Spiritual formation
I'm learning how God changes a person.
How does what I believe become the way I live?
From God
What I receive
Scripture, grace, identity, correction, prayer.
In me
How I live
The belief shows up in my next choice.
To someone else
What they receive
Care, help, patience, truth, courage.
Formation: what I receive from God changes how I live, then reaches someone else.
What keeps repeating
A simple rhythm keeps showing up.
Six ordinary movements I keep seeing in prayer, Scripture, and daily obedience.
- ReceiveStart with what God gives: Scripture, grace, identity, correction, prayer.
- DiscernAsk what is true, what belongs to Christ, and what is actually happening in me.
- SurrenderRelease the outcome, attachment, or pattern I keep trying to preserve.
- ObeyTurn what I believe into the next concrete choice it requires.
- BecomeLet repeated obedience become character instead of another idea.
- GiveLet what formed in me become something another person can receive.
How this rhythm relates to the twelve stages
These six words describe practice: the movements I go through in an ordinary week.
The twelve canonical stages on the Framework page describe the full process of formation, from Identity to Completion.
The six words describe what I do. The stage names describe where I am. They never replace each other.
Practice
Listening without turning prayer into a project.
My instinct is to research, model, and solve. This asks me to become quiet and leave room for an answer I did not manufacture.
- 01Clear the noiseSit quietly.
- 02Write freelyUnedited.
- 03PrayAsk to be shown.
- 04Read it backSlowly.
- 05Mark what draws meWhat carries weight.
- 06Carry it into lifeThe next thing to do.
Faith
Act from trust before the outcome is in hand.
Two places to point my effort.
Make my own outcome the center.
- My effort stays focused on me and returns to me.
Act for their good and trust God with mine.
- Serve, give, forgive.
- God's way of winning is to help the other person win.
See the two directions drawn out
The choice of direction
Where do I point my effort?
Make my own outcome the center.
My effort stays focused on me and returns to me.
Act for their good and trust God with mine.
Me
Love
Other person
Faith trusts that God's way of winning is to help the other person win.
Scripture · 2 Peter 1:5-9
Scripture describes formation as ordered growth.
Peter starts with faith and ends with love. Each quality is added to the one before it.
- Faith
- Moral excellence
- Knowledge
- Self-control
- Endurance
- Godliness
- Brotherly affection
- Love
Recent writings
The questions changed before the framework did.
Framework
The twelve-stage model is still here, one level down.
Perfect Recursion is the systems research underneath this site. Every stage points the same way: what God forms in a person turns outward.
What I have
What it becomes
Capacity
Responsibility
Knowledge
Wisdom
Insight
Obedience
Growth
Fruit
Fruit
Service
Fruit
The test is what another person can receive.
Pick a fruit and follow it outward.
What formed in you
Love
What it becomes
Care
What someone else receives
Someone is cared for in a way they can actually feel.
What can begin
That care can help trust and belonging grow.
John 15:8