The Foundational Love of God
and Spiritual Direction
By Shelly A. Skinner
Amipotence provides foundational instruction for spiritual direction.
Let me just get it out of the way right off the bat. I believe in divine omnipotence. However, I am all about love. Consequently, I wholeheartedly agree with Thomas Jay Oord that God’s nature is to love extravagantly, or as he states it, “We would be wise to believe God is necessarily loving, because it’s God’s eternal and unchanging nature to love.”[1] Oord’s declaration fits well with my view of effective ministerial practice, because I believe God’s extravagant love reveals the divine power that empowers ministry. I do what I do because of the potency of divine love, therefore, no matter the ministry role, pointing people to God and his love is a vital part of my calling and a direct result of the Holy Spirit’s efficacy in my life.
One aspect of my ministry is spiritual direction, which means I regularly practice listening well. Euguene Petersen notes that part of the spiritual director’s purpose is to “[listen] for the silences between the spoken sounds.”[2] Spiritual directors anticipate and expect the Spirit to move in directees’ lives. Oord reminds us that “whatever is good in the world, therefore, emerges because of the activity of the Spirit and creaturely responses.”[3] Therefore, spiritual directors are empowered by the Holy Spirt as they discern together where God is in a certain situation or experience.
Spiritual direction provides a safe space for directees to explore how to grow, live, and love in the spiritual life.[4] Oord’s view on the Johannine phrase, “God is love” influences the spiritual director as they partner with God to point their directee towards God’s work in their lives (1 John 4:8, 16).[5] As I sit with my directees and notice God’s loving presence in their day-to-day lives, I trust in God’s love on their behalf. Sometimes the trust is peaceful, especially when a directee experiences what the psalmist describes as the soul finding rest in God (Psalm 62). In that powerful moment, the directee’s circumstances remain the same, but the relief they feel in receiving God’s unrelenting love is almost palpable.
Oord’s amipotence gives “love pride of place”[6] and in these moments I see it first-hand. As directees share their unique experiences and stories, I am struck with God’s love in the midst of their circumstances. No one story is alike, but I believe the constancy of God’s love is ever-present whether or not a directee feels his love during a session. Lisa Durr describes spiritual direction as an “interpersonal relationship…whereas the director takes the role of calling attention to the loving presence and leading of God.”[7] Spiritual directors lean in to God’s love and movement in their directees life.
I recall sitting in silence with one of my directees, a ministry leader from a local church context where God poured out his love in a vivid picture. Interestingly, after our time of silence, we learned that God provided the same picture to both of us. A powerful example of listening to the unspoken words. Her circumstances did not supernaturally change, but in that moment, her experience fit with Oord’s assertion that, in amipotence, God’s love takes “pride of place.[8] Her demeanor changed; she sat up straighter; and with tears in her eyes, she smiled. She felt encouraged and revitalized to continue in her own journey of growth, and she felt inspired to serve and equip others within her own ministry context. In other words, God’s love took pride of place and compelled her to respond (I Cor. 5:14).
There are times, however, when a directee’s experience and/or relationship with God is not filled with vivid pictures or watery smiles. This is where Oord would remind us of his belief that “an empathetic but not omnipotent God feels our pain but did not cause or permit it.”[9] My disagreement with Oord’s amipotence claim does not hinder me from resonating with his notion that God does not cause our pain. Rather, it is in these times when a directee shares painful experiences that I believe God’s love is persistently present as he graciously meets my directees (and me as the director).
Durr describes these times as a “spiritual transformation wilderness” where circumstances are not ideal and sometimes rather painful.[10]. In times like this, we see the profound meaning of Oord’s belief that “divine love differs in adequacy because God is omniscient and better knows what promotes well-being.”[11] When directees cannot see God’s movement in their life, or they feel as if God has abandoned them, the spiritual director can gently encourage them by offering the assurance that their well-being is on God’s radar.
My own spiritual director reminds me often to seek God and see his movement in my life through the lens of love. Oord’s encouragement to “begin with love when trying to understand who God is and what God does” fits well in this instance.[12] It reminds me of a song by David Crowder entitled How He Loves. One of the verses describes God’s love as a hurricane. “Love’s like a hurricane, I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.”[13]
Why is this important for spiritual direction? Because nothing can separate us, directors and directees, from God’s love (Rom 8:37-39). This kind of love is not earned. Indeed, as Alicia Buhler describes it, it is a “belonging to the Source of Love without need of earning their place.”[14] In addition, the spiritual director clearly sees their role as partnering with God. Oord describes this as God’s partnership with his creatures.[15]
Bio: Shelly A. Skinner is a Professor of Christian Ministries at Messiah University. She earned her Ed.D. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is a spiritual director who finds joy in helping others notice what God is doing in their lives. She is a movie fiend and loves coffee.
OORD’S DRABBLE* RESPONSE
Shelly Skinner beautifully weaves amipotence into the heart of spiritual direction, grounding it in divine love. I deeply appreciate how she connects her work as a spiritual director to the vision of God’s uncontrolling love. Though I haven’t shared all of her experiences, I recognize and affirm these connections. I’m especially moved by her emphasis that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not because we’ve earned it, nor because we can reject it. Amipotence reveals a relationship of unwavering love, inviting healing and transformation. Through this lens, we are empowered to live flourishing lives rooted in grace, freedom, and hope.
For more on Oord’s view on God as universal, see this article.
* A drabble is an essay exactly 100 words in length.
[1]. Thomas Jay Oord, The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence (Grasmere, Id.: SacraSage, 2023), 121.
[2]. Eugene H. Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1992), 181.
[3]. Oord, The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence, 144.
[4]. Richard Foster & Renovare Team, “What is Spiritual Direction?” Retrieved from https://renovare
.org/articles/what-is-spiritual-direction
[5]. Oord, The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence, 125.
[6]. Ibid., 142.
[7]. Lisa Durr, ”Companionship for the Journey: The Gift of Spiritual Direction,” Leaven: 22.1 (2014): Article 10.
[8]. Oord, The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence, 125.
[9]. Ibid., 100.
[10]. Durr, ”Companionship for the Journey,” Article 10.
[11]. Oord, The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence, 126.
[12]. Ibid., 125.
[13]. David Crowder Band version. edit. “How He Loves.” Single by David Crowder Band. (Album Church Music, Released, 2009).
[14]. Alicia Buhler, “Where is God in this?”: Discerning God’s presence in spiritual direction, Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology, 21.1 (Spring 2020).
[15]. Oord, The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence,144.