Stages to Spiritual Maturity-- McWilliams

Soul Care- Developmental stage 1

1) acknowledging that God exists- You need something bigger than yourselves.
We put on personas instead of changing the person. It is an exterior behavior. AA- steps make us go through a development. In AA they acknowledge that God is there. Does addiction and emptiness come from a root of not acknowledging God and not acknowledging that God loves them.
God’s Grace is sufficient- God loves us and that’s enough. So we strive.
-We think:
1) we are too bad to be love. “if you really knew me, if you really see my heart, you wouldn’t love me. If we are abused by our caretakers/parents we think the reason they treat us bad is because we deserve it and if you knew me like they did you would mistreat me too.
-Without faith it is impossible to please God-
2)if I please God than I will have his love
3) I’m too good to be love. I don’t need it. Independence. I’m in charge.

Q2 Is God Good? Are we looking at things on the outside?

God sees our good, holy spirit. We also have a soul- heart mind will- then behavior – then world- World is in the power of the evil one. I have a choice to believe God or the world.
Usually there is a deep sense of need, but we are moving from being worthless to being worthy. We put a big place on self esteem and having someone feel worthy. We are fighting our independence ever since we left the garden.
Before we get through the first stage we are run by fear like little kids.

Stage two is usually discipleship but we see that as the end when it is just stage two.

Soul Care 2
Circle- 1-3 is behavior. Human doing. You are being pushed. Motivation can be fear, comparison, competition, guilt. Striving. We hold on to a life that can not bring life. Behavioral change will not drive the change your soul longs for. 1-3 are like chaff in wheat. It is necessary for the wheat to grow but we must at one point you must clean up 1-3. In here peace is the absence of conflict.
4-6 is human being. You are being drawn. Motivation. Cease striving. If you loose your life for my sake you get it back.
We can’t make this leap based on experiences. Experience causes us to believe that we are in an impossible situation. Trust over doing. How do react if our experience does not line up with what we expect. We have been faithful, why is God doing this??
We need to know what God is doing and why in order to trust Him and that is backwards.
Inner growth and maturity takes place here. Here peace loves anxiety.

We don’t start here unless we believe God is absolutely good.
We don’t naturally jump into 4-6.
We need to create an environment around ours and other people’s 4-6.
We can’t create a program for 4-6. We each have
4) Inward- Grief starts the process. We have to give up the dream that 1-3 will bring us life. Applying ideas to our lives.
Motivators are Hope and wholeness.
We would rather be right than forgiven. Forgiven is in 4 ,right is in 3. Grace traffics in 4. It is not an excuse,
Disarm shame, fear, guilt, hurt, pride. Some people call it the dark night of the soul. Not a good name for it.
Exploring unresolved psychological and theological

5) Healing- healing is necessary for our souls. 5 you start outward again. The power is the power of purpose. Our calling is to Jesus not a place or an action or talent. We need to be independent from our circumstances. Powered by purpose. If our purpose is to further the kingdom why can’t we yield to something bigger than us. We are also to bow to marriage and not have marriage bow to us.
Surrender, submit, slave,
We move from being worthy to being unworthy. Gratefulness.


Soul Care 3
Day 4

In the garden we wanted to be independent. That will try to get in the way. We are moving from independence to dependence on God.
In 1-3 people are relational but not making deep connections.
In 6- the characteristics we want- don’t just put them on. Be surprised when you find them in yourself.
1- most people can’t get past if we are truly loved.
2- outside in, push, bind- by sight

6- Learning how to love- inside out, by faith not sight
Jn 14- we don’t have to strive to know the Spirit. God is present, call to our awareness His presence.
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
We need to know what He said first to be reminded of it. Your obedience needs to come on basis of relationship. At one point we need to let go and trust.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. (1-3)
The Spirit will convict the world. We need to learn to be a draw. Let the Spirit convict the world.
The Spirit of God will guide us with all the truth.
Job- not about suffering, about trust. We need to gain the confidence that God is able to care for us.
We are most like God in how we think and least like God in what we can do.
We have this well spring of things inside of us just waiting to get out.
I will give you life and you can experience joy in the midst of a fallen world.


Soul Care 4
6th is learning how to Love. Power by wisdom
Motivation is peace (Jesus will be our peace)
Compassion
Contentment
Open hand- All is God
Calmness,
humor- the ability to laugh at yourself is the most unmistakable behavioral characteristic of humility, confront issues with out anger,
joy- a perspective i.e. death, you face blindside issues (the believer does not have a dark side, we have a blind side. We are trying to redeem (1tim4:4) and not get rid of. They can be good. You can’t see your own but.
Heal addictions. We think God breaks us like Misery but that is not how he operates. We don’t have anything that we shouldn’t be put into the light.
Compassion
Love
Boundaries- love waits, not controlling, depends on the other person to move forward. We can’t compromise our souls for someone else. (God is not a child abuser; he won’t make us do things that are bad for us)

5th is what most people call transformation. Power by purpose
Motivator- to empower others. Submit surrender. Leads with other people.
God is good. Uncompromisingly the center. Relying totally on the goodness of God. We know God already knows all that is in our souls.
Wholeness. We don’t serve in order to gain something. We serve because we have been served and God’s grace is sufficient. Empathy-- (the ability to identify, understand the other person; a quality of being) (technology is harder to show empathy) (will give you more substance in relationships, messier relationships) becomes the focus. We have others in mind. A calmness to people in this area. No striving. Quiet waters run deep.


4 Start to know that I breath my last breath because God is pleased to do so.
None of these steps come naturally.

Ego is removed in 4-6 You are still not confident and don’t believe we are truly loved by God.
No one is in just one stage. We move all the time. Like manna it rots the next day. Need our daily bread.
90% of how people are chosen for a job is chosen based on what we can see on the outside and not character based.
Disciplines- We sometimes pick up the disciplines on the 2-3 side and want them as a vehicle to push us through the others. Should do 1 thing to us.. help us pre-decide in any given situation. (I think to create space for God to move too) Legalism reigns here.
We will never be in a circumstance where we cannot love.
The transformative change comes from the Spirit of God working in us.