Book Review: Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook
This was a phenomenal read. I kept wanting to come back for each chapter as I read, longing for the next morsel to unveil the spiritual journey. Ashbrook takes a look at spiritual formation and its process through the lens of Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, which is of course a classic work that has been around the church for hundreds of years. This work is also covered in scripture and years of work listening to the stories of many Christ followers as they have grown into the deepest depths with Jesus. Ashbrook gives us a ‘roadmap’ for the spiritual life through the 7 stages or mansions of Teresa of Avila’s - Interior Castle. This roadmap is an invaluable tool to help keep us focused on where we are headed as we walk with Jesus. He also gives us these beautiful composites of both a woman and a man on their journey through the 7 stages (from the many people he has helped guide through his numerous years of ministry). These were full of rich examples as each moved throughout their lives ebbing and flowing in the different ‘mansions’. They gave meat to the bones of the different stages and help you feel both the weight and the freedom in each stage of the journey as seen in someone's life story.
The introduction is worth the price of the book as it takes time to define how we the Church often get our focus off of Jesus and on other goals for our formation-destination. He points out that if we do not have the correct destination in mind … then we will constantly be veering off course and be moving into our own legalistic and idolatrous pathways. Here are the myths as Ashboork lays them out:
God only wants my holiness … if I am just holy enough I will please God…
God wants me to be useful… if I am just gifted enough, or purposeful enough I will please God…
God wants me to be whole… If I am just healed enough and whole enough I can serve God better…
God just wants me to know about him… if I just know more, and can wrap my mind around enough information my mind will transform my life….
That it will just happen… that God will do it all and I am merely along for the ride… it will all work out in the end…
So if these are NOT the destinations, what does Ashbrook say the goal of the spiritual life actually is? He’d say what Jesus would, THE greatest commandment, to love God with everything that we are - our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength… and the second is just like it … to love my neighbor. Instead of making ourselves the central focus of the journey this of course puts our focus back where it belongs. This may seem obvious to us, we can say - ‘I know this’ - yet so often we get off track, derailed, or too focused on a side issue and it leads us astray. Having this roadmap that focuses us on abiding is such a great tool. Abiding in Jesus is what causes us to bear His fruit … being in the flow with Him will cause our lives to overflow with the good works He has given us to do. Our problem is that because the destination is often unclear, many people get stuck on the journey and then those same people go without guides to steer them back, leaving them stunted and immature. If the mature have a helpful roadmap, then there will always be a helpful guide to steer us back on course.
Ashbrook unveils the 7 mansions each in its own chapter with its own pitfalls and helpful spiritual disciplines and encouragements needed to keep moving into the depths with God. It is important to note that not everyone makes it through all 7 stages … but all are invited… to go on the deeper journey with Jesus into not just positional union with Jesus but experiential union with Him. Not everyone takes the invitation because the further you go with Jesus - the more purging there is and the more commitment and time are needed and wanted as you grow in your experience with Jesus. Ashbrook also has a whole chapter on the Dark Night of the Soul which becomes very real the further in you dive with the Lord.
So what are the 7 stages?
Stage 1 - Becoming a Christ follower. Giving your life to Jesus, experiencing peace, the beginnings of learning and growing. Getting to know the Bible, prayer and your need for community.
Stage 2 - Between God and the World. You have experienced spiritual growth, and want to follow God but the pull of the world is still very strong. We see our mixed motives and fight between the pull of our desire to serve God and the flesh.
Stage 3 - Faithfully following Jesus. There has been considerable discipleship. Much growth in knowledge of who God is but also yourself. Consistent life in the church, in scripture and in prayer. Actively using your gifts and talents as you actively serve.
“It is worth observing that the third mansion of the seven is as far as most churches go in their teaching about the spiritual life. It is an important phase of our growth, and many of us get stuck here. But we will see that there is more, much more.” - Ashbrook
The stages after stage 3 also require less of our ‘work’ and much more of our surrender to God’s process of purging sin and renewing the mind and remaking the soul. Pressing into the Word in fresh ways, more silence in prayer with a posture of listening, and open handed response to God’s movements and our alignment with Him.
Stage 4: A subtle change with huge significance. There is an awakening into a love affair with Jesus. This awakening births a dramatic refocusing from ‘doing’ to ‘being’ and learning to listen to God rather than talk to Him. We experience deeper longings and intimacy with the Lord that call us deeper.
Stage 5: Living in the Longing. The longing for God and union with Him becomes your total focus. Experience some supernatural experiences of love from God, deepening prayer life filled with silence and just being with God. Dark Nights of the Soul are also common as God does an underground work of purging while leaving you without a sense of His presence at all.
Stage 6: Consumed by His love. The world and its call are fading to the background, we are willing to shed even our own significance, and live for God alone. Prayer becomes more an experience of communion than communication. More healing comes to our hearts thus we are more free to minister to those around us with an overflow of the love we receive.
Stage 7: Union. We experience the greater fullness of union with Christ here on earth just shy of the total fullness in eternity with Jesus. We come to experience the full integration of mind, body, and spirit in the life of Christ. We experience the verse, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Gal 2:20) A real revelation of trinitarian love is given that overtakes and captures our imagination fully as we begin to experience it. Many have tastes of this but do not dwell here, and experience a life where sin falls away and we can serve the Lord with freedom and a greater purity in our love and sacrifice.
Knowing where we are heading makes the journey feel doable. Knowing some of what to expect along the way makes pitfalls less startling and more of a pleasant surprise on the adventure. Knowing that there are such grand places to go with Jesus up ahead means that we are not just going to be giving stuff up - like the world and its offerings - but instead turns them into a joyful sacrifice for a deeper and more profound prize - Jesus.
This book was so profoundly helpful to me. As I have been in a Dark Night of the Soul for the last 10 years. Regularly, it’s hard to keep from wondering what the heck is going in my spiritual life, wondering what the heck God is up to. This ‘roadmap’ will be something that both encourages me and keeps me fixed on my prize Jesus even when life hits hard again. I will be back again and again searching for helpful tips and understanding to help carry me as I look ahead in my adventure with Jesus - anticipating the next sweet spot that will bring rest and joy.
Because I AM heading toward my prize.
I hope you are too.
If you need help on your journey - read this book and give me a call - I would love to talk with you about it.
(There is another book that I read years ago called the Critical Journey by Janet Hagberg that is similar … but ‘Mansions’ was far more rich, thorough and full. But I throw it out in case you would like to compare and contrast.)
Check out both books on Amazon. Seriously, so worth it.