JohnPalmieri.com

My sails are set to enter this New Year and New Decade more in step with the Spirit of God and less in step with my own efforts. I’ve opened my journal to you today…below is my entry for this last day of 2009.

The spiritual life is not journeyed by following a set of formula’s but much more by listening to and keeping in rhythm with the voice of the Spirit. Romans 7:6 talks about this New Way…appropriate for a New Year.
Following a formula doesn’t always lead to a predicted outcome. The Christian life just isn’t that simple. Sometimes, a child raised in a godly family will turn off the path…an expression of their own free will. Tithing doesn’t always lead to financial prosperity – just like God doesn’t always protect His children from calamity, illness, death, and injustice. A mindset that is formula driven is set up for big disappointment – bad things happen to good people…you know, people who follow the rules.

A formula life is life under the Law – a spiritual life is life, unpredictably blown about by the Spirit – a life that flows, moves, keeps in step with the rhythms of the Holy Spirit. A formula paradigm (i.e. 2+2 =4) is a religious life but not a spiritual life…and thus when the blows (unbelievable hardships) of life hit (i.e. 2+2=5) the religious life and formulas no longer work. Unfortunately, the religious life responds by either quitting (entering the world of status quo) or worse becomes more resolute in attempting to make the formulas work.

God is about relationship, communion and partnership in his Kingdom work – I enter 2010, sails set, to navigate uncharted waters…as the winds of the Spirit lead.