We all connect to God in different ways. Learning about ourselves and how we enjoy our time with God is a pretty good investment of time and in ourselves, I would say!
If you have never heard about the Spiritual Pathways, you can read an excerpt from God Is Closer Than You Think, by John Ortberg and then, if you are curious about your own pathways, go ahead and take the test below!
Exploring Spiritual Pathways
Summarized from God Is Closer Than You Think,
God wants to be fully present with each of us. But because he made us to be different from one another, we are not identical in the activities and practices that will help us connect with him. Some writers speak of people as having different spiritual temperaments; Gary Thomas writes of “sacred pathways.” (Many authors have written about this over the years; I’m especially indebted to author Gary Thomas; to my former staff colleagues Bill Hybels and Ruth Barton; and to Corinne Ware and Robert Mulholland.)
A spiritual pathway has to do with the way we most naturally sense God’s presence and experience spiritual growth. We all have at least one pathway that comes most easily to us. We also have one or two that are the most unnatural and require a lot of stretching for us to pursue.
There is enormous freedom in identifying and embracing your spiritual pathway. It is a little like realizing that if you’re an introvert, you don’t have to work as a salesman; you could get a job in a library. You don’t have to beat yourself up or feel guilty because of what is not your pathway. You can focus on relating to God in that way for which you were made, while at the same time recognizing your need to stretch in certain areas that don’t come as naturally.
We will spend most of this chapter walking through seven spiritual pathways. We need to keep in mind that we all have at least some involvement in each one of them. All of us meet God in our minds, at work, in our relationships, and so on. But you will notice that certain pathways most resonate in you. They are the ones that may open up a whole new level of connection between you and God. Yet each pathway has certain dangers attached to it as well, and we will note those too.
Spiritual Pathways Assessment
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