The Lord, as the Word, is the real only ‘doer’.
Our task is a method and formulation that brings a spiritual focus on our inner life, on the life of our thoughts and affections. The ability to ‘read’ the life of our mind from what the Word teaches is true, is referred to as ‘spiritual literacy’, and the tools that can support this allow us to read the Word differently, and details of this method have been provided in previous sections – particularly relating to removing person, reading for application, conscious and divided attention, reading as worship, and listening for the Lord. The vital yet simple tool of reflection is another, which puts us in front of a rich source of material that can support our spiritual development. It leads to the realisation that the Lord is the ‘doer’, which is a very great insight that has the power to weaken our attachment to the hellish proprium, and its hellish drive to claim ownership in everything it does. This merit-seeking only has power over us when we are caught in the appearance that we have life in ourselves, and that the appearance of our sense of self is a reality.
Reflection is an essential part of the process of ‘listening’ that has been spoken of previously. It’s a process of engaging with a truth, or an aspect of a truth in our reading of the Word, and questioning it, perhaps struggling with it; turning it around, exploring it and what it means in our life – because everything in the Word relates to our states of mind. This reflection becomes a state of openness and enquiry into which a light may shine, and which may open to a deeper understanding, and in this way the power to ‘do’ from the Word presents itself, and the Lord as the Word transitions our sense of self towards a heavenly proprium.
Reflection can also provide us with another chance to work with a spiritual principle or task which was difficult, or which we forgot about. We can reflect on anxieties that arise around this, plus any sense of an independent ‘can do’ self or a ‘well-intentioned’ or virtuous self that may be operating. At this stage, Step 5, we collate our experiences of working with the Text and the task, in preparation for sharing this with our Life Group. It’s only through trying to work with tasks that we’re brought to a sense of not being able to ‘do’, and here we realise that it is the Lord as the Word that gives us the ability to engage in spiritual work, so that we appear to have agency in it – when in fact it is the Word as the Lord in us who does the work.
Questions for Reflection
- What happened when I remembered to implement my task? What thoughts and feelings did I notice?
- What happened when I forgot the task or struggled to remember?
- What is the Lord allowing or asking me to see?
- What has He taught me concerning the nature and quality of my thoughts and affections over this session? What is He asking me to understand, or what have I come to understand?
- How are the answers to these questions connected with the Text for this session? What principles from the Text are illustrated in my experience?
