.
Downer Groves, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2012.
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