Category Archives: Stages

Stages: Spiritual Parent: Prayer is my life

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By the time a Christian grows spiritually to be a spiritual parent, he (or she) sees prayer as his life. Prayer is not something he has to schedule.  He is constantly talking to God in his quiet time, getting ready for the day, or driving to work. He is praying for work projects and people in his periphery, kids at home in their spiritual growth and school projects and discipleship relationships of other men (or women), who are hungry and hunting in God’s adventure for spiritual victories. Continue reading →

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Stages: Spiritual Young Adult: Why do we pray?

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When I was sixteen, I had a job and was driving my parent’s car.  I was pretty important stuff, I thought. I felt pretty confident and decided I had grown up enough, so I asked my mother, “Is it okay if I start calling you Phyllis?”  I’ll never forget her response. She said, “Bryan, you will always call me mom or mother, nothing else.” It was pretty clear I had crossed the line. I got the picture. She was still my authority. I still call her mom, although out of respect and honor, not as my authority.

Sometimes spiritual young adults get full of themselves and begin to think they have spirituality by the tail.  Continue reading →

Stages: Spiritual Child: How do you pray?

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As an infant grows up to be a child, one of the great things he enjoys is learning to play with friends. Children learn to play house, mom and dad, doctor, cops and robbers and teacher. That means they are communicating with their friends and peers.  Sometimes, they do not know how to speak with adults, because they do not know how to relate with adults.  It is difficult to both show respect in humility as well as communicate confidently, because that child/adult relationship is abstract and takes a while to understand. Consequently a child spends much of his time learning by exhortation from his parents how to relate to peers and adults.

The same is true for spiritual children, especially related to prayer.  Continue reading →

Stages: Spiritual Infant: What is Prayer?

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Communication is the most important ingredient in relationships.  How do you help a baby communicate? They really don’t know how to communicate verbally. Babies, or infants only communicate what they need through crying and satisfaction through sleeping or slowly how to smile.  Verbal communication is difficult for infants, because every word has to be learned. The same is  true for communication with spiritual infants. Continue reading →

Stages: Spiritual Parent: Devotions that embrace God

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The spiritual parent knows that devotions are like an iron lung to the person who cannot breathe on his own.  Twice in two verses, John writes, “ I write to you fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning.” (1 John 2:13-14 NKJ) He wrote the same thing, because the capstone of the spiritual parent is his experience and commitment to the Father’s person and will. That is because devotions are more a part of his life than the food he eats. Continue reading →