ABSTRACT
The Role of The Holy Spirit in Personality
Growth and Change
Lois Anita Dodds
This paper
reports on doctoral research done at UCSB, consisting of an exploratory
investigation of supernatural, spiritual power (SSP) in personality
growth and change. The study describes
what typifies persons who best exemplify wholeness and who believe they
perceive and experience SSP (what Christians would call the power of
the Holy Spirit). It relates transferable
concepts and practices (processes) identified in the study and suggests
applications in the fields of human development, education, spiritual
life and counseling.
Participants
were selected through written nomination, based on criteria comparing
"empowered" Christians with "usual" mature Christians.
Data were collected via in-depth life history
interviews, in three phases. Audiotapes
were transcribed, studied, coded and analyzed.
The
data reveal four parallel and two paradoxical themes in the lives of
those studied. These are highly
interactive and developmental processes; a seventh appears to be the
major cumulative outcome of SSP.
"Questing" themes are (1), acknowledgment of
vulnerability, and (2), taking initiative towards God. "Quester" describes the participants, whose
lives are typified by life-long pursuit of truth and learning,
especially towards God; they manifest great initiative
in cultivating the spiritual through dialogue with God, the Scriptures,
and highly personal processing. Awareness of vulnerability spurs them to be open to and
to seek the supernatural.
Questers may begin with an "if" about the supernatural,
but as they choose to respond ("Choosing" themes) they gradually
develop a profound consciousness of God (Theme 3) as personal
and as present; they come to experience God as the source of
self, others, purpose, meaning and all else (Theme 4).
(Over 80 resources for self-actualization emerged
from the data.)
As Questers make choices towards God and fulfilling
potential, the outcomes are paradoxically beyond their own resources
("Bonding" themes); they see themselves as partnering with God
(Theme 5). Questers perceive of
themselves as weak yet paradoxically experiencing power when they
fulfill God's purposes for them in the world (Theme 6).
These six processes are interdependent and dynamic,
intertwined like a braid; various strands predominate at differing
stages.
The Primacy of Personhood (Theme 7) is the
outcome of all the on-going processes of SSP. Knowing
God as a person becomes the basis for one's own and others' personhood. Perceptual and value changes lead to
increasingly richer experience in relationships, which gain primary
importance in life. Knowing, loving and
serving God, self and others is one integrated process of becoming.
Questers believe they experience something
supernatural, an energy or power imparted to them from God. They see themselves as ordinarily, or
humanly-speaking, lacking power to achieve all that they wish in terms
of change and growth, but as having that power available to them
through GodUs loving relationship with them; they believe he empowers
them for growth and change. They believe
they experience this power in a variety of ways, which though
subjective are yet very real to them: as an
energy for living, as an unnatural assurance, intuitions, nudgings,
ideas planted within them, creative insights, wisdom, the ability to
relate and to love. They consider that the
power is often operating unconsciously, so that in retrospect they see
the consequences of it--things which they could not have achieved alone. They say that at times they are conscious of
the energy or power in them.
Questers say they invite or invoke God's power to
be present and active in their lives. They
particularly do this in prayer, in dialogue with God while reading the
Scriptures, or during meditation.
Such
invitations take many forms, such as petition, acknowledging God's
generosity, or claiming his promises offered to them.
Sometimes their invitation is on the spur of the
moment, when they are suddenly faced with a situation that requires
wisdom or insight or something else they feel is beyond them. Because they are convinced that God is
lovingly present with them they perceive him to be constantly available
to support and empower them.
Questers attach profound meanings to
their perceptions of God;s power in their personal lives.
What they experience they interpret to be a direct
indication of their relationship to God; as they interpret it, it means
that he values and loves them and is present with them, that he
delights to gift and empower them. They
also attribute their experience of God to his sharing with them his own
purposes and allowing them to be part of his creative and redemptive
work in the world--which means they are partners with him in creation
and redemption. They attribute to God
their ability to live lives very different from what they might
naturally expect, particularly in overcoming trauma and its usual
consequences and in moving towards fulfillment of their potential in
ways they would not otherwise expect to do. They
attribute that they find meaning for life itself by relating to God.
Questers believe they experience many
outcomes in their lives because they are supernaturally empowered. These include finding purpose and meaning
through relating to God; being gifted and talented, and being able to
discover and develop their gifts; receiving opportunities, challenges,
and "visions" (dreams for vocation, for the future, etc.) and finding
courage and strength to pursue them. They
attribute their growth towards maturity and their ability to create and
sustain loving relationships to their experiencing of spiritual power. They attribute certain outcomes external to
themselves to God;s power.
A mini-study
on anti-modeling in family socialization is included.
INTRODUCTION
Hans' first memories are of his city being "bombed
to bits" as he and his mother and brother fled their Eastern European
city to take refuge in the superstitious village where his grandmother
lived, of his "violent, vicious" father, a Nazi officer, beating his
mother and brother, of his grandmother's involvement in the occult. As a communist youth he longed for truth and
to know people of integrity rather than communist hypocrites. Who would have predicted that a boy who
underwent the devastations of war, sexual abuse and family hostilities
would become a gifted pastor to missionaries around the world, and a
world-class scientist?
Grace's early memories are of being raped, gun to
her head, by her own father, many times, and of her drunken mother,
prostrate on the kitchen floor calling out to Jesus.
Her deep depression over such traumas almost led to
her death. Who would have predicted that
she would become an evangelist who has led hundreds to faith in Christ
as well as one of the most outstanding leaders in her city?
Roger's severe isolation as an only child, going
blind in adolescence due to his parent's neglect of his congenital eye
disease, and becoming half deaf because of the cruelty of other
children, led him to think no one could ever love him.
Who could have predicted that he would become a
loving Christian counselor, with three graduate degrees?
Emily remembers her loathing of women, generated by
her mother's drunkenness, and her constant desire and attempts to
escape the confines of a family shattered by her father's alcoholism. Who would have predicted that she would become
a beautiful wife, mother, dancer and business woman, and would develop
a love for women so profound it has become her way of life?
We would have predicted success for Mary, for whom
growing up Christian was "like breathing," and perhaps for Jerry, who
as a young child longed so much for God that he wept before him and
begged for wisdom. We might have had high
hopes for Andrew, who at 30 tossed aside his goal of becoming a
millionaire and his promising career as an aerospace engineer to become
a youth pastor. But for Nancy, daughter of
a mother married multiple times and herself pregnant and unmarried at
17?
We know from myriad studies in the psychology and
sociology of religion that the greatest predictor of religious
affiliation is the religious life of the parents. We
know that the most common predictors of the child's concept of God are
his concepts of and affections for mom and dad. What
my in-depth study of the lives of twelve contemporary, extra-ordinary
Christians reveals are some of the powerful influences which cause
children and young persons to develop contrary to these norms. The persons in my study are mostly the
exception to the rule, defying the expected.
WHY
INVESTIGATE SUPERNATURAL, SPIRITUAL POWER?
CAN THE HOLY
SPIRIT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
The disciplines of education, religion and
psychology share a common goal: the transformation or full and positive
development of individuals and society. Naranjo
(1969) has provided an excellent overview of one hundred and fifty
"ways" by which humankind has endeavored to change, to grow up to or
into full human potential. Though these
means may appear different, and are often expressed in different ways,
they share in common the underlying philosophy that people can become
more fully human, that they can be self-actualizing--that is, to be
engaged in the process of actualizing the ideal self.
The work of Abraham Maslow stands out as a landmark
in the journey towards understanding human potential (1950). He studied healthy individuals to discover
what made them healthy, in contrast to those
who followed the medical model of investigating mental illness and the pathological "patients" upon which that model
focused. Maslow sought to supply the other
half of the picture: "the brighter better half, and to give a portrait
of the whole person" (Hall and Lindzey, 1978). He
believed that study of the two different groups, the pathological and
the healthy, generated different types of theory (Maslow, 1968).
Maslow called the healthiest people he studied
"self-actualized," after the terminology of Goldstein, to indicate that
their growth and development had been maximized, or at least had
progressed notably towards the achievement of their ideal selves
(Maslow, 1968). They were individuals who
best exemplified, in his opinion, positive fulfillment of their
potential as humans.
Inquiry which seeks to discover the motivation for
and means by which individuals grow, change and develop is a focus of
much research within the disciplines of education, religion and
psychology. In all three fields, as well
as in others seeking social reform, the most compelling questions are
the same: What motivates people to grow
and develop? Where do they get the energy
or power for it? Some of us as Christians
also ask: In what ways is spiritual power part of this process? How is it experienced? What
role might it have in creating motivation and energy and in promoting
personal change? What do people experience
who believe they use spiritual, supernatural power in some way? What characterizes the lives of such people?
I believe that one way to answer these questions is
to study the lives and experience of mature, healthy persons who
believe that they experience the power of the Holy Spirit for change
and growth. In this I am following
Maslow's model and method of learning about health by studying healthy
persons and their perceptual phenomena (Maslow, 1954, 1968a).
My hope in this study was to discover, describe and
identify the process and experience of spiritual power in order to
understand the dynamics of empowerment of individuals for change and
growth. I hoped that in so doing I might discover
dynamics which are transferable to others. I
believe that any discoveries about how people experience growth,
further their development, and make positive changes away from
detrimental and destructive life attitudes, habits and practices offer
hope for a qualitatively improved personal life, as well as for more
wholesome group and community life and a saner society.
This study examines a key phenomenon which
intersects the psychological, the spiritual and the educational domains.
Since childhood I have been fascinated with
observing people's lives and growth; I have seen that some people
profess to believe in supernatural power and its availability to them,
yet evidence little growth or forward movement in their lives and
psyches. They seem to get "stuck" and not
overcome obstacles or life crises in just the same ways as many people
who profess no belief. Others manifest
different life outcomes, marked by growth, development and positive
change so that they become mature, effective and productive persons,
like those whom Maslow labels "self-actualizing." This
"puzzlement," as John Lofland (1971) calls such a perplexity, has
stayed with me through the years and has motivated much of my inquiry
and learning in the field of personality/human development.
A conceptual paradigm for personal change can help
us to locate this study within the domain of growth and change, and to
identify the particular area of interest within it.
The paradigm which I proposed has three crucial
elements: 1) Motivation, which
involves a discontent with what is, an awareness of and/or a desire for
something better than or different from what is. I
use motivation in this sense, though it is sometimes used in the
general psychological literature to mean the energy for change. 2) Model, which involves some
different ideology, image, behavior or pattern which the individual
identifies as a superior way of knowing, being, behaving--that is, it
provides a seemingly positive alternative to the current state of
awareness, knowledge or behavior of the individual.
3) Means, which
involves the power, force, strength or energy which the individual
mobilizes to overcome the inertia or
impasse of the "as is" in order to implement change in the direction of
the new model. This power is sometimes
referred to as psychological energy, inner discipline, drive, strength
of personality, and various other terms. This
third element is the focus of this study, though the other two are also
relevant.
THE RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
This research was an open-ended, exploratory field
study using the qualitative methods of naturalistic inquiry to identify
and investigate the mentalistic phenomena of supernatural and/or
spiritual empowerment for personality growth and change--what we as
Christians would call the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
I sought to understand the phenomena from an emic
(internal or native) perspective, to describe the subjective experience
of individuals who believe that they use God's power in their process
of growth towards self-actualization (that is, in reaching toward the
ideal persons whom they envision becoming). In
addition to describing and defining experiences and perceptions
participants reported, the study examined how individuals interpret
the phenomena and what meanings they ascribe to them (Spinelli,
1989), to what cause or source they attribute the phenomena
(Shaver, 1975), and what explanations they provide for their
perception and experience (Achinstein, 1983).
Individuals who share such a belief in supernatural
empowerment range across a wide area of spiritual and religious
explanations. For practical reasons, given
the limits of dissertation research, this study was limited to one such
group of individuals--to persons of the Christian faith who believe
that they experience the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The study did not focus on the phenomena of
"miraculous" supernatural power or the conversion experience, but
rather examined growth from a longitudinal perspective.
The ethnographic means of inquiry is the process of
discovery following the natural lines of experience and meaning without
placing prior constraints on what will be uncovered.
Because meaning is always embedded in the
context of language, life experience and one's social and cultural
milieus (Trueba, 1979), it is crucial to investigate the mentalistic
phenomena under study from the emic perspective--from the inside view
of those who believe in and experience them (Harris [1976], Pike
[1967]). From this perspective, in
the context of the individual's life history and the social and
historical context in which he or she lives or has lived,
we can best examine and come to understand the
person's internal experience and its meaning to him or her (Trueba,
1979). The specific ethnographic method I
used was face-to-face participant interviewing, including life histories
and questions relating to the phenomena under study.
Selection of
Participants
I used as my "selection pool" individuals within my
personal network, which extends worldwide and into many Christian
groups from various ethnic, racial and national origins.
To make the specific selections, I enlisted the
assistance of "consultants" or "judges" who also know persons in the
same network, which includes persons from various countries and
Christian denominations, various international agencies and service
communities, etc. to broaden the selection across the Christian faith. These judges are experienced in assessing or
evaluating the growth/lives/personalities of others by virtue of their
professional roles.
I asked my judges to use two sets of characteristics
representing two type of individuals. Set
"A" lists the characteristics of the sort of person whom I intuitively
believed would be the best source of information about the
phenomena of supernatural/spiritual power because of certain
outstanding qualities. These were my
target group of participants.
Set "B" lists the characteristics of a person from
whom I would expect to learn less in regards to the phenomena. Please note that the "B" list is not comprised
of opposite characteristics; it is meant to match the more "usual" or
"ordinary" Christian.
I asked each consultant to nominate three to six
persons. Their nominations yielded about
80 names in each category. From those I
chose the highest scorers of the "A"s and
the highest one of "B" for a comparison study.
(See table of participants next page.)
A Brief Description of The Participants
I believe it is helpful to look at some generalities
regarding the backgrounds and lives of the participants before looking
specifically at the themes revealed by analysis of their lives. Half of those selected are men; half women. They range in age from 39 to 72.
Participants are highly educated, with most having
one or more graduate degrees. They are
characterized by a high level of academic and other achievements.
The childhoods and early lives can be arranged along
a continuum from extremely harsh and hurtful to ideal.
Only one person (I call her Mary) described her life
as very nurturing and "optimum" in allowing her to develop. Many had
very unfavorable upbringing, with severe disturbances in family
functions. These included family violence
and other kinds of abuse, alcoholism, addictions, neglect, incest and
rape. Some thought as children that their
families were "normal," but have learned as adults that they were in
fact in dysfunctional homes.
All
are very self‑aware; they are able to identify formative influences. They are highly articulate persons and express
with deep feeling their commitments to God, to themselves, to others. These participants focus on the here and now
in talking about their life with God. Only
one reference is made to the future, i.e., to eternity.
The
college years, or equivalent period, were extremely formative. As Erikson postulated, both adolescence and
young adulthood shows up as a crucial life stage in terms of forming
identity and life commitments, searching out truth and God, and
establishing the direction of professional life and service. Most are involved in international work,
specifically the teaching and training of persons from many countries
and the design and direction of intercultural training programs.
Overall these participants manifest an exuberant and
prolific generativity (using Erikson's term). "Call
to mission" or a sense of desire to serve God and people is
characteristic in their lives. This
emerged very early (even in childhood) for the two who experienced God
positively as children, and early on in their spiritual journey after
conversion.
When I interviewed "Sam," the top Set B person, I
found a marked qualitative and quantitative difference in his
references to God and to spiritual matters. He
used passive terms, such as that his spiritual life "was moving along,"
and that during college he "drifted away." He
said he "experienced a lot of spiritual growth... under duress... (as a
church leader)". He volunteered much
less percentage of his open-ended, unstructured interview on
spiritually related topics, and more on other matters of life. "Sam" did not express the same
degree of awareness of God or of spiritual issues, or even of himself. He evidenced less reflection, less
self-awareness, less self-disclosure, and was more focused on the
activities of life.
INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE THEMES
Seven major themes characterize the lives of the
persons I studied. Six of these themes
operate in pairs (called arch-themes), as either complementary
(parallel) processes or paradoxical (opposing) processes.
They operate simultaneously. They
are developmental in nature, in that they increase over time as well as
contributing to the development of the person. They
are mutually reinforcing and are highly interdependent.
The chart on the next page shows one way to
visualize the interdependence of these themes.
ARCH-THEME OF QUESTING: The
most outstanding and most readily identifiable characteristic of those
studied is what I have called Questing. I
have chosen to call my participants "Questers" because of the
predominance of their practice of Questing after God, truth, learning,
knowledge. Questers describe themselves as
having a "hunger," "thirst," or "quest," both for God and for truth and
learning.
Theme 1--Vulnerability/openness: This has to
do with an attitude and approach throughout life of being (or becoming)
unusually aware of and acknowledging personal limits, weaknesses,
struggles, etc. This awareness and
acknowledgment results in the easy and frequent admission of one's
personal vulnerability, and is accompanied by a receptivity and
responsiveness to the supernatural, the spiritual, God.
It includes a recognition that one can and must
invite God into one's life (in order for him to be involved with one)
and one must respond to his responses. It
also involves an element of openness to self and to receiving from
others. (This is in contrast to being defensive and closed, and to
wearing a mask.)
Theme 2--Taking initiative towards God and the
spiritual: Questers actively and
aggressively seek after God and the spiritual through three major
activities:
(1) The Scriptures--Questers perceive of the
Scriptures as very instrumental in their growth. They
develop a great love for "the Word," which becomes internalized and
serves as a source for guidance, truth, relationship to God, and many
other things. Questers actively seek to
study and know the Scriptures and reveal and reflect a high degree of
internalization of them.
(2) Dialogue with God--This kind of prayer is a
spontaneous combustion process which begins at conversion (without
being taught) and develops into a continuous stream of dialogue with
God, about all affairs of life. It is
experienced as very relational, not formal or ritual.
No aspect of life or experience seems to be
excluded.
(3) "Processing"--What Questers learn and
experience, such as in the Scriptures, they process cognitively and
affectively through meditating or some other process of mulling over
and reflecting.
ARCH-THEME OF CHOOSING: This
second pair of themes have as a bridge or connecting point the act of Choosing.
Theme
3--Consciousness of God: Questers
develop an all-pervasive awareness of God as very present and very
personal. For them reality is that God is
and that he responds. This consciousness
is developmental in nature; it may begin with an "if God exists" quest,
but with response or action on the part of the Quester it soon becomes
a steady assurance that God is there.
Theme 4--Experiencing God as the source: Questers choose to act and respond as
though God is present and personal and thus they experience him
increasingly as the giver of resources. They eventually develop the
belief, feeling and perception that God is the source of everything for
them, and that he is benevolent and caring towards them personally and
towards mankind in general. (See the list
of resources identified by Questers, shown on the next two pages.)
ARCH-THEME OF BONDING: Bonding
illustrates the paradoxes of supernatural, spiritual power in the
dynamic which takes place within the "mysterious boundary" Questers
feel and see between themselves and God.
Theme 5--Partnering with God:
Questers experience a paradoxical relationship of "I
act, I do" and "God does it."
They experience that even when they lack strength or
power they can make a choice to do the right thing or to be the right
person and God empowers them in the process.
Theme 6--Weakness/strength bonding paradox: Questers are very conscious of their own
weakness ("I am weak"), of not having what is needed in a situation or
role, of being limited; yet they experience power or strength. They perceive that God does for them what they
cannot do alone. Questers are aware of how
"God uses them" in spite of their own limitations or weakness. (See the illustration for bonding, next page.)
OVER-ARCHING THEME: Theme
7--Loving: the primacy of personhood: This
theme reveals the evolution and elevation of the person, or personhood,
to primary significance in Questers' perception and experience of
supernatural, spiritual power and in their life development. Personhood, the actualizing, valuing
and promoting of it, is the outcome of the longitudinal and total
experience of relationship with God (or, we could say, of power derived
from him). Elements of it emerge
immediately, as Questers' accounts reveal, when one becomes conscious
of God and begins to respond to him, but the whole comes together over
time, through interaction of all the other processes (themes).
Questers put heavy emphasis on the importance of
relationship, and often commented on the ways in which relationship
with God is the foundation for relating to oneself and to others. They often made statements such as "God is the
ultimate person," "the beauty of each person," "a person is like a
rose," "I began to love people," "I love who I am," "my ministry is to
nurture people."
Questers perceive of gifts, talents, opportunities
and other benefits as being given for serving others as expressions of
love; love and power are connected. "Breaking
chains" and "changing (negative) patterns" are primarily related to
relationships. They express that being
"used of God" and "serving God" are primarily expressed through one's
loving people.
This culminating theme emerges from the gestalt as
the figure, with the other themes forming the ground. An analogy which illustrates the gestalt in
its complexity and richness is the weaving of a tapestry, in which the
parallel processes are like the warp of the fabric, the
paradoxical processes like the woof of the weaving, and
"Loving: The Primacy of Personhood" like the design or pattern
which emerges on the face of the whole tapestry--as the figure on the
ground. The pattern is created and
conveyed through the interweaving of the strands, multi-colored and
textured, structured by the warp and woof; the design is comprised of
all other elements, yet is something more than the elements alone.
Questers perceive of personhood as being rooted in
God, the "ultimate" or "original" person, from whom the personhood of
all others is derived. Relationships is at
"the heart of his nature," and because God seeks to relate he draws
people to himself. Hans talked about
relationships "springing directly from his relationship with God."
Relationship, as David expressed it, is at "the
heart," "the core" of God, because he is triune. As
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, interpersonal relating is inherent in
God's nature. Because relationship is
central to God, it is also central to the experience of supernatural,
spiritual power; relationship and the cultivation and experience of
supernatural power of God are inseparable.
Questers see themselves and others as being
drawn to God or by God. This is
another paradox, for they are questing after him as well.
God draws some people primarily through their
intensive felt needs; others he prompts to seek him primarily out of
their desire for truth or wisdom. I'd like
to quote some statements which illustrate the importance and relevance
of this to us as counselors and spiritual leaders.
Emily's sense of need developed precipitously in
crisis. She says she had a "yearning" and
"longing" for God even as a child:
E1 "...but
instead of pursuing God earlier I took control of my life. That
totally crumbled with the birth of the baby." (Emily)
Her baby was
born with severe evidence of a rare genetic disease.
She could see on doctors' faces the moment of
delivery their horror in his appearance; the anesthesiologist "put her
out" immediately. Later she too found it
devastating to look at her newborn son. She
says:
E7
"[everyone] expected the baby to die within 24 hours. I was numb at
this point. But God was very
active in this particular time--I guess it took this to break down
those barriers I had put up--but I remember a conversation I had with
God in that room with God by myself. I was
devastated at first--a lot of tears and crying and sense of loss, but
after that in this room I was not angry or bitter.
What came into my mind was the diary I had written
to this baby. I absolutely knew
that God was in control, and I remember having the conversation--I
think it was out loud-- saying, 'You are right. I
was wrong. I thought I was in control, and
I was not, and you are. And I was wrong,
and if you take this baby I'll understand.'" (Emily)
Grace knew her need for "something transhuman,"
"something reliable" early on, during childhood. Growing
up as the child of horribly abusive and alcoholic parents she suffered
profoundly. She says:
G12 "... the
suffering of my childhood, which included multiple rapes and the
betrayal of my mother and my father and my older brother. They were the people in my life
that I should have been able to depend on....so [I had] a terrible
feeling of separation from something--but I didn't know what it
was...so I think that what that really meant for me was that I had to
have something to hang onto that was going to be reliable. And I mean that's a key in my life." (Grace)
G8 [as a
young adult] "...so I had this feeling of
powerlessness and fear. And I had a
feeling of being unloved...and I felt terribly alone, unconnected. And so you see there was
this sense I had to have something--transhuman." (Grace)
G41 "... as
a result of deep depression I became a Christian because I learned
the Christian life was to be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and
grace, not law." (Grace)
G9 "I became
a Christian through the influence of my friend Ann (she loved me as I
had never been loved) and because I needed strength
to do what I needed to do--which was to be able to forgive my
parents and to honor them, most
specifically my mother. ... God had prepared me (to want the Holy
Spirit) through these needs--this powerlessness, fear, and aloneness. She told me to ask the Holy Spirit into my
life, and I did, and from that time I have had profound peace.....and
God's peace has never left me." (Grace)
One of the many significant aspects of personhood is
developing a new appreciation for and attitude towards others. For example, Emily, as a young professional
and partner in a firm, prided herself on being a "woman who had
conquered a man's world." She felt
disgust for women (partly due to her alcoholic mother), whom she
stereotyped very negatively. To her
amazement, soon after "God pursued her," she found her attitude
had changed (bold is her emphasis):
E23 "I saw a
different side of women and I began to really love them. ... A part of
my growth as a leader is that God gave me a great love for
women and that was a whole new part of my growth. Eventually
it extended into people--children, men, women, young people, part of
the work the Holy Spirit does in one because that was not a
natural thing for me." (Emily)
Grace too saw
the same pattern in herself. She says
about herself as a new Christian:
G23 "...I
begin to feel a great love for the world (I stop seeing the world
as the enemy), and for the diversity in the world--and then
this verse becomes so important to me, 'God so loved that he gave,'
and that became the theme of my life--to give..." (Grace)
For Questers the primacy of personhood includes many
rich and significant aspects, too numerous to describe fully here. These include (1) valuing each person as
unique and special, as the expression of God's creativity and His love
for variety, (2) the ability to embrace both the human and divine
aspects of themselves, (3) being genuine and authentic, (4) being
honest, open and transparent, and giving free and creative expression
to the self, (5) being possibility and potentiality oriented, (6)
having a strong sense of personal responsibility, (7) finding that true
community is only possible based in the "love-power connection" of the
Holy Spirit, (8) taking risks for growth, (9)
being open to their own unconscious selves, (10) developing a great
sense of integration of the self, and of life in general.
OUTCOMES
HIGHLY RELEVANT TO COUNSELING
AND SPIRITUAL
FORMATION
Other significant findings in the lives of the
Questers relate to their relationship to the church and to religion,
and to their "call to mission." For most,
church or religion was present to some degree and yet was mostly a
negative influence which created more obstacles to God than not; it
seems they came to believe in God and to know him in spite of the
organized church rather than because of it. The
redeeming feature, for several, was that one person in the
church setting impressed them as different ("fragrance about
her life," "unity between preaching and living") and was a positive
influence. They were able to differentiate
between the negatives in the religious environment (e.g., hypocritical
people) and who God is. Only Mary had a
very positive religious (church) experience in which she learned to
relate to God as naturally as "breathing" and had many positive models
and teachings. As adults, all of them
choose to participate in leadership roles within churches, yet express
discontent (sometimes vehemently) with the organizational aspects or
other failures of the church, primarily because the emphasis is not on
fostering personhood.
Significantly, Questers felt some kind of "call to
mission" either immediately upon conversion or, in the case of Mary
with her very positive upbringing, "very early" in life.
They responded to their strong inner sense of
needing to and wanting to serve God. They
continue to put great emphasis on the concept of being "used" by God to
accomplish his purpose in the world.
Questers also emphasize the difference between
religiosity and spirituality. This first
stood out to me because Sam (the Set B person) used different language
and content in his freely chosen, unsolicited flow of expression about
his life and his experience of SSP. He
talked about religious activity; Questers focused on relationship with
God.
Several outcomes of the Questers' experience of the
presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives are highly
relevant to our own work as counselors and spiritual leaders.
(1) Questers experienced profound changes in
self-perception, self-esteem. They came to see themselves realistically, to
value themselves, and learned what they have to offer to the world
through God-given gifts, talents, etc. Acceptance
by God became the basis for self-acceptance and for acceptance by other
people. For Roger, blind because of
his parents' neglect, acceptance by God included learning to accept his
weakness or limitation in blindness as being "okay" because it is okay
with God, just as Moses' limitations were accepted by God.
(2) Questers experienced profound changes in
their perception and valuing of other persons. God's
acceptance became the basis for accepting others.
(3) Questers found a way to channel their
discontent and their dreams into positive changes by finding new models
of ideology and behavior.
(4) Questers
experienced power to overcome great traumas and obstacles and to change
life patterns involving attitudes, behaviors and values.
