The Biotic Principle of Spiritual Growth

The Biotic Principle of Spiritual Growth

Section A

            In this video, Dr. Reese's main point is that the biotic principle can be used to describe or explain the spiritual formation and spiritual growth as a process that relies more on training and less on trying and overcoming barriers through the accumulation of spiritual disciplines (Reese, n.d.). In other words, spiritual formation and growth is a process that happens automatically where the conditions are right and in line with God's doing.

According to Reese, the biotic principle holds that the key to spiritual growth is identifying God and removing barriers in our lives that impede us from living out God's plan in his kingdom. Examples of barriers include distraction, ignorance, partial submission, slothfulness, and indifference to God's ways. Under distractions, for instance, some temptations lead people to sin, especially if people cannot identify and mitigate them because spiritual training is about training and not about trying.

Overcoming barriers to spiritual growth and formation requires believers to arm themselves with spiritual disciplines, i.e., activities that can help a person gain the power to live life as taught and modeled by Jesus (Reese, n.d.). A critical spiritual discipline considers spiritual formation and growth a lifelong process that requires deliberate and directed training. The person must overcome many challenges to the training process. According to 1^st Timothy (4:7-8...