Jack Hayford’s book, Living a Spirit-Formed Life,[i] might be the definitive beginner’s manual for a disciple of Christ! As of the writing of this paper, I cannot think of any book outside the Bible that gives believers a more concise way to follow Jesus. Pastor Jack lays out ten Disciplines that he believes create Pillars of the church. “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God” (Rev 3:12) Pastor jack is well renown for his teachings over decades, If he is taking the time to explain how to live and mature as a spirit filled believer then I believe his teachings in this book are worth looking at. Let’s take a quick look at these ten disciplines.

1. Committing to hearing God’s voice

Reading God’s word is the foundation of our lives as disciples. Pastor Jack explains that God wants to grow us, teach us, protect us, and guide our lives. This takes place as a follower learns to hear “His word within the Word” To hear the prophetic intent of the Holy Spirit breathing God’s truth into our hearts.

• Living in the power of baptism

The term Baptism usually makes us automatically think of water baptism, but to live in the power of baptism is a far deeper concept. “A commitment to pursue discipleship as one dead to sin but alive to God through the power of the Holy Spirit”

• Celebrating the Lord’s table

When Jesus walked the Earth, he taught us to seek his father’s Kingdom

; living in communion with Him is where I believe it starts every day. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matt 5:6). This should cause us to celebrate at the Lord’s table and to live in communion with Christ. “Where the living Word and living worship converge to release the power of Christ’s presence at His Table.

• Walking in the spirit of forgiveness

“To BE a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable.” Pastor Jack explains that we must forgive in our hearts, as it is spoken in the bible. “…as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matt 6:12). To walk in the spirit of forgiveness means to forgive in all daily matters, no matter how small of an offense we believe it is. To forgive means to extend mercy, as mercy has been extended to us, and to walk in that spirit will cause very little to trouble you.

• Feeding on the Word of God

To truly understand the Word of God, one must “Entreat” the Lord to grant one the true understanding of His Word.” To entreat means to plead, beseech, or implore earnestly; in this case, we mean to entreat to our God. To sit down with your bible and entreat His still, small voice on the meaning of His Word is a quick explanation of what I describe as “feeding” on His Word.

• Maintaining Integrity of heart

“God can only be known in person and in intimacy by those who seek Him with All their hearts.” A disciple’s integrity is about maintaining our humility and childlikeness, the discipline of purity, a totality of heart-yielding, and a vulnerability to the holy spirit.

• Abiding in the fullness of the Spirit

Abide is a biblical word that describes the posture we are to maintain within His presence. This posture has been quite pivotal in many disciples’ lives. “Nothing in a believer’s life is more essential to his or her becoming a daily, fully empowered replication and representative of Jesus Christ than by being filled with the Holy Spirit.” Once we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, we must continue to be freshly filled with His love and power to fulfill the mandate of the gospel of Jesus. This is the Lord working with and through us.

• Living a life of submission

Even Jesus was obedient to his father; we have been called in the like manner of obedience. Jesus humbled himself all the way to the cross; in the same manner, we must take up our cross daily and remain humble ourselves. Biblical surrender is not only to yield to His will, but to embrace and follow as servants.

• Practicing Solitude

This is the moment of stopping our ever-busy lives to spend time quietly experiencing God’s presence faithfully. Jesus wants to spend time with us intimately and privately. This intentional time of isolation from the mundane of life secures a balance and helps us retain our priorities.

1. Living as a Worshipper

Pastor Jack teaches us that Worship is the ultimate priority of every believer. It opens doorways to God’s supernatural presence and power. It is the pathway into prayer, which is the “All-Encompassing discipline” and is prayer’s essential point of entry in the father’s heart!

Let us take a closer look at a few of these disciplines!

Solitude

“I never found a companion that was as companionable as Solitude.” -Henry David Thoreau.

I believe most people seek solitude to escape reality, and considering how overwhelming life can get, this can be completely understandable. As disciples of Christ, knowing the value of quietness is a precious thing indeed, but for disciples, it is not about escaping the physical. It is about re-centering, re-refocusing, and re-adjusting back to our place of intimacy in the presence of God. Solitude is not our exit; it is our entry.

The bible has numerous references to this place of solitude. Jesus often retreated to pray alone, Moses was atop Mount Sinai for 40 days, Elijah escaped Jezebel into the wilderness, David’s wilderness hideaway from Saul, John was exiled to Patmos when Jesus came to him with Revelations. Our God may be relational, but it appears that sometimes we need to get physically away from man to be alone with God. That is not an advocacy for selfishness or self-isolation.

Solitude is a way of prioritizing our relationship with Christ. Instead of binge-watching the latest season of whatever, we turn the television off because our relationship is more important. This also faithfully displays that we are not creating or tolerating anything to become an idol before our God; in this, we escape the trap the enemy sets for us to just “take it easy.” Once again, this is not an advocacy for launching your television out of your window, but when was the last time you intentionally spent time with God?

Living as a Worshipper

I was excited about this discipline when I first glanced through Pastor Jack’s book, and I was not disappointed after my reading. As an enthusiastic worshipper, I loved reading “Worship is the Ultimate priority of every believer,” but to learn that Worship is also an essential point of entry to the father’s presence and heart had me hanging on every line of this chapter. At a time in life when my worship was intensified, I believe I was being allowed to approach the throne of God in my worship, so when I read the words “Worship is a means of invoking the presence of God’s throne,” I suddenly found myself on the floor!

Pastor Jack makes the case that worship is part of our lives that expands in knowing God. There are numerous forms of worship, but at the center of it is a praise and worship that will determine the dimensions of our forward advancement along the path of discipleship.  

Praise is defined at “Expressing Admiration,” and if there is anything we should do with our whole hearts, it is praising our God. Psalm 95:2 says, “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with songs of praise.” Technically, that’s what the book of Psalms is: Sacred songs or Hymns.

Worship is not just the music; it is about assembling ourselves. A pastor does not need to argue for you to go to church; the bible already argues that you, at the very least, assemble with friends in the intentionality of worshipping. The Tabernacle, along with the first and second temples, were built to house the spirit of God but also for us to assemble there to worship! The book of Nehemiah chapter 8 explains: “All the people gathered together as one man…” There, they brought the book of the law of Moses as Ezra read before the assembly to “All who could hear with understanding.”[ii]

Integrity of Heart

This is what I consider the center of all our disciplines; all the others seem to revolve around the importance of this one. Maintaining our humility, our childlike faith, our purity, a totality of heart yieldedness, and a vulnerability to the Holy Spirit refers to the integral workings of our hearts that we are directed to Guard. (Proverbs 4:23) Maintaining integrity plays a role in three blessings in our lives: Prevention, Preservation, and Perpetuation.

Pastor Jack draws from the story of Solomon’s downfall to describe what can happen when we let other influences into our hearts. God appears to Solomon and says, “Now if you follow me like your father David, in integrity of heart” 1King 9:4. King David had entrusted to God to protect the borders of the nation, and Solomon decided to negotiate treaties to protect his borders. Solomon would create a treaty with nearby nations and marry one of their princesses. Each new princess that came into Jerusalem brought with her a pagan god from her nation, and each pagan God was welcomed. They were even enshrined in honor of the treaties!

As this applies in our worship and times of solitude, we must maintain integrity rather than compromise it! Not letting the world influence our thoughts in our time of solitude and rejecting the lyrics of the music of secular culture in our worship is a good start to maintaining integrity. “It’s the end of the world, and we know it” should never take the place of “I will praise you in this storm.”

A disciple of Jesus should never allow into their hearts what God has forbade.

MY REFLECTIONS

In Amena Browns book, Breaking Old Rhythms[iii], she tells a story from her childhood about a substitute music teacher she had. This teacher would have the choir sing a note, then would walk down the rows in front of each student. The teacher would listen to each student as they sang the note. If a student wasn’t singing the note properly, the teacher would sing the note properly for them…until the student got the note correct. This is such a beautiful illustration of what God is doing in our lives; he is just singing the note he wants us to sing, but we have to get to choir class if we want to sing his note!

She talks about us all having a “rhythm”. “A way of thinking, a routine, a comfort zone where we all feel safe and secure.” The note God is singing to us, to get us in tune with his tune, is about finding his rhythm. Finding His rhythm is finding His way of thinking, His routines, and His life for us outside of our comfort zones.

One of the reasons I emphasized Integrity earlier is because, in our hearts, we have our old rhythms broken, and in our hearts, He establishes His rhythm. Most of this changing of the song takes place when we are all alone with Him; our friends, family, and the world just get to hear the final cut of the studio recording. God sings to us each note the way he intends for it to be sung and creates the tempo he chooses.

This brings to mind the transformation I am currently going through with my career. After 20 years in the water and being a tough son of a gun, I now have an administrative desk job that doesn’t burn many calories! This has a “Learning curve,” just like learning God’s rhythm for our lives. Thank God for His grace!

The real hard battle is behind closed doors, this has taught me more about integrity than I have even known. The transformation in my life has been fought for every inch of the way. Amena Brown talks about the rhythm of fighting. Spiritual Warfare can be quite easy compared to the battle we fight against ourselves.

The disciplines Pastor Jack draws out are crucial because after church, bible study with friends, and work, we all head to the house, and this is where we find ourselves alone. This is where we feed our relationship with God, or we start to falter. This is why I consider Integrity of the Heart the most important discipline. The more disciplined we are about our disciplines, the more we take on Christ’s likeness. Committing to hearing his voice, living in the Power of Baptism, coming to His table, Forgiving, feeding on the Word, abiding in the spirit, constant submission, practicing Solitude, and fervent worship all directly impact our heart.

This is where addicts have to deal with temptation. Depression can creep into someone’s thoughts, usually when nobody is looking. An alcoholic has to come to terms with the boredom in life that allows the enemy to whisper to them. The Lord has shown me that anytime “Boredom” happens in our day-to-day life, it is a moment of disconnect from God. It is a region of our lives that we are living without him in it. The integrity in defeating Laziness must be overcome with motivation, and that motivation must come from within, and it must come from Him!

Recently, I felt a “dry place”; this was the only way I could describe it, and I kept hearing “Present yourself a living sacrifice.” When I searched ” Dry Place,” I found that it biblically refers to a place that feels separated or disconnected from God. I asked God what was going on, and I heard that still, small voice say, “Embrace my Will.” I had heard of “surrender” and “submit,” but now God was telling me something I had never heard before. SO, I did a search for bible scripture that references the Embracing of God’s Will…and I kid you NOT, what popped up on my search? “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present yourself a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable to God!” (Romans 12:1) You can’t make this up, folks. Either God is talking to me, or my phone is listening!

Be Blessed!

I have completed all reading material 100%

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[i] (Hayford, 1994, 2001. 2017)

[ii] (Jack Hayford, 2018)

[iii] (Brown, 2012)

Brown, A. (2012). Breaking old Rhythms. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Hayford, J. (1994, 2001. 2017). Living the Spirit formed life. Minneapolis Minnesota: Chosen Books.

Jack Hayford. (2018). NKJV Spirit FIlled Life Bible. Nashville, TN: HarperCollins publishing inc.