This document discusses the necessity of grace in living a transformed life according to God's calling. It provides three models for understanding grace: the Cycle of Grace, VIM, and Circles of Transformation. It also discusses different types of spirituality and spiritual disciplines that can help cultivate a deeper spiritual life through practices like prayer, study, fellowship and service. The overall message is that grace transforms us inwardly and places us in environments where spiritual growth can occur through intentional spiritual practices and disciplines.

2. The Necessity…
Grace

3. The Necessity of Grace
(Living A Transformed Life
Adequate To Our Calling)
• In tune with what God is
doing in the world
• In tune with what God is
doing inwardly with us
• Are our hearts in tune with
God?

4. "The individual's life is often divided
into incoherent fragments. Like a city
whose walls are broken down is a
person who lacks self-control (Prov
25:28). …
“When successful, spiritual
reformation unites the divided heart
and life of the individual, and such
people can then bring remarkable
harmony into the groups where they
participate”
(Willard)

5. "Walk in a manner worthy of
the calling with which you
have been called."
(Eph. 4:1)

6. "Since we stand before so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every encumbrance, and the sin
which so easily entangles us, and
let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us, with our eyes
set on Jesus, who initiated our
faith and will bring it to perfection."
(Heb. 12:1-2)

7. "There is no good tree which
produces bad fruit….The
good person out of the good
stored up in their heart,
brings forth what is good."
(Luke 6:43-45)

8. Three helpful models
• Cycle of Grace (Trevor
Hudson)
• VIM (Dallas Willard)
• Circles of Transformation
(Dallas Willard)

10. Cycle of Grace
Trevor Hudson

11. Acceptance

12. Acceptance
Sustenance

13. Acceptance
Sustenance
Significance

14. Significance

16. If only we would properly attend
to God's gifts to us and in us!
Then self awareness and healthy
self love could form a positive
circle of spiritual self-esteem and
ultimately be a source of
strength for others as well as
ourselves. Will we have the trust
to do this? Will we take the time?
Wicks, R, (1992)

17. VIM
Dallas Willard

18. V = Vision
“Christlikeness of the inner
being is not a merely human
attainment, of course. It is,
finally a gift of grace….
Dallas Willard

19. I = Intention
… Spiritual Formation in
Christ is not a passive
process. Grace does not
make us passive.
(Dallas Willard)

20. M = Means
“Our task is to place ourselves
under the conditions favourable to
growth and look to God for our
spiritual formation” (Boa 2001)
…grace is not opposed to effort (in
actions) but to earning (an
attitude) (Dallas Willard )

21. Circles of Transformation
Dallas Willard

22. “the only haven of safety is to have
no other will, no other wisdom,
than to follow the Lord wherever he
leads. Let this, then be the first
step, to abandon ourselves, and
devote the whole energy of our
minds to the service of God we are
not to seek our own, but the Lord’s
will, and act with a view to promote
his glory” - John Calvin

24. Circles of Transformation

25. Mine mine mine

29. “Would you know who is the greatest
saint in the world? It is not he who
prays most or fasts most; it is not he
who gives most alms or is most
eminent for temperance, chastity or
justice; but it is he who is always
thankful to God, who wills everything
that God wills, who receives
everything as an instance of God’s
goodness and has a heart always
ready to praise God for it.”
William Law

32. The Means…
Grace

33. The Means of Grace
(Living Life to the Full)
"Beware that you are not
carried away with the error
of the lawless and lose
your own stability. Instead,
grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ."
(2 Peter 3:17-18)

34. • Spiritual Disciplines
• Spirituality Types

35. Spirituality Types
Urban Holmes III

37. Type 1 – Head Spirituality
• Intellectual ‘thinking’
• More study groups, better
sermons,
• Theological renewal
• Contribute – theological
reflection, ethical thinking
• Prayer almost always
language or word based
• Danger over
intellectualisation

38. Type 2 – Heart Spirituality
• All heart – ‘feeling’
• Emphasises evangelism
music centred worship
• Personal renewal holiness of
life
• Contribute – warmth,
freedom, energy,
spontaneity
• Prayer - spoken less formal
over familiar
• Danger over emotionalism,
anti-intellectualism

39. Type 3 – Mystic Spirituality
• ‘Hearing’ rather than
‘speaking’
• Emphasises the ineffable,
unnameable
• Renewal of inner life ‘union
with God’
• Contribute – inspirational and
uplifting thinking
• Prayer - Seek retreat and
solitude
• Danger excessive
introspection

40. Type 4 – Kingdom Spirituality
• God experienced in action
• Emphasises witness to God’s
coming reign
• Renewal of society - kingdom
of God on earth
• Contribute – practical living
out of the Kingdom
• Prayer equated with action
• Aim to simply obey God and
witness to His coming reign
• Danger - unrelenting and
judgemental tunnel vision

41. Spiritual Disciplines
Foster

42. Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has
been miraculously given to us by getting to know,
personally and intimately, the One who invited us to
God. The best invitation we ever received!
We were also given absolutely terrific promises to
pass on to you--your tickets to participation in the
life of God after you turned your back on a world
corrupted by lust.
So don't lose a minute in building on what you've
been given, complementing your basic faith with
good character, spiritual understanding, alert
discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder,
warm friendliness, and generous love, each
dimension fitting into and developing the others.

43. With these qualities active and growing in your
lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will
pass without its reward as you mature in your
experience of our Master Jesus.
Without these qualities you can't see what's right
before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has
been wiped off the books.
So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his
choice of you. Don't put it off; do it now. Do this,
and you'll have your life on a firm footing, the
streets paved and the way wide open into the
eternal kingdom of our Master and Saviour, Jesus
Christ.
2 Peter 1-11 (The Message)

44. How are you doing
Spiritually?
“…complementing your basic faith with
good character,
spiritual understanding,
alert discipline,
passionate patience,
reverent wonder,
warm friendliness, and generous love, …”

45. “superficiality is the curse of
our age… the desperate need
today is not for a greater
number of intelligent people, or
gifted people but for deep
people”
Foster, R (1978) Celebration of
Discipline

46. “Spiritual practices don’t give
us “spiritual brownie points”
or help us “work the system”
for a passing grade from God.
They simply put us in a place
where we can begin to notice
God and respond to his word
to us.” (Calhoun, A. 2005:18)

47. “Spiritual transformation is not
a matter of trying harder, but
of training wisely..”
Ortberg, J. (2002:43). The Life
You've Always Wanted.

48. “Grace is not opposed to effort
but to earning…”

49. Two Helpful Metaphors
(Richard Foster)

50. Field..
• Farmer helpless to grow grain
• Provide right conditions
• Cultivate the ground
• Plant the seed
• Water the plants
• Nature takes over…

51. “If ‘life-as-usual’ has not been fertile ground
in which God can bring change, the ‘life-as-
usual’ must go” (Willard)
“What do we do to cultivate our spiritual life
so that growth can take place?”

52. Narrow Ridge…
• Abyss of Trust in Works
• Abyss of Faith without Deeds
• Path represents the discipline of the
Spiritual Life
• Path itself doesn’t produce change, it
only places us where change can
happen.

53. “I don’t just do the things Jesus
would have done; I find myself
wanting to do them. They appeal
to me. They make sense. I don’t
just go around trying to do right
things; I become the right sort of
person…”
Ortberg (2002:21)

54. Richard Foster
• Inward - Meditation; Prayer;
Fasting and Study
• Outward – Simplicity, Solitude,
Submission and Service
• Corporate – Confession, Worship,
Guidance and Celebration

55. Dallas Willard
Disciplines of Abstinence –
• Solitude, Silence, Fasting, Frugality,
Chastity, Secrecy, Sacrifice.
Disciplines of Engagement –
• Study, Worship, Celebration, Service,
Prayer, Fellowship, Confession,
Submission.

56. They encourage imitation of Christ and allow us
to act in ways that are centred in God's will.
They connect us with an ongoing tradition of
time-tested ways of incarnating the spiritual life.
They give us a rule of conduct that directs us in
living before God.
They equip us with resources on the three
warfare fronts of the world, the flesh, and the
demonic.
They encourage us to embrace God's purpose
for our lives

57. They they allow our lives to be dominated more
by the things above than the things below.
They remind us daily that the spiritual life is a
balance between radical dependence and
responsible action; both grace and self-
discipline are required for spiritual maturity
They are vehicles for internal transformation.
Given enough time, an average person who
consistently practices spiritual disciplines will
achieve spiritual productivity and proficiency.

58. They replace habits of sin by cultivating habits
that lead to character (e.g., integrity,
faithfulness, and compassion).
They increase our willingness to acknowledge
the daily cost of discipleship and remind us that
whatever comes quickly and cheaply is
superficial, while the insights that we learn from
pain will endure.
Boa, K. (2001) Conformed to His Image

59. River Relection
TWOTP on loop
Yiruma