The Importance of the Word in Spiritual Formation
Pastor Wilmoth
Hope Center
March 26, 2014
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The Importance of the Word in Spiritual Formation
Part 4
Introduction
We have spent considerable time examining the importance of the Word of God in the
formation of natural man and its place in the formation of the spiritual man into the image
of God. Now we will turn our attention to the how to of using the Word of God to form
us into God’s image.
I.
Reading as Information or Formation?
We as a culture approach reading as a means of gathering information. Ours is a culture
which seeks more information (new facts, new bodies of knowledge, new techniques,
new methods, new systems, new programs) in order to improve our control of our
environment. The acquiring of knowledge, information techniques, methods, and
systems, is for the primary purpose of improving or enhancing our ability to function so
as to change the world to our parameters rather than serving to change the quality of our
beings.
This extends into culture by causing us to be very concerned about “doing” verses
“being”. When we met someone for the first time the common question that comes out of
our mouth after we get their name is to ask: “What kind of work do you do”? The answer
to that question causes us to categorize the individual as being intelligent, valuable, or
important. What they do determines our response to them!
The destructive nature of functional orientation can be seen also in our perception of
ourselves. If a person is too young then they might not have function that is of value. If I
am too old to do anything (retired) then I have no value or purpose! Depression sets in
the mind and at the closing days of life an individual feels worthless!
Jesus teaches the importance of being over doing:
Matthew 23:25–28 (KJV 1900)
25
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the
cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
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Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also.
27
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of
all uncleanness.
28
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity.
The Importance of the Word in Spiritual Formation
Pastor Wilmoth
Hope Center
March 26, 2014
2
Mark 7:15 (KJV 1900)
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There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the
things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
Mark 7:21–23 (KJV 1900)
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For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders,
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Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness:
23
All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
This informational reading becomes the method in which we read the word of God.
II.
The Nature of Informational Reading
The acquiring of knowledge, information, techniques, methods, and systems, rather than
serving to change the quality of our being, is for the primary purpose of improving or
enhancing our ability to function so as to change the world or our parameters.
Here are some of the characteristics of informational reading:
1.
Information reading seeks to cover as much as possible as quickly as
possible.
2.
Information reading is linear. We move from the first element to the
second to the third and on to the end, thinking that reading is little
more than the process of movement through the parts.
*******illustration of Revelations pg 49
3.
In informational reading we seek to master the text. We seek to grasp
it, to get our minds around it, to bring it under our control.
4.
5.
Informational reading is that the text is an object “out there” for us to
control and/or manipulate according to our own purposes, intentions,
or desires.
Informational reading is analytical, critical, and judgmental.
6.
Informational reading is characterized by a problem-solving mentality.
Informational reading is not wrong in itself and has a place but it is less primary than
what our cultural perceptions have ingrained in us. We race through our reading of the
Word of God, covering it as quickly as possible, seeking to master the text, to bring it
under your control, to analyze it to see if it fits your agenda, and to determine whether
The Importance of the Word in Spiritual Formation
Pastor Wilmoth
Hope Center
March 26, 2014
3
you can “use” it to do what you want in your spiritual life. If this is the case, where is the
space, a silence, in which God can speak? Where can the Word address your being?
III.
The Nature of Formational Reading
Let’s look at formational reading. What is its characteristic’s?
1.
Formational reading is not about covering scripture as much as possible,
neither as quickly as possible. You are not concerned at all with the
amount. You are concerned with small portions.
A.
You may find yourself “holding” on just one sentence or one
paragraph or perhaps as much as a whole page, but probably not
more than that.
2.
Formational reading is not moving over the surface of the text, but reading
in depth.
A.
You are seeking to allow the passage to open out to you its deeper
dynamics, its multiple layers of meaning. Instead of rushing on to
the next sentence, paragraph, or chapter, you seek to move deeper
and deeper into the text. In reading the Bible, you seek to allow the
text to begin to become the intrusion of the Word of God into your
life, to address you, to encounter you! If you don’t take time with a
text, the Word cannot encounter you in it; the Word of God cannot
speak to you through it.
3.
In informational reading we seek to grasp the control of the text, to master
the text, but in formational reading we seek to allow the text to master us!
A.
This means we come to the text with an openness to hear, to
receive, to respond, to be a servant of the Word rather than a
master of the text.
Instead of the text being an object we control and manipulate according to
our own insight and purposes; we are the object that is shaped by the text.
4.
A.
********** Pharaoh illustration*********
5.
Instead of analytical, critical, judgmental approach of reading, formational
reading requires a humble, detached, willing, loving approach.
A.
This is having a genuine openness and receptivity to the Word, to
yieldedness to the penetrating address of God which confronts our
garbled, distorted, and debased lives, to become a willing pliable
individual before the sharp sword of the Word. It is here that we
hear the “call” to a deeper order.
6.
Formational reading is not reading with a problem-solving mentality but
openness to mystery.
The Importance of the Word in Spiritual Formation
Pastor Wilmoth
Hope Center
March 26, 2014
A.
Instead of a problem-solving mentality, it is standing before God
and allowing him to address us. Eventually, we may discover that
tremendous problem-solving dynamics may emerge out of that
encounter. But we don’t enter into the encounter with God to get
problem-solving results but just to be in His presence.
Summary
What is necessary for formational reading?
Time to become still, relinquish control, to let go of your life in the presence of God!
Getting in the Spirit of which the scripture was written! Praying first! Even if the
scripture does not speak to us today, or this week, or this month, just the constant
discipline of preparing yourself and entering into the stillness and silence of formational
reading will in itself be spiritually forming!
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