Introduction to 100 Days to Walk with the Spirit

Recognizing the Presence of the Holy Spirit In Us as the Opportunity for Relationship with God

by Reverend Doctor Bradley A. West

Why would you want to invest 100 days of your busy life in working through a Bible-study? That’s a valid question deserving an answer! With this introduction, I want to set the stage in consideration of the challenge of embarking on a 100-day intensive study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit as presented in God’s word. I have designed this study to begin on Sunday as Day 1 with the Saturday prior to beginning as a preparation day when you will read through this introduction, gather any materials you will need, and take time to pray, asking God for his blessing on this endeavor.

Committing to invest the time and effort required for this course can be truly life changing. I do not base that assertion on the content or quality of my work, but on my own study, as I have worked to be receptive to the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit in the practice of my own faith. This has truly transformed me and continues to do so as I continue my study and meditation in God’s word in the practice of my relationship with the Holy Spirit. Others, who have helped me in my efforts by working through an earlier version of this study have attested to the transformation available in learning what God’s word reveals about the Holy Spirit and his role, even as they labor to establish the practice of a working relationship with him in the course of this study.

With that, I want to challenge you to carve out the time and foster the determination to put maximum effort into this course. I urge you to focus on this course for the duration of the 100 days. This probably means putting other Bible studies on hold for a time since the requirements for the daily exercises include focus on aspects of the lesson throughout the day. The purpose of this course of study is not to simply fill your brain with Scriptural facts about the Holy Spirit, but to actually help you in establishing a personal relationship with him. Just like any close relationship you are trying to foster with another person, if you are constantly distracted by other commitments, that relationship will suffer. So read on to determine if devoting your precious time and effort to this exercise in the coming days may be worthwhile for you.

As a longtime consumer of evangelical Christian literature and teaching, I’ve lately been noticing the Holy Spirit mentioned more often than I ever have before. While this has been encouraging, the nature of these mentions have primarily consisted of mere “honorable mention” with few if any details regarding the person of the Holy Spirit or his work. Phrases such as “by the Spirit’s power,” “of the Spirit,” “with the Spirit” sprinkled in our songs, prayers, and teaching without further explanation assume that readers and listeners already know who the Holy Spirit is and what he does in the lives of Christians. But, is that assumption correct?

What do you know about the Holy Spirit? For more than five years this was a question I asked Christians who came to me for counseling. This was not a “gotcha” question intended to humiliate believers regarding their lack of theological knowledge. I asked this question earnestly in an effort to determine the depth of learning that current believers possess about the Holy Spirit. How would you answer this question?

With few exceptions, I’ve learned that most regular church folks whom I’ve asked this question have little knowledge about the Third Person of the Trinity. I can’t fault them for that. As an ordained pastor since September 15, 1984, I have contributed to that lack of knowledge by my own neglect of biblical teaching about the Holy Spirit. Having begun a research effort focused on the person and work of the Holy Spirit in March of 2017, I have now concluded that there is no excuse for that neglect since teaching about the Holy Spirit begins in verse two of Genesis chapter one and doesn’t end until verse seventeen of the final chapter of Revelation. That’s literally “cover to cover!” For several years I have considered the possible reasons for this lack of knowledge. I now believe I have a come to a reasonable theory for that absence of teaching among churches, as well as Christian colleges and seminaries. After plunging into a comprehensive study of the Holy Spirit from Scripture, I feel compelled to contribute in some small way to establishing a basic practical knowledge of the Spirit among God’s people. But first, let’s delve into a hypothesis on the current state of knowledge among Christians regarding the Holy Spirit.

One factor I’ve noticed from studying Paul’s letters as he addresses problems in first century local churches points to the natural tendency for people to desire the new and novel in life. This often leads to neglect or even abandonment of what seems to be ordinary or passé. We experience this in our modern culture as new versions of fashion, music, words, and a host of other things continuously push out the old. This has been going on since Adam and Eve’s kids gave up the ugly, uncomfortable animal skins their parents were wearing for something newer and better. In several of Paul’s letters to churches, he writes to correct the Christians who are pursuing new beliefs and practices that differ from what they were originally taught in their initial discipleship indoctrination. In each of these letters, after refuting the error of the new or novel teachings, he leads them back to the doctrines and practices that they were first taught, which revolve around their primal relationship with the Holy Spirit. This relationship was lived out on a daily basis through a continuous practice of attention and effort focused on the active presence of the Spirit in each believer. It is this practice we will seek to define and understand as we search through God’s word in the days ahead. This practice must then be maintained, strengthened, and protected following completion of this program in the face of vast quantities of material available to modern Christians over numerous mediums. Many voices claim to have found a teaching or principle or practice that will catapult the believer into a new and more fulfilling life. My hope and prayer is that you will find from this study the understanding of the Holy Spirit and his work that will prove sufficient for you to honor God and thrive in your life as you follow our Lord Jesus.

I have found in recent years that I spend more time in the Scriptures and far less time seeking out the latest and greatest trends of thought and practice in the Evangelical marketplace. After learning about and practicing a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, all other novel ideas about living the Christian life seem to lose their attraction, primarily because all the scripturally legitimate principles actually depend upon and emanate from walking with the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of the 100 Days is to help train you to be habitually attuned to the Holy Spirit by establishing a daily walk with the him. This is the Christian’s “super-power” for life in this world. This is the practice that lies at the core of every believer’s life as we will learn through our studies from God’s word. It is not just a matter of filling our heads with facts from Scripture about the Holy Spirit, but a day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment practice of relationship with the Holy Spirit. This is NOT easy!! Look at the track record of the church, as revealed in Paul’s letters and our current experience, which always seems to be trying to concoct an easier way of following Christ or chasing after some new and novel approach to living the Christian life!!

A major contributing factor to the current lack of knowledge about the Holy Spirit lies in the fact that a basic understanding of his role in the lives of believers is missing from our initial discipleship indoctrination. Although the Holy Spirit is normally mentioned through allusions to his work in salvation and “sanctification,” new believers do not gain a sense of the comprehensive role the Spirit will have in their Christian lives as revealed in Scripture. Further contributing to this dearth of knowledge, the doctrinal statements of most churches and Christian institutions include only a brief section on the Holy Spirit that contains a sentence somewhere stating that the Holy Spirit “sanctifies believers.” With no further explanation, such a statement implies that this sanctifying work of the Spirit is automatic, leading readers to believe that the Holy Spirit operates in the background of their lives, so they apparently need not bother with him at all. Such an understanding contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture and minimizes the vital role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers that God intends for him. It also minimizes or negates the practical role of the believer in the Spirit’s work. From our study of Scripture, we will learn our responsibilities in the role each one of us fulfills in the Holy Spirit’s magnificent enterprise of conforming us to the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact that all true Christians have the Holy Spirit living in them can lead to confusion in assuming that this presence of the Spirit is all that is necessary to live the Christian life. His presence as a necessity for Christians is clearly stated by Paul in Romans 8:9 where he writes, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” (ESV) However, Scripture also includes an additional state of the Spirit’s presence in the terms “filled with” or “full of” the Spirit. The selection of deacons in the Jerusalem church included “full of the Spirit” as a required discriminator (Acts 6:3, ESV). This infers that not all the believers in the church could meet that requirement, otherwise it could not have been used as a discriminator. Paul uses the same word stem in an imperative for the Christians in Ephesus when he writes, “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18 ESV). Other terms from Scripture for this state will be learned in this study, but it is also important to point our that being “filled” with the Spirit is not some kind of “super Christian” attribute but is expected, and even necessary, to live the normal Christian life as God has provided for in his sending the Holy Spirit to us.

Another obstacle to tapping into the extensive teaching about the Holy Spirit contained in the New Testament comes from Christian teachers who write or state that believers must not focus on the Holy Spirit because this takes away glory that belongs to Christ alone. I believe from my study that such teaching, though well-intentioned, is misguided. In fact, through our study of Scripture, we will learn that the only way we can truly glorify our Lord Jesus is through the empowering relationship we maintain with the Holy Spirit, who works to glorify the Son of God through believers. By pushing the Holy Spirit and his work into the background in an effort to focus on Christ alone, purveyors of this thinking and practice effectually rob Christ of the glory which only the Holy Spirit produces through Christians. This also robs Christians of the privilege and duty to truly glorify Christ. This will become evident as we explore the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work in and through us in relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The challenge for modern Christians is found in seeking to establish a relationship with the Holy Spirit in this frantically busy, hyper-saturated information laden world. You will find that there are numerous books about the Holy Spirit and his work going back centuries in the history of the church. I’ve read many of them, and continue to read them as I “discover” them. I’ve been repeatedly encouraged to put the results of my study into a book. However, I’ve found personally, and from other people, that simply reading a book (even one that has study questions and other aids to understanding the content) has not helped me transfer the knowledge gained from the content into lasting patterns of behavior in my life. The many Christian self-help type books on my electronic and physical book shelves attest to my long attraction to growth in my Christian life by reading such offerings. In contrast, I have been so challenged and changed through my study of the Holy Spirit in Scripture that I desire the same for those with whom I share this work. That requires more than a book alone can provide. My goal is to provide a means for you to establish a Scripturally based relationship with the Holy Spirit that will enable you to tap into the resources God has provided for all his children to live as he desires. That’s worth setting aside the time and investing the effort to work through this course of learning and relationship development. If you are willing to invest hard work in learning and practicing what God’s word reveals about the Holy Spirit, your life will be changed. After all, that’s what this magnificent enterprise of the Spirit is all about.

An indication of the importance God places in the work of the Holy Spirit, as well as the necessity for believers to grasp the vital nature of their relationship with him, is found in the passage called the Last Supper or Farewell Discourse recorded in John chapters 13-17. On this last evening Jesus spends with his disciples before his crucifixion, the central theme of what John records from that intimate meeting revolves around the fact that Jesus will soon leave them, but will send the Holy Spirit to take his place as the presence of God, not just with them, but in them. Amidst their protests, the Lord presses the importance of the Holy Spirit’s coming as better for them than even his personal presence with them (16:7). Let this sink in for a moment. We, in our popular Christian culture, seem to think that the ideal for the Christian life would be to walk with Jesus in person; to sit at his feet as he taught, to stand in his presence and listen as he interacted with people, to ask him questions and hear his replies, and to personally watch him perform miracles. Christians dream about this, write about this, talk about this, preach about this, and write songs and sing about this. Yet Jesus clearly tells his disciples that the presence of the Holy Spirit in each one of them is far superior to Jesus’ physical presence with them. Is this reflected in our thoughts and the manner by which we practice our faith? From my experience and research, the answer is “No!”

As Jesus informs his disciples in the discourse that evening of what the Holy Spirit will do for them, we should be informed as well of the vital role the Spirit should have in our lives. In verse 4 of chapter 15, Jesus clearly points out the agency of the disciples in their relationship with the Holy Spirit by commanding them to “abide in me.” A command always indicates that those receiving the command from a higher authority than them must choose to obey or to disobey—that is what we know as agency. The position of this teaching of Jesus in the discourse of the evening, sandwiched between details about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, implicates the Spirit as the disciples’ intermediary for abiding in Christ. Just as they had been in relationship with Jesus during their ministry together, they would be in relationship with the Holy Spirit when Jesus leaves and returns to the Father. The Spirit was to be their Divine Companion. That relationship is not automatic. Our agency as present day believers lies in that responsibility to obey this command of the Lord Jesus to abide in him through our relationship with the Holy Spirit, our Divine Companion.

The importance of this vital information Jesus chose to provide his disciples during this memorable last meeting before his death on the cross was most assuredly a part of the indoctrination new believers would receive less that two months later when 3000 baby Christians entered the rolls of the new church (Acts 2:41). This understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in the lives of the believers becomes evident in the powerful, Spirit-filled environment and actions of the church recorded in Acts. That understanding of the Spirit’s role is missing in the church today as some seek to do his work by human means, while others seek to fabricate his work by purely emotional means. Coupled with the Last Supper Discourse and the book of Acts, Paul’s letters to the early churches provide a crucial storehouse of knowledge about the role of the Holy Spirit in collaborative relationship with Christians in his work of sanctification. This is the Holy Spirit’s work of conforming us to the image of Christ, which is God’s purpose for every person who places his or her faith in Jesus Christ as Savior (Romans 8:29).

In the course of pondering reasons for the lack of knowledge regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the modern church, despite Jesus’ emphasis to his disciples, I read a theory for why this occurred. Gordon Fee’s exceptional exposition of the apostle Paul’s teaching on the Holy Spirit in his letters to churches and individuals repeatedly touches on a concept regarding the presuppositional nature of Paul’s mentions of the Spirit in his writing. By presuppositional, Fee refers to the frequent brief mentions of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s letters as relying upon information that the readers already possessed—Paul “presupposes” that they already know what he is writing about—regarding the Holy Spirit from their initial indoctrination as believers in Christ. Since the readers already knew the underlying information regarding the Spirit to which Paul is referring, he did not need to provide a thorough explanation with each and every reference. For many, if not most, modern Christians, that presuppositional knowledge is largely or entirely absent, leading us to miss the significance and meaning of the numerous brief mentions of the Holy Spirit in Scripture.

In the giving of the Holy Spirit to indwell us, God has provided the means by which we are able to live the Christian life. Gordon Fee’s careful study of the Holy Spirit in the apostle Paul’s letters led him to understand the presuppositional aspect of the early church’s knowledge of the Spirit, and to conclude that the “primary imperative” (command) of all Paul’s theology was “Walk in/by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). He states that “all other imperatives flow out of that one.” In practical terms, we could be so bold as to state that it is impossible to live the Christian life that God desires for us to live apart from the Holy Spirit’s enabling us through our walk with him. As relational beings created in the image of our eternally relational triune God, we benefit from God’s provision of the means to live the Christian life through a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The question is: How do we do that?

So…How do we do that?! I have been thrilled to hear references to the Holy Spirit increase in sermons, testimonies, and teaching in the past few years. However, I have been disappointed when nothing further is said beyond the mention of the Spirit’s power or enablement. No explanation, or vague descriptions such as “being in the Word” or “surrendered to the Spirit” are not helpful for aiding believers to engage with the biblical teaching that defines the relationship of the child of God with the Spirit of God. Such brief allusions rely on the presence of a presuppositional understanding of the Spirit which we have already established is missing from most modern Christians.

I want to make clear that I am not claiming to be the only person who has discovered the true nature of a Scriptural relationship with the Holy Spirit because I alone have such a relationship. After starting my search solely from the Scriptures for the first couple of years, I began to read and listen to what others have written or spoken regarding a relationship with the Holy Spirit. This body of knowledge reaches back through centuries of Christian scholarship and experience and includes such faithful servants of God as Tertullian (155-220), John Owen (1616-1683), Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899), Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), A.B. Simpson (1843-1919), R.A. Torry (1856-1928), A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), Billy Graham (1918-2018), C. Sumner Wemp (1922-2012), and Tim Lahaye (1926-2016), as well as a number of contemporary Christian leaders. I continue to “discover” others who have written or spoken about this through the years. In all my reading and listening, I found that some who shared from the Scriptures and their experience provided descriptive information about walking or being filled with the Spirit which was rich and helpful, but I was often left wondering how I was supposed to put what they shared into action in my own life. As a pastor who was later trained as a therapist, I am always looking for the practical daily actions a person must take to experience those descriptions. Rather than just descriptive accounts, I wanted prescriptive information that I and others can put into practice on a day-to-day basis. I love the beautiful description of the Holy Spirit’s work in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we “beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” But if I hear this in a sermon on Sunday, how do I put that into practice when I get up on Monday morning? I need to know the actions I must take (my part) prescribed so I can experience what Paul has so eloquently expressed. How do I behold the glory of the Lord by the Holy Spirit? Does it happen automatically, or do I have a part to play in the described process? I need a prescription to reach the description and the Scriptures provide it for me. That’s what this whole exercise is about!

The experiential aspect of establishing and practicing a relationship with the Holy Spirit lies at the heart of this exercise. Experience guided by knowledge as recorded in Scripture is all we need! Scripturally informed practice of a relationship with the Holy Spirit is the goal! In the process of your study, you will begin to make connections between all the disparate teachings and mentions of the Holy Spirit as we focus on his person and work to see how it all fits together. As you study these passages and establish your relationship with the Spirit, you will discover that this is not some super-charged, high-level, holier-than-thou Christian life, rather, this is the normal Christian life which God has provided for us to live. Understand as well that this exercise is designed just to get you started. After completing the 100 days, you must continue on from there—don’t go off to the NEXT thing. Keep in mind that this forms the foundation for your Christian life.

Since we follow Jesus by walking in relationship with the Holy Spirit. The purpose of this daily exercise is to focus your thoughts and attention on the person and work of the Holy Spirit to begin to engage in a personal relationship with him. That focus for 100 days is necessary partly because we have access to unbelievable amounts of information, including information about Christianity and the Scriptures. You can begin the day reading a brief devotional thought. Next you can watch a sermon by your favorite pastor on YouTube. Then you can listen to podcasts by your favorite Christian personalities as you go through your day. While you’re getting ready for bed you can listen to a Christian audio book, then read another devotional thought before turning out the light. While this may seem an ideal life for a Christian to grow in knowledge, in fact, this plethora of sources can leave us fractured and scattered in our Christian walk because we are never able to focus on one thing long enough for it to sink in and affect us. By this, the understanding of our faith can become a mile wide and only an inch deep. Besides all the available information, we face a myriad of distractions that take our focus away from what is most important in the Christian walk. What we need is a focused, purposeful method for learning about the Holy Spirit, which is not just an intellectual exercise, but engages that learning in action through a growing relationship with the Third Person of the Trinity. I love this quote from Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) from his book The Work of the Holy Spirit,

Wherever men are busying themselves with holy and happy meditations on the Holy Ghost and His work, it is safe to say the foundations of a true spiritual life are laid, and the structure of a rich spiritual life is rising. E-Book Location 552

The number of days in this process draws from the research and practice of Caroline Leaf, Ph.D., a Christian neuroscientist whose background is in communication pathology and audiology. Her work led her to specialize in the science of thought as it applies to thinking and learning. In her book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess (2021), she writes, “New thoughts are formed over twenty-one days, and these new thoughts are formed into habits after sixty-three days.” (p. 70) I originally decided to program 70 days for good measure—plus, 70 is a good biblical number used more than 30 times in the Bible. After working with a 70 day program for more than a year, I decided to add four more weeks of material that I “discovered” as I continued my studies. Dr. Leaf also points out that 63 days is the minimum for habituation of a new thought and may take as long as 154 days so 100 days adds to the effectiveness of the program. I took this into account by recommending that following completion of the 70 days, users take another 70 days to go back through the program and review each exercise. With 100 days, the total for two times through will help you firmly establish the practice of your relationship with the Spirit. Knowing the difficulty of this task in our fractured, information laden lives, I have found that the longer period to establish this is vital. The purpose, then, is to focus your thoughts on the person and work of the Holy Spirit each day to habituate a mindset on him (Romans 8:5-6), a process which lies at the core of all our relationships. As you learn to walk with the Spirit, with your mind set on the Spirit, he will glorify Christ in and through you. This is the goal for this entire enterprise, that you glorify Christ with your whole life.

A 100 day commitment may seem daunting, but I want to challenge you in the fact that this exercise carries the potential to fundamentally change your life. In a series of Sunday evening messages preached back in the early 1950s, A. W. Tozer challenged his church congregation to live the Spirit-filled life (see excerpt on page 15). He referred them to the passage in John chapter 6 where Jesus spoke some troubling words to a massive crowd that resulted in large numbers of disciples who had been following him turning away and leaving. Turning to his twelve disciples, he asked them if they were also going to leave. Peter replied that there was no other person for them to follow because Jesus had the words of eternal life. Tozer then instructed his congregation that Jesus never sugar-coated the life of discipleship because those who would not or could not commit themselves completely would not last. But, those who did commit to follow him, despite the challenges, were the ones who ultimately changed the world as the church was born. The ability to commit and remain with Jesus belonged to his disciples. The ability for them to change the world belonged to the Holy Spirit whom they would receive on the day of Pentecost. We likewise have that same ability to commit, so that, we can serve our Lord Jesus by the enablement of the Holy Spirit, and so, change the world even as we are changed.

I have been challenged regarding the need for such an exercise if a believer is satisfied with his or her Christian life. In response, I would question the very thought of believers who are “satisfied” with their Christian lives, as such satisfaction contradicts the attitude of Paul the Apostle who expressed his desire to know Christ with the analogy of running a race, he wrote: “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.” (Philippians 3:13-16) May this be the cry of your heart!

This is not merely another Bible study, rather it is an invitation to a relationship with the Third Person of the Trinity sent to help you live the life every true believer longs for. For 100 days, these daily exercises will aid you in establishing a mindset focused on relationship with the Holy Spirit and his work in you. I have been a neuroscience nerd since I first read a journal article detailing new discoveries about the brain during my study of counseling psychology in the Army’s Family Life Chaplain training program. I learned that when you think about something for the first time, your brain will store the information and accompanying emotions in brain cells called neurons. When you think about that something again, you activate the neural network where it is stored. Each time you think about that something, especially as you add to your thoughts about that something, you build and develop the supporting neural network even as you activate it by your thoughts. The more you think about that something, the more neural real estate it will occupy in your brain and the more powerful influence it will have in your mind and subsequent actions. You will find this principle reflected in Jesus’ teachings as well as in Paul and the other apostles’ writings. The Greek New Testament word translated “mindset” is often used to convey this predominant structure we build into our brains’ neural networks that increasingly affects all aspects of our lives as we focus our thoughts there. In this manner, you build a mindset on the Spirit (Romans 8:5) by developing a relationship with Him. Through this relationship, the Holy Spirit enables you to build a truly Scriptural, Lord Jesus Christ dominated neural network that the Spirit uses to increasingly conform you to Christ’s image.

Even though neuroscience has helped us understand the processes at play in originating and building structure in our brains, this practical principle has been known since ancient times. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says, “ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (ESV) Understanding that establishing a mindset is not a new concept, we must also understand that the methods for establishing that mindset are as old as humanity. Our timesaving devices cannot help us do this more rapidly. Even though our technology has advanced, our neural systems are the same wonderful original models God designed in the beginning with Adam. Mindsets are established and developed by an intentional process over time through focused attention invested in a subject.

Instructions for 100 Days to Walk with the Spirit

To help facilitate the distribution and actual implementation of this program, I base the process on the seven days of a week with a study exercise for each day. If you are good at math, you will quickly see that 14 weeks of study yields only 98 days. The first actual daily exercise (Day 1) should be completed on a Sunday, however, you should start the study on the Saturday prior to your beginning Sunday by familiarizing yourself with this introduction. Also, use this time on Saturday to gather any materials you may want to use for taking notes and recording thoughts. I would also recommend that you take some of this time to pray, committing yourself before God to faithfully invest your time, attention, and energy to completing this project. The final day of the 100 day study will fall on a Sunday. The final days include a daily prayer that I have been using for years to help me maintain my focus on walking with the Holy Spirit. Upon completion of the study, I recommend that you work through the study a second time. Since the purpose of this exercise is to establish and grow a habitual relationship with the Holy Spirit, an additional 99 days will greatly help in the process. Plus, the sheer amount of material presented in the study requires more than just a “once through” effort.

We will now run through the format of the daily exercise to familiarize you with the process. The five steps used in the format are borrowed and adapted from Dr. Caroline Leaf’s (2021) research and practice as presented in her book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. Specifically, this application derives from the chapter on building the brain by learning new information in chapter 11. As a Christian neuroscientist, she has done great work in developing practical principles and procedures for helping people to maximize the wonderful, complex brains which God created for us.

Dr. Leaf’s five steps 100 Days five steps

1. Gather 1. Today’s Thought

2. Reflect 2. Analyze

3. Write 3. Your Thoughts

4. Recheck 4. Review

5. Active Reach 5. Create Connections

(Caroline Leaf, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: 5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress, and Toxic Thinking [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2021], Chapter 11)

I would recommend establishing a regular time each morning to work through these exercises. Even if you are not a “morning person,” the morning period can provide an uninterrupted block of time that will set the stage for the rest of the day. Trying to set aside time later in the day often results in the “tyranny of the urgent” whittling away the hours until you can not “find” time for this vital exercise. If you are so comatose in the morning that you won’t receive any benefit from the exercise, you can establish a time before bed with the understanding that you will perform step five of the exercise the following day. Now, let’s take a look at the five steps of the daily exercise.

Introduction: The introduction simply introduces the exercise for the morning.

1. Today’s Thought

This step begins with a statement of the thought you will explore for the day. This is the thought for the morning’s exercise that you will be processing to build into your neural structure. Next, you will find a brief list of Scripture passages you will look up and read. As you read the passage or passages, think about how they relate to the thought for the day. Just focus on the thought as expressed in the Scriptures at this point. If something else in the passage raises a question or rouses your curiosity, you may make a note of it for later reference. At this point, stick to the thought. Following the thought statement and the Scripture list will be a brief study of the thought as portrayed in the Scripture passages.

2. Analyze

In this second step, you will analyze the thought for the day in your mind by employing Rudyard Kipling’s “six honest serving men: what, why, when, how, where, and who.” For example: What do I consider to be the main point of todays thought? Who is involved in what is described? Where will this happen? What is the timeframe for what has been described? Why is this important for me? How does this impact me in every day life as a Christ follower? These examples are simply that, examples. Use the words as you see fit.

3. Your Thoughts

You are strongly encouraged to write out your thoughts from your reflection upon the Scripture passage and the explanatory material. You could write in the space provided if you are using a printed copy, or you could write in a separate notebook or journal. Studies have shown that writing in cursive activates both the right and left hemispheres of the brain so that learning is reinforced through the exercise of both hemispheres. If you never learned cursive or don’t want to use it, print, type or dictate, but get it down on paper or digits—write!

4. Review

When you have finished writing your understanding of today’s thought, carefully read through what you have written. Do you believe you have a good grasp on the identified thought? If not, review the thought and the Scriptures asking the Holy Spirit for more clarity. If you still have questions, write these down to research or seek answers later. Helpful questions to ask yourself may be, “How does this apply to me and my life?” and practically thinking, “How could I apply this concept in my life today?”

5. Create Connections

This final step serves as the most important aspect of the exercise to build the daily thought into the new neural network you are seeking to create in your brain. When you think about something you activate your brain—in particular, that neural network containing the thought you have introduced. Repeated activation of that new neural network causes neural growth and efficiency. In Psalm 119:164 the psalmist writes, “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules.” Dr. Leaf has found in her work that performing this activity at least seven times in a day provides the optimal result. The more of your mind and body you devote to this part of the exercise the more effective this entire 100 day program will be.

In this step, list ways you can review or put these thoughts into action at least seven times today, perhaps by listing at least seven thoughts that you can review, pray over, practice, or recite to yourself at various times during the day. Try to include a time when you explain what you learned out loud. You can do this with another person, to yourself in a mirror, or even to the Holy Spirit as in “Today I learned this about you…. Work on memorizing the Thought for Today by writing it on a 3x5 card or sticky note. Briefly write down your plan for the day. This will be done more quickly with practice. Here are some suggestions:

You can use 3x5 cards to write down the seven thoughts or actions to take with you or use Post-it notes to put up as reminders around the house
Choose thoughts and actions that are personal and relational to grow your relationship with the Holy Spirit by engaging him in conversation about what you learned.
Pick times during the day that are part of the natural rhythm of the day such as: including the thought in your times of regular prayer such as grace at meals.
Use reminders - watch alarm, phone alarm, drink water app, etc.… I used an hourly alarm on my watch that just produced a single beep to get me started. It really helped!

I also offer a written prayer at the close of the exercise that usually includes all three members of the Trinity, as this is an important part of learning about the Holy Spirit in his unique role in the Trinity. It also helps to personalize and relationalize the exercise.

Sundays will not include all five steps but will have Scripture to read and some quotes from books I have read about the Holy Spirit. I would encourage you even on the “easy” days to still practice the Create Connections step using the previous day Connections or using the Scripture and quotes to review and meditate upon at least seven times throughout the day.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at 100walkwiththespirit@gmail.com

Who is Brad West? and Why should I invest my valuable time and effort in this exercise?

In these days of abundant Christian Bible Study materials, I always seek out an author’s credentials and background to answer the question, “Why should I listen to you?” Our world is full of people we now know as “influencers” who become known for their great number of “followers.” They may have compelling, charismatic personalities, or provocative styles of relating their thoughts, but are those thoughts worth my time and attention? This is a fair and even necessary line of questioning in these days of instant celebrity—even among Christians. So, why should you listen to me? Here’s my story.

This exercise is the product of more than seven years of focused study beginning in 2017. However, the reason for initiating the study has its roots in my call to ministry back in 1980. Newly married to a wonderful young lady named Susan, and embarked on a promising career in the construction industry, I was miserable. Seeking relief from feelings of total dissatisfaction with life, and being an avid reader, I pulled a book off my bookshelf that I had purchased from a Christian book club the previous year, but had never read. I selected the book because I sensed that my present problem had spiritual roots. The book was entitled How On Earth Can I Be Spiritual: You can stop living the up and down Christian life by Dr. C. Sumner Wemp, the vice president of spiritual affairs at Lynchburg Baptist College, Lynchburg, VA (now Liberty University). The book was based on material from Dr. Wemp’s Spiritual Life Conferences through which he had been teaching people for years how to be Spirit-filled Christians.

As I read the book, I became aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence in my life and increasingly sensitive to his guidance. As this occurred, he brought to mind a commitment I had made to God as a nine-year-old boy during a missionary conference at my home church. I had responded to the invitation from a visiting missionary speaker one evening to surrender my life to serve God in full-time ministry. God had touched my heart during the missionary’s message and I was serious about serving God with my life. Shortly after that, in 1967, my family moved from our home in southern New Jersey to my Dad’s home state of Minnesota and I quickly forgot about that commitment in a flurry of new circumstances and experiences. In 1980, the Spirit reminded me of my promise which I had made to God with the earnest faith of a child. I surrendered to the call and broke the news to Susan.

Early in 1981, Susan and I moved to Springfield, Missouri where I had enrolled in Baptist Bible College to prepare for ministry. My efforts to continue learning how to live a Spirit-filled life were unfortunately overtaken by studies, work, ministry, and the birth of our son Alex. I eventually gave up my pursuit of a continuous Spirit-filled relationship and settled for haphazardly asking the Holy Spirit to fill me before I preached, or taught, or faced some difficult ministry task. This was my sad relationship with the Holy Spirit until 2016 when I would, once again, consider the Holy Spirit’s role in my life and ministry.

Susan and I went from Bible college to church-planting following my graduation and we did that for five exhausting years. Early in this period, I was ordained by an ordination council convened at our home church in Mankato, Minnesota. Also, during this time, our daughter Natalie was born. At the five year mark, we took a recovery year off from ministry and then headed for Oregon so I could attend graduate school at Western Seminary in Portland. During this time at Western, God led us into the military chaplaincy. Following graduation with a Master of Divinity degree and eighteen months of serving as a pastor to single adults, I was selected to enter active duty service as a chaplain. In 1994, we began active duty in the Army Chaplaincy. This ministry would lead us around the world for 22 glorious years.

When I was promoted to Major in the Army in 2002, I was selected for a program called Advanced Civilian Schooling in the chaplaincy discipline of Family Life. We moved to Fort Hood, Texas for enrollment at the Family Life Chaplain Training Center. I was also enrolled at Tarleton State University, a Texas A&M school, to earn a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology: Marriage and Family Therapy. In this program, chaplains attended classes in the evenings at the university campus and spent the day counseling couples and families under supervision of certified marriage and family supervisors. We were also involved in a rigorous program of theological integration of our secular psychology coursework with our identities and training as pastors. This proved to be an invaluable exercise that developed an ability for me to study secular psychology and sociology through the lens of my biblical beliefs.

Upon graduation from Tarleton State University, I was assigned to serve as the Family Life Chaplain for Fort Bragg, North Carolina for a three year utilization tour from 2004-2007. During this time, Fort Bragg was a hub of Army activity as soldiers were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in the global war on terror. The combat deployments created hardships for military families that became nationally recognized at the time. As a result, no expense was spared to ensure that Family Life Chaplains were well trained to work with troubled couples and families, and to train unit level chaplains to do the same. Our post-graduate instruction in counseling related fields was conducted by nationally and internationally recognized experts in therapy, domestic violence, and marriage enrichment. Also, during this time, I enrolled in a Doctor of Ministry program in Pastoral Care: Marriage and Family Counseling with Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, attending the seminars at the seminary’s campus in Charlotte, North Carolina. I began this so I could receive additional training from a Christian perspective. I was also heavily involved in counseling, logging thousands of hours in sessions with soldiers and their families and regularly conducting marriage workshops, seminars, and retreats, as well as training other chaplains on Fort Bragg to be more effective counselors.

After three years as a Family Life Chaplain, Susan and I were assigned to Fort Drum, New York where I took the position of Brigade Chaplain for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (BCT) of the 10th Mountain Division. I deployed with the BCT for a one year combat deployment to Afghanistan in 2009. In 2010, we were assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas where I served as the deputy installation chaplain for two years before completing my active duty career in 2015 as the installation chaplain for White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. While at White Sands, I finally completed my doctoral dissertation and graduated from Gordon-Conwell in 2014.

Upon retirement from active duty, Susan and I returned to Oregon, settling in Bend. When we joined Eastmont Church in Bend, I was asked by the senior pastor and elders to establish a pastoral counseling ministry. I started Journeys Pastoral Counseling Ministry in January 2016. From my dissertation research, I had produced a marriage counseling model based on the understanding of intimacy as a communication process that is necessary for marital fulfillment. I developed the concept of helping couples create an environment conducive to intimacy which I labeled a “safe haven,” using a well-worn term. I found that couples were receptive to this idea and identified with the concept, but I became increasingly dissatisfied with the means for creating the safe haven using common behavior modification techniques of the counseling profession. I had successfully used those techniques for years with military counselees, most of whom were not followers of Jesus. Then, as my situation changed so that the majority of my counselees were Christians, I wondered if this was the best practice for my work. I already understood that Christians should be primed for change because change is a staple of the Christian life, but what was the primary source of that change? Then, one day in March of 2017, the Holy Spirit broke through to me as I was having my quiet time during the season of Lent.

I was reading Galatians 3:3 when the Spirit riveted my attention on this verse I knew quite well. “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” I suddenly realized that I was using techniques that were developed to help people change “by the flesh” regardless of their relationship with Jesus Christ. The next question that leapt into my mind was: What does the Holy Spirit offer Christians to help them in the process of change? Utilizing my research abilities along with my training and experience as a Bible teacher, I embarked on a quest to answer this question: According to Scripture, what is the role of the Holy Spirit as the primary agent of change in the lives of Jesus’ followers? The lengthy duration and plodding progress of my study stemmed from my passion to get this right. My conviction as to the importance of this topic drove me to continually question my observations and conclusions. This questioning process has led me to solid conclusions that have been reinforced and confirmed as I have continued to study and practice the principles I have learned. Beginning exclusively with searching the Scriptures for teaching on the Holy Spirit and his work, I eventually began to read what other Christians have written through the centuries on this topic. I also began teaching my “discoveries” to my small group members to ensure that I kept my material in the real world realm of Jesus’ followers. Throughout this entire process, I have experienced the work of the Holy Spirit teaching and guiding me along the way. This 100 day exercise and a vast quantity of accompanying materials are the product of my study.

As I look back on my life, I am amazed at all the opportunities God has provided me for education, training, and ministry experience, and I am reminded that “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” (Luke 12:48, ESV). I am therefore compelled to pursue this mission God has laid on my heart through his Holy Spirit. I want to be a faithful and wise steward of all God has entrusted to me. With that, I also want all that I have learned to benefit my brothers and sisters in Christ, for his glory!

Excerpt from A. W. Tozer, How To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit

Are you sure you need Him?

Are you sure you need to be filled? Can’t you get along the way you are? You have been doing fairly well: You pray, you read your Bible, you give to missions, you enjoy singing hymns, you thank God you don’t drink or gamble or attend movie theaters, that you are honest, that you have prayer at home. You are glad about all this. Can’t you get along like that? Are you sure you need any more than that?

I want to be fair with you. I want to do what Jesus did. He turned around to them when they were following Him and told them the truth. I don’t want to take you in under false pretense. “Are you sure you want to follow me?” He asked, and a great many turned away. But Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). And the crowd that wouldn’t turn away was the crowd that made history. The crowd that wouldn’t turn back was the crowd that was there when the Holy Ghost came and filled all the place where they were sitting. The crowd that turned back never knew what it was all about.

But maybe you feel in your heart that you just can’t go on as you are, that the level of spirituality to which you know yourself called is way beyond you. If you feel that there is something that you must have or your heart will never be satisfied, that there are levels of spirituality, mystic deeps and heights of spiritual communion, purity and power that you have never known, that there is fruit which you know you should bear and do not, victory which you know you should have and have not—I would say, “Come on,” because God has something for you tonight.

There is a spiritual loneliness, an inner aloneness, an inner place where God brings the seeker, where he is as lonely as if there were not another member of the Church anywhere in the world. Ah, when you come there, there is a darkness of mind, an emptiness of heart, a loneliness of soul, but it is preliminary to the daybreak. O God, bring us, somehow, to the daybreak!

(A.W. Tozer, How To Be Filled With the Holy Spirit, [Louisville: GLH Publishing, 1952], p. 24)

Permissions

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved

Acknowledgements

Excerpts from Man: The Dwelling Place of God, copyright ©1997, by A.W. Tozer are used with permission from the publisher. The foregoing book was first published in the United States by Moody Publishers.

Quote excerpted from The Holy Spirit: Theology for the People of God © 2020 Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger. Used by permission of Lifeway Christian Resources. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.

Note: If you have previewed the introduction and wish to have access to the entire exercise, click the “Learn More” button.

Introduction - 100 Days to Walk with the Holy Spirit V2