[Cal]

Growth and transformation come from a personal relationship with the Person of God. They come from getting to know him, in relationship--what he likes, what he dislikes, how he goes about things, how he reacts to things and obeying him.

Transformation does not come, largely, from an indirect, unconscious reaction of our being to our enjoyment of God. Enjoyment is the environment, it is not the complete process of transformation. Transformation only comes through going deep into God through knowledge of and obedience to this conscious, living Person in all our circumstances. It comes from a conscious decision to leave ourselves behind and follow him in obedience. Generally this manifests itself as living for other people, not for institutions or ideals, such as "the Recovery."

If you do not learn to see and love others as God does, you do not know him well, and so are not much transformed.

This is why many people in the LR can seem to "enjoy" God for many years and never change. They never get around to actually going deeper in obedience to him, they never really get to know him better. They get to know a lot of high doctrines. But high doctrines are not him.

"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3