Youth Ministry and Spiritual Rhythms

I had and uncle who was in Pearl Harbor. I used to talk to him a lot about his time in WWII, mainly because he loved to talk and tell stories, but also because I found his stories fascinating. One of the big things he said to me as an eye witness of Pearl Harbor was that “it was like our country didn’t know there was a war going on until Pearl Harbor. Then we were all in.” I recall hearing him say this during one of his story sessions, then going back to class and hearing our teacher quote a Japanese admiral who said, “we have awakened a sleeping giant.”

As John Mark Comer said in his book Live No Lies, we are at war. And many of us don’t even know it. Yes I am talking about spiritual warfare. As soon as I said that many of you were stoked about the possibility of demon hunting and then there were more of you that rolled your eyes at the idea of “casting out” evil spirits. Let me say to you both we aren’t going to talk about either of those things. Yet, we are at war and need to do something about it.

After reading his book, I thought John Mark Comer’s take on this was great. He pointed out that the desert fathers and mothers, during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, literally left their cities, towns and villages because they know we were at war. Not with humans, not with enemies at our boarders, not even across the preverbal political aisle, but we are at war with the spiritual forces of this dark world. Daily we are bombarded by temptations that can, not only derail us, but can destroy our ministries and lives. That is what our enemy wants.

However Jesus told us that he sent us an advocate, The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would remind us of what he said and what he taught, so when we are faced with temptations we could stand against them and be successful. Which means spiritual warfare is not fought by yelling at demons and calling out curses, its fought by learning to walk in step with the Holy Spirit and let him form us into the women and men we were always meant to be from the dawn of time.

You may be asking then how do we walk in step with the Holy Spirit? Isn’t that something they did in the book of Acts? We listen to the Bible now, what else is there? According to Dallas Willard walking in step with The Spirit is by being spiritually formed. When we allow ourselves to be spiritually formed then we connect with the Holy Spirit and begin to walk in step with Him. Connecting with our advocate will allow us to get past our fear and think through what we are facing in life, thus letting the Holy Spirit guide us in those moments.

According to Comer, the early desert fathers and mothers went to the desert to do just that, connect with the Holy Spirit, and do spiritual warfare like Jesus did it, through spiritual formation. What that means for us is learning how to engage the spiritual disciplines, to learn a rule of life.

The rule of life comes from noticing the places we need to open up to the Holy Spirit and creating a rhythm of discipline that allows us to open up to the Holy Spirit. We use disciplines because they order our lives, we don’t use them to be legalistic. Spiritual discipline is not a “have to” its a “get to,” it’s a way of leaning into the work of The Spirit in our lives. We want to let the Holy Spirit order our lives and give us this “rule of life,” so we are nurturing the growth of who God made us to be.

What this looks like practically is learning the rhythms that will allow us to face our temptations and address them the way Jesus did with a non-anxious spirit. I am advocating a return to disciplines, a rule of life, or rhythms that connect us to the Holy Spirit and allow us to fight off any evil that threatens to harm us.

First I want to use the term spiritual rhythms interchangeably with spiritual disciplines. I like the term rhythm better than discipline because “rhythm” does not have nearly the cultural baggage as “discipline” does. It also reminds us that The Spirit flows like the wind and walking with Him is more of a rhythm, we aren’t trying to capture the wind, but move with it.

One of the great things that John Mark Comer does in his books Live No Lies is to show us that walking with The Spirit like Jesus did is facing the temptation thrown at us by our enemy. When we see the enemy try to derail Jesus we see three classic temptations that begin to be categories that our own temptations fall into: The Flesh, Significance, and The World. Comer and others believe we all fall prey to each of the temptations. Your temptation may not be those things specifically, but if you pay attention, when you fall, the temptation most likely falls into one of these three categories.

Spiritual Rhythms will help you to stand up to each of the temptations, but they will in addition help us walk with The Spirit in such a way that we deal with the underlining sin we are facing and begin to find freedom from them resulting in spiritual formation.

The question then is which spiritual rhythms do we practice? The desert fathers and mothers seemed to practice fasting to combat the flesh, solitude to combat lack of significance, and christian community to combat the influence of the world. They mainly base that on the work that Jesus did in his temptations. He fasted and focused on is need for his father’s provision. He quoted scripture to remind the devil that you only worship the Lord your God, no one else is more significant than him, especially not the devil. Then he reminded the devil that he didn’t need the world’s acceptance, that we do not temp the Lord, because he already loves us.

I would say those are good places to start. Learning how to fast will remind you of your dependence on the father for everything you need. Learning how to find significance in the father will remind you of his love for you. Learning how to find acceptance in the body of Christ will remind you of God’s love and acceptance.

So we will start with fasting, move to solitude and being involved in a Christian Community. Then move onto other rhythms that may help you walk in step with The Spirit. Use these prompts to begin finding that rhythm with The Holy Spirit:

How to Fast: Go without food, unless medically you can't then think about what you need to go without that will affect your flesh.

• Do it for 24 hours, shorter fasts are okay, but 24 hours will really get your attention. Remember this isn’t intermittent fasting for your health, this for finding your dependency on God.
  

• Pray at each meal time when you would normally eat.
  

• Journal everything you are thinking and feeling.
  

How to have solitude: Find a quiet place to be alone with the Lord.

• Begin in the word, I always have a passage I'm reading as I go into solitude.
  

• Disconnect: I tell my wife where I'm going and put my phone in airplane mode. Then I go out into the woods and go for a hike. You don't have to hike, but take the time to be alone somewhere.
  

• I pay attention to my breathing, it calms you down. You don't have to do this but do whatever seems to help calm you down.
  

• Then I have a prayer that I pray: Maranatha (Come) Lord Jesus, one of the oldest prayer in the Bible. - Revelation 22:20 or try the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” You can pray what you want, but this helps me keep my mind from wandering.
  

• Then I allow God to lead me back to the scriptures I've been reading (as Jesus does in this passage), or allow him to speak to me and teach me something I needed to learn. It usually dispels the lies I've been believing and many times God will show me what the lies I have been believing are.

• Then I take a moment and journal the lessons and passages God brought into my heart.

How to practice a community of faith: Be honest about who your community of faith is, don’t assume its your church or the ministry where you serve.Who are your people? People you are honest with? People who challenge you to live from the image of God inside you? People who challenge you to not conform to society but give you inspiration to live differently?

• Ask one or all of them to get together with you: Dinner, drinks, DnD, no matter what the reason is and practice listening, ask good compassionately curious questions of them, and lean into the conversation.
  

• Practice Gratefulness: Tell each other what you are grateful for in them. If it’s easier to write a letter or say it one on one, do that.
  

• Bless one of the people in your community of faith: Pay for dinner or drinks, find a physical need they have and meet it. Do what you can to be a physical blessing to them.
  

• If you have wronged someone in the community ask for forgiveness: This may be the hardest one but if you practice it, it will change the community and make it so much more Christ like.
  

• If you know one or more of your friends is struggling to follow Jesus, find a way to help them: Don’t presume, don’t use shame or guilt, only confront if its appropriate, find a way to love them and help them walk closer to Jesus.

• Spend time praying specifically for people in your community…by name.

Dallas Willard astutely wrote, “When through spiritual disciplines I become able heartily to bless those who curse me, pray without ceasing, to be at peace when not given credit for good deeds I’ve done, or to master the evil that comes my way, it is because my disciplinary activities have inwardly poised me for more and more interaction with the powers of the living God and his Kingdom. Such is the potential we tap into when we use the disciplines.”

Who wouldn’t want to be able to face the evil that comes our way or bless those who curse us? Willard says that we get there by entering into the disciplines (what I call rhythms). Give it a try this month, let the Holy Spirit guide you and teach you, if you want a hand let us know we’d love to help you: stew@nuclesuscoaching.net