Tag: #spiritualgrowth

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Discipleship Devotional #3 – The Journey

The Authentic Joy Journey Guide 

Spiritual growth is both a journey and a process. The maturation process takes place in a context, and that context is the unique events and circumstances of your life’s journey. Spiritual growth is not something that happens apart from life. Life is the classroom that God uses to bring us to maturity. 

The Authentic Joy Journey Guide is adapted from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, a classical storytelling template.  

Home (The Comfort Zone) 

This is where we all start our journey. You will know if you are at this stage if you feel comfortable and at ease with your life. There is a certain amount of passivity at this stage. Picture Bilbo Baggins in Tolkien’s classic, The Hobbit, at his home in The Shire enjoying the secure predictability of morning walks and evening tea. A biblical example of someone at this stage would be Job before Satan attacked him. He was in a good place in life, faithfully serving God and abundantly blessed. Or what about Mary before the angel announced she would bear a child? Can you imagine her? A young bride, excited about her upcoming marriage, living a normal life unaware of what was around the corner. Sometimes we can be full of hubris at this stage, thinking we know it all and that we are untouchable. The Pharisees typified this ‘pride comes before a fall’ type of attitude. 

The Call 

At this stage something happens to cause us to consider leaving our comfort zone. God’s summons to grow up can happen in many ways: 

• A divine encounter: God interrupts our scheduled programming with a vision, prophetic word or a visitation. This is what happened to Mary, Gideon, Jeremiah and Paul. They all encountered God in some way that was undeniable and compelling 

• Tragedy: Sometimes it takes a tragedy to dislodge us from our comfort zone. It could be a serious illness, a divorce, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a job. Whatever it is, it becomes an opportunity for us to rethink how we have been living up to that point. Job and Joseph provide biblical examples of tragedy as a call to growth 

• Wake-up call: Sometimes we are also comfortable in our sin and God mercifully provides a moment of clarity for us to escape. The parable of the prodigal son illustrates this as does the woman caught in adultery who got the opportunity to ‘go and sin no more’. 

This stage can elicit in us fear and doubt or excitement and hope as we react to the thought of the unknown. We do not know what lies ahead. Answering the call will require us to do life differently and we have no guarantees that it will all work out. Sometimes, we can opt to stay with the familiar instead of facing the unknown which introduces the next stage. 

The Refusal 

This stage, more than any other, is optional. Some of us may be gung-ho, rearing and ready to go. Others of us may need a little more… coaxing. Think of Moses and Jonah. Moses gave God excuse after excuse trying to convince God that He had picked the wrong man. But Jonah… Jonah is the poster child for this stage. It took a ride in the belly of a whale to get Jonah to heed God’s call. If we are in this stage we may be feeling fear, doubt, insecurity, indifference or pride. Remember the Pharisees again? They missed the day of their visitation. 

The Departure 

When we decide to heed the call, it’s adventure time! Sometimes the fear and doubt still linger on in this stage but hopefully, it’s more and more mingled with excitement and curiosity. The overarching attitude that allows us to enter fully into this stage is faith and trust in God as we surrender to His will. This is what Mary did when she said, ‘let it be to me according to your word’. This is what Joshua did when he crossed the Jordan to lead the Israelites into battle. This is what all the heroes of faith did as they heeded the call of God on their lives. Our departure may not look as ‘glamorous’, but it is no less significant in God’s eyes when we choose to trust Him. Our departures may be as big as starting a business, ministry or family, or as small as being open to a new relationship, seeing a psychologist or joining a faith community. 

The Crucible 

Surprise surprise, there are trials and tests along our journey. (I bet you didn’t see that coming!) Life is dangerous outside of The Shire. This is usually one of the longer stages or at least it seems that way. It is characterized by pain. Along with pain we may feel anger, confusion, fear, despair and hopelessness. David and Joseph are our models when it comes to The Crucible. As the name implies, it is in this stage that we are refined in the fiery furnace. The list of trials that each of us may face is endless; rejection by loved ones, poverty, domestic abuse, church leader abuse, illness of a child, cancer… I’m sure you can draw from your own experience. I can give you only this assurance: no adversity lasts forever if you pay attention to the lesson. The Crucible is the means God uses to get to the deep issues at the foundation of your character – your motives and desires. The furnace of fiery trials brings the real you to the surface and offers you the opportunity for real transformation. This opportunity for change introduces The Epic Battle. 

The Epic Battle 

Do you know that one scene in the movie where the hero and the villain finally face off? This is that scene, except the battle is not with the villain but with yourself to become who God intended for you to become. Your ‘inner villain’ is exposed in The Crucible and now you have a choice – will you let him live or put him to death? External trials prompt an internal struggle. We see this in the moments when David has the opportunity to kill Saul and chooses not to. Also, when Joseph faces his brothers who sold him into slavery and after much back and forth (you can see that he is battling with himself), he finally tells them what they meant for evil, God used for good. But perhaps the character who most epitomizes this inner battle is Jacob’s all-night struggle with the Lord where Jacob (the deceiver) comes away with a new name – Israel (one who struggles with God).  The whole journey hinges on this stage. This is when the Potter tests the quality of the vessel. Is it fit for use? This stage can be a lonely and desperate time when nobody seems to understand what you are going through and few are there for you in your time of travail. Think of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating drops of blood while the disciples slept. 

The Reward 

If we are victorious in battle, then we reap the reward! In the movies, the protagonist gets a treasure of some sort. Or maybe he gets the girl. But in our story, the hero reaps a spiritual reward. Maybe it’s spiritual authority over a city. Maybe it’s love and joy in your home. Maybe you become a recognized leader in some sphere of culture. The reward is unique to your call but whatever it is, it is good! Abraham had a son, inherited a land and became the father of faith. David was made king. Joseph became Pharoah’s right-hand man, ruling over Egypt. Daniel had a similar story of ruling over Babylon. This stage is a time of celebration, joy, peace and gratitude. 

The Return Home 

No reward is for yourself (at least not in the kingdom). Now you must return home to share the reward with the community. Joseph saved his family from starvation and poverty. Job prayed for his friends. David ensured that Solomon became the most wise and successful king that ever lived. The journey to maturity is not complete until we turn around and help others along their journey. This book is one example of that. It is my attempt to share all that I have learnt on my journey with as many people as possible. If we do that, we will discover a new place of fulfilment, purpose, community, belonging and well-being. At first, our circumstances may not look different on the outside, but we will be different, and our experience of the circumstances will be different, and eventually what’s on the inside of us will change what’s around us. 

It is easier to think of the journey as three distinct phases: 

Awakening 

o Home 

o The Call 

o The Refusal 

o The Departure 

Processing 

o The Crucible 

o The Epic Battle 

Joyful Partnership 

o The Reward 

o The Return Home 

This is just a map, not a formula. Everyone’s journey will look different. You may go forward and then backwards. You may also be at one stage in one area of your life and at another stage in another area of your life. The journey can also be interpreted as a cycle, with The Return Home eventually becoming your Comfort Zone until God elicits another Call for you to grow and you go around the loop again. 

REFLECTION 

  • Which phase of the journey do you feel that you are in right now? 
  • What comes up for you as you process this with God? 
Copyright 2026, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Discipleship Devotional #2

We have been discussing discipleship as:

·        Being with Jesus

·        Becoming like Him

·        And doing what He does.

(Credit to John Mark Comer)

This week, we will begin to go deeper into four scriptures that give us insight into the process of becoming mature in Christ.

We will start with Ephesians 3:14-19(NLT):

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Meditate on this passage and reflect on the questions below.

REFLECTION

·        What stands out to you as the essential parts of the process of becoming full of God’s life and power as described in this passage?

·        Where are you seeing or not seeing this process at work in your life?

·        What is Holy Spirit saying to you through this passage?

Copyright 2026, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Your Discipleship Devotional

Hello Disciples!

I am pleased to share a new development at Authentic Joy. But first, a back story:

Eight months ago, we started something new – online discipleship small groups. We have two groups that meet every other week, and the experience has been nothing short of transformational. I am not exaggerating when I say that these meetings are the most life-giving get-togethers in my life. I look forward to every session and leave our time together feeling refreshed, encouraged, and revitalized in my walk with God. And I’m not alone. Many have said that these groups are a tremendous source of life, learning and community that they cannot find anywhere else.

The format we follow is simple: I send out a short reading with a few questions for reflection a week ahead of our meeting. So, when we meet, there is no teaching, just conversation. We share deeply about how the material intersects with our lives and the down-to-earth (sometimes messy) ways in which we are being transformed and challenged to become like Jesus. There are no experts. We all share from the heart. We all listen deeply. We all hold each other before God and encourage each other to pursue Him.

So, we at Authentic Joy thought, “Why not take these reflections and share them with our online community as a bi-weekly devotional?” So, from today, that is just what we will be doing! We hope that it will be of great value to you on your discipleship journey! Here is installment #1:

1. Discipleship Introduction

What is the formula for spiritual growth?

Many of us may have grown up in faith traditions where the formula or model for spiritual growth was something like this:

TRUTH + CHOICE = TRANSFORMATION

This model emphasizes learning truth and then choosing behaviour that aligns with what we have learned.

Question: Is it working?

I propose that our traditional model for transformation is not working. There are two reasons why this model cannot work:

  1. It emphasizes external behaviour modification rather than internal transformation.
  2. It emphasizes truth rather than love as the most important factor in our spiritual growth.

If we look at the anatomy of the human soul, we can see why this is a problem.

If we focus solely on truth (which is important for transforming our thoughts and beliefs) and external behaviour (which addresses our words and actions), without addressing the emotions, values and desires of the heart, then we have omitted a critical part of the human being!

Jesus’ model is quite different. Have a look at what He says in these 3 scriptures:

Matthew 5:27-28 (NLT)

Matthew 23:25-26 (NLT)

John 13:34-35 (NLT)

Jesus’ model focuses on the heart and only one thing transforms the heart – love. You can’t teach love. Jesus came to earth give us an experience of love that is transformative. Something the law was powerless to do.

Jesus’ model is called discipleship. John Mark Comer states it this way: “Be with Jesus. Become like Him. Do what He does.” The disciples didn’t just follow Jesus’ teachings; they literally followed Jesus wherever He went. Jesus’ invitation to “follow me” was never anything less than an invitation to do life with Him from that point forward.

Interestingly, it seemed that Jesus also thought that a group of disciples worked better than walking with Him alone. Companionship was also an integral part of Jesus’ model.

REFLECTION

  • What does the distinction between learning truth about Jesus versus experiencing love through being with Jesus bring up for you? Process with Holy Spirit.
  • What does the distinction between managing our behaviour to be in line with Biblical principles through force of will versus words and actions that naturally flow from having the same thoughts, beliefs, emotions, values and desires as Jesus bring up for you? Process with Holy Spirit.
Copyright 2026, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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New Devotionals!

We have 4 new devotionals on the YouVersion app!

This plan was created for those yearning for a heart revival! If you are desperate for your heart to burn again for Jesus… If the bumps and bruises of life have left you a bit weary and worn… This plan brings together 30 scriptures where God speaks life directly to your heart in first person. I’m praying and believing that you will receive healing, encouragement, and refreshing through His promises for you!
We all want to grow, but spiritual maturity often seems elusive, and we can become frustrated. Becoming Mature is a transformative resource for believers seeking real growth and a deeper walk with Christ. It goes deep into the nitty gritty of becoming more like Christ in the face of life’s challenges and our brokenness. Whether you’re a new believer, battling stagnation, or seeking more of God, this series of plans provides practical tools to unlock deep and lasting growth in your life! This plan is Part 1 in the series and covers Defining Maturity.
We all want to grow, but spiritual maturity often seems elusive, and we can become frustrated. “Becoming Mature” is a transformative resource for believers seeking real growth and a deeper walk with Christ. It goes deep into the nitty gritty of becoming more like Christ in the face of life’s challenges and our brokenness. Whether you’re a new believer, battling stagnation, or seeking more of God, this series of plans provides practical tools to unlock deep and lasting growth in your life! This plan is Part 2 in the series and covers The Spiritual Growth Journey.
We all want to grow, but spiritual maturity often seems elusive, and we can become frustrated. Becoming Mature is a transformative resource for believers seeking real growth and a deeper walk with Christ. It goes deep into the nitty gritty of becoming more like Christ in the face of life’s challenges and our brokenness. Whether you’re a new believer, battling stagnation, or seeking more of God, this series of plans provides practical tools to unlock deep and lasting growth in your life! This plan is Part 3 in the series and covers The Spiritual Growth Process.
Check them out!

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Reflections On Christian Leadership With Henri Nouwen Part 2

To start my second instalment of this blog, here is the quote from In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen that resonated with me:

“Somehow we have come to believe that good leadership requires a safe distance from those we are called to lead. Medicine, psychiatry, and social work all offer us models in which “service” takes place in a one-way direction. Someone serves, someone else is served, and be sure not to mix up the roles! But how can we lay down our life for those with whom we are not even allowed to enter into a deep personal relationship? Laying down your life means making your own faith and doubt, hope and despair, joy and sadness, courage and fear available to others as ways of getting in touch with the Lord of life. We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for. The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God. Therefore true ministry must be mutual.

Oh, how I feel these words in my bones! In my area of interest, discipleship, I have become totally disinterested in preaching, teaching, and ministry that is devoid of the minister vulnerably opening his/her soul to his/her brothers and sisters. I have little interest in your expositions on Moses or Elijah or Paul, but I am keenly interested in how these Biblical examples intersect with the outworking of your personal salvation. I am not interested in what you read. I am interested in what you are living. It has almost become an obsession of mine – a search for a people on fire for God who are willing to live in mutuality and vulnerability.

I have generally found that the discipleship model in the church is a teacher-student/s or mentor-mentee/s relationship where the teacher or mentor is the expert who takes the student/s under his/her wing. All of the learning is assumed to be one-way. The student bares all the intimate details of her soul, while the teacher gives wise advice and remains closed and inaccessible.

What did Jesus say? He called His disciples friends on account of the fact that He wanted a more mutual relationship – one where He shared His plans with them (John 15:15). Jesus even invited three of His disciples to be with Him in His moment of deepest travail in the garden of Gethsemane.

I am thirsty for a space where disciples gather together to seek Jesus in heart-to-heart community. Where the numbers are small, the sharing is deep, and nobody is trying to fix me, save me, or heal me. I long to get together with a small group of individuals who are on fire for Jesus, hungry to seek Him with all their heart… but who are also hungry to be knit heart-to-heart with their brothers and sisters.

My wife and I have embarked on a bold experiment to create spaces such as these. This is what shapes the way we do our workshops and, more recently, what birthed our discipleship groups. It was first a desire that we had for community for ourselves before it was a desire to provide community for others. We get as much, or more, from our workshops as we give.

All true ministry is mutual. All true ministry comes from a relationship with our fellow man that, at the deepest level, recognizes the other as of equal value. We are all students, and there is one Teacher. We are all in the same boat. The minute we see ourselves as higher than the other is the minute we step out of the heart of Christ, who emptied Himself of the glory of heaven and became a man like us in order to save us. Who came down to our level and lifted us up with Him. Who took the lower position of a servant to mankind as the path to ministry and influence.

Copyright 2025, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Training Versus Trying Part 5 – Community

Welcome to the last instalment of our Training Versus Trying series! Today we are talking about Community.

A training approach recognizes that as spiritual athletes, we grow fastest when we train with others. However, it is a particular type of community that we need to grow. One that is not very common. When we think of community in a church setting, we normally think of the brothers and sisters with whom we attend church or maybe those who are a part of a ministry that we serve in.

However, the type of community that I am talking about is a training community – a small circle of people with whom we share our inner lives. It is a community committed to walking together in pursuit of God without trying to fix, or save, or advise each other. Often, as Christians, we try to force our training regimen on everyone else without honoring the unique person that they are and the unique work that God is doing in their lives.

This is something I have with very few people. Most Christians, in my experience, do not have deep conversations about the things that matter, or if they do, it is in the context of giving advice or holding each other accountable. Some even think it is their job to condemn and shame. However, what I have found is that what most people need is actually just a safe space to talk about the deep inner things that truly matter without being judged, reproached, corrected, or Bible-verse-slapped. In a supportive and safe environment such as this, there exists the ideal conditions for God to speak. Or to stick with our analogy, for God to coach us as a group.

I’m not saying that God cannot use another person to correct us or to give us feedback where we may have a blind spot. He does use people in our lives like that. I’m saying that in a training community, that is a small part of why we get together, and it is accomplished more indirectly through vulnerable sharing, asking each other probing questions, and discerning God’s voice together.

In a community of Christians-in-training there is safety and freedom to talk about what new training techniques we are trying, what is not working, and what we are working through with our Coach. In that kind of community, we are celebrated, encouraged, inspired, and supported. In that kind of community, we can give a voice to our soul and hear the heart of others in ways that bring redemption, healing, and transformation.

Well, we have come to the end of this little series. I hope it has been helpful to you.

Train well, my fellow disciples of Christ!

Copyright 2025, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Training Versus Trying Part 4 – Coaching

A training mindset approaches our relationship with the Holy Spirit like a coach who is deeply invested in and committed to our growth. We have a coach who longs to be a partner in our progressive sanctification.


Remember those moments of reflecting on our failure that we mentioned earlier? Well, those moments are also an opportunity to process with God. This is powerful. The Holy Spirit knows you better than you know yourself and knows how to help you to grow like no one else does!


If we can release ourselves from the guilt and shame that often keeps us from approaching God and realize that He sees us through eyes of deep compassion, then we can unlock a level of healing and wisdom that is simply transformative.


Every time I have brought my darkest desires (the ones I would never even voice), my deepest fears, or my most shameful thoughts to God, it has resulted in something transformative. (Even if it has simply been a revelation of just how loving and compassionate God is.)

All champions know that a coach is essential to their success. A coach sees the potential in us that we don’t see in ourselves. A coach also sees the barriers to our progress that we don’t have the wisdom or objectivity to see. He can see when our stride is too long or when our follow-through is an issue. In like manner, the Holy Spirit knows what to target to move us forward and how to encourage and motivate us in a language we can relate to.

Up next, community!

Copyright 2025, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Training Versus Trying Part 3 – Roots Not Shoots

Someone training for a marathon may need to focus on their diet, mindset, and breathing to get to the desired outcome. It is the same with our spiritual growth. To achieve the behavioural outcome we desire, we must address deeper issues like our mindsets, identity, beliefs, and values.

Often, we can become too sin-focused, which results in the very opposite of what we are trying to achieve. Obsessing over not doing something is the worst way to approach our growth. Instead, we need to find the roots of the issue and put a holistic training program in place.

For example, say I have a problem with over-eating. A trying mindset will be all about focusing on controlling how much I eat. However, the roots of my struggle may involve issues with my identity, stress coping mechanisms, and the relationships in my life. Therefore, a trying mindset will be ineffective and frustrating because all the underlying causes (the roots) remain untouched.

Training often seems unrelated to the outcome we desire, like the Karate Kid painting walls to learn karate. However, it is actually addressing the roots that impact the entire tree of your life.

Next, we discuss how a coach is essential to training.

See you then!

Copyright 2025, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Training Versus Trying Part 2 – Self-Compassion

The first element of a training mindset is self-compassion.

A training mindset recognizes that we are all imperfect beings on a path of sanctification and healing. We are all works in progress. There is no benefit to beating yourself up when you fail. God does not beat us up when we fail. He meets us with mercy and compassion. So, why shouldn’t we do the same?


This is extremely difficult to grasp when in many religious circles we equate a self-compassionate approach as being compromising or soft on sin. But it does not have to be. We can maintain an uncompromising view of sin while being gentle on ourselves. Our aim is progress, not perfection.


When we have a compassionate view of ourselves, it frees us to learn from failure. And this is one of the huge superpowers of a training mindset – every failure becomes an opportunity to learn about ourselves and what is not working in our training programme. This is so critical for real growth. When we give in to a temptation, if we can carefully examine the thoughts and emotions that led us to the sin without turning away in shame, then we gain the insights needed to heal and grow. Without these insights, we will never truly grow. Without these insights, the most we can hope for is to cope, never to overcome.

Self-compassion enables us to move from hiding and repression to exploration and discovery of the root causes of our afflictions. But that’s for the next instalment…

See you then!

Copyright 2025, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

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Training Versus Trying Part 1

One of the concepts that we teach at Authentic Joy is the idea that in pursuing spiritual growth we need to have a training mindset not a trying mindset. We often use the metaphor of running a marathon to explain. In the metaphor, the ‘marathon’ is that challenge in your life that you are trying to overcome. Some examples are impatience, unforgiveness, pornography, a short temper, anxiety, racial prejudice or over-eating.

A trying mindset would be like waking up on the day of the marathon and saying, “Today I will finish this marathon! God says I’m more than a conqueror!” And so, we set off to try our best to complete the marathon… without training. Our determination and grit may get us halfway there, but without putting in the training, we inevitably end up face down in a puddle of sweat and tears.


A training mindset, on the other hand, would be like waking up every morning and training for the marathon. Training prioritizes consistency and progress over the end result. It embraces learning from failure as a necessary pathway to growth.


One of the most damaging things about a trying mindset is the cycle of guilt and shame that results when we do not achieve our goal. This has been one of the most difficult mindsets to change in my own life. In the areas where I struggle with an ongoing sin issue, every time I fall, my tendency is to beat myself up and wallow in shame. Then, to comfort myself, I end up even deeper in self-destructive behaviours. When I finally muster up the courage to go back to God in repentance (again), it resembles something like this: “This time, this time, I mean it God. This time I will stay the course.” And so, the cycle begins again. With no real plan, change is unlikely.


A training mindset has the potential to break this cycle, but there are several components to the approach that need to be implemented:

  • Self-compassion
  • Roots not shoots
  • Coaching
  • Community

I will unpack each of these facets of the training mindset in this series.

See you for the next instalment!

Copyright 2025, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.