What is the most important spiritual discipline?

[Tree of Life]

This may sound like I'm asking "which is the most important leg on a stool?" or "which is the most important wheel on a car?" And this may be the case.

But I actually do think that there is one discipline that takes primacy over all the rest. There is one discipline that if it's missing from your life will negatively affect all the other disciplines and negatively affect your growth in Christ. I'll name it in the spoiler below, but before you look at my answer I'd like to hear your answer and your rationale.

Spoiler: My Answer

Weekly Church attendance.

 

[HereIStand]

Obedience. If we love Christ, we keep His commandments. Our spiritual growth is conditioned on it. Knowledge and sharing the faith with others follows from commitment.

 

[Tree of Life]

Obedience. If we love Christ, we keep His commandments. Our spiritual growth is conditioned on it. Knowledge and sharing the faith with others follows from commitment.

I've never understood obedience to be a spiritual discipline.

 

[miknik5]

Coming to HIM in prayer acknowledging and asking for HIS "DAILY BREAD" daily to begin another day..


Lamentations 3

 

[Wordkeeper]

This may sound like I'm asking "which is the most important leg on a stool?" or "which is the most important wheel on a car?" And this may be the case.

But I actually do think that there is one discipline that takes primacy over all the rest. There is one discipline that if it's missing from your life will negatively affect all the other disciplines and negatively affect your growth in Christ. I'll name it in the spoiler below, but before you look at my answer I'd like to hear your answer and your rationale.

Spoiler: My Answer

Weekly Church attendance.

A strange phenomena is occurring nowadays.

Patients read the internet and are sometimes more conversant about their illness than their doctor.

That's because the doctor knows about all illnesses generally, but the patient, because of his deep focus on his own one illness, can become more knowledgeable.

True report
Doctors who have not kept up to date with findings have cause blindness by not completely removing the nucleus material when performing catart surgery, a simple procedure. Previously it was not known why some surgeries ended up in blindness.


A similar scenario is being repeated in churches.

A friend told me that the main reason people attend churches nowadays is to spot the mistakes being taught.

 

[miknik5]

English American Standard version is NOT my choice and I do not know how to change it to JPS.

Lamentations 3:23-25 to be precise

 

[brinny]

This may sound like I'm asking "which is the most important leg on a stool?" or "which is the most important wheel on a car?" And this may be the case.

But I actually do think that there is one discipline that takes primacy over all the rest. There is one discipline that if it's missing from your life will negatively affect all the other disciplines and negatively affect your growth in Christ. I'll name it in the spoiler below, but before you look at my answer I'd like to hear your answer and your rationale.

Spoiler: My Answer

Weekly Church attendance.

As i mull over what you mean by "discipline", i will just respond with my first thoughts on the matter.

What came to mind for me is this:

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." ~Proverbs 9:10

The "fear of the Lord" is spoken of throughout God's entire Word as being of utmost importance to God. It is impossible to be "wise" without it". And it is of the utmost importance to be "wise" in order to embrace WHO God is AND His "holy-ness".

It's a "heart" thing. And that is what God looks upon. A "wise" heart. In the very beginning of the book of Job, God clearly stated why He called Job "perfect and upright" (righteous). And it was because of this:

"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil." ~Job 1:1

This also indicates "wisdom":

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" ~Micah 6:8

Enoch must have been a very wise man. He walked with God, so very closely, that God "took" him.

Very wise indeed.

 

[Tree of Life]

A strange phenomena is occurring nowadays.

Patients read the internet and are sometimes more conversant about their illness than their doctor.

That's because the doctor knows about all illnesses generally, but the patient, because of his deep focus on his own one illness, can become more knowledgeable.

True report
Doctors who have not kept up to date with findings have cause blindness by not completely removing the nucleus material when performing catart surgery, a simple procedure. Previously it was not known why some surgeries ended up in blindness.


A similar scenario is being repeated in churches.

A friend told me that the main reason people attend churches nowadays is to spot the mistakes being taught.

I'm not sure what the relevance of this post is here. Could you connect this back to the issue of spiritual disciplines?

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

This may sound like I'm asking "which is the most important leg on a stool?" or "which is the most important wheel on a car?" And this may be the case.

Can weekly attendance in anything increase life, righteousness, healing, raising the dead, casting out demons, health, edifying others, encouraging others, growing in the body of Christ ?

Often weekly attendance forbids these Scripturally Described Life Promoting Activities in Christ Jesus...
so
... ... ... what then ?

 

[miknik5]

A strange phenomena is occurring nowadays.

Patients read the internet and are sometimes more conversant about their illness than their doctor.

That's because the doctor knows about all illnesses generally, but the patient, because of his deep focus on his own one illness, can become more knowledgeable.

True report
Doctors who have not kept up to date with findings have cause blindness by not completely removing the nucleus material when performing catart surgery, a simple procedure. Previously it was not known why some surgeries ended up in blindness.


A similar scenario is being repeated in churches.

A friend told me that the main reason people attend churches nowadays is to spot the mistakes being taught.

Are you saying then that each is responsible to know THE LORD individually and personally first and foremost?

If so, then this I agree with completely.

 

[Wordkeeper]

Coming to HIM in prayer acknowledging and asking for HIS "DAILY BREAD" daily to begin another day..


Lamentations 3

This.

Its why Jesus baptised with the Holy Spirit and with FIRE.

Jeremiah 23:29

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

I've never understood obedience to be a spiritual discipline.

Many people never understood that or any other spiritual discipline. This is a shared commonality in the world.

Obedience is required. Whether it is a spiritual discipline or not depends on your definition I guess.

 

[Tree of Life]

Can weekly attendance in anything increase life, righteousness, healing, raising the dead, casting out demons, health, edifying others, encouraging others, growing in the body of Christ ?

Yes. Weekly attendance at a local church of genuine believers where the gospel is being proclaimed and the sacraments administered is able to do all these things and more!

Often weekly attendance forbids these Scripturally Described Life Promoting Activities in Christ Jesus...
so
... ... ... what then ?

I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you elaborate?

 

[Tree of Life]

Many people never understood that or any other spiritual discipline. This is a shared commonality in the world.

Obedience is required. Whether it is a spiritual discipline or not depends on your definition I guess.

I agree that obedience is required but I understand it as a much broader category. Practicing spiritual disciplines falls under the heading of obedience for me - not the other way around.

 

[Tree of Life]

As i mull over what you mean by "discipline", i will just respond with my first thoughts on the matter.

What came to mind for me is this:

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." ~Proverbs 9:10

The "fear of the Lord" is spoken of throughout God's entire Word as being of utmost importance to God. It is impossible to be "wise" without it". And it is of the utmost importance to be "wise" in order to embrace WHO God is AND His "holy-ness".

It's a "heart" thing. And that is what God looks upon. A "wise" heart. In the very beginning of the book of Job, God clearly stated why He called Job "perfect and upright" (righteous). And it was because of this:

"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil." ~Job 1:1

This also indicates "wisdom":

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" ~Micah 6:8

Enoch must have been a very wise man. He walked with God, so very closely, that God "took" him.

Very wise indeed.

Thanks brinny. I understand spiritual disciplines to be the things that we do in order to receive wisdom from the Lord - or perhaps the things that we do in order to grow in the fear of the Lord. Of course this must be nuanced with the understanding that it is the Lord who develops these things in us. But this does not mean that we are entirely passive.

So what's the most important thing that we can do in order to grow in the fear of the Lord and in wisdom?

 

[Adstar]

This may sound like I'm asking "which is the most important leg on a stool?" or "which is the most important wheel on a car?" And this may be the case.

But I actually do think that there is one discipline that takes primacy over all the rest. There is one discipline that if it's missing from your life will negatively affect all the other disciplines and negatively affect your growth in Christ. I'll name it in the spoiler below, but before you look at my answer I'd like to hear your answer and your rationale.

Spoiler: My Answer

Weekly Church attendance.

Humbleness towards God.. The ability to allow God to lead..

 

[brinny]

I've never understood obedience to be a spiritual discipline.

Didn't God specify in His Word that "obedience" is better than "sacrifice"?

 

[Tree of Life]

Humbleness towards God.. The ability to allow God to lead..

Thanks for the reply. Humility sounds like a virtue or a fruit of the Spirit to me - not a spiritual discipline. Isn't humility the thing that develops because we practice spiritual disciplines?

 

[Tree of Life]

Didn't God specify in His Word that "obedience" is better than "sacrifice"?

He certainly did. On multiple occasions. What light do you think that this sheds on the issue?

 

[brinny]

Thanks brinny. I understand spiritual disciplines to be the things that we do in order to receive wisdom from the Lord - or perhaps the things that we do in order to grow in the fear of the Lord. Of course this must be nuanced with the understanding that it is the Lord who develops these things in us. But this does not mean that we are entirely passive.

So what's the most important thing that we can do in order to grow in the fear of the Lord and in wisdom?

Doesn't God Himself grant us wisdom?

And it begins with the "fear" of the Lord, does it not?