Life Church Vineyard

Pastor Mitch Price

Spiritual Disciplines are purposeful practices.

We can learn the easy way or the hard way but we will learn.

John 10:

10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

We must be willing to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus to accomplish all that God offers and desires for us. 

There is no quick fix. We need to be purposeful in our quest. It takes some effort to get where we can be in Christ. 

God takes us through things to teach us the truths we need  to follow Him in spirit and in  truth. 

1 Timothy 4:

7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. 8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

Dallas willard says that when we do not  abstain from things designed to keep us away from Gods’ principles we create roadblocks to our walk. In keeping spiritual disciplines we learn the easy way, the ways of Jesus. 

Anything, any activity, that draws you closer to Jesus is a purposeful practice.

Engaging with the Word of God brings us closer to Him. 

The Word of God is the first step. It is the foremost of the disciplines. If it is neglected we will not have the power to overcome the evils of life. 

The Word of God is not just words on a page. It is a He…Jesus Christ.

John 1:1-4

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Hebrews 1:

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

By studying His words we learn compassion, and the ways that Satan would like to destroy us and our relationship with Him.

As in any relationship it takes time spent with that person. It is the same with our relationship with our Triune God.