The Key to Me: Personality and Spiritual Growth

April 19, 2016April 19, 2016 ~ kkeselcampbell ~ Leave a comment

Our lesson two weeks ago was focused on Personality type and Spiritual Growth.

There are so many things that we can learn from our personality types that can apply to our spiritual lives and our connections with God.

Most of what we discussed came from my reading in these two books:

There are so many insights to gain from reading each of these books!

Knowing Me Knowing God is focused on more general spirituality vs the Personality Type and Religious Leadership is focused more on spiritual leadership.

We discussed three different categories of spiritual growth.

Spirituality and Temperament style

We discussed how different temperament tend to connect with God in different ways.

NF: Transposition

NF’s transpose the scriptures to apply them to situations today. They look for the deeper meaning and find new ways to apply those scriptures to today. NF’s gain lots of new insights from the scriptures and often need to subject those insights to discernment before applying them to their lives. For extroverted NF’s benefit from discussing their insights with others while introverted NF’s benefit from time to journal and process and then reflect on the validity of their insights.

SJ: Remembrance

SJ’s enjoy remembering past events where God rescued or took care of his people in a special way. SJ’s tend to project themselves back into these moments of the past and connect with how those moments become applicable to today. They value discipline, order and a historical perspective in their study of the scriptures. These types tend toward pessimistic aspect of Christianity and should therefore spend at least half their time focusing on resurrection and salvation themes to keep a positive outlook.

NT: Analysis

NT’s take a scholastic approach to prayer and Bible study. They like to study topics out from every angle, determine conclusions from that study and then apply those practical conclusions to their life. They tend to thrive when they can carry practical insights from their Bible study with them throughout the day. They are constantly focused on searching for the truth and looking for new insights for God. They strive for perfection in every area of their lives and have to make sure to not get discouraged when perfection is not achievable.

SP: Openness

These types like to leave an openness in their relationship for God and the Spirit to move in their lives. They tend to desire less routine and more free flowing prayer and dialogue with God. SP’s are able to fruitfully meditate on one aspect of creation and draw closeness and connection with God from focusing on that one aspect. SP’s enjoy showing their love for God through things that involved movement and often focus better in prayer when the have something to do with their hands.

2. Spirituality and Function Use and

3. Spirituality and Function Growth

The four functions: Sensing, iNtuition, Thinking and Feeling can all be used in different ways in our walk with God.

Luke 10:27 says:

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

When we look at how the functions fit into this scripture we can see that we can learnt o love God with all four functions:

Heart: Feeling

Soul: Intuition

Strength: Sensing

Mind: Thinking

We each have preferable functions in our walk with God that are more developed and more readily used than the other functions.

We talked through the different functions and how we each use our preferred functions in our walk with God and how we can grow to use the other functions in our walk with God as well.

One point we also hit on was the need to dig deeper into our inferior function. This is our fourth function in our function stack and the one that is least mature and least developed in our life and in our walk with God. Our inferior function is the function we tend to use when we’re stressed and overwhelmed and it is the least like our normal personality but it is a part of our personality type all the same.

We have so much room to grow and our need for God is so evident when we look at our inferior function. We can see our weaknesses and see that we need God’s strength to grow and change in this areas.

2 Cor 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God’s grace is sufficient for our weaknesses and for our use of our inferior function!

Here is a link to one of my favorite pins on inferior functions. It lets us see what happens when we begin to get overwhelmed, how we end up using our inferior function and how to get out of our rut when we’re stuck in our stress.

This is a great way to begin exploring our inferior function so we can begin to see our greater need for God and that we can focus on using our personality type for spiritual growth!

We each have many strengths and some weaknesses that are connected to our personality type. Studying out each of those things and how we can grow in our walk with God can be a great help to connecting with God more and being used by him in greater ways!

This is a great tool for helping study our personal strengths and weaknesses in our spiritual life.

I hope these things help you connect more with God and help you to use your personality type for spiritual growth!

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

April 20, 2015 ~ kkeselcampbell ~ Leave a comment

Ladies!!

For some preparation for week three of our series, I would like each of you to take some time to take this personality test. It should only take about 15mins for the test, and then feel free to check out the extra information supplied on the site about your personality, including famous people who share your personality!

God created each one of us to be special and unique and the more we can learn about ourselves the more we can learn to “become a better me” and to serve God with our personalities!!

Feel free to share the test with your friends and join us Tuesday night at 7pm as we discuss how special God made each one of us!

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

I AM… Created in His Image

April 4, 2015April 14, 2015 ~ kkeselcampbell ~ 1 Comment

In our first week of our new women’s series, Becoming a Better ME, we discussed the journey women experience in trying to figure out our true identity.

There are so many things that fight to destroy our true identity. The world throws at each woman impossible standards of what it means to be beautiful, thin, successful, popular, and strong. Satan whispers lies of how far we fall short… you are weak, you are not pretty enough, you’ll never change, you’re not good enough, not worth pursuing. The issue comes when we begin to agree with Satan and instead of seeing ourselves the way God sees us, we agree with Satan and voice our agreements out loud by labeling ourselves by our sins and weakness instead of labeling ourselves with the thoughts of Christ. We start to voice things like, I am alone, I am weak, I am not good enough, pretty enough, kind enough, smart enough. I am emotional, I am insecure, I am scared.

Our identity can so easily come from these things, or from changing ourselves in an effort to please people instead of learning who God truly made us to be and allowing ourselves to grow into the things that God wants us to become.

Gen 1:27 says

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

God created us as females in his image. As women we were created to reflect something special about the image of God.

I’ve been rereading the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge and have loved the way they described being made in God’s image.

God put some natural desires on our hearts as women that reflect desires that he also has. As women we desire to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty…

These are the same things that God wants! God has a great desire for a deep relationship with each of us, he wants to be our great helper in the great adventure of our lives, and he wants to unveil beauty in everything we see.

The hard part is that even though we connect with God on so many levels with these desires we often have trouble trusting him with our lives and we pull back into defensive identities.

We easily become dominant or desolate women, (or some version in between) instead of being the women that God intended for us to be.

Dominant women use their defensive identity to try to control everything and everyone around them. They pretend to not need anyone and push people away by having a hard exterior that seems to “have it all together”. They lack a vulnerability and femininity that God wants them to bring into the world. Oddly enough, these women are often lifted up and recognized as successful and strong in our culture.

Desolate women are the opposite. They crave attention and acceptance from everyone around them and are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure people are happy with them. They are consumed by their desire for relationship and are far too vulnerable and emotional. Desolate women live in hiding, whether it is hiding behind being busy, frumpy clothes, not making decisions, angry silences or withdrawals from conflict, these women hide their true selves so that no one can reject who they really are.

Whether we tend to the dominant or desolate side, we all have indulgences that we go to in order to get filled up instead of going to God.

These indulgences can be anything from buying something for ourselves, eating seconds or a super-sized something, controlling our food or overexercising, fantasy worlds, masturbation, Netflix, pursuing guys in texting or flirting, drinking, partying, negative emotions and spirals…

We give our hearts away to these things instead of letting God fill us up.

God so desperately desires to be close to us, to fill us up, to have a deep relationship with us, to take us on incredible adventures and unveil so much beauty in our lives.

When we live in these defensive identities and go to these indulgences to be filled instead, we separate ourselves from the image that God created us in.

Jeremiah 2:13

“My people have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

1 Samuel 12:21

^”Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.”

These defensive identities and idulgences are just broken cisterns and useless idols. They do not fill us up and make us whole because they do not connect us to our creator!

The only way to fight the desire to turn to these empty solutions is to fight to be closer to our God.

The more we know about our creator the more we will know and understand the image we were created in! By spending time reading our Bibles, journaling our thoughts, and praying through our insecurities, we can experience more of God’s identity and in turn be more secure in our own!

Jesus was a great example of knowing exactly who he was because he knew exactly who God made him to be!

In the book of John we find some incredible I AM statements from Jesus:

John 6:51 I am the Living Bread
John 8:12 I am the Light of the World
John 8:23 I am From Above and Not of This World
John 10:9 I am The Door
John 10:11 I am the Good Shepherd
John 10:36 I am the Son of God
John 11:25 I am the Resurrection and the Life
John 14:6 I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life
John 15:1 I am the True Vine

Throughout this series we want to follow Jesus’ example and create our own list of defining I AM statements from the scriptures and themes we study out.

The first statement for our list… I AM… Created in His Image!

Whenever we are feeling insecure, doubting who we were made to be, hearing lies of Satan fill our heads, or feeling like we don’t measure up to the standards of the world… let us remember… I AM… Created in His Image! There is power and security in knowing that we were created in the image of the creator of the world!

Let’s live as women who become more of who we are because we know more about God, whose image we were created in.

Becoming A Better ME Women’s Series

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 ~ kkeselcampbell ~ Leave a comment

The women of Denver CSA will be starting a women’s series this Tuesday Evening (March 31st) on Becoming A Better ME. How many women struggle with figuring out their true identity and who they really are? Over the next 5 weeks, we will be discussing who God truly made us to be as women. We’ll be talking about how to be confident and secure in our identity and what it means to grow and become the woman that God intended for us to be.

We’ll be posting thoughts and resources that connect to our series on this blog for ladies to use and follow as we dig into what it takes to “become a better me”.

Invite your friends to come out and join us for our women’s series and/or encourage them to check out the resources that will be posted here!

It’s going to be an exciting time to connect and discover who God really meant for us to be as women!

Welcome to our Led By Grace Blog!

March 22, 2015March 22, 2015 ~ kkeselcampbell ~ 1 Comment

Thank you so much for visiting our site! The women of Denver CSA (Christian Student Association) have decided to start a blog to share devotionals, thoughts and inspirations that directly affect women and the issues we face. We want to fight to be women who are Led By Grace and to help other women learn to be Led By Grace as well! We are so grateful for the grace God has lavished on us and we want to be moved by it and led to spread His word throughout the world! Join us in connecting with God’s word, being inspired by the thoughts of women leaders and sharing these thoughts with our friends, whether in person or online! We look forward to seeing how this will help each of us grow in our walk with God and our ability to be Led By Grace in our daily lives. Feel free to comment with topics you would like to see discussed or questions you would love biblical answers to! We want this site to be a great resource for empowering women and helping women thrive through their knowledge about Christ!

Thanks for checking out our site and please sign up to follow our blog through the Follow option on the side bar, and feel free to share future posts with your friends!