Spiritual Formation and Discipleship
Rebecca Xiong
DSMN 500: Discipleship Ministries
January 28, 2024
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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
Spiritual Formation....................................................................................................................... 1
Spiritual Disciplines.............................................................................................................2
Walking In the Spirit........................................................................................................... 5
Personal Spiritual Growth Assessment.......................................................................................7
Personal Assessment............................................................................................................7
Habits and Disciplines......................................................................................................... 8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................... 9
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................10
1
Introduction
Spiritual formation is the process of transforming to be more like Christ through
disciplines and the work of the Holy Spirit. For discipleship to become effective, one must be
spiritually formed first. Spiritual formation and discipleship go hand in hand, one cannot occur
without the other. Discipleship is the continual work of leading someone to know and understand
who Christ is, working together to become more like Christ.
Spiritual Formation
First and foremost, a follower must truly believe and have accepted that Jesus Christ died
on the cross for their sins. To accept Christ in anything like a saving relation is to have an
attachment to the person of Christ that is revolutionary, complete, and exclusive.1 It means that
one’s life becomes revolved around Him, reflecting and becoming like Him in all their days.
Robert Mulholland defines spiritual formation as, a process of being conformed to the image of
Christ for the sake of others.2 Being spiritually formed is to be in unison with the spirit and what
the Word of God says. Earley states, that the goal of spiritual formation is the glorious
transformation of the believer.3 To clarify, spiritual formation is not a one time process, but an
ongoing one. There are many things a believer can do to grow their spirituality. Katie French
explains that spiritual formation starts with these disciplines helping the inner molding of
1 A.W. Tozer, Discipleship (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2018), 44.
2 M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Invitation to a Journey A Road Map for Spiritual Formation (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 15.
3 Rod Dempsey and Dave Earley, Spiritual Formation Is… How to Grow in Jesus with Passion and
Confidence (Tennessee: B&H Academic, 2018), 6.
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oneself: prayer, fasting, Bible study, and biblical meditation.4 Just as much as inwardly work
needs to be done, the hands and feet of a believer should be an outpour of the heart. Jesus calls
his believers to make disciples of all nations, as stated in Matthew 28 (Matthew 28:19, English
Standard Version). Despite the disciplines mentioned, a believer must understand that is not all
one must do to be spiritually formed. Spiritual formation is not merely doing spiritual disciplines.
It is not merely about reading more chapters of the Bible or keeping a better spiritual journal.
Those are merely means of helping us gaze into the face of Jesus so we may be transformed to
think, act, feel, and look more like him, says Earley.5 This is why the spiritual condition of a
believer is so important in relation to discipleship – one cannot lead another if that one is not
spiritual formed and aligned with the Word of God. Apostle Matthew notes from Jesus’ teaching
that if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit (Matthew 15:14). To experience spiritual
transformation, the following spiritual disciplines are necessary for growth: loving God, loving
one another (i.e. other believers), and loving our neighbors (i.e. non-believers).6
Spiritual Disciplines
To love God, is to love Him through the experiences and circumstances of life, even
when it doesn’t make sense. Philip Brown defines it as this, “To love God is to self-sacrificially
commitment oneself to delight in Him, to rejoice in serving Him, to desire continually to please
4 Katie French, “What is Spiritual Formation - And Why Does It Matter,” Logos, (2023):
https://www.logos.com/grow/what-is-spiritual-formation-and-why-does-it-matter/.
5
Dempsey and Earley, Spiritual Formation Is, 7.
6 Dempsey and Earley, Spiritual Formation Is, 10.
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Him, to seek our happiness in Him, and to thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of Him and
Him alone.7 In all that one does, all the glory goes back to Him, this happens because there is a
love for the Father that extends past just saying so in their heart or mind. Paul conveys in
Romans 8:28, “and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for
those who are called according to his purpose.” God wants us to use every circumstance, event,
and experience in our lives as part of our spiritual formation Earley writes.8 This alone shows
that God controls everyone’s lives with detail and purpose and in turn relates to how we can
become more like Jesus through these things. It means loving Him through the trials and
tribulations, the confusion life brings, but also through the joy and the good – loving Him
anyway. To love God is a full and sacrificial commitment, Luke 10:27 says it best, you shall love
the Lord your God with all you heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.”
Because of a believer’s love for God, the love in turn outpours onto those around. When love in a
relationship is set on the foundation of Jesus, there is stability and blessings that flow from Him.
According to Brown, loving God totally means loving everything and everyone less than we love
Him. In other words, our commitment to God must take precedence over any other relationship
in our lives.9 In turn, this is a possibility of affecting one’s relationship with others, but God
reminds His people in Isaiah 41:10, “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your
7 Philip Brown, “Toward a Biblical Definition of Loving God,” Academia: 2.
https://www.academia.edu/2996995/Toward_a_Biblical_Definition_of_Loving_God.
8 Dempsey and Earley, Spiritual Formation Is, 31.
9 Brown, “Toward a Biblical,” 3.
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God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Yet,
this is when God calls his people to love one another even more.
John 13:34-35 tells us, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you
are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” God calls His people to “one another;”
Through this spiritual discipline, believers use spiritual gifts to build one another up in the Lord’s
service as mentioned by Dempsey.10 In the same way believers are to love God in the
circumstances, believers are to love one other despite how hard it is. A believer cannot expect to
disciple if they do not have love for them – for where there is no love, there are no true acts of
service. J Oswald Sanders says, the supreme evidence of discipleship, the authentic badge, is
genuine love for one another.11 When there is love amid the discipleship, it should be evident.
This love is known to be special, a commitment to love fellow Christians at a deeper level than
loving all mankind” says Tom Hilpert.12 When a believer loves in the way Christ does to its
body, the body of Christ flows better together. There is no animosity, the church’s foundation
itself, is set on God’s love and His Word. But the love from Christ should not only outflow to
fellow believers, but non-believers as well.
The last direction/discipline is to love our neighbors, as Mark 12:31, “The second is this:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
10 Dempsey and Earley, Spiritual Formation Is, 103.
11 J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Discipleship Principles of Following Christ for Every Believer (Chicago, IL:
Moody Publishers, 1994), 35.
12 Tom Hilpert, “Do You Love Your Fellow Christians?,” Clear Bible.Blog June 14, 2017,
https://clearbible.blog/2017/06/14/do-you-love-your-fellow-christians/.
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As a believer, reflecting the love one has for Christ and the love Christ has for them, should be
evident to those in and around the community. Dempsey writes, the message of Christ, who
loved so much that he died in our place, should not only be heard; it should also be seen, felt, and
experienced.13 In the book of Dempsey, we see the example of how to bless fellow neighbors,
through:
B-Begin with prayer.
L-Listen. Listening to people, their struggles.
E-Eat. Have a meal or coffee. It builds relationships.
S-Serve. They will tell you how to love them, and you’ll know how to serve them.
S-Story. Share the story of how Jesus changed our life.14
Through these disciplines, God’s love is revealed amongst the body of believers and non-
believers alike. As believers, there is the possibility of a shift from the non-believers. It gets them
curious and leads them to question and know more about God. It’s part of how believers do their
part in bringing and making disciples overall. Through the love of God shared unto them, unto
others.
Walking In the Spirit
Spiritual formation and discipleship cannot happen without the work of the Holy Spirit. A
leader is to be led by the Spirit, allowing for conviction and patience, to grow in the likeness of
Christ. Paul mentions in Acts 1:8, “But you will receiveMpowerMwhen the Holy Spirit has come
upon you, andMyou will beMmy witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea andMSamaria, andMto the
end of the earth.” In context, the work a believer does, is not alone – the Spirit lives within and is
a guidance in life and in the work done for God. Spiritually, a believer cannot grow if it does not
allow the Spirit to move. Sanders says, “transformation of character into the likeness of Christ
13 Dempsey and Earley, Spiritual Formation Is, 104.
14 Dempsey and Earley, Spiritual Formation Is, 105.
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comes not by painful striving, but by beholding and believing and the operation of the Holy
Spirit in the heart of a believer.15 When a believer allows the Holy Spirit to take control, its
another way of surrendering one’s life to God. It correlates to being still and listening in
obedience and yielding to the voice of God. One’s life consists of habits, according to Sanders,
it’s an area of life that must be brought under Christ’s Control. The aid of the Holy Spirit is
always available in the forming of a new and good habit.16 This meaning, being disciplined in the
works of God: daily reading, meditation, and more to be in tuned with God. Paul tells believers
in Galatians 5:25, “if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” John Piper
explains this as, not something we do in order to get the Spirit’s help, but rather, it is something
we do by enablement of the Spirit.17 All that a person has and is, is because of the work of the
Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is not at work or allowed to work within oneself, a believer can only go
so far. One cannot reach their full potential of transformation without the Spirit leading - in turn,
a person cannot disciple others well without Him.
15 J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Maturity Principles of Spiritual Growth for Every Believer (Chicago, IL:
Moody Publishers, 1994), 186.
16 Sanders, Spiritual Discipleship, 98.
17 John Piper, “Let Us Walk by the Spirit,” message by John Piper, DesiringGod, March 1,1981, audio,
37:54, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/let-us-walk-by-the-spirit
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Personal Spiritual Growth Assessment
Personal Assessment
Following the action of taking the Personal Spiritual Growth Assessment,18 this author,
Xiong, realizes she is not where she would like to be at. The overall score for Xiong was a 3.93,
lacking especially in the area of “loving neighbors (out)”. Regarding strong points, she scored
slightly higher on “love for God” and “love for one another.” There were a few items that scores
were higher than others in each section, for example, the “love for God” section, the highest
score was an eight in daily listening and following the voice of Jesus, but a one in fasting from
food or other areas. The author finds this to be an eye-opening assessment that is full of
conviction and truth as to what she puts first. While it may not be a bad thing that listening to the
voice of Jesus was highest, it’s that everything else lacks time and a higher ranking. For the
section of “love for one another” she had multiple low rankings, with at least five ratings being
under four. She finds an area that she truly lacks in is the area of gossip and meeting weekly with
fellow believers. While she does find time to meet with fellow friends who are believers, not
every meeting is God-centered and focused on growing and helping one another spiritually. With
reference to the “love for our neighbors” section, the author’s lowest ratings were in the
opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ. In relation to work, the author works in an
environment with fellow believers, her friend group consists of friends from church; the
opportunity to share the Gospel with others who are not believers has been a challenge.
However, she finds that she also does not truly pray for the opportunity to share the Gospel with
18 Dempsey and Earley, Spiritual Formation Is, 245.
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non-believers. Overall, she finds that there are many areas she lacks in, and even with the higher
ratings in each section, they are not as high as they should be.
Habits and Disciplines
Following the assessment, some disciplines the author is wanting to create and work
more towards, is the discipline of studying God’s word on a daily. While she feels confident in
where she is biblically, she often finds that there is still a lot that can be learned through reading
God’s word. Finding time to set aside specifically for Scripture time is challenging, but she
knows it is necessary to understand and love God fully. Another discipline she finds she lacks
but would like to create a habit of, is to fast over the things in her life that tend to take more
control. She finds that she hardly ever fasts and it’s mainly because she does not think to do it, or
it never lasts very long. However, recently she has seen that God has shown her fasting is a
necessary aspect to a believer, and benefits in her relationship with God. More discipline and
healthy habits the author wants to take, is to learn to be quiet amid the gossip being told. More
and more lately, she is feeling the spirit of conviction every time she hears new gossip. She
wants to either learn to take herself out of the topic or to just not be near those who speak it the
most. She also wants to gain a mentor, someone who can help lead and disciple her in the way a
woman of God should be. To be surrounded by true God-loving people and for that to be
reflected when people see her, the glory and shine of God all around. Another discipline the
author hopes to uphold is to be in constant prayer for the non-believers. Being in a bubble of
believers at most times, she often forgets there are many others out there who do not know Christ
and does not get to experience the same joy. Her prayer is to seek the opportunities, using the
gifts that God has given her, even if it is through an unconventional way. The assessment will
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continue to be a piece that she takes frequently in hopes that her scores from now until the end
have become higher, not for the sake of the scores, but to see the growth and change of herself.
Conclusion
Spiritual formation is being formed into the likeness of Christ. It is not something that
happens overnight, but an on-going process as one continues to learn and grow. Spiritual
formation amongst believers is necessary to the call of discipleship. One must be fully led by the
Spirit, being disciplined in their actions taken to be closer to God. Whether that be reading
Scripture daily, being prayerful, or being still to hear God’s voice during the chaos. God calls
His people to make disciples of all nations, to make disciples is to be spiritually formed first, as
believers one ought to remember these go hand in hand in ministry and their daily lives.
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Bibliography
Brown, Philip. “Toward a Biblical Definition of Loving God.” Academia: 1-7.
https://www.academia.edu/2996995/Toward_a_Biblical_Definition_of_Loving_God.
Dempsey, Rod, and Dave Earley. Spiritual Formation Is… How to Grow in Jesus with Passion
and Confidence. Tennessee: B&H Academic, 2018.
French, Katie. “What is Spiritual Formation – And Why Does It Matter.” Logos, (January 2023):
https://www.logos.com/grow/what-is-spiritual-formation-and-why-does-it-matter/.
Hilpert, Tom. “Do You Love Your Fellow Christians.” Clear Bible.Blog, (June 2017):
https://clearbible.blog/2017/06/14/do-you-love-your-fellow-christians/.
Mulholland Jr., Robert M. “Invitation to a Journey A Road Map for Spiritual Formation.”
Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy Press, 1993.
Piper, John. “Let Us Walk by the Spirit.” Message by John Piper. DesiringGod, March 1, 1981.
Audio, 37:54. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/let-us-walk-by-the-spirit.
Sanders, Oswald J. Spiritual Discipleship Principles of Following Christ for Every Believer.
Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1994.
Sanders, Oswald J. Spiritual Maturity Principles of Spiritual Growth for Every Believer.
Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1994.
Tozer, A.W. Discipleship. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2018.
