But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

So our goal as Christians is to become more like Jesus. But how do we do that? If you are a new Christian you may be growing like a weed and starting to flourish in your life and that's beautiful. But if you are an older Christian we can hit that plateau and get stuck. Stuck in self-defeating habits of sin and shame, stuck in dysfunctional patterns that go back generations, stuck in hurt and wounding from the past and more. The problem isn't that you don't want to gain more Christ-likeness or that your not trying, it's sometimes that we don't know HOW! Jesus said:

A student is not above his Rabbi (teacher); but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his Rabbi (teacher).- Luke 6:40

Not only is Jesus desire for his apprentices to become like Him, but he has a training program to become like Him. But to join Jesus training program will mean for us to live with a whole new intentionality to our apprenticeship to Him.

Remember Spiritual Formation isn't just a Christian thing - its a human thing unless you get intentional about it. We are formed by our habits, relationships, the stories we believe and our environment, all happening over time and developing into experiance. The first 4 are active and influenced by us, the last 2, time and experiance are more about what is done to us. Most of this is unintentional, it just happens. We go about our ordinary lives and one day wake up and realize we've been formed, maybe into something we didn't ever want to be. Formed not into the beauty of Jesus but deformed by the ugliness of sin and shame. That's where salvation steps in when you accept Jesus Christ, confess your sins and ask him into your heart and life, he forgives the mess and moves in to your life. Then all formation leaning in His direction, that He starts in your life is counter-formation. This requires you to make intentional, thoughtful and conscious choices in your life, to counteract the evil influences of the world. If you haven't done this - it's never to late to start!

To counter our habits we need the practices of Jesus, to turn our hearts more often in His direction, to open us more to the Holy Spirit and his power. To counter our relationships within the world, we need relationships within the Kingdom, a community - a prayer partner or small group for support, accountability and fellowship, to love us into being more loving. To counter the stories we need to balance them constantly with the teachings of Jesus and scripture, to help fill our minds with truth to offset the many lies of the world. To counter our environment we need the infilling and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit is the animating source of our lives and the center of all transformation. These counter measures will form our souls slowly over time and we will start to see the fruits of the Spirit (verse at the top) in our lives.