Podcast EP 52: Introduction to the Spiritual Disciplines

We're starting a new series here at the podcast on the spiritual disciplines. Today's episode is introducing us to what they are and the vital role they play in our sanctification as believers.
In this series, we’re going to talk about why we need to practice them and share practical biblical ways how we as followers of Jesus Christ can pursue Christlikeness through these means of grace.

The means of grace or spiritual disciplines (Bible intake, prayer, and fellowship the three main areas and we’ll work through each of them more each episode) are ways the Holy Spirit conforms us more and more into the image of Christ.

The means of grace or spiritual disciplines are ways the Holy Spirit conforms us more and more into the image of Christ.

I have two primary resources in addition to scripture that I'm utilizing in this series, and they are Donald Whitney's book called, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life and Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines by David Mathis. I encourage you if you want to dig a bit deeper to grab a copy of both or one of these as we work through them together.

Spiritual Disciplines we hope to cover in this series: Bible reading, Bible Study, Meditation, Prayer, Fasting, Evangelism, Journaling, Fellowship and Service.

Show Notes:

“The Spiritual Disciplines are those personal and corporate disciplines that promote spiritual growth. They are the habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since biblical times…The Spiritual Disciplines are the God-given means we are to use in the Spirit-filled pursuit of Godliness.” ~Donald Whitney

“I can flip a switch but I don’t provide the electricity. I can turn on a faucet, but I don’t make the water flow. There will be no light and no liquid refreshment without someone else providing it. He continues – and so it is for the Christian with the ongoing grace of God. His grace is essential for our spiritual lives, but we don’t control the supply. We can’t make the favor of God flow, but he has given us circuits to connect and pipes to open expectantly.” ~David Mathis

“The spiritual disciplines are ways by which we can spiritually place ourselves in the path of God’s grace and seek Him.” ~ Donald Whitney

“How often do we hear about the discipline of the Christian life these days? How often do we talk about it? How often is it really to be found at the heart of our evangelical living? There was a time in the Christian church when this was at the very center, and it is, I profoundly believe, because of our neglect of this discipline that the church is in her present position. Indeed, I see no hope whatsoever of any true revival and reawakening until we return to it.” ~ Martyn Lloyd Jones

“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.” ~D.A. Carson

“a deep, insatiable hunger for the Bible is a gift from God, but we are the ones who must turn the pages and read the words. God doesn’t pull our passive bodies over to the desk and cause our hands to open the Bible and draw our eyes back and forth over the pages without any effort on our part.” ~ Donald Whitney

“If you want to be Christlike you need to have communion with Christ, and if you want communion with Christ you need to do it on His terms with the channels of grace He’s provided [prayer, Bible reading, church fellowship, Lord’s table]. And that means the only way to extraordinary holiness is through ordinary means.” ~ Kevin DeYoung