Chapter 1 Summary: Renovation of the Heart

Chapter 1: Introducing Spiritual Formation
The Beyond Within and the Way of Jesus

We live from the heart. The part of us that drives and organizes our life is not the physical. Our life and how we find the world now and in the future is, almost totally, a simple result of what we have become in the depths of our being- in our spirit, will, or heart. However, the situations in which we find ourselves are never as important as our responses to them, which come from our “spiritual” side. A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying “Why?” Accordingly, the greatest need you and I have…is renovation of the heart. That spiritual place within us from which outlook, choices, and actions come has been formed by a world away from God. As our spiritual dimension has been formed, so it also can be transformed. But what in our spirit needs to be changed and how can that change be brought about. Enter Jesus.
The revolution of Jesus is in the first place and continuously a revolution of the human heart or spirit. His is a revolution of character, which proceeds by changing people from the inside through ongoing personal relationship to God in Christ and to one another. It is one that changes their ideas, beliefs, feelings, and habits of choice, as well as their bodily tendencies and social relations. It penetrates to the deepest layers of their soul. The impotence of “systems” is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students out to start governments or even churches as we know them today; they were instead, to establish beachheads of his person, word, and power in the midst of a failing and futile humanity. They were to bring the presence of the kingdom and it’s King into every corner of human life simply by fully living in the kingdom with him. Through the presence of his kingdom, Jesus answers the deepest needs of human personality for righteousness, provision, and purpose.
What matters most for how life goes and ought to go is what we are on the “inside”, but unfortunately for all our fine advances in scientific knowledge, they can tell us nothing about the inner life of the human being. Though the “spiritual” side of us is not perceivable by the senses and though we can never fully grasp it in any way, it always stands in the margin of our consciousness. This is because “Man shall not live by bread alone.” These are Jesus’ words and his way is truly the way of the heart, or spirit. If we would walk with him, we must walk with him at that interior level. The heart thus renovated and inhabited is the only real hope of humanity on earth.
The formation and, later, transformation of the inner life of man, from which our outer existence flows, is an inescapable human problem. Spiritual formation…is the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite “form” or character. Some points in human history have shown more success in the elevation of the human spirit than others. But the low points far exceed the high points, and the average is discouragingly low.
So spiritual transformation, or the renovation of the human heart, is an inescapable human problem with no human solution. What is needed is genuine transformation of the whole person into the goodness and power seen in Jesus and his “Abba” Father. The reality of this is currently veiled from view by the very low level of spiritual life seen in Christianity as now placed before the general public. Christianity has not been imparting effectual answers to the vital questions of human existence. Our hearts cry out, “Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart.” And the answer to the question, “Am I a Christian?” can only be answered by what we are in our heart – before God, in the depths of our being, always the focal point of Christian spiritual formation.
We must understand that spiritual formation is not only formation of the spirit, thought that is both the process and the outcome. It is also formation by the Spirit of God. The primary learning here is not about how to act but rather taking love itself into the depths of our being through spiritual formation. This is not an occasion to keep on doing the same things Christians have been doing in the recent past – except now “really meaning it.” God has provided a methodical path of recovery. Grace does not rule out method, nor method grace. Grace thrives on method and method on grace.


Foundational Thought:
All of the problems we see in the world are a direct result of the fallen state of our hearts, who we are on the inside. The only hope of making things better or the way they were meant to be, is to focus on renovating the heart. Everyone has had their hearts formed, or in other words have developed the character they currently have, and it is possible to re-form or renovate the heart into what it was meant to be. Man throughout history has made attempts at this, consider the work of Aristotle and Plato and their focus on being Good, True, and Beautiful. However, this will always fail without the assistance of God. Remember, God in us is the hope of Glory and the hope of Glorious life. This is not to say that simply by having God in us we become who we were meant to be, there is still a requirement on our part to become that person. We must now, with the Divine enablement of the Holy Spirit, begin the process of renovating our hearts and becoming who He created us to be. Without Him, we can’t. Without us, He won’t.