A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

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A Compe l l i ng Tes t imony

Director. He is the means of God to open the path to the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit” (Foster, Celebration of Discipline , p. 185).

c. Qualifications of a spiritual director

(1) One submitted to the will of God in Christ, 1 Cor. 11.1 – Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

(2) Able to take on parental responsibility for younger believers, 1 Thess. 2.7-8 – But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. [8] So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. (3) Willingness to serve and care for others spiritually, 2 Tim. 2.24-25 – And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, [25] correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

d. Discipling models: 1-to-1, man-to-man, or woman-to woman models

e. Examples of deep friendship relationships that carry the meaning of spiritual direction in Scripture

(1) Moses and Joshua, Exod. 24.13 – So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. (2) Elijah and Elisha, 1 Kings 19.19 – So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.