Jesus died so that He may be formed in every believer and any doctrine proclaiming less than that, is not the true gospel. To reach this fulness of Christ, we need to make a consistent investment of quality time, outside of church services, to develop our spiritual lives and spiritual gifts. A deeper relationship with Jesus requires from us to be intentional in having times of communion with him. We need to stop being lazy and invested in worldly materialism, our spiritual development is much more important. The day when we accepted Jesus, we got married to him, but that was only the start of the journey, it takes a lifetime of investment in a relationship with him to become like him. To counter the natural fleshly tendencies we have, we need to consistently apply certain disciplines in our lives, for instance devoting ourselves to the hearing and practising of the word we hear in Church, fellowship, experiencing communion, corporate worship, and prayer. Attending church is a corporate discipline as it is in the context of relationships in a Body. It is vital, because here spiritual growth comes from being accountable, taking responsibility, submitting, practising public confession, tithing, and acts of mercy. Outer disciplines are abstaining and thereby disciplining the flesh, solitude, silence, and secrecy. These things should be practised from the heart and not just done by route less it becomes an empty ritual without relationship, a practise with no meaning. The disciplines are setting a framework for time and application to achieve spiritual formation, ordering our lives around values, practises, and relationships as they keep us open to God to transform us, as we co-operate and partner with him. Spiritual disciplines in and of themselves do not produce salvation or make us superior but create the conditions whereby grace can flow freely from God into us towards change. We are, together with the Spirit in travail to see Christ formed in us.
