Spiritual Warrior: Keeping In Step with the Spirit

July 29, 2012
Tree and Moon“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”(Galatians 5:22-24)

For many months now I have recited  every morning the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit as outlined in Galatians.

I have prayed for the fullness of Spirit within myself, family, friends and enemies.

This very simple act of repetition, meditation and, praying those words has significant impact on my life.

This discipline of repetition on Galatians 5:22-24 was something that I learned from John Stott.   In my view, John Stott is perhaps  the   scholar of the 20th century. He was a British Evangelical, but not a blowhard like so many American Evangelicals.

For myself, the discipline has brought be peace and humility. I look forward to collaborating with others. I have learned not to sweat the small stuff.

While I don’t  have any tattoos…. if I were to , I would have those words  from Galatians emblazoned on a leg,  or arm, so that I constantly have access to them.

Instead, I have  those words inked on posties, index cards, and prints-outs that are in my pockets, dop kits,  wallet and suitcases.

Why? Because like anything, if we are to find peace, we need to practice, practice, practice.  Malcolm Gladwell said in his book, Outliers, that it took 10,000 hours to start being truly gifted at anything.

Pro football players start training in August for a potential Superbowl Game in January. They go through the same protocols every year to grower stronger in their intuition and their abilities. Why should it be any different for a Spiritual warrior?

We who aspire to be in the Spirit, need to be disciplined to keep up with the Spirit. Brother Lawrence had it right by developing a “practicing to be in the presence of God.”

After all, Galatians continues with this great line, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in Step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25)

It’s a great way to keep in step with the spirit, by practicing the nine-fold fruit repetition every day.