Spiritual Pathways by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Discovering Your Spiritual Pathway

Psalm 119:5 says our ways should be directed to keep God's statutes. That is a prayer worth praying right away.

A spiritual pathway has to do with the way you most naturally sense God's presence and the way you experience spiritual growth. Everyone comes with at least one pathway that comes most easily to them. That does not mean you cannot have more than one, but you have at least one. There is enormous freedom in identifying and embracing your spiritual pathway, and there is a danger in trying to force someone else's pathway onto yourself.

Five Spiritual Pathways

1. The Intellectual Pathway

   Luke 10:27

   On this pathway, you draw closer to God as you learn more about Him. You love to study scripture, and in a crisis or spiritual challenge you tend to go into analytic, problem-solving mode. You identify with the words of Jesus about loving the Lord your God with all your mind.

   • The danger: becoming all head and no heart. You can carry a lot of head knowledge that is never embedded in your heart. Some people are so quick to quote scripture that they never truly hear what the person in front of them is saying, and their lives are not changing despite all the Bible they know.
   • 1 Corinthians 8:1 warns that knowledge puffs a person up, while love is what truly builds others up. Anyone who claims to know all the answers does not really know very much.
   • Being a know-it-all puts people off. When you put people off, they stop confiding in you, even about real danger in their lives.
   • Guard your growth in knowledge by matching it with growth in humility and love. Practice humility deliberately: choose the back seat instead of the front, let go of the need to defend yourself, and pray to stay level-headed.

2. The Relational Pathway

   Matthew 18:20

   People on the relational pathway find they have a deep sense of God's presence when they are involved in significant relationships. Those words of Jesus about two or three gathered in His name make perfect sense to the relational type.

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   Rev. Christie Bature

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   • If you are relational, you may feel guilty hearing others describe long hours of solitude in prayer. There is no need to feel guilty. Different pathways express devotion differently, and worship or dancing before God can carry someone for hours in the same way solitude carries someone else.
   • Relational people often experience their clearest spiritual moments, such as conviction of sin or encouragement to persevere, through other people rather than alone.
   • Danger one: superficiality. You can become spread so thin relationally that no one gets close enough to truly know you, love you, or challenge you.
   • Danger two: becoming so dependent on the thoughts and counsel of others that you never develop the sensitivity to hear God for yourself. Everything you receive from a person, a pastor, or even a book is second-hand information. It is fine to start there, but it is a tragedy to end there.
   • Guiding scripture: Isaiah 30:21, on hearing a word behind you saying, "this is the way."

3. The Serving Pathway

   Psalm 119:59

   On the serving pathway, God's presence feels most tangible when you are helping others. You identify with the words of Jesus about serving the least of these, and you feel uncomfortable in any setting where you have no role to play.

   • Dorcas is a biblical example, a woman full of good works and charitable deeds. Gladys Aylward, a humble housemaid from London, is another example, a woman who cared for orphaned children and faced danger to help people in need despite hardship and rejection.
   • Danger one: judging others who are not serving as visibly or as often as you are, and concluding they are not truly connected to God.
   • Danger two: becoming so consumed with being God's servant that you forget you are also His beloved and redeemed child. People on this pathway often know how to give love but struggle to receive it.

4. The Worship Pathway

   Psalm 122:1

   When you are on the worship pathway, something deep inside you feels released when praise is given. Your heart opens up and you come alive, sometimes in tears of deep joy.

   • Caution one: do not judge people who are not as outwardly expressive as you. Some grew up in traditions where no one raised a hand or a voice, and God still accepts their worship.
   • Caution two: guard against an experience-based spirituality that is always chasing the next worship high. Worship can quietly become dependent on music to produce a certain feeling. Spend time worshiping God without music sometimes, so that your worship is anchored in who God is rather than in a sound. Engage more in Bible study so your heart is deeply rooted in the knowledge of God, not just in emotion.

5. The Activist Pathway

   Ecclesiastes 9:10

   When you are on this pathway, you carry a high level of energy and you love a fast-paced, problem-filled, strenuous way of life for God's sake.

   • The danger: a big chunk of your motivation can quietly become self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction rather than strengthening the whole church.
   • Nehemiah is a biblical example. When his beloved Jerusalem lay in ruins, he wept, he prayed, he petitioned the king for resources, and then he rolled up his sleeves and went to work.
   • An activist needs a cause. Without one, your spiritual life will stagnate.
   • Caution one: do not get so excited about your cause that you run over people or exploit them.
   • Caution two: take time to distinguish God's true calling from your own strong impulse to act. Pray, and keep a trusted friend whose counsel you value close by.

You may have more than one pathway, but you will usually have one that is primary. Identify yours, lean into it, and take seriously the caution attached to it.